Well, we finally finished the work on the old girl, and we are back on the road and running great.

After noticing no oil pressure on the in-dash guage at idle, we put a mechanical guage on and verified that we lost pressure. My mechanic said it was probably the crank, having seen this a few times before.

It took a few weeks to get the $$ together to proceed, but two weeks ago he pulled the engine and tore it down.

The timing gears and chain (double roller) were in great shape.
The crank and bearings were in bad shape.
Here is what he did..

Replaced crank with reman. from NAPA
Replaced water pump and oil pump
Replaced bearings, main seal, and throw-out bearing
Replaced starter (noticed old one with serious corrosion)
Replaced exhaust manifolds with ones that did not have the emissions "stuff" on them.
Replaced valve cover gaskets
Replaced exhaust pipes, muffler, and tailpipe (all going bad)

Total cost $460 parts and a little for labor.

Took the truck in yesterday for MD emmissions and it passed with better than flying colors!

Thanks to everyone on this forum that offerred advice and suggestions along the way!

Greg