1984 B2000 REJUVENATION PROJECT!...?

Hey guys first post here

Have browsed the B Scene for a while now and just last week finally got one of these little trucks!

Picked up this 1984 B2000 for $600 off a guy just outside the city.

222,000 kms. I am the 3rd owner. PO had it for 6 years (he had bought off the original owner who had stored it for 10 years in his garage)

It starts, runs, idles, drives, stops without any problems so i thought hey why not?

Now I need your advice!

Have been driving it all over the past week and noticed it was burning some serious oil.. upon first start and while on the gas.. seems to me a combo of valve guides/seals and worn piston rings..

its not pulling very hard you can tell the engine is tired so i thought i would take it upon myself to pull the engine and give it a refresh.

I've never done this before but I have been wanting to for a while now so I'm excited to do it and learn something new. (have only ever worked on motorcycles)

After i had decided i was going to do this i noticed the frame is badly rusted out where the rear right side suspension connects! there are some other slightly rusted spots on the frame but the one in the photos is the worst of them

So what I'm now wondering:

A. Pull and rebuild engine / weld & patch rusted frame section ?

B. pull and rebuild engine / find a replacement frame ?

C. Ride it into the ground and part it out?

D. find a new truck and part this one out now?

....P.s. i also dont know how to weld but I would like to learn.. would this be an ok platform to learn on? hahah





















And heres the Rusted frame section





I've gotten super attached to this little guy over the past week!

Looking forward to hearing everyone's advice!

CHEERS!

Welcome to the boards..

this looks like a neat build if you need any parts let me know as I can come up with hard to find stuff from time to time..

Dan

thanks dan!

I'm sure I'll need parts although not sure what those are yet

Anyone have any thoughts on if its worth rebuilding the engine with a rusted frame section like that?

Should i try to find another frame or patch weld the rusted out area?

nice find.....always good to see another 84 out there!.....as for oil burning....pretty typical for the age....as even with low mile trucks....after so many years of just sitting the valve stem seals get brittle...and then once you get it back on road, they start to burn more and more oil due to them falling apart from age....mine has done same thing....mine had only 130k miles on it when I got it...didnt burn oil at first...but after about 3 k miles...it started to burn.....if you replace the seals...most of your oil burning most likely will go away, unless the rings are also sticking...then its time to do a rebuild!.......myself, I am just replacing my motor with one that was rebuilt a couple years ago...

if you find that you need parts....let me know, as I have some items from stock pileing these, as they are getting hard to find parts for now days!

thanks for the advice!

yeah I never see any of them around here! (I'm in Vancouver BC)

Whats a good way to check if its the rings or maybe just the valves? I noticed it puffs blue smoke on accel and between gears.. which made me assume it might be pistons as well..

I've been looking for a spare engine but haven't had any luck up here.. so i thought i would just use whats there and get valve job and re-bore for new pistons.

I was thinking i might try to find a frame that isn't rusted out as this one has that rotted out section right at the suspension mounts.. but the rest of the truck is so clean.. so i thought maybe i could swap out the frame?

you ever come across any of these with a nice strong frame that are being parted?

Heres my friend taking a breather in the B hahah...

Is the rust through or just on the surface, that metal should be an 1/8" thick. Surface rust is a requirement with that age, ha. Will get more difficult later to get body part, you are 31 years old now.
Acquire any trucks you find, then you will have parts later. Maybe you will find one with a better frame?
Someone here can tell you what parts will interchange from later years to yours surely.
If an engine swap is in mind, bypass the required butchery of v8 for a drop in fit v6.

Super clean paint! I have A 82 and I love it! Mine was burning oil but it turned out it was the valve cover, and Idk a out bc but where I am (California) parts stores are almost worthless for finding parts. Its a old truck and the dealership here stops at 86 for stuff so you gotta browse the forms for info like I do. Search sundowner and it'll come up some good threads, and if you find a junked one where you are part it like . Mo Fo! I'm currently looking for odd ball parts for mine and I have to travel to different cities junk yards to try to get lucky. But id never get rid of mine, welcome to the 1st gen club!

That's great looking paint! I've got an 84 as well except its red with the SE5 striping. I've started pulling the engine apart with the same intentions! I drove it for a solid 5 years before it lost compression in cylinders 1&2. A question for the group that I have is here in Washington state it no longer needs emmissions testing.

How critical are all the vacume hoses/3-way solenoids/EGR-type stuff that connect to the carb? I'm about to pull the intake manifold off and I'm debating on trying to leave everything connected or pull it all off and re-plumb the vacume lines.

Sorry if I'm thread jacking.

I'd say weld it. It's bad, but not non repairable bad. I ended up welding mine and now have a perfectly running 90 b2600i 4x4 for 500 bucks!

Hey there from a neighbor from a little south of you.. I too also picked up '84 and will be watching this thread with interest. Too bad it has so much rust, mine has some too but not too bad.

Mine has all kinds of electrical gremlins that need to be sorted out, the under hood fuse box needs replacement and it needs a new valve cover gasket as well. (I have never had an '80s vehicle that didn't need one it seems)