It's Alive! '59 F100 Vortec swap
 

Well, after messing with this thing in-between Paying Work for the better part of a year, I just finally fired up the 5.3/4L60e I've been installing in my '59 F100 shop truck. I still need to finish wiring the gauges and dash switches, but I got to a point this morning where the motor and engine management were done. So I spent a half hour double checking and tightening stuff, made a plug for the EGR port on the intake manifold, grabbed two fire extinguishers and started it up.

Don't mind the noise; it's on open headers. That's next on the list. God, I wish I had an exhaust pipe bending rig.

I don't generally watch videos, but I'll try and check this out later when I have time as it is relevant to my interests and, apparently, much closer to my backyard than I realized.

Fucking awesome. This would make a killer DD/work duty truck.

Really?!? That was your first start? Fired on, what, the second cylinder?

I want pix of your 3 year old driving this thing!

Used to live in Jacksonville. Used to fly out of Cecil Field and deploy on Saratoga (that dates me).

That's correct, although I had cranked it with the "ignition" fuse pulled for a minute or so earlier, just to get the oil pressure up and prime the fuel system. I was kind of surprised at how quickly it fired off. I've got one little tiny seeping fuel leak at the union of my bent steel line and the braided hose that connects to the rail, but everything else appears to be hunky-dory. I cranked the fitting down super-tight, and so we'll see if that persists. I've got a bit more to do before the truck is road-ready, but I'm a lot closer now.

(My older boy is about to turn 14 and has already called "dibs" on this truck for when he starts driving. I think I'll let him get his sea-legs in something with airbags and other actual safety systems, but it looks like he'll end up with this one eventually.)

I wish my first starts would go like that.

First start after the engine work on my Z28 and I lit an air filter on fire.

The latest first start we had of my buddies 5.0 involved lots and lots of smoke, and quite a bit of sparks.