finally time for some REAL power

[zebra]

so i think i can officially go ahead & start my build thread.



so for a little back story for those who don't know yet...

may 27 2009 - the day the music... *cough i mean, my truck died
i'm driving home from nashville & mom's in the passenger seat. she managed to only halfway shut her door, but i didn't notice until we were on the interstate & heard all the wind wooshing by. rather than just open it & slam it shut real quick, she makes me pull over & stop first. *bam* door's shut. i start to pull back onto the highway & see a couple tractor trailers getting close pretty fast, so... i do just what anybody with a loud, good-sounding exhaust does... i gun it speed-shift to 3rd & keep on runnin to 80 (keep in mind that was only about 4400rpm)

and then it happened...

i let off the skinny pedal & hear something weird
i pushed the pedal back down a little. hmm... no sound i let off again & it was back nothing too obvious... just a little *chicka chicka chicka chicka* but by the time we got back to murfreesboro, it was more like *chicka chicka chicka chicka* & all i could think was



-- now let's jump back in time a little more to january 2008 --
cue saved by the bell style wavy screen blur & harp strums



i decided to make the switch - conventional oil to synthetic & i used none other than mobil1. that probably wouldn't've been such a big deal if i didn't already have 135k miles on the truck. now, as we hit the fast-forward, we watch as the odometer hits 138k, 141k, 144k, 147k - each mark being the usual 1 quart low, but rather than completely changing the seemingly still pretty clean oil, i just filled it back up & kept going (after all, it did say you could go 15,000 miles on a cycle ).



-- back to *chicka chicka chicka chicka* --



i gracefully roll through town at a slightly faster pace than coasting & when i got home, i let it run & crawled around trying to locate the source of the most heart-shattering sound i've heard in a while. after talking with my mechanic (and once he heard it after i towed it down there ), we figured out that a rod was broken & by the grace of God hadn't shot through something

remember that synthetic switch? what i failed to realize was the nice buildup of shellac getting ever thicker in the bottom of my oil pan & on the end of my dipstick turns out, the extra additives in synthetic wear off the shellac deposits that conventional oil leaves on moving parts such as bearings (which actually helps lubricate them) & that gunk (rather than being gradually drained with the oil every 3-5k miles like it should've been) eventually clogged the oil pump & on that particular hard run, starved the engine of oil, causing something to seize up & break the rod. whoops!! my bad



long story short - i need a new engine.



now i could be the nice easy-breezy person & just find another 4.3 to drop in it & be done...
but where's the fun in that?!?!
in my opinion, (as great as the 4.3 is - congrats GM on making such an awesome engine ) a fullsize 4x4 truck that hauls stuff, pulls trailers, & likes to get on it every now & then deserves a lot more than a 200hp V6.

that's why, after much research on great forums such as this and PerformanceTrucks.net Forums - Powered by vBulletin, i decided to go ahead with the V8 swap i'd been planning on doing down the road anyway.

i started a thread earlier this year on camaro5 (the only forum i was on at the time) describing some initial plans i had
so much for a T-56 swap! - Camaro Forum - 2010 Camaro / Camaro Z28 SS Forums - Camaro5.com

my final decision: keep the stock transmission & swap engines to a 5.3.

but in the mean time, i'll be driving mom's truck if i need to go somewhere & she ain't using it


why does diesel have to be so freakin expensive?!?!
i'm gonna run out of money just driving to work!