I am 17 and have a 1990 GMC 3/4 ton k2500 4wd truck and the engine is the stock 350 TBI. The motor got tied up late november and I have been working to get some cash built up to fix it and I was wondering which route should I take rebuild the engine myself I have some friends and a garage and all the tools to do this and I found a rebuild kit on summit racing for $276 but it dont come with the cam or the cam lifters. I have checked around local salvage yards but the 350 is rare around here I have around $700 to spend but in july I am leaving to go off to the marines and I am desperate to get my truck running before I leave thats kinda why I dont want to spend to much money on this because I will be gone for 4 years so it wont get much use. another question I have is what all is involved when rebuilding a engine I was told you have to machine alot of parts like the pistons and some other componets.  thanks for the help guys  

Hello.  Rebuilding an engine is a big job.  To do it right, you have to bore out the cylinders so you get a good seal between the cyl wall and the piston rings.  That takes special, and expensive machines.  The best way to do it if you dont have that equipment is to disassemble the engine, down to the block, then take the block into a machine shop that can bore it out for you.  You will also have to either replace the cyl heads, or have the valves re-done.  Again, just to insure a good seal so you get good compression.

As far as the cam and lifters are conserned, you can get a new one at any performance shop or parts place.  or you can find used ones on ebay.

I personal think that if you are going to go to the marines in July, and all you want to do is get the truck running so that people can move it around if they need to. You would be best of just fixing the engine so that it runs. Now if there is major problems in the engine that means that it needs to be rebuilt then I can see spending the 700.00 that it is going to take to rebuild it proberly. I would just get it running and rebuild it completely when you get back from the marines and save your money and maybe get some performance options when you get back.

trippy