Progress on the Truck

It's been a while since I've posted. Things are going well. New job at IBM is sweet! The old company and the new company may both be 3 letter companies, but the differences are night and day.

Anyhow... it's Springtime so the weather is nice and the daylight is longer and I've been at it on the truck. Thanks to a friend of the family who let me borrow his engine hoist, I have dropped the oil pan and gotten the bolt out. With all the gunk in the pan it wasn't going anywhere. Now that I have it off comes the debate to just get a new gasket, pickup tube/screen and bolt up the old pan, OR get the pan, dipstick, dipstick tube, timing chain cover that is correct for a 351W truck application. I actually have an oilpan from a friend, but would still need the dipstick/tube and timing chain cover.

I mean I have to buy a pickup tube/screen anyway so why not go ahead and do it right? Well that answer is the usual answer.. money. We ended up owing money to the Internal Rippoff Service this year so it's a little tight, and I want to get the truck back together soon so I can drive it again....

Who knows what I'll do.. have to talk to wife about finances and get a lead on the pan setup... first have to find one then see how much. Whatever I do I am going to go with one of those 1 piece rubber gaskets with the crush-proof washer inserts. That way if I do have to drop the pan again for any reason I won't be scraping gaskets again, and can reuse the gasket.