350 shivvy . 472K! I saw it myself.

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Chris142

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Apple Valley, California
Customer brought in an 89' Chevy 1/2 ton truck today. I did a double take when I wrote down the milage. It was 472,xxx.x

I asked the fellow if it was the original engine. He said it was, never even replaced the timing chain or valve cover gaskets.

Said that he bought the truck new, drove it home and changed the oil that day. It's only seen Pennzoil 10w-30......it did have a Pennz/Fram filter on it too. Changes the oil every 3k.

Uses 1qt in 3k.

When he wasn't looking I poped the oil filler cap off and could see the casting #'s on the head....No sludge, just a medium brown coating.

After I replaced the radiator I ran it to test the T-stat and to burp any air from the system. It started and seemed to run ok, No dead holes or smoke.

Guy does time trials on El Mirage lake and uses the truck to tow his racer to the lake and back. Said the original 700R4 trans made it to 305K Which also may be a new record for that trans LOL.
 
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Yes they can and sometimes the truth is hard to believe. He could have probably gotten the same results using Castrol, Valvoline, Chevron, and others. Good service habits are hard to beat.

I'm happy, another happy consumer.
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quote:
Originally posted by Chris142:
Customer brought in an 89' Chevy 1/2 ton truck today. I did a double take when I wrote down the milage. It was 472,xxx.x
Click to expand...
Didn't odometers on domestic vehicles of this vintage read only up to 99,999.9 miles?

Edited for spelling.

[ January 30, 2004, 02:19 PM: Message edited by: 2533a ]
 
Have seen quite a few C/K small block TBI pickups from early '90s with 200-300,000 miles. These were well-built trucks, IMO better than the later "vortec" injected small blocks of '96 and '97. The '96 and '97 seemed to have more fuel injection issues, fuel pump, and intake manifold coolant leaks. The block and heads held up well on all of them.
 
I don't have my calculator on my person, but...how many 3k oil changes in 472k?? Ouch...
 
I had an old '88 S-10, 2.5 4 cyl. that went 250K until the engine blew. I sold it at 115,000 to a friend. He gave it to his son when it had about 225,000. His son popped a radiator hose and drove it until it blew up. Up to that point it ran well and used 1 quart every 2,500-3,000 miles. The odometer on it also read 6 digits (7 if you include the tenths). It had been well maintained when I owned it with Pennzoil 10W-30 and Wix or ACDelco filters every 3,000 miles.
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I also agree that the Chevrolet TBI V8's were some of the most durable engines to come out of GM. I have seen many high mileage TBI Chevrolet V8's in both fullsize cars and fullsize trucks.

A friend of mine has a '92 Chev 4x4 with a 350TBI and a TH700-R4. He is the second owner of the truck and has all the service records (he is a GM tech and serviced the truck at the dealership before he bought it from the original owner). The truck has run almost exclusively on Group III oil of various brands and AC-Delco filters since new. This truck is used for daily driving, off road pleasure, and trailer pulling (up to 7000lbs). It sees lots of idle time. He overheated the orginal transmission twice pulling a trailer at high speeds. This truck currently has over 260,000 miles on the orignial engine and it runs great with lots of power. The orginal tranmission finally gave out at 250,000 miles. All true mileages are probably higher since the truck has been running on 35" tires for the last 60K miles and no speedometer correction.

I also recall seeing two 350 TBI cars both with 400K+ miles on them. One was a '93 Chev Caprice wagon that was used by a local Taxi company (original motor, but not tranny). The other was a '90 Caddy Brougham stretch limo. The original engine finally gave out at just over 400K miles. The owner replaced it with another 350 TBI motor. However, the car was soon retired afterwards due to severe body stress/rust problems in the streched section. The car still looked great too, until you looked at the body seams.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Patman:
But this can't be possible, since TooSlick keeps telling us that GM can't make long lasting V8s!
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I bet the UOAs on that truck are horrible
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, but still mangaed over 400k miles. Toyotas last, but so do Chevys.....although I believe the latest generation has some problems.
 
quote:
I bet the UOAs on that truck are horrible , but still mangaed over 400k miles. Toyotas last, but so do Chevys.....
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Completely agree. A domestic V8 will last just as long as any foreign engine, even if it shows high wear. It's the nature of GM engines to do so but it doesn't mean it's not going to last. I think most of us have come to realize that UOA's are great tools to see what is going on, but from a wear perspective, it's not something you want to be too concerned about. IMO. The 350Chevy will last a long, long time. There is even a guy with a C5 that has 300K on it with M1, which doesnt always show the best wear in that engine!! My gradfather always bought Crown Victorias (like all old people) and those engines ran and ran and ran. I think he put a few 100k on them and this is with the 5.0L I believe.
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[ January 30, 2004, 10:00 PM: Message edited by: buster ]
 
quote:
Originally posted by 2533a:

quote:
Originally posted by Chris142:
Customer brought in an 89' Chevy 1/2 ton truck today. I did a double take when I wrote down the milage. It was 472,xxx.x
Click to expand...
Didn't odometers on domestic vehicles of this vintage read only up to 99,999.9 miles?

Edited for spelling.
Click to expand...
No it had the extra digit. It showed the whole thing 472,xxx.x
 
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