Hello All,

I am brand new to this forum and I am looking for some advice on my new truck. Let me start with a little background:

I just picked up a 1990 B2600i 4x4 yesterday and it was quite a long day. The truck was 5 hours away so I drove up with my friend to go pick it up. I was told it was in good condition and had a crate engine dropped in about 80k miles ago but may have a heater core or thermostat problem. They had taken it on a 45-minute drive recently and said there were no issues, so I said screw it and decided to go get it and try to drive it back. After inspecting it in and out, there were a number of other things I discovered that needed fixing as well such as a valve cover gasket leaking badly, a hole in the exhaust where a support had rusted out and was just hanging there, a cv joint with a ripped boot, struts were shot, some ball joints all around, and other little things here and there. I negotiated the price down and was happily on my way with a nice ol' little 4x4 truck. They were also nice enough to leave the date off the title and release of liability slip for now so that I could let them know when I am ready to go to the DMV and won't get hit with any late fees. The truck was also registered up to date and had last been smogged and past in January (I verified this online). I'll have to smog it again to register it, but I need to get the work done first.

So, my friend and I were driving along and everything was looking good for us. Then, like clockwork, after 45 minutes, the temp started to shoot up and the truck was overheating. We pulled over immediately and were luckily in a big city instead of the middle of nowhere so we got a new thermostat and bypassed the heater core. While doing the thermostat, we ended up cross-threading breaking the lower mounting bolt, and then had to take the whole housing off but were lucky enough to find a nice machine shop that got the bolt out and tapped the hole out for us. After 5 or 6 hours of running around and working on the truck in 103-degree smoky weather, we got it all back together and spliced a wire that we broke and were on our way. 15 miles later it was overheating again. At this point, it was getting late, we had had a long day, and we were tired so we started making calls. We ended up finding a friend's house nearby to store the truck at. We drove the next 4 hours back and will be trailering the truck home next week.

So I'm looking for some advice on the truck and getting it up and running again.
-valve cover gasket: pretty straightforward - hopefully that's the only place oil is leaking from
-ball joints: also pretty straightforward
-struts: any advice on which ones would be good for this truck?
-overheating: I definitely need some advice on this and what could be causing it? Could it need a new radiator? Any troubleshooting tips to hit the ground running?? Also, I know these trucks don't like being hot and are prone to cracked heads. Do you think mine is at risk for this? We stopped the second it was climbing but it was still definitely overheating and was steaming. How should I diagnose this? If the head is warped and or cracked should I get it redone or just get a new one? Does anyone know a good place for this? I'm in san jose area in CA.
-exhaust: I know someone with a welder so that's an easy fix
-any general advice on this truck is also appreciated

Here are some pictures of the beauty. The interior needs detailing and the exterior could use some wax, but it's overall pretty damn good. It starts right up, has great tread on nice tires, virtually zero rust anywhere, no dents, and is just a good-looking old pickup. I am super excited about owning it and getting it back into great shape and can't wait to get it back home so I can start. I've ordered the valve cover gasket, oil, oil filter, engine air filter, fuel filter, radiator, and cap so far. As well as some "marvel mystery oil" to help clean it all out inside. Let me know if there's anything else I should look at or replace as this is my first time doing this big of a project.

Thanks all

 

check out world science tv on you tube he has alot of good advice on these trucks. do you know who the manufacturer of the crate engine is