Update of this whole deal. When I got the truck back from Illinois were it was owned for a couple years, it needed a lot. I think it was drove and not maintained very well.
First thing was the motor had a terrible lifter tick/squeal, and drove like the drivetrain had 100k more miles on it. I noticed these things but figured I’d just fix it back up. Before that could be assessed, my buddy Brian took it home. He spent the last 2 months working on it, going through everything.
-Every axle seal, and all bearings
-The bell was lose from the motor and ruined the clutch, new clutch and pilot bearing
-I gave him a junkyard 5.3 that was good, that was swapped in place of the ticking 5.3 that was in there.
-4 new calipers and pads, master cylinder
By this point I think he was just tired of working on it and offered it back to me. I didn’t hesitate and took it back home.
Last night I dropped the pan and put new gasket on to fix a oil leak, water pump was leaking. Replaced that, currently it’s not getting heat, thinking I have air trapped in the system still. Or this motor has a bad headgasket.
I plan to fully rebuild the 5.3 I had in it before and swap that back in eventually