HELP ME PLEASE

I'm gonna make a long story short. I locked up the engine in my 97 k1500. It has a 350 Vortec in it. I replaced the engine. In the process broke 2 bolts on driver side exhaust manifold connector where it plugs into the pipe. SO I have an exhaust leak. I believe this is causing my engine to rev itself in crazy ways while idling. I start her up, and she dies when you take your foot off the gas and the brakes don't work. I notice the vacuum line on the brake booster is disconnected. I fix that. Fire it up and it runs fine til the battery dies, it is still idling rough, but it at least runs on its own, when I put the truck in reverse, because for some reason the truck is running off the battery. Well I get it to start even though battery power is extremely low. I drive it home and it makes. I go to start it, it is dead. I checked all connections between the battery and alternator. Everything is grounded fine. So I get the alternator tested and the dummy at advance says it failed the test even though he could never get the machine to spin the belt to spin the alternator. But I heard a loose bearing so I replaced the alternator. Turns out I get it free due to a warranty. I put it on and hook it up. I jump the battery because it was dead and let it charge for a sec. As soon as I unplug the jumper cables the truck dies. I am at my wits end with this truck. I bought it for $3500 and I have put $3500 more into just trying to get the thing to run for more than an hour. Any ideas???

BTW: I set timing by hand as good as I can without a tool. Can I rent a tool to do this? There is no check engine light. But just to blow your mind, none of my instrument panel lights will come on.

Also, how can I fix this exhaust problem. These bolts are not wanting to come out....I need to replace them so I can get a good seal. I am not willing to pay $50-$80 at my local muffler shop to have him replace these 3 bolts.

You need to fix the charging issue first, as low voltage can cause all kinds of problems. Get a multimeter and check for battery voltage at the charging post of the alternator with the engine off. If there is nothing there, or there is a big difference between the two, you have a bad fusible link in the charge wire or just a bad wire. If you have the same voltage at the post and at the battery positive terminal, there may be an issue with the exciter circuit. I believe , not 100% sure, that if the low charge light in the cluster burns out, the system won't charge properly. If that light doesn't come on with the key on and engine off, then fix that first. Once you have found the source of the charge issue and fix it, you need to pull that manifold and drill and tap those holes. If you don't have the tools to do so, you may consider a junkyard manifold or the muffler shop. The timing has to be set with a scan tool. Not a whole bunch of them that will run that test, so unless you have a friend with a good scanner, you will need a shop to do it. Correct that stuff and see where you stand.

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An alternator will not charge up a battery. Generator-yes, alternator-no. Put the battery on a charger.

I am searching previous posts for a problem I am having and I keep finding threads like this one where someone asks for help and other members write a nice long informative reply and they don't even get a thank you , what the heck ? I wish Chevyboat would have provided us an update as to his success or failure in chasing the Gremlins out .

Like others have said, you need to address the charging system first. Does the battery light come on when you flip the key to run before cranking? At least with my '89 and '88 trucks that light is important, without it the system won't charge.