re-ring pistons or let it be

so my truck has been broken down since mid september, i've pulled off every accessory and now have a little short block, the motor has 190K but, im redoing the cooling system completely because this was my first concern. new radiator, flex fan, water pump looks good, hoses, thermostat. i sent my head in to get rebuilt and was notified that it was cracked so im about to recieve a reman'd one, that was a definite killer. but would it be worth it to pull out the pistons and re ring, im going for a reliable but better than stock motor. weber carb/pacesetter header... would the bottom be fine in this case, the cylinder walls dont have any ridges at the top and the cross hatch pattern on the walls is clearly visable( i dont know if that matters, just saw the honing in the manual)

any help, advise, other things to look at.... all helpful, thanks





woah, hows that before and after paint.

well heres my truck, its all primer white now, soon to be olive'd green

in my opinion if you've got this far you may as well get a full rebuild if you've got 190k

after that you'll be smilin, it's fairly cheap insurance if your thinking of throwing some rings on anyway, no?

yeah i know it would be a good idea to rebuild, i was trying to avoid it all together, re-ringing too. i guess theres to many "ands" and "buts" here to say that its gonna be ok. i wasnt looking forward to doing this mainly because its been down for so long and i just really wanted to get it on the road. what do you think a fair estimate would be for a rebuild, short block only...

Yep, pistons and rods have to come out so you might as well go all the way. Of course I haven't always been one to leave well enough alone lol

depends to what extent it's rebuilt mann. i would prepare to pay around 1,000 or so though, thats just me,...im not too too knowledgeable in the motor dept, but these things take time to get right. the nice thing is that you would have a motor thatd make your money worth wile IMO

Yeah, I am smack in the middle of an engine rebuild. The 302 is out of my Ranger getting punched out to 347 and the 2.2 for my B2200 is still in the machine shop.

I am a diesel technician/shift foreman for a truck dealership so I love getting my hands dirty on the inner workings.

That and I am partial owner of a custom shop. So the facilities are available lol

With the high mileage on the engine, I wouldn't even consider sealing the top end without going through the lower end, you'd be kicking yourself when you found you now had an oil burner and/or a knocker with the increased cylinder pressures

If I am not mistaken, you can get the pistons out without having to take the block out, just unbolt the cross member. If you don't see any thing wrong with the cylinder walls, run a hone through them, put some new bearings, seals and rings in it and let her role. Just what ever you do don't get chrome molly rings, they will take forever to seat, thats unfortunently what I did and I have put about 2500 miles on my rebuild and they still have not seated.

Absolutely ring it. My headgasket blew a year ago & I just did up the top end. Smoked like mad on first start of the day. It was so bad you couldn't see across the street. I am currently rebuilding the motor. So while I am re-doing mine, you can do yours right and not be back at it. Not a bad looking truck you have, good luck getting it together!