The little 2.8 that could

[coheed]

Figured some of y'all would get a kick out of this. I finally got around to tearing apart the 2.8 that I swapped out of my truck to take to scrap and honestly, I'm more amazed that it lasted as long as it did after seeing the internals. This engine had 330,000 on the odometer when I bought it in 2019, with the speedo cable unhooked mind you, and I put around 30,000 on it before I swapped it out. Every bearing and surface has deposits and galling, and the galley under the intake was almost solid with carbon and gunk deposits. I'm amazed it was able to lubricate itself as long as it did. And the timing chain had stretched so much I was almost able to get it off the cam gear without unbolting anything. 

 

 

Maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket 

[89 MJ]

Holy cow, that's incredible!

[eaglescout526]

Send it to GM and let them know that their smog era pile of crap lasted that long. I’m impressed. 

[coheed]

5 hours ago, 89 MJ said:

Holy cow, that's incredible!

It's possible that in the 330000 miles it got swapped out, but it says 2.8 on the block and it doesn't have the telltale red tag that GM would put on their rebuilt blocks. Regardless if it's the original it's amazing it made it as far as it did. And I drove that engine across the country twice.

5 hours ago, eaglescout526 said:

Send it to GM and let them know that their smog era pile of crap lasted that long. I’m impressed. 

I am too. Especially so given how known these engine were for having oiling issues.

[Pete M]

  oh my!!!

[coheed]

1 hour ago, Pete M said:

  oh my!!!

I read somewhere that 10° of slack when you rotate the crank vs the cam was acceptable. This one had about 20°. I'm flabbergasted that this engine only failed to start once, and it was because I flooded the carb.