97 chevy service truck bent pushrod

[Ezrider_92356]

i recently bought a service truck, got it cheap. chevy 350 runs rough seller claimed blown head gasket, said they had it looked at no compression on #6. i asked if one of the adjacent cyl's had no compression as well (ie head gasket blown threw the fire ring between two adjacent cyl's) they said they didn't believe so but didn't know if they might have just stopped with the compression test on #6 anyway the price was cheap enough i figured even with putting a new motor in it was still a good deal. trans shifts good 4wd works a/c even blows cold ect.

get it back to my shop and do my own compression test and find 0 compression on #6 all adjacent cyl's between 155-160 so i pull the valve cover and find a bent push rod on the #6 exhaust valve. the exhaust valve also seems to be stuck part way open (most likely bent)

so my question is what is the likely hood of piston damage? any opinions on course of repair ie rebuild the existing motor, used replacement, rebuilt crate engine. pull the head inspect the piston replace the valve and put it back together?

i don't intend to put many annual miles on this vehicle if that makes any difference

also the engine runs surprisingly well for only running on 7 of 8 cyl's other than a rough idle and low power.

any idea what might have caused this? iv rebiult a motor or two due to low compression burning oil ect, never had one do this before, other than one where a timing belt snapped and shoved a bunch of valves into pistons and punched holes in the pistons and caused all kinds of carnage, obviously not what happened here.

[El conquistador]

Bought an 88ish El Camino for my dad years ago, "needs motor" and found the exact same thing. He drove it for years with a push rod and a valve yanked from another head and hand lapped into place. I gave $400 for it, he drove it, hit a deer, collected $1200 on insurance, fixed it for $150, and drove it. Sold it years later for $1000, still running.

I'd yank the head and take a peek.

[Ezrider_92356]

i might have found a good used motor cheap, its in a 99 suburban and they say its still in the truck and i can hear it run before they pull it $350 and there pull it out for me.

If the motor runs good i may go that route then throw the motor from the service truck on the stand and rebuild it, never hurts to have a fresh 350 laying around

[Ezrider_92356]

i went and checked out the used engine sounded good oil looked good ect, so i told them for 350 bucks id take it, while they were pulling it i went and yanked the engine out of the service truck went and picked it up, dropped the new one in and got it all back together, seems to run good. only put 20 miles or so on the new engine so far. did the swap in about 14 hours.

started taking down the old motor



engine out




new engine in and everything back together


i plan to tear down the old engine and rebuild it when i get some more spare time, and then if the used one goes ill have a fresh rebuilt ready to drop in or if i end up with another use for it, never hurts to have a rebuilt engine laying around.