Oh, and yes this was the extent of my family's assistance in this endeavor on this holiday weekend - laughing at me as I am devoured by the family truckster and photographing it for posterity. :-)

Climbing into the engine bay like that is really getting into your work ... LoL TAZ :beers: :biggthumpup:

I spoke too soon this morning. My wife was busy so my son actually helped me take the hood off the truck so the hoist would fit. Though I did have to wake him up at 11:00 AM to do it.

We have lift off at noon E.S.T. today. Of course the new lift cylinder was at max extension with the rad support still 3/4" higher than the oil pan. I had to take the truck off the jack stands and use two floor jacks to lower it down as far as possible so I could get the engine over the front end. The boy actually assisted in pulling the cherry picker away from the truck. So he is now taking credit for pulling his first diesel engine.

Extend the boom one or two notches ...

In its present position, when level, the boom is the same length as the feet. I don't want to put it out any further than the feet will extend. Kind of a stupid design to allow the boom to extend two feet further than the legs. That's a 1,000 pound flip waiting to happen. When I tried to have the boom further out, I had to stand on the rear of the hoist to keep it from lifting. Very scary!

that hoist has all it can handle in that pic. I imagine you were glad to get that engine on the ground !

Tommy

Kind of a stupid design to allow the boom to extend two feet further than the legs. Exactly!!

Yesterday I ripped out all the remaining busted, crumbling, plastic sound deadener panels shielding from the firewall and then pressure washed the engine compartment. Sure looks nice now.

I need to replace the motor mounts and I bought a new set of Napa mounts. Trying to access the nuts on the underside of the cross member does not look like a fun job. Anyone know any secrets to doing that job?

I spent most of today disassembling the old engine and moving parts to the new engine. I was able to pull the water pump and cover off the old engine, move it to the right timing position and then transfer timing gear and injection pump (with the entire "spider" of fuel lines intact) to the new engine. I moved the injectors, installed new copper gaskets and torqued them down. I also installed the high output water pump on the new engine as it is going to the dual thermostat setup. I had to run out and buy a tube of the special anaerobic sealant. I applied it to the back section of the plate and used a thin paper gasket between the sealant layers. I also made my own reducer for the water pump fitting by drilling out the nipple and then inserting a screw in plug with the center drilled out to 3/8".

Today's casualty was the crank position sensor which of course, broke the mounting tab off when I tried to remove it. I already ordered a new AC/Delco one from Rockauto. Should be here Thursday.