I'll try to keep it brief.
I like the V10. It suits my style. It has more torque and power than the Cummins turbo diesel of the same year, but it burns twice as much fuel doing it. Nothing is perfect.
I also like the Gen1 trucks. 2500 4x4, extended cab, long box to be specific. I don't like automatic transmissions. A couple of years ago I went looking for such a truck with the V10 and the NV4500 5 speed. Turns out they are extremely rare, at least in this part of the world. I finally found a ’95, it has severe body rust, but I bought it for the drive train thinking I’ll look for a truck with a good body and do the swap. I found a very nice ’01 a few months ago with a 360 and automatic. The conversion won’t be easy but at least I’ll end up with what I want.
The V10 is an orphan engine. Parts are getting hard to come by and are expensive, if available at all. The crank and cam sensors are no longer available from any source. If one goes bad, you have to get creative.
I am a big fan of Megasquirt and have converted several engines to MS. MS3 is now reported to support the V10. There are a few documented examples of MS3 on Vipers, but I can find nothing where anyone has used it on a truck engine. This all adds to the appeal.
The engine runs well enough now. It has good compression and decent oil pressure. No bad noises. But it burns oil on decel. Lots of it. I suspect it is valve seals and/or oil control rings, so the engine will need freshening up before I do the transfer. Before I pull it though, I want to get it running well on MS. I don’t want to have to do the tuning process on a fresh engine.
The engine will remain completely stock internally. The factory has done a very good job of building it for what I want to do. I’m hoping that with programmable EFI, I may be able to get a bit better mileage at part load, but if it doesn’t happen, it won’t break my heart.
At this point I have MS3 assembled and bench tested. I have the wiring diagrams made up to interface MS3 into the ’95 harness. I am waiting for some PCBs that I designed for the ignition drivers. They are long overdue and are probably lost in the mail so I have re-ordered from another board house. When they eventually get here I’ll be able to get it all connected and start tuning
So, there you have it, for what it’s worth.

Robert