Illinois rust bucket???????????

For a daily driver and a $500 budget, I would suggest fixing the exhaust and going thru the brakes and driving it.

If you can work up a $5000 budjet----you can look into possibly big block install or better yet a fuel injected take out of a late model salvage


And since its that old, already has a Dana rear-------you could even consider a Ford or Mopar big block or a diesel?????????

I had a 1984 crew cab that I put 100,000 miles towing race car from 84-95 with 454 , auto, 4.11 single axle rear --got about 9 mpg and down to 6 on the road making it to a race-didn't much matter if was toeing or not-6 - 9 is what it got---------