Posted by Tom in Oregon on Sunday, January 04, 2004 at 10:11PM :
In Reply to: need a good running 230,,,thanks posted by matt on Sunday, January 04, 2004 at 8:51PM :
Matt,
I wanted to share my experience for your benefit. My 230 lost the #1 rod while cruising down Oregon's I-5 freeway in April, 2002. It was pretty exciting, but then a bummer. I got the truck home the next day. I found a guy in Texas through the forum who had his 230 under a tarp for a year after putting a v-8 in his PW. He only wanted $400 for the complete engine, which he said ran when removed. After I got it in my truck (you could hand turn the engine with some muscle on the pulley), I had it jam when I finally turned on the starter. It turns out the cylinders had corroded enough under that tarp to nearly sieze when the piston eventually went that far. So out it came again for a rebuild. I found a guy of some repute to rebuild it, and he said the cylinders looked good enough to work with, and that the bore looked stock. He even measured one with a caliper to reassure me. He was wrong. All 6 holes were 0.060 over already, so not enough metal left for a reliable rebuild. Then I'm scouring the world for another block. Pretty hard to come by, and not cheap when found in any reasonable condition. I even ordered one of VPW's Thai engines, but chickened out from the high price for a not-rebuilt-but-seems-to- work-ok engine. So I finally brought him my old block and he sleeved the #1 cyl., which had a hole near the bottom but not cracked to the end of the skirt. Meanwhile, the man in Texas offered to give my $400 back, which I thought magnanimous since I didn't even ask. I just wanted to let him know how I was doing. I talked him down to $300 since I had lots of accesories and parts that were useable. What a guy!
Anyway, more than a year and a half later I finally have my truck running (better than ever, even probably when new - it's balanced, with high-strength rod bolts, triple or quad. valve profiling, etc.). The rebuild cost my almost $2,800 but I feel it is well worth it. The truck is good for another 50 years, or whenever we all run out of gas and oil, whichever comes first.
My point is, it's probably better to get a good block and build it up right than to put in another run-out, maybe unreliable engine. This is more than 2-cents' worth, sorry. Good luck in any case!
Tom in Oregon
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