New project with a knock, what do you think?

That hurts my eyes. Wow. I wonder what it swallowed?

I wouldn't trust the bore to hold pressure. Ouchy again.

Doesn't look to have bent a valve...remarkable.

 

Yuuuup that engine is trashed !!!

 

Loose throttle plate screws are the number one culprit when it comes to damage like that !!!

 

What sucks is every other cylinder came back with 200+psi on compression. Sad to see an otherwise very healthy engine at 250k have such an early demise. Ill take a picture of what I found inside, doesn't look like a screw/bolt/nut. Its a shard of steel.

 

So, question. Im all about doing this right but I also have some money set aside for this thing and converting it to 4wd is included in the amount. I have, to my knowledge, an engine with sound parts minus #6. If I were to find a block, driver side head, and an additional piston and reuse my other pistons, put fresh rings on the pistons could I Frankenstein a solid engine? The reason I ask is I can find clean 3.4 blocks local for fairly inexpensive and if I buy a new driver side head I'm still money ahead as I have a complete engine to tear down and swap things over from. Tell me what you think.

 

Following. That carnage was awesome, but I feel for you OP. There are contributors in this thread far more competent than I am. Best of luck and I’ll be watching to see how it goes.

 

Picked up a 3.4 with blown headgaskets. Block looks good, gonna have the heads rebuilt, Im praying they aren't cracked and will pressure test alright. Im planning to get one of the all OEM kits off ebay seller: aircabinman There seems to be a few vendors that deal with the 3.4's headgasket kits. yotashop, yota1performance, and lcengineering. The first two sell the stone brand and lcengineering doesn't specify. Anyone have any first hand experience as far as quality? Am I good to go between any of them? Enjoy the donor engine tear down:

 

Been a while. Everything checked out and truck is now 4wd, 5 speed, and on the road. A few pictures of the process to follow. I picked up an e-locker axle, harness, and switch but the dude didn't have the ECU. Anyway I can bypass the ECU and still use factory switch?

 

You did it?!

 

Yessir. Another 50 miles of break-in, engine runs great.

 

I've rebuilt a couple of 350 gm motors and one Ford 300 straight 6. Looks like you've done a fine job fixing this Truck up. With a rebuilt engine, you should be good to go for 400k miles or so. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

 

Thank you, sir. I appreciate that, its been one heck of a process.