Questions from the new guy

[68Rat]

Hi all...I'm new here, name's Josh. I've got a 68 long stepside, 350/350. My motor is consuming oil pretty bad...at least a quart a week depending on how much I drive it(i try to ride the motorcycle as much as I can, its a little cheaper on gas). There are no oil puddles or drips when the truck sits, so I'm guessing that it's valve seats and piston rings, so the cylinder walls are probably a little scratched up too. I changed the spark plugs a few weeks ago and they looked like they had been dipped in chocolate cake batter, just after 2 months of driving. I've heard a lot of horror stories about machine shop prices, and being that the engine is over 30 years old with an unknown amount of miles on it, i'm not so sure that I'd like to spend the time or money to revamp it. Its not the original engine so I'm not concerned about matching numbers. I was talking with the kid at advance auto parts one day and he said they could sell me a rebuilt 350 with a warranty for a thousand bucks, I just have to return my engine to them. Has anyone ever bought one of these or heard anything about them? I'm not looking for gobs of horsepower, the truck is my only 4-wheeled driver so I need it to be pretty reliable. But I would definitely like to keep a v8 in it. What do you guys usually do when you need a cheap reliable motor that you can get a decent amount of miles out of? The transmission also started slipping the other day, but I'm afraid to change the fluid because I dont know if its ever been changed before. How difficult is it to rebuild a turbo 350? I'm a harley mechanic so I'm pretty well mechanically inclined, but I'm relatively new to the four wheeled scene. I've only had the truck for a few months. Oh and another question...as far as the outside of the truck goes, I'm going to do a mild drop, flat black, paint the wheels red or black, and....is it true what I hear about all tires with raised white lettering? Are there really wide whites underneath there? If anyone can answer one or all of these questions I'd sure appreciate it. If anyone has pictures of a truck that sounds similar to what I want to do, it would be cool to to see that too. Thanks

Josh