Okay, so I have the truck back and it's time to put the engine and tranny/t-case back in. So, which goes in first or should I try to get them in together?

Engine is an EFI 5.0L and the trans is an NV3550 5-speed. I think i might be able to squeeze them in together if I take the shift tower off of the trans and remove the t-case. I have an engine load leveler and a shop crane.

They came out engine first, trans second.

When we dropped the 302 and C4 into 75DBE's truck, we did trans and motor together with little issue. I think you are definitely pushing it trying to do the transfer too.

You could always yank that body off and set it back on after everything is bolted up.

Pulling the body off makes me nervous now that it's painted. Of course, if I was gonna do that, I'd set it back on with a 1" BL to make things fit with a bit more clearance.

Hmmmm.

I may pull the t-case off and see if I can slide it in together. Would sure beat trying to bolt the bellhousing on later.

Much easier to get those torque converter nuts on when everything is out of the truck, simply walk to the front of the motor and turn the crank versus climbing out from under the truck, climbing back under the front and so forth.

Its a manual, no torque converter

Do'h! Overlooked that. Good call Corey.

Trans and engine together shouldn't be a problem. We did it with mine just took it slow and went right in. Then used a trans jack to lift the tail of the transmission up and mounted the trans then engine.

Yup - now that I have done it both ways - absolutely install the trans and engine mated if you can. mating the trans to the engine is a real pain in the ass when in the truck - some real bright engineer did not think out the V-8 bell housing bolts, the top two are next to impossible while in the truck.