[PLavelle]

Last Thursday night I was driving my truck down the highway after work and started hearing a loud banging noise coming from the engine. I immediately pulled over and called a tow truck because I knew something serious had happened.

I had it towed back to my house that night and towed to a mechanic we've used for years the next morning. I called him later that day and he told me that I had thrown a rod (I think) and that I would either have to buy a new engine or have my engine rebuilt.

I just bought my truck last May and when I bought it the owner said that the engine was rebuilt less than 15,000 miles ago.

Now I have a few options:

1. I have a garage I am planning on keeping the truck in for the winter. I could attempt to rebuild the engine myself, which would probably help me learn a few things because I am pretty much mechanically handicapped at this point. I would have to buy books (I guess) on the subject and just figure it out from there. My question is: Do you guys think I would have any chance of doing it myself without any real experience at this point, or am I just going to mess things up worse?

2. Have the engine professionally rebuilt.

3. I have another 350 sitting in a '76 Nova that I could use. It is a friend's engine with less than 20,000 miles on it. At least with this engine I know the history of it and it would be a little more predictable.

4.Buy another crate engine and start over. I guess I would do this so a problem like this wouldn't happen again in the near future.

With the last two options I would either try to do it myself or pay to have someone with experience do it for me.

What do you guys think?