I have a 216 in my '52 half ton, I am not able to rebuild the engine myself so will have to bring it to a shop.
This is going to be an expensive job so I'm hoping you guys can help me with determining just how much of a rebuild it needs.
Here's the story, it runs very well and starts up nicely everytime, however, it smokes so bad I cant take it anywhere that it would have to idle in traffic. I have done a compression test and found 5 cylinders have approxiamately the same compression and 1 without any. I did a leak down test and found the compression went up a little on the bad cylinder which I'm told is an indication that the ring is bad on that cylinder.
Also, I have oil leaks from a few spots underneath, but nothing so bad that adding a little oil once per season doesnt handle.
So, I'm looking at gaskets and the ring on cylinder #5.
When I go to a shop to talk to them about it where do I start in terms of what I need them to do. It would be great to have a complete rebuild but if I cant afford it is there a more affordable route I can take?
