So I submerged my blazer (91 5.7 tbi) sat over night until pops could bring the winch out. Anyways. Trailer it home. Spin the spark plugs. Purge the water out, drain oil. Plenty of water. Drop the oil pan, sand, white built up sludge, cleaned also cleaned the oil screen. Replaced oil. And starter. Fired up ran smooth other than lots of white smoke (thought it was steam and it was well below freezing outside) and water filled muffler. Figured it would be ok after I got the water out. so i drained the tranny. New Filter etc. Serviced the diffs and xfer case. Pulled it off the trailer started checking everything else out I could think of. Then at idle my oil psi dropped (autometer gauge) enough to trigger the ecm to shut er down. Dropped the oil pan again found more sand. Cleaned everything I could. New oil. Pressure is looking good. After a few minutes I start hearing a squeal and knock combo. Bottom end. And also a valve train tap. oil psi looks good. Shut her down still white smoke (no oil in coolant or coolant in oil. All fluids look good. Never have I overheated er. Any ideas? Sanded out main bearings, oil flow prob/blockage..
CK5
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went wheeling alone doah!!!
- Thread starter TxSparky
- Start date
sounds like you're in for a tear down 
at that time, I'd pull the Tranny and T-case, to properly clean 100%
at that time, I'd pull the Tranny and T-case, to properly clean 100%
Is there such a thing as 100% clean? The trans was actually spotless looking.... But it is better to be on the safe side if it comes to that. (not gonna cross my fingers that it wont) just a thought. When I swapped the oil the first time I put a filter on. The followup oil swaps I used the same cheapo filter.. could it be that the filter can't filter anything else out so i have junk floating around? I've been looking for engines to swap in or rebuild this one if possible. Haven't found much locally for tbi. Would it be cost/time effective to find a carb 350 and swap heads, intake etc. Since I have everything...? To swap a carb motor to tbi.. 
British Slave
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If you found sand in the oil pan after running it, I'm sure you can find the results of running sandy oil under a bearing cap. It's rebuild time.
I'm sure you could use an entire carbed 5.7 and just change your intake/heads. Not sure what compression ratio differences that might be, since changing heads. Not sure about cams either, but that can be changed pretty easy. Also, not sure about the crank pickup for the TBI/ spark control.
Overall, not sure
Overall, not sure
I figured that's what would be in the near future after dropping the pan. I have money burning a hole in my pocket. But it was for creature comforts. Any input on finding a carb sbc to convert to tbi since i have (assume) everything to swap an old sbc to tbi. Or should I just be looking at pulling mine and tear down to see if its salvageable.
depends, how are your junkyards around you? It may be cheaper going with a base GM 350 crate engine. Maybe even a short block, clean up your heads, and be done.
Junk yards are not to bad here locally I live 20 miles from the only river in Texas that you can openly 4x4 in so there are plenty of junked out parts rigs. Sbc. BBC.ff14 bolts 52in springs that I was going to look for if it would ever warm up enough. Just don't say jeep or vw and you can keep your right leg when you leave. But there isn't much around as far as tbi. Jeepers have already snagged the 5.7,5.3 vortec. Looking warmer this weekend so I'll start on pulling the engine out and the open heart surgery. Thanx for the replies.
str8axle55
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You can use a Vortec 350 also, and either swap the heads or get a Vortec TBI intake. I think this needs to be tuned though. Don`t forget to check the motors in vans and stuff to, or look for a cheap parts rig that is a good runner. Alos the 86^ motors have the one pc rear main seal, and older carb motor won`t , so you will need the proper flexplate.
I cleaned out the garage last night and brought the cherry picker over. Looking around 60 degrees the next few days so I'll get her all cleaned up. also found a 91 tbi burb 2wd complete $450 I might use as a donor but still planning on rebuilding my current block. I'll try and get a build thread started soon so you guys can see the work in progress. I work at a sand blast powder coat shop so expect a lot of powder coated pics.
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British Slave
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Texas is a big place, where you located?
