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6.0L swap... What should I look for?

Fabrimacator21

Fabrimacator21

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I've been hard at a high power sbc tbi build and I've decided it's not worth the hassle. Decided to go with a 6.0L... what should I be looking for? Truck is an 88 k5. What all will be needed for the swap? Will it bolt up to a 700r4?​
 
 
I can get you a good running 6.0L. I rework harnesses as well.
I've done a lot of these swaps.
shoot me an email. [email protected]
 
talk to ryan!


short answers

-yes it will bolt up to a 700r4, however you need a crank spacer, summit sells it


-if you dont want to make them you need to buy some motor mount conversion plates, allows you to bolt the 6.0 right where your 350 was.

- you can run a intank fuel pump inplace of your intank tbi pump, the new pump will need to flow 60ish psi or so iirc

- you use a stock 2000 and up corvette fuel filter, its also your regulator and your return line comes from it, back to the tank allowing you to only hook up one fuel line to your motor.

use a reworked harness, with a data/prom port and test light, ryan b above seems to know a wealth on this subject and can do it for you as well

-use the vss, you'll need a converter to get the right reluctor count to the ecm




with a reworked harness you wind up with a very simple set up that makes this a breaze.

4 wires plus engine ground

1. 12 volts constant
2. 12 volts switched "key on"
3. fuel pump
4. tach


you can purchase adapters from autometer that convert from metric to use a simple oil/temp gage etc.



if you get a motor for a fair price you should be able to hit this with a budget of about 2000.00

plate2.jpg

Fuel cell and system 023.jpg
 
supersize75k5 said:
talk to ryan!


short answers

-yes it will bolt up to a 700r4, however you need a crank spacer, summit sells it



-use the vss, you'll need a converter to get the right reluctor count to the ecm
Click to expand...

On the LS based motors the PCM acts as the signal buffer, you can change in the code the signal that the computer is seeing and the PCM runs off the given input. this allows you to run a lot of different types of VSS sensors, Stock uses a 40 pluse per drive shaft revloution, you can go a lot less plusses per rev you just loss some reslution, which is not a big deal when you dont have ABS and cruise
 
gotta subscribe as i may plan on doing this swap soon myself.... :thinking:
 
Ryan B. I rememberd reading your posts, you swapped a 8.1 into an old crew cab 2wd, right? Along with other swaps? I didnt' realize you are in SJ. I have a place in davis, but am working in Milpitas and living in fremont right now. Would love to meet up and chat. Would like to look into putting a 5.3 into my burb in the next year or so.
 
Yup! First up was my k/5 getting an '04 6.0L back in 2005. then we did my buddys crew cab with an 8.1L. next was my flatbed tow rig with another 6.0L. and so forth...

good info on the lsx's being 40 ppm on the vss signal...
i believe if you go to jagsthatrun.com you can get a vss box that plugs inline on your mechanical speedo cable and send the correct vss signal to the pcm.
i haven'nt run any of my 6.0L swaps with a vss, and it does pretty good.

as for the crank spacer. yes you need one on a 4.8/5.3, and some 6.0's. the good news.. most of the 6.0-4l80e combos come with the crank spacer and flywheel with no dish.

Some of the stock flexplate bolt holes might need to be slightly elongated with a file or dremel to make the torque converter bolt up.
be sure to check this before you swap it all into the truck.

I ordered a TCI conversion flexplate TCI# 890-300753, $214.95.
It comes with the crank spacer, a torque converter adapter for TH transmissions/converters.
The flexplate is SFI approved. It is much, much thicker than the stock flexplate which you can flex just by pulling on it. I didn't want to take a chance with the stock flexplate when i run 4000 stall converter, and plan to launch it off a 2 step & transbrake. :D
 
i've always kept the swaps smog exempt.

are you going to try and get the ref to sign off your swap? or you got a way around it figured out? :wink1:
if getting it ref'd you will have to retain egr (if 02 and earlier engine), air tubes, stock manifolds, cats, y pipe, evap and purge solenoid, and charcoal canister, along with passing the fuel tank pressure test..
i think if you go to the ref and get it signed off you will basically get a sticker that says you get smogged as a 2004 chevy 2500hd from now on.


