well i think the mounds may have claimed yet another small block chevy..5.7l tbi ..went out there on the june 12th played for a few hours ( real hard) drove it home ( ionia, mi) went back out on the road for a few weeks, got back and something didnt seem right....truck wouldnt rollover, figured that it was just a dead battery so had a buddy pull start me...got to love manual trannys....but when we dumped the clutch the rear tires locked for a few feet then i heard a nasty noise from under the hood as it came to life, hammering to all hell. and pouring out smoke like crazy, drove it a few blocks back to my buddies house where i shut er down. checked all the fluids and only the rad was empty....started pulling spark plugs and found number seven missing the ground electrode, after about 9 hours of scraping mud, grease, and who knows what else off the engine we had the drivers side head off to find a nasty looking piston head and a huge crack in the block..
heres my question.....made some phone calls and had some friends pull some strings and we have found a former police caprice with a ram jet 350 in it, have been told that 1000 takes the whole car, will this motor be worth the time to put in my truck ( 93 reg cab sb z7i) i plan on taking the motor, complete wiring harness and computer and swaping into my truck.
here are pics of the damage
I would it will work
Ram Jet 350 is a crate motor and never came in cop cars...what you are probably looking at is a LT1 350 and they are a dime a dozen and not worth a $1000 unless it is a fresh rebuild or has very low miles on it.
take the motor from the car put it in the truck scrap the car and get some of your money back. After you scrap the car you'll probably have just over $500 into the motor which is about right for a good running 350.
AND, if he said it was a ramjet 350, which is a crate motor, make sure its not a 305. some had them.
Looks like somethin got in there somehow, might ought to figure what it was and how it got in there or youll be buyin another motor before long. BTW, water does NOT compress, it can cause this type of damage.
the car is a former police interceptor...so yes it has a ram jet in it....going to try and get pics soon....and i think i may have suck water up the exhaust when she stalled in a water hole....heads look fine, but block is cracked and connecting rod is no longer attached to piston head....will know more once i get the block out....man life on the road sucks..