Mike GMC

Use the 6.0 manifold and it should be a drop in. Use as much from the target truck as possible, just use the long block from the donor. It should run fine on the 02 computer, but some fine tuning on the Dyno may help perfect it.

Test drive it on the interstate and get it up to speed. Make sure it doesn't shake. Get a CPO warranty if you can. Otherwise, if it has the right option combo for you, go for it.

This may be a dumb question, but how does the presence of swirl scratches indicate thin paint? Did you burn through the paint trying to buff them out? I would think swirls would indicate a soft finish, not necessarily thin.

Since you were planning to get a new one soon anyway, I recommend getting an 18 now. I'd rather have a last year of a model than a first year. They usually have the kinks worked out just about the time they replace a model. Check out Laura GMC. They have some incredible pricing on new 1500's.

I have the same one. I use it with the Torque pro app on my phone and tablet. It works great, but it can't do ABS and SRS codes. I've been kicking around the idea of getting a good scan tool that can do all code types and live data.

What is it for? My guess is assembly protection. If I'm right, no biggie if it falls off.

You paid $1.75 per plug for iridium's? Yep, you got what you paid for. Even decent copper plugs aren't that cheap. I would say at that price, you likely got knock offs. You might get lucky and they will work.ok, you might find yourself replacing them again soon.

+1 on the Adams products! I need a set of wheel brushes and a wheel woolie.

Shocks, Bilstein, Fox Husky floor liners Cat back exhaust, Borla, Corsa, Magnaflow Catch can That's all I can think of now.

So where do you overland? Are you blazing trails where no vehicle has gone before, or are you on established trails, fire roads, old mining roads or what? Most places we went, it was illegal to leave the established path.

That would be fun. Way more off road capability, but I bet was less comfortable on road.

Your right about trailering the really hardcore rock crawlers. That's not what we did. The vehicles I showed above were driven daily as well and used off road. We frequently did overnight camping/4 Wheeling trips as well as some longer ones. We once did a trip to Utah to run the Hole In the Rock trail on both sides of Lake Powell. I could be missunderstanding what overland is, but it sounds a lot like what we used to do. Yes, I actually drove that Wrangler on 36" swampers daily for a couple years.

Here are a couple pics of Jeeps I built.

It's interesting to me that folks are building these trucks for "overland" use. 20 years ago we just called it 4 wheeling. I've built a Wrangler and 2 Cherokees for offroad use, but we would almost never see full size trucks out on the trails. They were handicapped by their width and length. The approach, break over and departure angles were bad unless they were so high that they became unstable on side hills. Even full size Broncos and Blazers were rare. It would be really cool to see the capabilities of these trucks when properly built.

It may have been a clog that cleared, but otherwise machines don't fix themselves so if there is a problem, it will get worse. Take it back when it does. Make sure you get documentation on this visit so when you bring it back, it's a repeat visit. That should help even if you end up going over the warranty period.