This is the top of cylinder #1 piston head. What is going on? Same for #6 cylinder in my 3vze

 

That engine swallowed some chunks, sometime, or another.

You do any compression or leakdown testing before disassembly???

 

That could be just a spark plug electrode; did you look at the plug? (With that much damage, it was running on 5 or 4 cylinders for a while.)

 

I didn’t do any kind of tests, unfortunately. What could have happened? There appears to be some light scoring on the walls. Should it be re-honed?

 

It always ran on all cylinders. The plugs would oil foul rather quickly though, Not sure if the rings are shot. The truck only has 150k on it.

 

I would guess a broken ring could do that sort of damage. Those pistons can't be reused, so at some point they're coming out. I would be surprised if the cylinder damage was limited to "light scoring," but once the pistons are out you can take a look.

I assume the heads look pretty much the same.

 

Ouch. With the piston damage, oil consumption, vertical score lines visible in the one photograph, and number of miles on the engine, I would bite the bullet at this point and pull it for a rebuild if it was a vehicle I wanted to keep. These vehicles seem to have an increasing collector value right now, so it might well be worth the time and money investment. Or it might be a great point to do a 3.4 liter engine swap...

 

With the heads off, is there a way to pull the engine? Since the chain hooks are bolted onto the heads...

 

Sure, just like this:
The standard lifting strap/chain has a plate at each end with a hole for a bolt. There should be plenty of places on the block where you've removed something (ac? engine mount?) that you can just bolt the plate to.

Here's a generic guide. http://knowhow.napaonline.com/napa-k...ps-and-tricks/

 

3.4 swap!

 

I’m trying to maintain the original engine, it was my dads and I’d like to use that engine still. Plus I’ve had head work done and a new intake for the engine too. I’ve spent a lot of time cleaning and painting parts for it.

 

Fair enough. As long as youre working on it, youre doing the right thing.

 

Would it be a terrible idea to rig some kind of contraption and use the bolt holes in the block for the head bolts? Because the stock engine hooks are on the heads and the weight of the engine is still being transferred to those threads anyways. Just thinking

 

The problem isn't the strength the threads; they resist the explosion of gasoline in the cylinder hundreds of times per minute. What I would think about is trying to put the lifting force in line with the bolt, so that you don't tip something and dent the block. For that, you use a "lifting eye." https://www.mcmaster.com/lifting-eye...for-lifting-8/ McMaster Carr will sell you one (I think the thread pitch is M10-1.5, but they might be M12. You'll need to check) for only $7/each.

But the block is cast iron, so as long as you snug up your lifting plate, I don't think you can dent the head. Your regular lifting chain usually ends in plates angled to clear the chain. I'd look first for a place on the side of the block, but I don't think you're risking much using the holes for the head bolts.