Hey everyone, joining up to do as much reading as I can so I fan figure out what the heck I've got lined up ahead of me.

I'm into the offroad end of the automotive hobby, specifically the go fast stuff. I've always been a toyota offroad owner but a ford chassis lover at heart. Everyone always raves about the bowtie power train though so forever my dream ride has always been an older square bodied F150 with Chevy drivetrain.

Well fast forward to now and that's what I've got. I've done motor swaps before and am generally automotive knowledgeable. I've built a few trucks from the ground up, heck one happens to currently grace the cover of "off-road magazine" on the stands right now for instance.

I've recently picked up a new project vehicle. Someone got about 80% done and had to eject... Actually the truck has been sitting in the back of a shop unfinished for the past 5+ years.

I've been told it's a brand new never been started LQ9 and a Culhane built 4L80E behind it. I verified the transmission and judging by the billet tail cone on the trans with "culhane racing" engraved on it, I'm taking their word for it. As far as the motor goes, it's definitely a LQ9 or LQ4 at the very least from visual ID ques I've picked up over the last few days of online research. As for the brand new never been started... I pulled a plug and it has been fired but it couldn't have been run for more then a few minutes. The plugs look virtually brand new with just a tint of color to them, what you'd imagine a new plug to look like with minimal use. Looking down the oil fill hole and into the top of the heads, it's absolutely spotless in there! I'm not sure if they test fire crate motors but that's about what it looks like has been done. The truck supposedly has never actually been wired up and never fully plumbed.


So... With that being my main story... I'm Chevy engine stupid!!! I'm joining here to hopefully verify my plumbing needs and also to find wiring info.

There is a harness and I have a PCM but beyond that, I have no clue if I'm ready to plug and play or what all is needed. One key sign is there's no fuse block anywhere on the truck and I'd imagine one of some sort is needed? I've never seen a harness that didn't involve one of some sort at least...

Anyways, some pictures of the the project and reason for me joining. It may not be your end of the automotive hobby but I'd think even as just a general auto enthusiasts you may appreciate it.

This is the ugly bare bones as I rolled it into the drive way a week and a half ago, remember, it's been sitting in the back of a machine shop for 5+ years, it's dirty!









My reason for joining right here...




Over the past week I've been working solely on clean up. I figure I'll get it all cleaned up before diving into the details.

Dingy door bars before for instance...



And now...



I'm a fan of shiny raw metal...



Typical level of fab/craftsmanship from front to back...








Anyways, I'm going to spend some time searching and reading. I'm sure I'll be guilty of posting a few stupid questions that have been covered a million times.


Some of the basic things I'm looking for info on are wiring harnesses. Prebuilt vs. doing the research and building my own. How turn key are the professionally built harnesses and is it truly almost a plug and play setup with just the hookup of a few additional wires? I'm starting with a 100% blank slate!!! There's no wires to any of those gauges in the dash, the entire truck needs wired. All the components are there, they all just need hooked up.

What gauge source wires can I pull off the engine harness vs. running stand alone autometer sending units.

Is there a way to verify if the PCM I have has the theft crap deleted off it that I've read about and is there a way to verify if it's programmed for a throttle cable setup instead of DBW? It's already setup with the cable...

Plumbing the engine... I "think" I know what I've got and what I need but I need to double check to make sure what I'm assuming are the supply and return fuel lines really are the ones I think they are.

If anyone has any key links they're willing to toss down to point me in a good direction I'd appreciate it but like I said, I'm going to spend some time reading the sticky threads first and doing a bunch of searching to try and get a good overall feel as to what I've got ahead of me in hopes to reduce the stupid questions I'm sure you all see daily.

Khris

 

That's quite a rig! Welcome to the site

 

Thanks, I'm pretty excited to get it in the dirt but to be honestly, I'm more excited about getting it to fire up some day. I'm 36y/o and I'm a car guy for sure but I honestly have never in my life owned anything with a V8 in general so this will be fun for sure! Previous toys have always been V6's...

This truck is a V6 and you can see the nose of it peaking out in the very first picture above.



And this is the last truck I 100% built and sold to fund this new project, also a V6...






I'm a bit intimidated by figuring out what I recently picked up. I'm not afraid of the work or the fab needs on it. The wiring is the biggest concern but I'm luckily able to lean on an uncle of mine and a good friend that are both pretty good when it comes to that stuff. I just need to figure out where I'm at and what exactly I'm working with right now so I can gather up the info/research and the materials to get going with it. I'm not opposed to picking up a prebuilt harness but if I can work with what I have and save some cash I'm one that's not afraid to give a shot at least.