I took my nearly new battery out of the basement where it had been on a trickle charger for months, installed it, along with the windshield washer reservoir and the coolant reservoir on the other side. Connected the air intake tube but left the air cleaner element out of it.
Verified the engine had normal oil level. I lost about half of my coolant when I removed the coolant reservoir. I did not intend to run the F150, just to verify the motor was working.
Did not reinstall any valances, since I just wanted to verify the motor would start without any new problems.
That was not to be, however.
The engine roared into life on the very first try. There was a hell of a lot of rattling and screeching from the engine compartment, then a loud clunk followed by a quietly running engine. And a puff of brown smoke rose into the air. The smoke disappeared very quickly.
I left the engine running - it actually sounded OK by now.
I looked under the hood. The serpentine belt was not moving & none of the pulleys were spinning. I figured the belt had either broken or was stalled due to a frozen device or pulley.
The battery trouble light was on, otherwise the dashboard looked OK. I shut the engine off.
I fished the broken serp belt out of the engine & spun the pulleys.
The alternator pulley was frozen tight, the other devices all spun freely.
Apparently my alternator had corroded tight due to inactivity.
I've been working on fixing the alternator since, but I do believe I have succeeded in replacing my core support. Once I have debugged the alternator, I will refill with coolant and run the engine a bit longer to verify nothing else is wrong at an idle.
Then the fender liners, fenders, wheels, and valences go back on & I will hit the road again. I hope.