newer 250 has no guts.

[BadaSs_Cal]

Hey guys thanks for the all the feedback, I think it might be a combination of a lot of things. ( Mostly I was too excited buying my first project truck, that turned into a daily driver) I will try to start from the beginning, maybe you guys have some ideas or input that may help me out. I'm learning so bare with me.

1. Even when I first got the truck there was some lifter noise from start up, always started strong and sounded good ( except for the constant ticking noise) but after it warmed up a bit it went away.

2. The truck ran fine on the freeway up to about 55 then you could feel the tranny area knocking around pretty hard, so I always kept it at low speed.

then the trouble started.

I lent it to my father in law for a week so he could do some light trailer towing. We'll hes hard on his cars. Drives fast, starts fast, drove my truck around town like he was a teenage boy.
Well thats when I got the truck back and the tranny felt like it was slipping in and out of gears. EVEN WHEN IT WAS NOT IN GEAR! I was lost so I let it sit

And he borrowed it again.

That when I had to go pick him up because the motor felt like it was knocking like crazy, but it felt like it was shifting fine. No high rpm noise, just real bad knock coming from motor.

So we pulled it out and replaced it with a 84 250 motor. Leaks a little from the rear seal, but other then that turned freely and was in good shape.

Another problem we had was we started pulling smog stuff of the new motor and I know theres some important vacuum lines that were not hooked up, but just plugged. So now thats everything I think.

I was thinking of just finding a driveable cheap 350 setup out of a 73-87 pickup and using it to replace the whole drive train in the truck in one big swoop. I dont know, what do u guys think?

edit: the current transmission is a 4 speed ( including low gear ) the PO converted to floor shift from column shift. Looks like it was a rebuilt one, he said it was rebuilt, but it could of just been painted.