Painting the boards for the truck bed

Almost done with the POR-15 undercoat. Hopefully I can get the top coat on this week and then put the bed together next weekend.

Bracket for parking brake lever

I made some measurements and I determined that my new transmission mounted parking brake lever was going to be too far forward when it is mounted in the truck. I made a steel bracket to move the lever back and it allowed me to mount the parking brake cable bracket as well.

Manual transmission cross-member

While researching motor mounts and perches I ran across some information about cross-members for manual transmission trucks. I knew my truck had been a manual at some point in the past and it turns out my truck still had the old manual transmission cross-member. It isn't needed because my truck is now an automatic and the manual trans cross-member serves no structural purpose. It just gets in the way of exhaust and makes installing the engine/auto trans more difficult. I decided to remove it before dropping in the new engine and trans. It took about four hours of careful cutting and grinding to get it out.

More engine pictures

Man this thing is beautiful. It came with some nice stuff that I wasn't expecting like the braided line connecting the fuel rails and the billet fuel regulator. The ECU box is much bigger than I was expecting. I'll have to find a spot under the dash for it. The wiring harness looks a little intimidating but every connector is labeled and can only plug into one spot.

Unboxing the motor

My engine has arrived

My engine was just delivered! Cristy sent this picture to torture me. Man I can't wait to get home from work and open that crate. I think I might be coming down with something... cough, cough...

Got my transmission today

UPS Freight dropped off my transmission today. I had a bit of an argument with Summit Racing about the delivery though. I paid for 'delivery to my door' shipping but it turns out what Summit Racing means by 'delivery to your door' is really a big rig trailer six feet off the ground out in the street in front of your house. When I called the UPS freight office to schedule the delivery I asked if they were coming with a lift gate truck. They said no and it would be an additional $135 bucks if I needed a lift gate. So I called Summit and asked why the trans wasn't coming on a lift gate. The customer service person then informed me what 'delivery to your door' really meant. I informed him that I thought that was one of the stupidest things I have ever heard in my life. He begrudgingly agreed and made an exception "just this one time" to cover the cost of the lift gate truck.

I got it unpacked and started test fitting the shifter and the parking brake lever.