Engine started ticking.

DerekTheGreat said:

Hmm, that's something I factor in when buying a vehicle. If nothing else it helps you prepare for the financial shock of getting the vehicle back into shape.

Depends what you want to do with it, as in your case it might just be best to start over with. All of my older car buddies say the cleaner you start, the easier it is in the long run, not to mention cheaper. I'd say the engines are reliable, I've seen the so called "Turd" flat tappet 454 like I've got with just a four speed go over 300k miles. All depends on maintenance. That's my experience though.

Back to your truck though, I really feel that by trying to get the smoke to go away you caused the knock. Oil pump had a hard time pushing that sludge through to the main bearings. Sure, the gauge said you had pressure with your oil "cocktail" but you most likely didn't have flow, which is critical. Reason bearing spin is because things are too tight. Could be that whoever built that engine didn't pay attention to clearances and such.

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DerekTheGreat said:

I'd make sure you've got a tow plan enabled for when that finally does **** the bed haha. It's days are numbered. I once drove a friend's 1989 Caprice with it's 305 running on 7/8 cylinders for a few weeks before it finally **** the bed on 75 North. Super bad rod knock, very loud. Finally **** the bed when it overheated and threw another rod/debris out the oil pan. Temp gauge was reading fine and I guess the radiator leaked worse than I though. Opps. It was on it's way to have the engine swapped out though so that fact we only had to tow it 20 miles instead of 50 was a bonus.

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Justin S said:

easier to top off oil that is being burned off, rather than letting things not get lubed properly, if you want to limp this engine the longest you can, stick with the thinner oil.

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