new motor or not, please give me your thoughts!

[plouth]

Ok so I bought this truck a few moths ago, knowing it needed some work. I redid all the front end, lift and cooling system due to a leak.
Now that the leak is fixed I now know that the intake gasket is shot, and really nees to be replaced because its also leaking in the engine and the oil looks filled with it.

here are the stats:
1997 5.7 with 160,000 on the clock. I've only owned it for like 6 mo so I dont know the history of the motor or how it was used. Looks like the motor has never been apart. I'm more of a body man then a motor guy so I need to have it done, and I live in Ca where everything is $$!

What I'm looking to figure out is should I just do the intake (mech is saying $500 including parts to do it). But I don't know the future of the motor.

or

He's also saying maybe I should change out the motor and replace some parts while we are doing it to the tune of $3,000 installed. I know I can get a junkyard motor, but I've done that before and I blew it 6 mo later...you never know what your getting.

So please let me know what you all will do, I've already gone past the price of what the truck is worth so now its just a labor of love and fun..but I do want to keep it in reason.

 

[90halfton]

If it were mine and I was going to keep it ID go new motor. Definitely wouldn't get one from a junkyard.

 

[dave_erald]

Oh god I hate Vortec intakes, stupid gaskets, terrible terrible gaskets...


It's not an option up here because nobody I know of has ever heard of Vortec Marine intakes, if I knew where I could source one for a reasonable price I would do that in a heartbeat.

Otherwise for now...hmmm... I say swap the gaskets, which honestly, in an afternoon with a mechanically inclined friend you can do in your driveway. Save some money to build a motor if you are unsure of the life expectancy of what you're driving right now. And maybe swap up to a 6.0l out of a newer truck, but that depends on if you want to get into wiring and computers and blah blah blah.

Until you do something, don't drive the truck till you replace gaskets and flush the engine oil, coolant is the worst thing for bearings.

Got pics of the truck?

 

[plouth]

think I'm just going to bite the bullet and get the new motor. I've already lost money on this truck, and I plan on keeping it to do work around the house so I might as well.

So if I was to buy a new (referb) motor, what are the things I should change while its out other then the new Fellpro gaskets?

 

[dave_erald]

Refurb 350? Get a long block that comes with new heads, then do **** like new oil pump, water pump thermostat plugs and the like. If you have oil cooler lines replace those if questionable

EDIT: Doing items like oil pump and water pump are self explanatory, it's apart, they are a cheap 50 to a hundred bucks each for a simple piece of mind and to know that those things won't fail anytime soon. Same as a new thermostat with proper working temp and oil pressure gauges, you don't really want to nuke a brand new motor.

I will try to get a picture tomorrow of the oil cooler lines I put in. If you want it