Haha.. I had very similar markings, just 2" further down.
First test drive was a success. The exhaust sounds great it's really quiet. It's pretty much stock just sounds a little different. The suspension is a little stiff so far. But the brakes are all working.
I didn't get very far though. Second test drive after topping off the diff and again bleeding the brakes, this happened:
I had taken the water pump pulley off many months ago just to look at some blue area to see if it was leaking. I took the belt off. I put the belt on correctly made sure it was on good. But I just ran the water pump pulley on with a quarter inch ratchet. Maybe that was enough deflection at 6,000 RPM.
The oil filter is full of strange little black shreds and black crumbs. Someone posted a picture of what they got in the pickup and it looks like what I have in the filter. There was also some copper flakes in the filter. I attempted to borecope through the oil pan and dipstick and couldn't really see anything conclusive. There's not really a crank pulley tool available. I'm fairly certain it's in there. A new belt is 90 g I have about 60 g accounted for. So this thing's probably coming out. Salty b if you're reading this I probably won't be seeing you at the junkyard this month. I don't know what I'm going to do yet. If anyone has a half decent m54b30 long block sitting around let me know. Maybe I can just clean it out and do the rod bearings.