Well here goes ! I am a new owner of an '88 K5 Blazer with the 5.7 vortex eng. and 6" lift with 38's. when I bought it there was the occasional plume of blue smoke upon starting it. it has gotten progressively worse. I finally took it to the local GMC dealer and the service advisor told me it looks like I may need to do the rings and he went on to say if I was gonna do that I may as well rebuild the engine, which would run me $2500 - $5000, depending on how DEEP I wanted to go with the rebuild. He went on to say I should drive the wheels off of it, unless I really wanted to do the rebuild. So my question is: 1) Does that sound like a fair price for the rebuild ( he seemed kinda untrustworthy ) ? 2) is a rebuild better/worse than just buying a new motor ( price being a BIG factor ) ? 3) or is an engine swap a some what reasonable option ( I know I know but had to put it out there ) ? All answeres will be considered. Thanks in advance !

 

That $2500 sounds like they may just be talking about a Short Block, and redo your heads. The higher price, probably is a detailed overhaul of your engine...more labor. That doesn't mean that you won't get a good job from the Short Block route.

Dealer...ummm....
I'd talk to an Independent Garage about this, and get a more detailed list of what's actually going to be done for a given price.

Then, come on back and let's discuss that.