Well, maybe you guys can help me out as a friend has directed me here because I cant seem to find the right answer anywhere else I go..

I have a 1996 GMC Sierra 1500, its the 4x4 Z71 package, truck has about id say 220k +/- miles on it and now it it leaks out a full tank of coolant just over night, not sure whats wrong with it, someone told me its probably bad head gasket but i'm not sure, well anyways i'm looking just to replace the original motor and tranny

its got the 5.7L 350 Vortec in it and i'm not 100% mechanical needless to say haha, but i want to know whats the easiest way to do this with the least amount of money needing to be spent

i'm 17 years old and work as a pizza delievery boy haha, not loaded with money is my point here, um i could have the engine rebuilt, hoping me and my friends could figure it out, i'm very good with small engines so would it be about the same as that? as like my 2 stroke dirtbike and what not, i can rip an engine down like that and completely rebuild it and have it running

or would it be easier to just buy a used engine and swap it into my truck, i can do that pretty easy, being around demo cars my whole life, only problem is having troubles finding 350's used around here for less then the like $1800 re-manufactured engines

and last question, someone on craiglist is offering me a 350 and tranny out of a 95 g30 van, would this work with my truck? cause i believe its not the vortec, and would i have to change anything else or would i beable to just hook the tranny and engine right up? cause i dont want to mess up my 4x4 or nothing like that..

 

if going with new and not much knowlege of the truck, id get a 97 350, or take a compression test and verify the head gasket and just redo that, gasket set is about $200 for that model (maybe less) much cheaper than a motor

 

non vortec 350 uses different wiring and computer than the vortec 350. without swapping harnesses, won't work. your best bet is to find a 305 or 350 vortec motor and swap it. real easy, simple. or you can replace head gaskets on current motor. much cheaper, but does require pulling motor apart.

 

Rent a radiator pressure tester from autozone (free if u bring it back). Fill it up with water and test it. You should see where the water is leaking out from, If it runns down the back of the motor it is probaly from the intake gaskets. They go bad on the vortec. And like the guys above said fixing that motor will be cheaper and the vortec is a beter motor.

 

i have a similar question to that one. so i have an '04 silverado 5.3 and i want to maybe swap it for an LS1 how would i do that? the guy that i was going to buy the LS1 off of said all i had to do was reuse the ignition coil off of my truck and the LS1 would work fine. is that true? would i need major upgrades to do on the ecu or even harness?

 

you should start a new thread with your question.

 

So its not worth just rebuilding it, I mean, You guys are looking around like 200 dollars and stuff like that, i should have clarified more, i have a shop, with lift, engine picker, engine stand, all the tools needed, a piston ring compressor, everything if i wanted to rebuild the engine, guess i'm just sayin i dont want to spend much more then say like $800, can you rebuild the engine for that price, cause yes i could fix the gasket but thats only gonna fix that, with a engine of that many miles everything else is gonna start going out so kinda want to revamp the whole thing in general