Well after replacing all my top end seals, doing a valve job and replacing the timing gears/chain I moved onto the bottom end of the engine. After the hell of getting the oil pan off (had to unbolt mounts and lift engine up a few inches) I took off the oil pump and noticed a odor of burnt oil coming from the oil pump housing after I pulled it. The oil in the engine looks OK, used but OK. NOT burned. Could the pump maybe have cavitated and had a little bit of the same oil inside it over the course of the last few oil changes and just ended up burning it? As in, the oil that was in it hasn’t really got pushed out yet? The oil pressure gauge is a little high I remember, but it is not a mechanical gauge and I don’t know if I can trust it. Just thought id shoot this out there. I plan on changing the pump anyways since its all apart. I should probably also do the rear main seal however It looks like its holding really well. No oil inside the flex plate bell housing at all. Id hate to make a problem where there isn’t one. Hey Steve, I’m talking to you!
I don’t believe ive seen or smelt what your talking about in an engine that was in working order .oil it self does stink maybe with the pan off you got a big wiff . now if it were the diff those really smell bad when the fluid gets burnt.
yah… ended up just priming the old oil pump and putting it back on. It’s a pump, either it works or it doesn’t. That’s my theory. I ended up probably spending a good 4 hours trying to lower the engine back onto it’s mounts with 2 bottle jacks and some 2x4’s…That was a pain. But its back in place and bolted down.
it sounds like you were about 9 bolts or so from having the motor on a stand so much easer to work on but not any easer to get back in place.
Yeah I Was, the only thing left were the trans bell housing to engine block bolts… The problem is, I already had put my intake and throttle, injectors ect ect back on and hooked up. Didn’t wanna have to use another intake plenum gasket since i already have this one torqued down. I had to lift the engine so high to get the oil pan off that the distributor was touching the firewall. The next time I have to do anything on the bottom end of these engines, im pulling it and buying a 400 dollar entire engine rebuild kit.
Well, I am going to take a break from the truck (not the gasifier). I am just getting to frustrated and had to walk away. This kind of engine work could drive a sober man one to drinking. I tried installing my fan however once I finally got it on the water pump shaft I noticed I have lower radiator contact with the fan blades…I am guessing the mounts either A) blew when I lifted the engine B) something got twisted and moved on the tranny C) The engine block mounts dont actually sit all the way down into the frame mounts. I am going to go back out there Tuesday and see if I can maybe jack up the engine a little bit and tighten the mounts down to see if I get the proper fan clearance… 
I am very tempted to just go pull a electric cooling fan off an Intrepid and mount it up with a relay… I know its not the correct fix but it saves me the hassle and gains me a few HP. (People say that, I just think it adds more load to the alternator then to the engine just like a clutch fan)
the fan only needs to be on when idling when your moving you get plenty of air flow they do make kits to turn the fan on by temp or if you set around flip a switch the first just saves you from forgetting or the wife . make sure the radiator hose you have hitting is not backwards there shouldn’t be enough motor mount play even if bad to hit.
Well I once proved it to myself again. When your having trouble with something and you end up spending too much time on it you overlook it, over think it, and get over aggressive with it.
TL:DR I went out there today with a cool calm head and realized the radiator has bottom mounting holes that make it sit at somewhat of an angle and not straight. The mounting holes I think are in the condenser coil bottom. This gave me all the fan clearance I need. Sometime you just need to give yourself some time to step back, and relax. Before you start breaking things. 
PS, I still think an electric fan would be neat. Maybe in the future. I can pull one off a intrepid at the junk yard for 25 bucks.
Thanks, JH
HI Joseph,
I get mad all the time at a project …and then after I step back and just walk away…it comes to me. I have 40 yrs experience at fixing mine another peoples broken crap. From what I can tell you are super experienced at solving problems. sometimes we get impatient. I have no doubt you will find ALL the answers (w/ a little help from DOW). power on, Gordon