You might be surprised. If it starts up and runs without smoking or making any bad noises, you may be able to drive it for a long time and many thousands of miles.
This.
Speaking from personal experience….DRIVING my truck is way more satisfying than merely looking at it. I wasted a lot of time before I knew better….fretting over secondary details.
Unless the OP is determined to have everything just perfect….evaluate what you have….and keep it on the road if possible. You can build another engine on the side while you enjoy the one that runs….even if it smokes a bit, leaks a bit, etc.
There’s no such thing as a “numbers matching” engine for these trucks.
Following the counsel in
the first time startup document that has been linked here … is definitely the place to start.
