Earle, wow, this strikes me as a fabulously informative
post. I will explore all you said as my access to the truck
allows. I won't be doing any of the restoring myself; this
is for my education and hopefully to provide these folks
with some assistance. Thank you.

"Earle Horton" <earle-NOSPAM-horton@msn.com> wrote
> Put the car in neutral, and find some way of turning the
> engine over by
> hand. If there is a thrown rod or a dropped valve, then
> you shouldn't be
> able to turn it 360º, without hitting some sort of
> obstruction. Sometimes a
> thrown rod will knock a hole in the side of the block, but
> not always.
> Sometimes the big end comes loose and pretzels itself,
> while the piston
> drops into the rotating crankshaft. Sometimes the little
> end comes loose
> instead. Whatever it is, the engine won't "feel right"
> while you are trying
> to turn it over. If you have a compression gauge and the
> starter works, you
> could try that too. An engine with serious internal
> damage will give very
> strange compression test results.
>
> Usually, a thrown rod is a sign to discard the engine, or
> at least the short
> block. A dropped valve can produce similar symptoms, and
> usually means you
> need a new cylinder head. If you are into restoration of
> antique vehicles,
> then maybe you would attempt a repair like that, but not
> on a six year old
> car.
>
> The "too high a gear" theory has some merit, but not with
> an automatic
> transmission. The auto should have shifted into a lower,
> more appropriate,
> gear. Driving for very long at too high rpms can spin a
> bearing though.
> That could have thrown a rod or seized up the crank.
>
> Although I generally "push" my oil change intervals, I do
> feel that 10k
> miles is too much for a passenger car, most of my driving
> is highway with
> full warmup of the engine before I stop, and I use high
> quality, high price
> oil filters. (I have to go 50 miles to get groceries.)
>
> The best place to find out about parts interchangeability,
> is from a
> recycling yard. They have manuals of what fits into what,
> that are
> generally very accurate. Do not assume that all 3.5 liter
> engines are the
> same.