For any person who’s worth their salt as a gearhead, thoughts of engine swaps usually bring along grandiose dreams of pure automotive bliss.  It is an amazing feeling of power under your right foot.  A power that was never intended to be there which makes it all that much more exciting.  Anyone who has actually performed an engine swap can attest that these dreams can be somewhat diluted by a lighter wallet, skinned knuckles, and now a car that may or may not be worth less that what you have just sunk into it.

There needs to be a few clarifications and identification of engine swaps.  Pulling a motor (typically that is needing replacement) and replacing it was the same shall be considered an “Engine Replacement”.  A “swap” consists of an engine that was never installed in the vehicle to begin with.  It, however, could have been an option from the manufacture, or in some cases, was never an option.   But, always and always, you go bigger during an engine swap.  Someone replacing one engine for a smaller and less powerful one should be chastised and thrown out of the gearhead circle.

I have experienced both an engine replacement and engine swap.  My first engine replacement was in my 1987 Chevy C10 2WD pickup.  This was my first decent vehicle purchase (that was my intent at the time, but I was horribly mistaken), it was my first vehicle I had a loan on.  My parents felt I was old enough to have a little responsibility and it was a great way to build some credit.  It really did seem like a nice purchase, it looked clean, the interior was nice, and it was a 1 year only model.  This was the last year of the aging series, but it had the new fuel injected small block line of engines.  Mine was blessed with a TBI 305 and a 700R-4 automatic – a pretty common combo and worked well enough, the fuel injection was a nice bonus for cold weather operation.  However, the twin throttle body didn’t give you that same sound when you “booted” the gas – you didn’t get that wonderful sound of a set of 4bbl secondaries opening up to let you know you were really making something happen under the hood.

I was really enjoying my new mode of transportation and I was quite proud of myself.  The honeymoon ended quickly shortly after purchase when I needed brakes on all 4 corners, along with tie-rods and a heater core.  Ahhh…  OK – just a little maintenance to get things back into shape, right?  Now, mind you – at this time I hadn’t started my journey of automotive maintenance.  I was still getting oil changes at the quick lube places.  I knew enough with my cars when something was wrong, I just didn’t have the confidence that I could fix whatever was wrong.  That was about to change….

I can’t remember exactly when I knew something was really wrong with the truck, but I recall it was parked and idling, and I got out to walk around the truck and I heard a new noise…. And not a particular nice one either.  It was a deep, dark, gut wrenching noise that can only emit from the bowels of an engine.  It was fairly light at first, but as I lifted the hood, I was greeted with a potpourri of noises now – I still heard the deep thunking (only clearer now), but a symphony of clacking lifters.  My heart sank!  I had just bought this heap as an attempt to lessen my burden of annoying fixes I was faced with my previous car (which was now looking to be much more reliable).

I sought some advice from a family friend who took a quick listen and said “Main bearings, yup -they’re shot.  The lifters don’t sound so good either”.  He suggested to pull a valve cover and start by taking a peek in there.  I obliged, so I went home that night, let the motor cool a bit and popped that bad boy off… And here is what I was greeted with: .

That’s a combination of oil sludge buildup and antifreeze.  Ugh!