Need some opinions on possible purchase of this 85 burb

[jamacee]

Sorry for late response. I have been super busy and unable to take a moment.

Rookie Mistake:

Well, I may have snowed myself over a clean vehicle w/ nice paint interior and new tires and lift - taking the guys word for the work he did on the motor w/out having enough mechanical expertise to notice a few issues.

So now I have this truck and still really love it but it is turning into more of a project than I wanted (of which I have run out of time to mess with).

It started to leak at the rear main.

The carb was rebuilt and emissions removed. However it the lines were not all put back together correctly.

The PS box is leaking, valve covers, rear main, exhaust from manifold, still slight leak at AT pan, and I noticed after fact that there were 2 cracks in glass passenger back window and drivers side rear glass.

I had it all of 2 weeks when all of a sudden I start getting pancake sized leaks coming from rear main.

Not expecting this I had already dumped some money at LMC getting all new window rubber and some other interior exterior stuff - because - When the guy had it painted he wanted to do it right and pulled the old stuff and I bought it knowing he had planned to put new stuff in and was traveling with work too much to get it done and we used that as a negotiating point.

I know he had about $3600 in the truck between engine/tranny rebuild, paint, and new tires wheels and I gave him $4200 for truck.

I took truck to mechanic this morning. I am not completely inept but pulling a motor or tranny is at this point something I have very little experience with. Add to this that I just don't have the time.

So my friend who is a good mechanic is going to help me out but it still looks like another 1k-1500k to get everything straightened out with the motor and that won't be everything but the other stuff I can deal with a little here and a little there.

So I felt like this is a life lesson but I would rather not be learning it on a 1 of our 2 DD's.

 

[jamacee]

I still talk to the PO and turns out despite him assuring me that mechanically the truck is sound etc etc etc he was selling this burb to get his son a truck and the one he bought blew a head when he was driving it back to GA. from KY.

Doesn't make me feel better but it sure seemed like a Karma thing. I use that term generically.

 

[Blue85]

The PS box is leaking, valve covers, rear main, exhaust from manifold, still slight leak at AT pan,

Hmm, sounds like you bought a Chevy

It's a nice clean truck you might have a long time. What about dropping in a FI mill instead of putting coin into that carb'ed motor? Living in the rust belt, the clean body is hard to come by, but engines are plentiful (probably because the trucks rust away around them), so maybe things are different down there. I hear plenty of stories about $300 runners that make me think twice about engine repairs and upgrades. Of course, I probably miss out on the long-term reports where those $300 engines end up needing valve cover gaskets and rear mains.

 

[jamacee]

I think that is going to be the plan Blue85.

If I had the coin I would want to do either some type of 4bt/6bt/nv4500 or a LS/nv4500 deal.

For now I just want to keep her on the road and reliable. The only money I want to invest in this motor is the money that will keep me from killing it lol.

I was looking at these LS1,2,3 but clearly I need to do more reading. I have a buddy who owns http://www.diyautotune.com/

and he is trying to convince me to do a LS and he can do all the ECU stuff but then he went on CL and realized that those motors have gone up in price.

So I have a lot to learn still.

 

[K85 Octane]

put some "absorb-all" stuff on the ground under the truck and continue driving it

first thing I did when I bought mine was have it checked out, paid someone, no time to check myself. Diffs, tranny, replace fork in T-case, and oil change. Found out gears match, tranny is limping along, t-case is decent, and oils are all clean. Made me feel a lot better.

then I drove it, all the time, almost like I wanted it to break, so I can properly spend $$ on it


I may have missed it, but this is not relied upon for transportation? If it is, be easy on it and fix stuff as it needs it. If it's not, drive the piss out of it as much as possible when staying local. If something happens, you're local, and you find your first fix.