Alrite my 1st build/project thread and 1st time uploading pics. This will probably be updated every few weeks, as time and budget allows, I'm a poor diesel mechanic by trade and love bowties. Anyway, bought this 97 z71 x-cab, from 2nd owner, 183k, loaded with power everything, leather, 3.73"s, 4L60E, 5.7 vortec, back in January for, drumroll please....$1500, drove it home 60 miles and parked it to get it road ready, it needed a few things, brake lights didn't work, ign cylinder wore out, good cleaning, tires, windshield, radiator leaking, well 2 weeks after I bought it, lost my job on Friday it got below freezing on sunday and stayed that way till Wednesday, and wed afternoon while job hunting I remembered it only had water in it! so when it thawed out Thursday I found the block cracked. I was sick for days and no one to blame but myself. So finally having a little, and I mean little extra money I pulled the engine out, stripped it down, tried to get it nickel welded and it kept cracking across the center on cool down so its a boat anchor, found a core long block for $100, got it stripped down and sent to machine shop, got it back Friday, vatted, mag'd, std bore honed, new cam bearings and freeze plugs. So now its sitting in the garage waiting to order my re-ring kit this week, hopefully, and put it back together. This will be my daily driver, so I will be doing mostly upgrade and refurb work to it to make it like new. Any Q's or suggestions I'm all ears, been lurking here for awhile and taken in a lot of knowledge as far as the FI stuff goes, I'm an old/young carb guy when it comes to gm's as far as deviating away from stock. Thanks for your input and support.