[dug224]

DeeGee: Sticking with the stock approach for now. Went on a boat ride the other day and came home with a water front lot in Orange Beach, AL which I am sure will become a major distraction from the truck. This is what hapens when you see a for sale sign and make the mistake of asking "what's the deal with this lot?". My buddies response was the "you wont believe how cheap it is". He was right. Will need a dependable daily driver to get the new house (at least one year away) built so that is what I will focus on. The good news is that house is on piers 12 feet in the air and all he space under the house will be my new air conditioned garage. Maybe after the house build, I can squeeze some more horsepower out of it.

Got the brackets for the engine yesterday and got the engine and transmission installed this morning. Looks like the transmission does not quite reach the cross member in my 6 cylinder frame and the trans opening in the cab may need to be trimmed. May have to make a bracket for the tailpiece. Otherwise, the thing fits perfectly with the exception of having to shorten two of the bolts for the frame motor mounts that touch the 5.3 motor mounts. Would have done it with my new Plasma Cutter but somebody swiped it from the guy I was buying it from fortunately before I paid him.

Will have to mount the fender and hood to determine once and for all if I can go with the location of the cab (vertically) that resulted from the earlier stance study. If so, no suspension lowering will be required. Should be able to get this done by the end of this coming weekend. There appears to be plenty of room between the firewall and the engine.