Will be rebuilding engine and transmission. Please give me some insight.

Hello all first post here. So I have a 1987 Ram 50 with a g54b and I believe the km 35 transmission. I bought it from the previous owner and they did a piss poor job of rebuilding the transmission so it has some new parts in it but it does not have fifth in reverse. I still drove it for a little bit but the engine locked up on me and it hasn't been driven since. Well the engine turns over but it has a knock and I just recently saw that the engine oil filter was loose and that is the reason why I lost oil and the reason why the engine was damaged. I am going to be using it as my new daily driver and I already know that this is going to take some work. What all should I know before doing this? And how much did it cost you guys to do yours?

Hi and welcome to mightyram. You may be better of finding a running 2.6 and just swapping it in unless you want to avoid having to rebuild a used engine. The 5 speed may only have something goofy wrong with it like a selector fork isn't engaging (fiddly to get into location but free to fix if you can diagnose it) If your engine has shredded bearings from oil deprivation be prepared to send the crank and block into a shop for machining. Unfortunately it's like every engine repair - you won't know what you're getting yourself into until you crack it open...

On average how much does an engine rebuild cost?

Pretty broad question - and the answer is subjective. Valve regrind kits for heads and gaskets are all around the same price. Bearings and belts/chains are all about the same, but pistons and specific components like cranks, rods and cams are all over the place depending on what you want to buy and what you're building the engine to do. The most expensive part is machine shop work. Look on ebay to get an idea of price listings on parts as shops always mark up prices on this stuff and then ask around workshops for quotes - but don't go just on price. Get to know what their rep is like as cheap/low prices may mean crap work...