[jay-h]

When my kid's 88 was tired, I ordered a longblock 4.2 from... Autozone!
Go ahead and laugh but 4 years later it still runs perfect. ...

I have an 89, some years back at 250K miles I replaced the engine with a Jasper rebuilt as well as Howell EFI. Definitely worth it. I'm over 370K right now

 

[jay-h]

Thanks all for your input, I have checked into reman from Autozone here.. 4-6 weeks out and home delivery only.
The local machine shop about the same. So I'm focusing back on getting the 4.2 running that in it. It does have over 200k on it but was still running good. I was hoping you guys can give a little advice where to look. here is what its doing so far.. Son went to leave and it fired up , went to pull out , it coughed and shut off. Turns over but will not start.
Things I tried and checked.. Sparkplugs have spark, used starting fluid to try to start..it didn't even attempt to start.
Now here is the oddest thing.. I put my hand over carb to try to choke it and it has almost no suction and I mean very very little when turning over. This is my 2 best guesses it jumped timing or intake gasket. I pulled the distributor cap and rotated the engine with a wrench and went to 0 on the timing mark, now I rotated it once to 0 and then one more around to 0 and checked the closed the rotor pointed to was #3 cyl. What do you guys think?
Thanks

presumably a gasket would affect a single cylinder. So maybe cam timing. Recommend compression check.

 

[jay-h]

Our local machine shops are awful so here that is out of the question. They are little mom & pop places than can not (or will not) absorb warranty claims. The money for claims literally comes out of their pocket. They'd rather lose a customer. They ruined a couple cylinders I dropped off (Yamaha Banshee) and screwed up a friends 454

Years ago there were a lot of good local shops. They're largely gone as the old guys retired--rebuilding engines is not the business it once was. Of course there are some good shops, but they're rare and making good money building hot rods and racers.

I'd stick with the factory remans unless you KNOW someone local is really good.