Hi and welcome to mightyram. Once you put aside the ECU and injection, the nuts and bolts of these trucks are easy to tackle (the ECU's are prone to developing faults from age - plenty of info on what to look for and how to fix them) The belt drive 4G6X engines are simple enough to wrench on and are pretty robust when regularly serviced. We have a section on where to start when you finally get your hands on a truck - http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin...and-do-it-ASAP