You won't find a stronger 216 proponent than me; still running factory original engine, probably has 175K on it from my estimation, at least 50k of those by yours truly. I rebuilt it once plus highly probable it was rebuilt once prior to 1982 when I got it.
Ive run 25-30K with 3.55 rear end and 30 inch tires. But what I've noticed, and this may not be true for everybody, but my perception once it gets to around 60 in that configuration the low horsepower of the 216 starts to show its true colors on hills, headwinds, etc. It just doesn't seem to have the umph to really do anything extra at that speed, and it's much harder to maintain those speeds than with 4.11 gears at 45-55 mph. It's not a big truck, but definitely suffers some aerodynamic drag, and wind resistance increases proportionally, so 5-10 mph means alot with a low powered engine.
I've changed it back to the 4.11 and even run 15 inch rims with smaller tires nowadays. It's the perfect combo for around town and leisurely backroad stuff, but I do have the complete torque tube with 3.55 and big tires/16inch rims to put back on if there's a reason it really really needs to go anywhere hundreds of miles away.
Last rebuild was 38k miles ago, and the only thing it's needed outside of routine maintenance is adjusting rods/main bearings, easily accomplished by removing shims and checking with a piece of plastigage. Actually, you should consider bearing adjustment routine maintenance with these engines, about every 35-40K miles you'll notice oil pressure on the gauge is much lower when warm than it once was; adjustment boosts it right back up.
(worth noting, they aren't routine scheduled maintenance, but I've changed vacuum advance a couple times, as well as fuel pump, several carb rebuilds, that's about all that comes to mind right now)
Last edited by Skooter; 10/02/2022 1:15 AM.
