New to the crew... To fix or not...

[2002crewcabproject]

Just picked up a 2002 zr5. Always wanted a crew cab s10. Needs alot of work. Heater core is bad. It's bypassed at the moment. Massive oil leak from timing cover. Body and interior are pretty good. Thinking about just buying a reman engine to drop in. Is it worth it? It has 219k and runs great

[Hartleybl]

howdy, if its just leaking from the timing cover.. and it runs great.. in my opinion i'd almost consider new timing gears and chain ect.. and new cover... or clean it up really good and rtv the hell out of it lol prolly rtv it honestly.. you gotta practically pull the engine to do the cover anyways... from what ive heard..

[2002crewcabproject]

I work in an engine shop building Kubota engines. May just rebuild the engine. I get a good discount on parts.

[ApproachMedium]

If its running good, just take the oil pan off and timing cover. Do all those gaskets, it should run fine. My 4.3 went 260k before i dropped the V8 in.

The heater core you need to take the entire dash out to do. Its a PITA but if that and an oil leak are the worst of your problems, i would not sweat it. While you have the dash apart might as well throw in a new blend door motor as well. A lot of times those go and the same process is required to get to it. Im currently driving one of these crew cabs with over 300k on it. While its not the original motor or rear axle, its the same frame and most of the body and all the other little bits. These trucks will last quite a while and do fairly well.

[2002crewcabproject]

We've done the heater core already and the engine is out now getting a full rebuild.