My faithful old pick up, with 314K miles, developed a strange knock at low RPM's, for about 30 seconds, then locked up at a red light. It's full of oil and didn't overheat. I turn the key and I only heard a click, nothing under the hood was rotating. So, I call a wrecker, have it hauled to my favorite customer's garage for him to look at.

He calls me back to tell me what they've done and that they've determined that the engine is locked up. They tried turning the crank with a 2' breaker bar, nothing budged. They pulled it with another car and popped the clutch, only to watch the tires skid down the road. So, I start looking for a new GM short block because I fear the worst, NA. I don't want a so-called "Reman".. I even contact Bill K. to ask him about the possibility of a later short block working with my heads and manifolds. Several changes between '93 and '99, so it probably wouldn't work. Thanks Bill.

This shop is busy, works primarily on little imports, has limited parking and I knew that if I was going to rebuild my own engine, if it could be rebuilt, that it would be months before I could get it back there, so I had it hauled to another favorite mechanic of mine who has more space and time. He called yesterday to give me the good news. He had already drained the coolant, removed the serpentine belt, and was getting the engine ready to pull when he noticed that the alternator was locked up tight. The bearing in back had seized. He put a breaker bar on the crank bolt and the engine turned freely, so he put the coolant back in, a new alternator, and it fired up, as usual. He drove it about ten miles and said everything looks normal. The belts have got some tremendous grip.

If the truck were still at the first shop, I'd probably have a perfectly good engine sitting in my shop for an overhaul. I don't know how I'm going to break it to him.

Brooks from Texas