Well today was the day... After a few short trips around the block, to the gas station etc over the past several weeks, I finally decided it was time to drive the truck into work. With our 4th child now 10 days old I was no longer worried about something breaking just as the wife the called to say it was baby time. That would typically be my luck. Today proved that I had made the correct decision in waiting to drive it. Just about 15 minutes into my drive and about a block away from work the truck started ticking and quickly escalated into a loud knock. I shut the thing down fairly quick and had one of my buddies tow me the rest of the way to the shop. I had a feeling it was a rod and convinced myself that there was no way it was a fresh motor as I was told when I purchased the truck and even if it was, it was apparently junk. I made the decision to fire it one more time in an attempt to avoid pushing it uphill into a space to work on it. In a few short seconds, it knocked, it banged and then it locked up.

Being that I was at work, I had little time to work on it but did manage to get the heads off. Much to my surprise, it looks like it was a fresh rebuild with new .040 over pistons, cross hatching still present and no ridge on the block. This leads me to believe that someone probably forgot to tighten the rod bolts as it looks like the #8 rod decided to separate from the crankshaft in an attempt to eject the piston through the cylinder head. At first glance the piston is obviously junk and the cylinder head has a bent valve. I don't see any windows anywhere but won't really know the extent of the damage until I get the motor out and apart later this week.

I'm not terribly heartbroken as I had plans to install the 413 into the truck in the near future anyhow. However, I also had plans to throw the 383 into my roadrunner just to get it moving under its own power... I can now see half that dream sailing off into the sunset. Is what it is. I wish I could change the day but I can't. I'm fairly certain that 383 will end up as a boat anchor.

Oh well, I'll keep you guys up to date as I move along... Here's hoping for a quick recovery for the truck anyhow.