So. The old girl is getting tired. 2nd Gen 5.2L with a 5 spd, 4x4 385782km.
Went for a weekend out of town, couple weeks ago, about a 4 hr trip one way. Hit a couple big bump in the road and ended up getting the death wobble. On the trip back, down shifted to take the off ramp and she backfired with the back pressure and blew the exhaust apart. Pretty sure the head gasket has a crack in it, seems there's a lot of moisture in the exhaust for the cool morning starts. Plus she doesn't seem to want to stay running when you first fire it up. Rear main seal is leaking, frost plug on the back of the head is leaking.....all started after that weekend.
LMAO

 

If the body is still decent and the frame isn't eat up with rust, I'd say it's time for an engine refresh. Personally, I try to find an older running engine, freshen it up with new timing set, expansion plugs (and a good block flush) and a high volume oil pump to compensate for internal engine wear. The last time I did this, I got another 140,000 miles before the frame broke beyond my ability to repair. Make sure if you get a different engine, it's for a manual transmission. Back in the 1960's the car companies quit making engines with dual purpose crankshafts. Most aren't machined for a pilot shaft anymore.

 

The body is in pretty rough shape, LOTS of rust in the rear fenders, the front outers are pretty rough as well. I have a donor 2wd with the same body style and the all the panels are very little to no rust, just dents and dings.
I also have a 94 4WD as a donor as well.
The 2wd has a 318 with about 110,000km but a lot of idle hours on it. the 4WD has over 300,000 km on it.
So I am thinking the low mileage one is going to be the rebuild. I can grind all the valves and heads myself and its never been overheated so the heads should still be quite flat and straight.
I want to rebuild and work on all the 4WD components from the 94 so that way I can still use my current one as a daily still, and not put myself out of transportation. I figure if I can rebuild it all first then just take a few days to swap out the old with the new.
She's becoming a full on project at this point.
I love driving it though.
May take a little time but its going to be worth it.

 

Something my GF can't understand but you will, is when you get done. It won't be A truck. It will be YOUR truck. I've got a '93 GMC beater pickup. I'd get rid of everything else before I got rid of that if I had to. Runs and drives great and is ugly enough nobody cuts me off in traffic.

 

Is that assisted by your personal ugliness, Grouch?

As long as it's not your GF...

 

You're just jealous of my winsome smile and girlish figure. Drive a car or truck with mismatched body parts. Then drive a nice shiny one. See which one gets cut off more.

 

Last week hit 300,000 miles and running great. I say fix your truck, and see how many more thousands of miles you'll get. I will when the time comes.