[ls1nova71]

Thats a lot of questions for one post, and youll get many different responses, but here's what I have done.

1 Remove the plug from the right rear head and drill and tap it for the stock sender. It's not as hard as it sounds as long as the engine isn't in the truck. Others have tried different senders with varing degrees of accuracy. You know the factory one will work with the factory gauge.

2 They make a fitting for this, but you can break off the plastic part of the sender and drill and tap the aluminum part for free if you have the drill and tap.

3 Cable-X ot the new Dakota Digital boxes are the easies thing to do, but I have had bad luck with some of them in the past. I have a thread on converting the stock speedo to electric using a 96 S10 speedo if you are the do-it-yourself type.

4. I have Doug Thorley headers on my blazer and they fit great. There are cheaper options, but I have no experience with them.

5. Welding a nut over the broken bolt works the best. You may have to weld directly on top of the broken part before putting the nut over it to build it up some, but the weld wont stick to the aluminum so it's not that hard to do.

6. Dont know why you aren't using the factory PCM, but its the best trans contriller in my opinion.

7. Lokar makes a nice shift linkage, but if you can weld, the factory linkage works with just a little modification.

Hope this helps. Im sure youll get a lot of other ideas too. You can see most of what I just said in my two build threads in my sig. The rusty truck is probably more in depth..