Tell me this noise isn't what I'm afraid it is.

[Ronnie]

OH Doing a quick search these fellows have all the equipment required. http://www.huntermachine.com/ There also appears to be more shops that could perform the machine work.
You only have an old v8 ford.The basic machine requirements could be done in that shop in a heart beat.You will need to get that engine apart to confirm what failed.

R

[Old Henry]

Any harm in running on 6 cylinders?

After a week of withdrawals from not driving "Old Henry", afraid that the knocking sound in the engine would get worse and make things worse before I could find someone to fix it, I had this scathingly brilliant idea last night to just pull the wires off of the plugs on those two front offending pistons and drive on 6 cylinders. So I did. Took a ride up the canyon that I've missed. Was a bit rough and slow on the start from stop and slower going up hill but above 40 mph, when the knocking used to kick in, the engine seemed to run as smooth as on 8 cylinders without any knocking. I don't think I'd take a road trip that way but any harm of a daily cruise on 6 cylinders?