Well just to updated a thread that been hanging for a few years.
Got the engine back with new bearings, new cam and head studs and the shop got three guys to double check the head gaskets before they put the heads on , they also rtv'd the oil pan on per my request. Put the engine into the truck with the proper flywheel (truck got converted to a standard so no more flexplate problem). It seamed to run great! No more white smoke, good oil pressure and sounded great till the oil turned to milk again
The machine shop is beyond baffled at this point and so am I, they lent me block off plates for the front cover and oil cooler and I started diagnosing it at home, drained the milkshake of oil out and left the drain open just in case, pressured the system and..... rad is leaking blah! Get the rad checked out and the rad shop said it's beyond repair, over a grand to recore it so I buy a new spectrum aluminum rad from them.
Back to the engine with the new rad, pressure check and this time no external leaks, though I do hear water dripping onto the ground, bit of looking around and it's coming out of the drain hole in the oil pan.
Pull engine out again and bring it to the machine shop, they tear it down and pressure check it again,
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And cylinder 8 has a hole in it.... so they sleeve 8 and 7 (Just in case and I asked them to do 7 too). They redo the pressure check after the sleeving and all is good! Also they did this all under my super expired warranty which is very nice of them to do this.
At this time being they had it tore down again they let me bring the rotating assembly to another machine shop to get balanced, something I should of done on round 1 or round 2, they balance it with the flywheel I had then balanced a flexplate to it also just in case something happened down the road and I couldn't run a stick shift for some reason.
New again engine all assembled, I fill it up and do a pressure check and all is good, finally!
Skip ahead to the present and I finally got the engine in a driveable truck, has good power and doesn't loose coolant or get milkshake oil perfect! Now here's the but part....
I didn't think anything of it at first because I changed so many things at once, new engine mounts, polly cab mounts, new to me truck that I put it in, anyways I have a engine vibration around 1,000 to 1,200 rpm which is where it is the worst that I haven't figured out. First thing I tried is the fuel system and cracking injectors and changing timing did nothing. Brought the truck by the shop that balanced it and they said it was not right. So now begins the fun of troubleshooting.
First thing I tried and didn't have much hope for was the pressure plate bolts for the clutch, I had used regular grade 8 bolts with no shoulder on them and the shop said with out the shoulder on the bolts to center the pressure plate it could throw off the balance, now easy to change those out with out removing anything but the inspection cover I changed the bolts, pulled all the old ones out, started the new ones in and tightened in a crisscross pattern, made no difference so much for easy!
Next step is to pull the clutch in case it's improperly balanced or the flywheel is not drilled center, they didn't balance the engine with the clutch as the clutch is zero balanced by itself.
If that doesn't change it then I'll pull the flywheel off and try the flexplate and see if it runs smooth with that and if that doesn't fix it then out comes the engine and tore down and back to the balancer to see what's up.
What a pain in the a$$ this engine has been and I really should just give up on it but I can't for some reason, I'll updated this as soon as I know more info and feel like ripping the truck apart again!
