My bottom end is pushing 255k miles at this point and the past 3 years have been wheeling miles. There's a cold start knock which almost goes away completely at running temperature. It's done that since I got the truck 40k miles ago. Flogging on it at higher rpms it burns some oil in blue smoke, and has a raspy bearing rattling sound. The timing chain guides are broken and you can hear it hitting the cover. The HG leaks coolant on one of the external water jacket lines. I have a new head and plan on putting a 261 cam in it along with the new HG but I'm wondering to what extent I should tear into the bottom end or even bother.

Here's a couple videos to demonstrate the rattle I'm talking about.
You can really tell in this one just as I drop into the hole and start reving.

http://s257.photobucket.com/albums/h...t=VID00047.mp4

Can hear it some what in this one too but it's harder to hear at the much higher rpms.
http://s257.photobucket.com/albums/h...t=VID00038.mp4

I'm trying to find a 3rz to swap in this truck but in the mean time I'm going to do the timing set, head, cam, and hg. It's a wheeling truck so I don't need or expect daily driver reliability out of it especially with the budget I'm working with on bandaiding this tired 22re together. I'm thinking the rings are worn which is the blue smoke, but I do still get 160-170 across the board on a warm comp test. Eats about a quart of oil every 500 miles.
Good time for a $300 engine/piston kit as long as the crank looks good while I'm doing the top end? The most attention I'm going to give the block is a look over. It's not going to see a machine shop. I can't justify it on an engine I don't even want to keep in the truck for long.

 

bump.