Yes you would need to remove the intake to check the lifter valley. I would say it is full of sludge but that is no longer the issue. To try and change the bearings with the motor in the truck will be much harder than just pulling the motor out to do the job. If you keep running it you run the risk of it throwing a rod or spinning a bearing, right know you have a good motor to rebuild. Can you park it for now?

 

Unfortunately I can not! I am a single vehicle person and I need to get back and forth to work. I also do not have the equipment needed to pull the engine so working on it from below seems to be the only option.

Could I even access everything needed or would I have to remove the entire front suspension components?

Zac

 

The thing is you will need to drop the crank enough to replace the bearings, this means, pull back the trany, remove the t chain, and so on. If you are going to replace the bearings you need to clean out that motor from top to bottom or this will happen all over. In short you will have 75% of the motor taken apart. Most deff a weekend job, can you rent a engine host or call a tow truck to R&R the motor? Do you have TQ ratchets?

At this point you have a couple of choices find a long block, or put in a HV oil pump and clean out the lifter valley and just run it, It might last an other year or 2 min very hard to say, just doing the bearing's is also a huge risk.

I see it's a two wheel drive, I don't think you will have the room to do the work, if you do it will be tight and very frustrating.

 

Were would be the best place to look for a long block?
Good price?
Would it include the distributor/alternator/power steering pump/water pump ect????

I am sure I could find someone to help and maybe a fork lift but it would have to be a weekend job. This looks like I walked into a bad deal with this truck.

Zac

 

Good long blocks (rebuilt) run anywhere from $1200 and up, no they come stripped you will have to swap all your parts over to it. You could try and find a good used motor put that in and over time get the org motor rebuilt. I have no idea what a used motor is worth down your way sorry.

Fork lifts work great to pull a motor, just make sure the chain don't slide off the forks.

Long-block

 

I've done mains and rod bearings on a few magnum engines in the vehicle. It's not all that hard to roll out the mains as long as you loosen ALL of them up, the crank will drop enough to get them all changed. Even on a 2WD there is plenty of room if you pull it up on ramps. There is room to torque them and it's possible to turn the engine by the harmonic balancer with the plugs removed. I never even considered having to pull back the trans or get into the front end with timing chain and all that, it just wasn't necessary. It took about 6 hours to do and that was mainly because the engine was hot when we started so it was a little slow going till it cooled down. No special tools except a torque wrench, 6" pry-bar, small dead-blow hammer if you consider any of that "special" other than that it was just regular tools. I did use an air ratchet to speed things along but a regular one works just fine.

 

You can find longblocks for cheaper. I will see if i can find the one i was looking at.

 

Thanks guys but if I am going to do this I need to stay under $500 for the repair. Any more than that and I can't justify the cost of repair vs selling it to a mechanically inclined person.

 

If you are not a mechanically inclined person flog the truck and move on to something else.
The truck is 16 years old they like parts and lot's of them.

 

I am mechanically inclined but I am completely LAZY when it comes to working under a car without a lift I used to work at a dealership quick lube and the lifts really spoiled me. I would have no issue doing lots of mechanical work if I had access to a lift!

Scratches Head...
I wonder how much weight my neighbors forklift could lift

Zac