Are the blocks the same in 72 and 78? We finally got the Mach motor torn apart last night, and found the source of the noise. 3 of the 8 Pistons were scratched up, and there is a decent gouge in 1 cylinder wall (I didn't actually see the block, just the worst piston. A friend came over to help, I let the guys hang out-"garage time", ya know-gotta give them time to b@#$% about the wives, lol). So anyway, I don't know if a) the gouge is deep enough so that even with a .30 over bore it would be removed b) the motor is already bores .XX over (no markings on the pistons that we could find).
We still have the 78 motor sitting around, we never found a bigger bell & torque converter for it. So, could we use 72 internals (new ones, obviously. I'll post a pic of the piston later-hopefully-but I wouldn't want to re-use any of the parts, looks like there was some serious stress going on) in the 78 block? The garage is about 200 feet from where we can get the truck to, and theres a good 2' of snow on the ground, so if we have to get the 72 block out to a machine shop, it's going to be a few months. We had hoped to get the motor & tranny back in before spring!!!
We still have the 78 motor sitting around, we never found a bigger bell & torque converter for it. So, could we use 72 internals (new ones, obviously. I'll post a pic of the piston later-hopefully-but I wouldn't want to re-use any of the parts, looks like there was some serious stress going on) in the 78 block? The garage is about 200 feet from where we can get the truck to, and theres a good 2' of snow on the ground, so if we have to get the 72 block out to a machine shop, it's going to be a few months. We had hoped to get the motor & tranny back in before spring!!!