I had a 93 that looked similar but was a 350 engine. . Hauled me to a lot of tile jobs. At about 350000 she went to getting hot on me headed to a job one day about 25 miles out. In the era of no cell phone i turned her around and headed back. She got me home one last time and locked up in the yard. Good luck

Replaced all the bed rails, cab corners, rocker panels, brake lines, etc on the older truck, didn’t want to lose the floor, frame is rough in places. Truck won’t make it anywhere near 500k miles. The motor and transmission are close to being used up.

1 gt every 2-4000 miles depending upon the usage
Started to drip someplace 1.5 years ago.
Same transmission. Never use overdrive
Use tow mode a lot.
Always used orange antifreeze.

200,000. Miles / 3000 = 67 oil changes

67 x 100$ average or more when they find something.
=6,700.$

I would not recommend it for a new truck, but just sayn.
Use a premium filter

Truck has entirely new driveline including a short block rebuild trans and transfer case, front and rear diffs. And driveshaft. I know yall say not to put money into it but that’s the opposite of what’s happening, I’m planning on spending 5k getting her back to her former glory and add a lift kit and some big tires for getting through the swamp land of northern mn

Sound like you got a heck of a deal for all that work.
A lift is the worst thing next to big tires for a truck.
What gears did you install to compensate for the tires you will be installing?

Haven’t figured that out yet before I do all that I’m gonna fix the body. But I do know I need a lower gear ratio than what I have now so I can still move the thing

What does the term short block mean these days?
Surely not a new bottom end under the old fried heads?

Like the Texas comment, Smuckie knows rust.



Ever heard of torsion bars? Bad Mopar, er GM, bad.




Speaking of GM, Where's Hippie?
He worked on a "couple" of these.

What mig welder you got ???

Short block means a new engine with no accessories so you have to swap all of them and the intake and manifolds but it’s a brand new engine

A very crappy Lincoln wire fed flux core at my house but I have access to a brand new arc and mig Hobart that I will be using for body work

I had 1 with the 4.3.
After 1st time checking fuel milage,
I stopped grumbling about less power.
It was stick too. The T-case for these are special,
clutch truck different T-case than auto .

I ran that style as work truck for 25 years.
Kinda got to know them.
Sold the last one last Fall.

Top frame fail areas.
Rear shackle area.
Steering box area.
That boxed frame that holds salt.
Torsion bar mount area. $$$$
Under Reese hitch.
And that *** sliding window leaks water.

Check those before dumping
money.

Go shopping to Texas lol.

Good luck.

Beautiful Truck

Short block is sans heads.
With heads, it's a long block.
Dressed usually means intake, etc

Getcha some thin stuff to practice body work on, go very slow. To much heat to fast and you will warp evrything.

It will be a fun project and a big learning experience.
Good luck. I prefer dents because I’m going to put them in anyway.
I’m not a kid so appearance doses not matter.
Myself I would drive it till I saved more. Cut the fenders. Put tall skinny tires on it and crank the t bars a bit.
Awesome trapping rig.
(Don’t forget good tunes)
Your 5000 ahead for the next one.
Rust scares me.