My 60 Series Project: Moving Day Plus Seven!

Good news is to come.

I cashed out. It's over. The check has been received and cleared.

My hopes to have a diesel installed are essentially dead in the water. One of the main reasons I wanted a diesel was so that I could run vegetable oil instead of diesel fuel if fuel prices ever skyrocket, which I'm sure will happen sooner or later. I failed to consider that if fuel prices did skyrocket, I likely won't be driving my lifted, over-tired, old, designed-to-be-inefficient Land Cruiser. I own a Prius - hello??

Ok, moving on to better things and a company that shall be named - although, for the sake of me not knowing the future ever since my Magic 8 ball lost all its blue dye, I will not name the company - but they're the good guys. He runs a good company. I should've known something was amiss when the company that shall not be named provided me an estimate in an excel spreadsheet and this guy provides me a pdf with company letterhead and outlining everything he'll do, everything. I should've known.

I met him last summer when I was still narrowing my build options. He wouldn't do a diesel, so ultimately, I went with the company that shall not be named - who has two thumbs and made a bad choice - this guy.

So I met him last summer, got good vibes from him, got an estimate for a 4.7 Toyota V8 - interesting. If I am going to put in a V8, a Toyota is super interesting, but... it's more expensive to repair thanks to the dual overhead cam, more expensive to install because it's not as available as the Chevy 5.3 Vortec, it's not as powerful as the Chevy 5.3 Vortec either. As much as I would like to stay all Toyota - I wasn't going to stay Toyota with the diesel, so why hang on now? The ball is rolling.

We talk a few times and nail down the details. His motor guy uses late model take-outs and can wire the motor according to the builder's needs, thereby saving him hours and me money. Ok, let's go with the 5.3 Vortec and automatic transmission. His motor guy had 50-60k motors available with NV4500 manual transmissions! We talk turkey and I end up with a 6.0 Vortec!!

I go from attempting to build a low powered, old, and likely worn out, inline 5 cylinder turbo diesel with over 300k miles and had 125hp and 180 lb-ft torque from the factory 28yrs ago to a 6yr old 6.0 V8 with about 60k miles. The motor was pulled from a 2006 Chevy Trailblazer SS! From the factory the SS came out with 395hp and 400 lb-ft torque!! The V8 will surely not get as good mpg, but it'll start every time I turn the key - no worries about freezing temperatures, no worries about fuel starvation while climbing a steep, rocky hill off road, no worries about getting parts, and to top it all off the build will likely only cost me a $1-2k more! Deal.

Lots of stress from the company that shall not be named, but if I had to suffer that stress to get to where I am now it was worth it. My truck will be so much better when it's done. I am excited.