So I got this engine along with a 82 I brought. I see where some one was in the process of painting the block , brought some seals ect. I don't know a lot about engines in general , so I'm leaning towards trying to make this rebuild happen so I can better understand and work on my truck

So my question to you guys is , does any of this stuff look rebuilt ? I noticed the valve cover is missing , but was wondering about the rest. Would I be better off buying a 100.00 motor off craigslist that isn't locked up and start there ? Should I drag this stuff to a machine shop and have them look at it ? These are the things I don't know

 

looks like a pile of used & rusty parts to me.
the head sort of looks like it had some work but if it didn't it wasn't stored properly. They should have put a light coat of oil on all those parts.
Did they give you any specs for the crankshaft like if it was reground so you at least had a clue as to what size bearings to get?
Slap that crusty oil pan on a truck would be a sure way to kill an engine IMO
at least that one coolant hose still has a label on it

the other side of the flywheel is the clutch mating surface you need to worry about

 

No doubt , all this stuff would need to go to a machine shop to be worked on or that least looked at, I know enough to know it ain't going back together as is. The truck has a donor engine that's running fine, I wanted to start building a engine with mild performance upgrades , new AC condenser , starter ect buying stuff here and there when I find good deals instead of waiting till I have to.

Maybe I should just drag the block , head , cylinders and major parts to the machine shop. I guess my real question is , this just as good of a place to start a engine rebuild as a 100.00 craigslist motor ?