1992 1500 W/T with no compression??

[Big Daddy Bear]

Howdy all, been a good bit of time since I have been on the forum. Was spending time on the 1947 -59 board when I had my 1950 AD project.

Now I am back and on this board with a new project, a 1992 1500 W/T, with a 4.3 V-6 & auto tranny. Just got it home tonight, in fact, it is still sitting on the trailer at this moment.

Reason it ended-up on craigslist according to the previous owner was it quit running for him. Had been a great truck , drove it a decent amount. He admits to knowing next to nothing about cars/trucks, so he called someone to come out and take a look at it. This fellow diagnosed it as having no compression.

We tried turning it over at his place before loading it on the U-Haul and it kinda sounded like a timing issue to me. Didn't really invest too much time as I wanted to get it loaded and beat Tacoma, Friday after work traffic... FYI: I failed!

I always thought the automatic tranny was the weak link and the engines were fairly solid.

So, my question for now is, are there any known issues with this year 4.3 that may be the cause for it to suddenly stop running that I can check off the list first?

Thanks!

[Kudzupatch]

Ignition module? That will stop it dead in it's tracks.

[Big Daddy Bear]

Thanks!!

My plan is to pull the plugs and get a compression reading off each cylinder, pop the distributor cap and see what it looks like, then if the numbers are okay and under the cap looks okay, I will start looking at things like electrical and will start there.

Appreciate the suggestion!

[Big Daddy Bear]

WELP!! I had some free time today while my burn pile was finishing up, so decided to take a closer look under the hood.

Popped the radiator cap, no water, well, that is interesting, let us look a little deeper...

Pulled the dipstick to check the oil level...AND I FOUND THE WATER!!!

Keeping in mind I didn't buy the truck pinned on the hopes and prayers of the engine being an easy fix. It will have a V-8 of some sort in its future.

It is a fairly clean, rust free appearing truck, that I think it will work just fine for my intents and purposes.


Now, just have to figure exactly what those intents and purposes are...

[Big Daddy Bear]

Makes me wonder if the previous owner's "mobile mechanic" that came out and took a look it for him was maybe just more mobile than mechanic.

Or if there may have been other factors in play...

[mountie]

Looks like a good deal !! If you got it cheap(?), then a crate motor will fix it right up. ( I can guess on cracked heads).....

Repairing this engine may be more expensive than a crate/install.