I have now come to the motor part of my budget truck that I'm building off of an old Suburban. I bought the truck (4WD) without a motor or transmission because I wanted to build my own. I have a stock 1979 small block that I got for $100 and it runs pretty good but will need a rebuild to be "streetable". The truck itself will eventually be an off-roader with 38 inch tires, a 6 inch lift, and a manual transmission conversion, I'm hoping I can use a T-5 or even a T-56 with 4.56:1 differentials and a 4:1 transfer case.

Anyways, for the motor, I need to build something on a budget, for $750 hopefully, and used parts are fine. Since it's for off road use, power is not a concern, but torque will be nice to go with the gears. I'd like to design it for decent gas mileage (the reason I'm using a small block instead of a 454) and also for 200,000+ mile reliability.

Has anybody built a low cost combo like this? What kind of power/torque are you getting and what is your mileage?

Thanks in advance.  

It's gonna be tought to do a decent rebuild for $750. I'd plan on a $1,000. one of the best thigns oyu can do, get one of Summit's engine kits, they're priced really well and get you most of the stuff you'll need. Ater that you'll have to get fasteners (APR, head bolts, intake bolts, etc.) have the block machined for new pistons either a hone and/or overbore, have the crank checked and possibly gorund to smooth it out, have the factory rods reconditioned, and I'd have hte machine shop set up the pistons for you for ring gap and installing the rings on the pistons.