V6 route is taking shape. Just need to give Billy the vins so we can see if it fits the box. Quite exciting actually...

good lad, you know it makes sense!

It does. The irony is that it's only available to me because my Dad now wants my new engine. But hey, make the most of a bad situation right. Everyone's a winner!

aye, your dad in particular

Update: Now that I'm opening it up to 3000rpm (albeit gently) I can say with a certainty that I can see a difference in the new engine. There are three regularly travelled hills on one of my regular work routes. Previously I had to pin the throttle to the floor to maintain 70mph. Which it would do. Now, I am maintaining 70mph at half throttle and the truck has a decent train like pulling feel about it.

I can say this isn't a figment of my imagination as the truck's inability to maintain 70mph without pinning the loud pedal on these hills was instrumental in my desire to tune it up. I also reported about two weeks before it went bang that I was getting an intermittent retardation on these hills. Although only one that you could feel but not see on the gauges. At the time I changed the fuel filter thinking it might be gudge from the tank, but nothing changed. Of course, then the engine went bang before I could diagnose. On hindsight I'm thinking it was the feeling of bearings slipping?

So, in conclusion (so far) I would have to say that this new engine is a world apart from my old one. And this reinforces that the old one was clearly going to go bang sooner or later anyway, especially being worked.

Also very curious to see if needing less throttle leads to an mpg increase. If so this would prove that a healthy engine (or lack there of) effects fuel economy and would possibly explain the apparent large discrepancies in peoples average mpg. Probably stating the obvious there, but I will report back about it later. I'm not using the main tank right now as it had a few litres of veg in before the failure. That said, I can't think right now how to work out mpg on a twin tank system. *brain fog*

It's not that important to me being on veg but I would like to know for curiosity sake and information for the forum whether it is much better on mpg.

ps, I've a feeling on WI this new engine will pull quite well. Still don't even put the pedal to the floor at all yet.

Once you have run it in for a bit I would drop the oil.
Did they also flush the oil cooler when then changed the engine?
When a lump goes bang it tends to throw all the little bits of bearing etc into the oil which goes stright into the cooler rad and then works it's way back into your nice new engine over the next few weeks.
Ask them, if not I would change the oil sooner than later and remove the 2 oil lines and flush it yourself

Yep oil cooler was defo flushed and I dropped the oil after 300 miles on Thursday last week. Put a new filter in and fitted a magnetic sump plug. Will do another oil change at 1000miles then another at 2000.