Engine is finally in it's happy place! Dropped it about 3/4" and slid it back another 1/4" so that the headers fit nice.
There is ample clearance on the driver side between the headers and steering shaft. I plan on doing hydroboost brakes so the clearance from the valve cover to the master cylinder looks great as well.
On the passenger side - the big reason for dropping was being able to keep (most of) the stock heater core so I have heat for now. There is approximately 5/8" clearance between the 3rd header tube back and the heater core box. If needed I'll chop away part of the heater core box provided the heater core itself isn't in the way - if it is then I'll still get creative but I'm 9/10 of the way there now with the engine repositioned!
On the rear of the engine by the firewall - tons of room!
I also was able to make a final shim spacer for the transmission - about 3/4" of extra material that sits on top of the stock GM NV4500 mount to space it up and give the front drive shaft output flange ample clearance.
Now that the engine is rough set, I am moving to work on the rear of the vehicle. First job was taking the heavy bed off. Thankfully I've seen plenty of others use the beam across the inside of the bed technique with an engine hoist so this was a trivial job.
In my case, the beam was the rear drive shaft. A near perfect fit! I might turn the driveshaft into a spud gun or just repurpose the material for something else at some point (unless someone needs it?).
With the bed off I now had access to the frame...
Which brings me to the next project - boxing the rear frame C rails to add some torsional rigidity while it's flexing it's 14" of travel on the trail!
I will be doing GM 63" rear leaf springs with 6" shackles. I am now working on removing the old suspension mount and pretty much all other mounts that I most likely won't need. Gotta say - chassis rivets are a B!%@H of a job to remove! I had to go out and buy a long barrel air hammer to blast these SOB's out! I watched a few 'how-to' videos and besides burning up a few bits, this seemed like the easiest solution. I first cut a slot or 'X' in the domed head of the rivet (not the 'riveted' side), then I use the air hammer with a chisel bit to cut the rivet head off. I then use a long air hammer bit I custom made (took a long shank chisel, cut the chisel off so it's just a ~7/16" hardened steel shaft with a blunt end) to push the rivet out through the frame. It works.
It's not pretty, It's REALLY loud... but dammit it works. Just gotta bust a few more rivets now and onto templating the inside of the frame rails and plasma cutting some 11 gauge sheet steel to fit.