Opinions Please, Non Mopar

[Old School]

A friend of mine had his 90 GMC truck towed over to my place to fix a blown head gasket,
But I'm not sure if it is beyond saving. What I drained out of the engine is just nothing I've
ever seen before. The first pan was all antifreeze. The second and third what should have been
some nasty oil was more like a light brown goop. I mean it was the consistency of cake batter.
It was sitting in a heated garage over night so it wasn't thick because it was cold. I don't know
how much it was driven with the bad gasket. Do you think that the bottom end or anything else inside is probably
just shot, or is it Worth replacing the head gaskets and seeing what happens. The truck has 210,000 on it.
Need opinions please.

Thanks

[darkfiire5000]

Probably not if the oil is a lighter brown there was probably coolant or moisture in the oil which means rust. So in my opinion hell no.

[Sublime/Sixpack]

You asked for opinions, so heres mine;  You didn't say what condition the truck itself is actually in, or if the engine had been rebuilt sometime during that 210,000 miles, but the truck is 18 yrs. old, has 210,000 miles on it, and has goop coming out of the pan.  NOT good!  If by chance the truck is in otherwise good condition it wouldn't hurt to pull off the heads and have a look see. If the surfaces are good, replace the head gaskets, maybe put in a new set of spark plugs, fresh oil and filter, then fire it up.  If it runs good, put a few miles on it then change the oil again. 

Or maybe just shoot it. 

[Old School]

No the motor has not been rebuilt as far as I can tell. The truck is in really good shape. My fear is that he will spend
a couple hundred dollars on all of this, then a week or month whatever and end up spinning a bearing. It was so bad
that when I pulled the air cleaner off and the throttle body was full of this oil. It was so thick that it would hardly go thru
a funnel. This stuff is in everything.

[darkfiire5000]

In that case I say shoot it like the other member stated.

[mikepmcs]

When there's doubt, there is no doubt!

[no318]

There are plenty of cheap used engines around for them.  They are cheap to rebuild, too, but I agree that you shouldn't bother with just head gaskets.

[john108]

I can't comment about the overall engine but I did drain the oil out of an engine that had a blown head gasket where water did mix into the oil.  The oil did look like a brown cake mix.

[62 Max]

If the truck itself is in good condition,I wouldn't even think of the original engine.Like said,used motors are cheap and there are a lot of good ones out their even if they are "Chevrolet".

[acelondon]

As a Chebby guy gone Mopar, id say this is the perfect time to rebuild that engine. Chevy engines are like Mopars in one way, they dont mind abuse. That engine has about 50,000 more miles in it easy. a clean rebuild with new bearings and seals should do the job. I have a feeling there isnt any major damage, just needs cleaned inside and out.


Option 2:

find a working engine in a junkyard and pull it for 400$

[Steve P.]

First, the motor you are working on did not just blow the head gasket all at once and then never run again. The brown cake batter is due to the coolant mixing with the oil and being pressurized in the motor. It is up in the throttle body due to the oil pressure being higher than the water pressure. So as it sits you have a mix of oil and coolant through the entire motor and coolant system.

Next, he will need to make a decision as to the worth of the truck.

Then if it is worth doing, I would recommend pulling the motor and taking it to a known good engine shop for a rebuild.

I am not fond of the 1000 dollar engines that Discount and Zone sell as they only do what HAS to be done and they reuse and re-size parts. I am not a fan of reground cams and valve springs with 200K miles on them...

The roller cams are a bit different as unless they have a catastrophic break they usually last forever in stockers.