[Just-in-credible]

Lookie what ended up finding its way home with me!

I have a buddy that runs a wrecking yard in Red Deer, and he found me this beauty. It's a 2006, with a 5.3 and 180,000km (about 115,000miles for you brethren south of the border). I paid 2500 bucks for the truck...AND he gave me a deal for an extra 500 bucks, it came with a 2003 6.0 LQ4 in the trunk!

Apparently the back story is that it was a theft recovery. Its super clean inside and out. It's almost a shame to pull it all apart! it has the full leather interior that is in amazing shape, the Bose sound system, DVD player. Also interestingly enough, it came from Florida. it must have been imported into Canada at some point, because the dash was swapped over to metric.

The funniest part that I found was that is sounds absolutely awful. It has the usual broken exhaust bolts, so it has a major exhaust leak. At start up and idle, its quite loud, and you get to hear FUB FUB FUB FUB FUB when you fire it up, but it does actually quiet down a little once it warms up and gets rolling on the highway. The good news is that it actually drove really really nice. It made me super excited for this build. It handles and steers so nice and light. I drive HD trucks for my work, so to jump from a Dodge 3500 4x4 into this thing was amazing. The only small thing I noticed was that there was a thump/rattle coming from the front drivers side wheel area. I'm hoping that might just be a bushing or something that is worn and will need replacing. It definitely did not affect how it drove. I think that's what I am most excited about for this build, I want this thing to ride and drive really nice. That's why i went with the BDS lift. From what I read, they are the best riding and driving lift on the market. We will see I guess.

I checked the tag in the glovebox, and it has 3.42 gears, so a gearing change is definitely in my future. I'm thinking 4.10 or 4.56, depending on if I go with 33" or 35" tires.

I don't currently have an engine hoist, so I'm going to have to rip the 6.0 down to nothing so I can hand bomb it out of the back of this thing.

Should keep me busy for a while!