55.2-59 WIW 5.3 drivetrain for 3100 pickup

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That thing is begging for a nice LS motor.

Just one other observation on LS pullout motors........

As far as I can tell from searching for engines for a few years now, engines are cheaper in 'rust belt' of the US than they are in 'sunshine' states.

In 'rust belt' states, relatively low mile cars end up in junkyards because they rust out and are economically not worth repairing. This puts a lot of LS engines into the market and holds prices down.

In 'sunshine' states, cars don't rust as quickly and tend to wear out mechanically, so when they do hit the junkyards they have 200K+miles on them. There's lots of trucks and SUV with high miles with rust free bodies that need engines, which drives up demand and prices.

When you search car-part.com for pull-outs, you'll often see the lowest prices in the eastern US. If you can find a seller you trust, this can be a good deal if you ship terminal to terminal or find a good LTL to ship it to you. Shipping to the terminal for pickup or finding a friend with a loading dock or fork-lift at a commercial business can really push the shipping cost down to reasonable amounts.

Almost every prosperous wrecking yard I walk into these days seems to have a shipping department where they can pallet and sometimes crate parts for shipment.