79 K5 Blazer, This blazer has been around for a while. Years ago one of my friends got it from his uncle, then it made the rounds, his brother got it, then his cousin then back to another brother then back to another cousin. Finally, it ended up with me as payment for some work I had done. It had extremely low compression some broken suspension components and just generally wore out. So I decided bam let's LS swap it, and throw on a turbo. I have built somewhat I would consider to be some cool rides over the years. But I am horrible at documenting, so when a buddy suggested I do a build thread on here I decided to give it a go unfortunately I do not have any before pictures so we'll have to basically start where I'm at now
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A tale of "Poor Desicions"
- Thread starter Sdog321
- Start date
Got donor engine out and stripped down ready to go back in.
Donor was 05 suburban 5.3 4l60e. going to run the stock computer and harness. I will just cut out what I don't need and build my own fuse block/relay block. going to just reuse the 203 for the moment will probably build a 203/205 doubler at some point. I can still use the 4l60e to 203 adapter later when building the doubler. Heres a shot of engine down in the bay with harness routed still needs some wires cut out and some still to hook up but getting close
Had a little time so got trans cooler and fan shroud mad up and installed
Also ripped out the old carpet and started getting the floor cleaned up
Following
following as well
A bit of Progress this week
all floor and dash cleaned up. Epoxy sealer on the floor topped with Bed liner and bright blue metallic for the new color on the dash with a flat stone grey
I have a new set of insulation and rubber matt for the floor on the way. Since its primarily an offroad rig I went with rubber rather than carpet, but I still wanted the insulation for noise and heat. I also got the firewall mods done and the block off plate for the vintage air installed
Well, I went ahead and twisted a few wires together cause I wanted to hear it run
and well it was a knock-knock joke. bummer so I hurried and ripped the oil pan off and the number 1 rod bearing is toast.
needless to say so much for the 5.3 I'm now debating between rebuilding the 5.3 or just quickly swapping in the 6.0 I've got sitting on a pallet. the 6.0 was for another project but it's really tempting because I could have it swapped in an afternoon and be up and running.. what to do??
and well it was a knock-knock joke. bummer so I hurried and ripped the oil pan off and the number 1 rod bearing is toast.
needless to say so much for the 5.3 I'm now debating between rebuilding the 5.3 or just quickly swapping in the 6.0 I've got sitting on a pallet. the 6.0 was for another project but it's really tempting because I could have it swapped in an afternoon and be up and running.. what to do??
Bummer, did you not get to hear it run before you got the engine?
No was in a totaled suburban. It was running and driving when it crashed but who knows it could have ran upside down without oil or just plain old bad luck. Luckily I parted out enough stuff from the original that the engine and trans were basically free
So here's what I started with.
Years ago put some 3/4 ton axles under it. Big hub 44 in the front and a 14 bolt in the rear. Mostly stock 350 with a turbo 350 trans. Fairly decent body with a little rust around the wheel wells. Last year I pulled the front clip and yanked the engine and trans out, found a Totaled Suburban grabbed the 5.3, Transmission, harness, and computer. My overall goal is to make a very capable offroad rig that is capable of being streatable. The end goal is to have a "semi" expedition rig.
Years ago put some 3/4 ton axles under it. Big hub 44 in the front and a 14 bolt in the rear. Mostly stock 350 with a turbo 350 trans. Fairly decent body with a little rust around the wheel wells. Last year I pulled the front clip and yanked the engine and trans out, found a Totaled Suburban grabbed the 5.3, Transmission, harness, and computer. My overall goal is to make a very capable offroad rig that is capable of being streatable. The end goal is to have a "semi" expedition rig.
Since I didn't really take pictures as I did the initial install on the 5.3 here's a rundown of what I did
Engine
used dirty dingo motor mounts adjusted all the way forward then built a custom trans mount so I could use the factory cross member in the original location, this allowed me to keep the transfer case in the same spot so I didn't have to redo drive lines. I used a set of 98-99 eBay headers
I had to modify them a little to fit but fit pretty well.
Fuel system I used a walbro pump can't remember the number right now but it was an in-tank pump I modified the original hanger to hold the pump, used compression to an-8 fittings to go from the pump to the hard line, and then back to braided fuel line at the back of the engine. Since the 05 suburban used a returnless fuel rail I grabbed a corvette filter/regulator and mounted it on the frame rail where the original filter was.
I went ahead and used all the original accessory components. The a/c compressor needed adapters to go to the lines that came with the vintage air.
I wanted to be able to use mostly off the shelf parts so I wanted to use the original power steering lines but you need to adapt it to the newer style on the pump
Engine
used dirty dingo motor mounts adjusted all the way forward then built a custom trans mount so I could use the factory cross member in the original location, this allowed me to keep the transfer case in the same spot so I didn't have to redo drive lines. I used a set of 98-99 eBay headers
I had to modify them a little to fit but fit pretty well.
Fuel system I used a walbro pump can't remember the number right now but it was an in-tank pump I modified the original hanger to hold the pump, used compression to an-8 fittings to go from the pump to the hard line, and then back to braided fuel line at the back of the engine. Since the 05 suburban used a returnless fuel rail I grabbed a corvette filter/regulator and mounted it on the frame rail where the original filter was.
I went ahead and used all the original accessory components. The a/c compressor needed adapters to go to the lines that came with the vintage air.
I wanted to be able to use mostly off the shelf parts so I wanted to use the original power steering lines but you need to adapt it to the newer style on the pump