I sold my buddy a 2005 LQ4 6.0L with ~65k for a little over $2k..
add at least another grand for a fuel pump, full harness rework, computer flash, motor mount plates, engine crossmember, custom headers, and exhaust work.

Heres some pics of my buddys '73 K20 6.0L swap.

..gooodbye ol carburated 350. you won't be missed.
IMG_1054.jpg


Hello Mr. 2005 6.0L. welcome to your new home...

IMG_1134.jpg

IMG_1131.jpg

IMG_1133.jpg


Heres a shot of the headers i modified for use in a 73-89 truck.

IMG_1127.jpg

3" mandrel x pipe to 40 series flowmaster exhaust system i built.
IMG_1129.jpg

IMG_1130.jpg
 
alright, here is some pictures of a harness i just finished reworking for a buddy of mine.
its going to be a 6.0L-4L80 in a '68 elcamino.

tires019.jpg

you can see the fuseblock, relays, obd2 communication port that i add into the harness.
I added 4 feet or so between the pcm and fuseblock/relays because of how we wanted the wiring to be located under the dash.
tires016-1.jpg


tires014.jpg

This hook up would be as follows:
1.)To Battery Constant 12V+
2.)To Key switched 12v+
3.)Start Wire
4.)Tach Wire
5.)12V+ when brake pedal depressed (to unlock tq converter)
6.)Check engine light wire
7.)To Fuel pump 12v+
8.)Anti theft switch #1
9.)Anti theft switch #2

i can make it as little as 4 or 5 wire hookup for engine only, this setup operates the 4l80 as well, and my buddy wanted some anti-theft features built in as well..

i even hook up an LED as a built in test light to confirm output on the relays.:wink1:

Should make for a pretty clean & easy installation.
 
How does the anti theft wires work?
Are you using the factory front O2 sensors or do you change them to something else?
Also, what headers did you use on the K20 up above?

All of it looks really good. Hope my swap works out as good.
 
Blazr77400 said:
How does the anti theft wires work?
Are you using the factory front O2 sensors or do you change them to something else?
Also, what headers did you use on the K20 up above?

All of it looks really good. Hope my swap works out as good.
Click to expand...

The anti theft is my own custom touch on reworking the harness.. Basically if you want to put in some hidden switches like my buddy did or hook it into an alarm system, i can wire it up to kill different things.. starter , ign. , fuel pump , coils.

Factory front 02 sensors from the donor vehicle.
Rear 02s deleted.

F-body headers. I hacked them up, and had to modify thte collectors on both of them, as they dump right into the shackles on these trucks.
Then i plugged the air and egr tubes by, and relocated both 02 sensor bungs in the headers at the 12 o clock position to clear the frame.
 
Ryan,

You don't speak of electronic pedal setups. Is that motor the earlier drive by cable setup, or did you adapt a fly by wire setup to a cable? What is your feeling on these setups?
 
This particular harness i posted is an 01 throttle cable setup, that will run an 04 engine.
A drive by wire setup is pretty much identical but that would have the addition of a harness to a little black box and then a harness to the throttle pedal.
There are two kinds of genIII drive by wire, the 01-02 with a 2 wire connection, and then the 03 up with like a 9 pin connector.
The engine pics above of the K20 i built is an 05 drive by wire (03+ style) setup.

I run a throttle cable setup in my K5, and a drive by wire setup in my flatbed.
They both work great. i don't really have a preference. The drive by wire pedal seems to have a little bit more throw and sensitivity then the older cable operated setups, but you get used to it, just like if you jumped in and drove a 2005 suburban.
 
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