Great Thread. Keep up the good work.

 

I'm with you on buying broke and fixing. Nothing wrong with that and at least you'll know what you have when finished. You probably bought the truck for less than the PO paid for the bumper. And it looks like you are having fun with it... even your wife is smiling so what more can you ask for.
It's a world of difference working on something in your spare time and having fun with it rather than being stranded on the road with your daily driver and having to fix in a hurry.

Looking from here with all of the milky buildup on the rockers, I think it's safe to say the coolant leak was internal and that the PO didn't just blow a head gasket, tow it home and park it. He drove it with water in the oil for a good long time. So with that being known, I would say all the more reason to have the block pressure tested and checked to see that it is not warped.
Were the top of the pistons in cylinders 4,6,3,or 5 steam cleaned? (either of the center cylinders on either side). If so you may have a crack behind a liner (not definite but a good indicator). If steam cleaned on 2,8,1 or 7 (end cylinders) may just be a blown head gasket. Either way it can be fixed even if you end up having to source another block. But you won't know till you get the block checked out. I got my fingers crossed for ya!

 

I believe that's called preventative maintenance.

 

Thankfully, it was the back passenger side that was steam cleaned. This afternoon, I welded a new Magnaflow muffler in place of the old one. It cam out ugly, but very functional, and as a bolt-on replacement.

I spot welded small pieces of metal to the old muffler ends I wanted to keep. And then spot welded those pieces to the table. I then used a plasma cutter to cut out the muffler section:


After removing the old muffler section, I placed the new magnaflow next to one end and then added an extension to make it reach the other end.



Then add a few tack welds:



Then make horrible ugly nasty huge welds and then make holes while welding and add lots more filler to make in super huge and heavy.



Later I'll paint it with some heat-resistant paint to prevent any more rust. I now have a bolt-on replacement Magnaflow muffler to match my magna flow cats, and cut-off resonator.

Also decided to get a 53230 crower Camshaft. And I will get the 4.6L crank and rods, too and see what I can get out of the mix.

 

"Also decided to get a 53230 crower Camshaft. And I will get the 4.6L crank and rods, too and see what I can get out of the mix."

Cool, can't wait till you get it going.

So how much trouble did you have separating the engine from the bellhousing?

I finally got to work on mine a little more today and got the bolts out of the bellhousing. I plan to split it tomorrow. I have a heavy ratchet strap across the frame holding the front of the trans up. Did you put a floor jack under the trans and adjust the jack and engine hoist till you hit the sweet spot and pulled it apart? I don't have a load leveler either so hope I can get it balanced enough to not put anything in a bind.

 

It was a pain, but only until I tried isolating the transmission bell housing by putting a giant socket between it and the firewall tunnel to prevent upward movement and then a jack under the transmission to prevent downward movement. And then with a load leveler, I jack up the engine very slowly and it had a noticeable "pop" sound of separation and it was free! I wasn't too worried about damaging the torque converter because I already bought a replacement. I don't think it was bothered in the least by it, though.

I also decided to buy the competition lifters that Crower sells. The cam and lifters were $350 shipped. I dealt with Dave Crower. Nice guy, can't wait to get those and start rebuilding!

 

On the extra parts I need to get rid of side, I have:

1x used camshaft, used
1x new camshaft, still in box
16x lifters, new in box
1x torque converter, used
1x crankshaft, used
8x connecting rods, used
16 lifters, used
16 push rods, used
16 rockers, used
2 rocker arms, used
1x Oil Pump gearset, used
2x stainless steel rear brake lines, new

The list will grow and shrink. Let me know in a PM if you want any parts, and make me an offer or ask for a price, either works.

 

Nice going on the cam and lifters. You'll have a truck that will last a long time when done. I guess you're getting new cam bearings? Did you get that about buick 300 cam bearings?
I'll probably do the same on the cam and lifters. Post pics when you get all of that. Nice thread, nice pics, good job!

So where did you get your 4.6 crank and rods?

Thanks for the tip on splitting the engine/trans. I'm so stupid I still had the two bolts half way up.... one on each side. Once I removed those it came right apart. Was able to lift it up and over with the HF hoist like your. I don't have the big bumper though so was easy to reach for me.

When you have time and if you don't mind, could you take a straight edge and put across the front of the bellhousing mating surface and measure back to the flat surface, where the flexplate bolts up, on the front of the torque converter? I'm trying to figure out if my torque converter is still seated. No hurry, it'll be apart for awhile. 1" on this one.
Thank you!

 

Tex, if you haven't already had the 4.6 crank shipped to you, you should get the flywheel that was on it.
I made a discovery today, the flywheel on a 4.6 bosch crank is different than a flywheel on a 4.0 bosch crank.
On my 4.0 engine the flywheel and alignment hub are two pieces ( 3 pieces if you include the spacer that sits between the flywheel and hub).
On the 4.6 the flywheel and hub are one piece and can't be separated and doesn't have a spacer.
I took the flywheel off of the 4.0 bosch and left the hub on the end of the crank held on by the hex screws. On the 4.6 bosch the hex screws are what holds the flywheel onto the crank.
Weird that it's different. I guess more of their cost cutting?
Anyway, my 4.0 bosch is from a 00 RR and not sure if all 4.0 bosch cranks are created equal. But if your truck has a two piece flywheel and hub, then you'll probably want to get the flywheel/ hub that is one piece that was balanced with the 4.6L crank. and if you're going to do that you may as well get the harmonic balancer that was on it too!

 

I'm looking for the crank, but even the used ones are spendy. The flywheel is different, but it is interchangeable between 4.0 and 4.6. If you look at RAVE, it even mentions the difference and that it's OK to use it with the older models. I'll probably keep mine unless I can get one cheap with a crank and connecting rods. The local salvage yard has one and wants 500 for the crank alone. They are also the most expensive salvage yard I've ever know. Russ's European Only. They want as much for used parts as I've seen new ones go for elsewhere.

If anyone knows of some 4.6L parts that they need to get rid of at a reasonable price, let me know!