1990 c2500 305tbi 3l80. Watery oil left in engine.

[Slowrooster89]

My truck overheated and blew a gasket. My question is since it's been sitting a year with that water still in it, does that mean I should rebuild or would head and intake gaskets be good enough?
Water jackets aren't rusted or anything but my concern is the bearings and them getting rusted and spinning. What should I do?

 

[tpass]

well.... if it ran for a while with that milky oil, that means its all though the bearings and everything... at a minimum you should pull a few rod/main caps to inspect...

and then you will probably just end up rebuilding it anyway.

 

[Slowrooster89]

Well if rebuilding is what I should do then I'll probably just rebuild the 350 I have that's already out of the truck. I bought it to swap out but it's slap full of rust through the journals and idk what to do other than rebuild

 

[evilunclegrimace]

Drain every thing out and let it sit over night.Put the drain plug back in, pour a gallon of mineral spirts in to the block and and use a oil priming tool pump through the engine,Then pull a couple of bearing caps and inspect them.

 

[Schurkey]

My truck overheated and blew a gasket.

"A gasket"? There's a dozen gaskets in a SBC. WHICH gasket "blew"?

My question is since it's been sitting a year with that water still in it, does that mean I should rebuild or would head and intake gaskets be good enough... ...What should I do?

Pull it apart and look.

 

[Sean Buick 76]

There will be damage all through the engine, simply remove it and go with the 350.

 

[Slowrooster89]

I was trying to be short but it's the head gasket. Clearly it's tore apart in the pics. But I have a 350 that I was gonna use as a replacement but when changing out the water pump I discovered that the water journals are slap full of rust. What can I do about that without tearing the motor down and rebuilding? This is the position I didn't wanna be in

 

[fancyTBI]

I was trying to be short but it's the head gasket. Clearly it's tore apart in the pics. But I have a 350 that I was gonna use as a replacement but when changing out the water pump I discovered that the water journals are slap full of rust. What can I do about that without tearing the motor down and rebuilding? This is the position I didn't wanna be in

Heads aren’t off in those pics.

Sounds like both options are rusty. You can try what @evilunclegrimace suggested or you can buy another donor engine to swap in. Shìt happens, good reason to not let things sit idle. Which I know isn’t always possible.

 

[Slowrooster89]

The guy I bought it from inherited a huge supply of C4 Corvette parts. Literally thousands of parts. He had a few L98s for sale but they've been sitting for years out of the cars. After talking with him about the rusty journals on the 350 he agreed to swap me out for another and hopefully it's not the same condition. This one has the aluminum heads and is the 638 engine. Will check head numbers later today when he bring it. I forgot to mention the first 350 was supposed to be stock but had iron heads from the 70s so it had already been tore into.

 

[Schurkey]

when changing out the water pump I discovered that the water journals are slap full of rust.

What are "water journals"?

If you mean the water jacket, remove ALL the core plugs and the block drains, take the engine to a high-pressure car wash, and blast the water jackets with the pressure wand. Install new core plugs with blue Loctite 242, reinstall the block drain plugs with Loctite 592 thread sealer. One block drain plug may be the knock sensor.