Wayne,
That is a really cool looking truck!
I want you to know that you're not alone. I too have been there with a
fairly new motor (~3k miles). At least (if there is anything good from
a situation like this) it was a chevy motor. They are faily cheap and
if any block damage was done, cores are easy to find!
I have blown up both a buick 401 and a caddy 429 so bad that blocks
were wasted! The most recent was my '64 429 caddy, which I blew up
twice!. The motor was rebuilt when I bought my '64 caddy. I neglected
the cooling system and never got a good gauge for the car. It
eventually overheated and a piston was destroyed, taking a cylinder
with it. I had the block sleeved and rebuilt the motor using the old
pistons since they were still pretty new. I *still* (hey.. I'm an
electrical engineer, not a mechanical engineer!) neglected the cooling
system and after about 3k miles on a trip to Vegas my car blew up again
in the middle of the desert. This time taking out a rod, a crank, a
block, destroying the camshaft (sending it out the back of the motor)
and taking the fly wheel with it. Here is the kicker, the 429 caddy
motor is a 1 year only block that also has a 1 year only flywheel! Try
finding that block and flywheel at your local machine shop.
Needless to say I *finally* learned my lesson (some of us are a little
slower than others)after a lot of work and *ALOT* of money and I am now
very very careful about my cooling systems. OF course, sometimes, *hit
happens!
Sorry to hear about your experience, I just thought that if I shared my
experiences you wouldn't feel so bad. Maybe even get a laugh about it!
-alfie
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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