Well, the engine has been decided! I just made a deal for a LQ4 6.0 Gen III engine. The engine was built and has 12 miles on it, but the cam bearings went out. It has 317 heads and some obvious upgrades, so someone put money into it. The current owner bought a truck with the LQ4 in it, so he doesn't know build specs or details. The LQ4 was dyno'd at 500 HP, so the Willys ought to be pretty fun (scary?) to drive. It's going to need a full teardown, inspection, cleaning, etc. The owner is keeping some of the parts, the intake, valve covers, flex plate, etc.
The engine is still installed, so I was able to hear it fire up and run. It has a pretty good, light knock... but sounded
very healthy.
I'll replace the cam with an aftermarket cam focused on torque and look into adding a TBSS intake, which makes better torque down low than the older truck intakes and still flows more air than the desirable LS6 intake on the top end.
The owner has decided to upgrade to a LS 427 with twin turbo's, shooting for 1000 HP!