I took a big step in the right direction towards getting the truck running again by finally securing a 5.3 for a swap! I had been patiently working with someone to get this motor and waiting on him to get a chance to pull it from the donor. Two months later and it was finally time to go pick up the motor.
I am glad I waited on this one because the person I was buying it from was genuinely nice and was trying to get it pulled as quickly as he could, he's just been busy with life! I can relate to that. The motor also appears to be in good condition given the 180k miles on the clock. With the help of a friend, we tore it down to the long block and inspected the internals under the valve covers and oil pan. The valvetrain had no buildup and was a nice golden color, and the bottom end was all intact. There was even still crosshatching on the cylinder walls. Satisfied with the condition of the motor, we replaced the oil galley plug and rear main seal for insurance and dropped on a Holley knockoff 302-1 oil pan to provide extra ground clearance. The motor also got a thorough degreasing.
After cleaning it was time for some paint. My friend suggested painting the block black and leaving the aluminum parts natural but I insisted on orange, ALL orange! There's just something about an orange small block in old Chevys that I love, so orange it had to be. I eventually plan on modifications to make it look more like an old SBC but for now I will be putting all the 5.3 parts back on in their stock configuration. My goal at this point is to just have a clean, functional, and complete engine swap as my baseline.
The next step is to source a transmission, bolt it up to the engine, and drop the assembly into the truck. From there we will work on reinstalling all the components that were removed from the engine. At the moment I am leaning towards an NV3500 manual transmission, but I have not secured one yet. For the time being, the truck sits patiently in the barn. I suppose this is how trucks eventually end up as a barn find, but I will persevere and not let that happen!
