Customer has an 86 truck that was towed to me. Been sitting for 4 years because of a no spark situation that he never got resolved and now his landlord wants it out of there or driveable. So with that being said, I first repaired the battery cables and found a defective ground wire that may or may not have been causing the no spark issue. Went to crank it over and no bueno. Engine is locked up solid. No sign of a bad head gasket so I pulled the plugs, took a look inside best as I could. Soaked the 4 holes with PB blaster, marvels mystery oil and WD40. Been bouncing the pry bar on the crank bolt for over a week, won't move. Engine has to come out. So much for the back story. He is unsure what to do. Truck needs more than an engine with 361k on the odo. Truck is carbureted with AC. AS IS, what would this be worth. I've included a few pics

 

His initial plan was to restore it, have the seat upholstered, have me make a rear bumper for it like my 4x, and have it painted. Now supposedly his son tore the engine down about 6 years ago, honed the cylinders, put new rings in along with new rod bearings and had the cyl head freshened up and put a new chain on it and drove it until sparky gave up and then it sat until now.

 

Make sure the starter isn’t stuck engaged. Hard to believe it’s locked up if not a head gasket failure. Try rolling it and letting the clutch out in 4rth.

Probably needs a new igniter for the spark failure.

 

Tough to say WIW, maybe a grand if the body and frame aren’t badly rusted? But if it runs, $3 to5k depending on condition and where you live.

 

Igniter was replaced when he was messing with it. It may have been the ground wire I fixed but I have no way of checking it at the moment. I'll double check the starter tomorrow and see if it is stuck but I think it should still move with a 2' pry bar on it

 

I was thinking myself between 500 and a grand. West Coast California--no rust to speak of other than the usual in the bed seam which is not all the bad at the moment. It was parked in a car port so it didn't get any water in the bed for the past 4 years, but there is a ton of leafs and debris in the bed

 

Certainly worth more in parts than $500

 

Yeah, I've thought about that myself. I've also thought about buying it and taking the engine out of my 84 2wd, but I really like the smaller truck and the x-cab