It's back home!
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Labor cost was pretty high, around $2K. I knew it was going to be going in though so no surprises there. I'm in this for just shy of $4K including parts and I feel like I probably went about it in the most expensive way possible. Like I said earlier, you could get this done for way less money if you were so inclined. However, every part on my list went in perfectly with no issues. The new cooler is mounted on factory brackets, and the flexible Russell lines look awesome. Factory intake and throttle body blade are back on as well, and the rear end was drained and refilled with 80W-90. New EVO sensor too.
I just got done unloading all the old parts. Was going to re-tune my stereo but my head unit actually remembered all my settings after being disconnected for over a month at a time. Kudos to my old Pioneer Premier! I'm getting ready to go wash the eight months of dust off of it and take a night cruise. Couldn't do any WOT runs with all that stuff in the bed. So far though I'm extremely impressed. It shifts like butter. I'm actually thinking I may hold off on the shift kit indefinitely, I kind of forgot how nice it was to drive this truck without the neck breaking 1-2 shift.
The fluid in my 80E looked brand new so they didn't even bust it open. I've got the pan gasket, filter, and the shift kit sitting for whenever that happens down the road. Thinking I'll take my old factory PCM with the 60E tune on it and have Black Bear put an 89 octane 80E tune on it, that way I can have a performance and an economy PCM to swap back and forth between.
I also talked to the machinist up there about the 14 bolt swap in the future. Unfortunately he doesn't have the necessary equipment to plug and re-drill the axle shafts for five lug, so I'll still have to send those off. My mechanic is confident that they can find the proper brake parts to make that work, though.
I'll update again once I beat on it some more and get a feel for it. It's definitely a tiny bit slower feeling off the line, and you can feel the difference in first gear. All things considered though it's not nearly as noticeable as what I was expecting. Still gets up and goes just fine, it drives awesome!