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buggy build thread.. F-ING TRANSMISSIONS

ah more progress, today the work was on recovery for the front and rear and starting on a winch mount between the frame up front, had to remove the cross member under my radiator and was a pita. Also found out mounting points for the limiting straps and cleaned up alot of little to-do's
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the clevis mounts came from atoz fab, under 20.00 for the pair, the winch Is the smittybuilt one from 4wheel parts, reg 350.00 I bought it for 279.00 on sale, I plan to add some winch rope and a aluminum fair lead. Alot of people are running these winches with good success, and being I have some big ticket items I need to buy I decided I would rather have something than nothing, later on ill get a better faster unit and put this one on the trailer.


here is the start of the new spare tire carrier, I wanted to use wheel studas just incase shtf and I needed a few, also I like the idea of being able to pound them out easily should one get messed up. I didnt use bolt because I dont want to be looking for them in the dirt!

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then played with the little work truck..

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had a little fun when I got home tonight too..

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well in my forever going effort to never wheel this thing I sold the big block today:screwy:

and this weekend I stole the locker out of it for the white truck...:doah:

so.. providing the guy shows up with the rest of the cash I need a motor, I was set on a 6.0..

but 5.3 it is, ill add a cam, tune and some sort of exhaust .

the axle is currently stripped down, so I might address that to while im at it, I hate this hobby$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I need to put a paper or something under this thing so I can call it project paper weight:haha:
 
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Those 5.3's are screamin' little engines... keep us updated when you find one!
 
well in my forever going effort to never wheel this thing I sold the big block today:screwy:

and this weekend I stole the locker out of it for the white truck...:doah:

so.. providing the guy shows up with the rest of the cash I need a motor, I was set on a 6.0..but now have decided against it, for the 6.0 to make it fit I would have to raise the hood to keep the stock intake, or swap over to the car intake and that requires replacing the front accessory hardware and water-pump..not to mention the oil pan wont fit.

so 5.3 it is, ill add a cam, tune and some sort of exhaust .

the axle is currently stripped down, so I might address that to while im at it, I hate this hobby$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I need to put a paper or something under this thing so I can call it project paper weight:haha:

My head is killing me, so forgive me if I missed something, but you are talking about Gen 3 5.3's and 6.0's right? If so, the 6.0 will fit where the 5.3 will fit. It's externally identical.
 
My head is killing me, so forgive me if I missed something, but you are talking about Gen 3 5.3's and 6.0's right? If so, the 6.0 will fit where the 5.3 will fit. It's externally identical.

ya I know, one of them I was considering was a 5.3 that had a car intake swapped on already... and today got a motor:D


2004 5.3 with trans, also came with a new inbox starter, alt, power steering pump, water pump and other goodies, so I have plenty of spares to toss in my box on the trailer:woot: Motor came from a wrecked tahoe with 30k. The guy I got it from was way cool to meet and also owns the fasted ss chevy truck in the country..:eek1: eye candy!

cant wait to get it together and ready

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so tonight literally right after I picked up the parts I drove to my engine guru and dropped it off so e can get started on reworking the harness, tune and fuse panel. The cool part is he will bench test his tune and the motor for me to see. I also got a cable operated throttle body from him and the motor mount plates. I decided to go with his because he is local and he will include a data port so any Chevy dealership, myself or a autozone can scan it.

Ill get going on this, now its time to decide on a stak 3 speed or 4 speed atlas and make it compatible with the vss... after that's it time for some knuckles, long shafts, Detroit, arp knuckle studs and put the hydro on..
 
for the 6.0 to make it fit I would have to raise the hood to keep the stock intake, or swap over to the car intake and that requires replacing the front accessory hardware and water-pump..not to mention the oil pan wont fit

so 5.3 it is,

not sure how that makes sense.?
the 6.0 and 5.3 truck engines are basically identical, externally.. oil pan, intake manifolds, and accessory drives should be all the same..
what did getting a 5.3 instead of a 6.0 solve?

and as a matter of fact, you can swap a ls1/ls6 intake manifold onto a lq4/lq9 or 5.3 truck engine.. if you relocate the idler pulley, (moving the belt down out of the way of the intake) i think howell or speartech sells an adapter bracket or you could fab it yourself.. i have seen it done with the stock belt, and i've seen it where you have to get a longer belt.
But really, the truck manifold builds torque that you need in a crawler more than hp.
The ls6 manifold will pick up 10-15 hp but at the expense of sacrificing some low end tq.
-a throttle cable setup will clear the water neck, but with drive by wire setup, those throttle bodys will hit the water neck, i've seen guys chop the water neck down to make it work.
Or you can order a '97 corvette ls1 water pump (with a front outlet water neck), press off that pulley, and install the truck water pump pulley.

Go do a search on the proven TR224 cam, its not huge, but it makes good results and not one bad thing said about it.
I went with a custom spec'd Thunder Racing cam, a little bigger then that TR224 in my LQ9 6.0l.

I coulda reworked your harness pretty cheap, made it custom to your vehicle and 5 wire hook up with the obd2 aldl communication port and all.
 
originally I was set on a 5.3 that already had a car intake and parts changed but did not get that motor.

more or less I wanted a complete motor, low miles and I didn't want to mess around with driving place to place, waiting, ect. I took the day off and found a motor and in the same day got it dropped off to get done. some times for me the time is a little more important, I dont spend to much time wrenching lately.

I did read about grinding down the water pump or my options with swapping parts but I did not want to deal with it. People also wanted 1400-2500 for a 6.0 with this low of miles and the ones I looked at for less were missing too many parts.The more ridiculous parts it I ve actually bought a 6.0 before but sold out on using it:rolleyes:

Will definitely be looking into the cam info I appreciate it.:D
 
what trans are you using in the buggy? One thing you need to look out for is that if you have a manual with a hydro clutch the drives side slave cylinder will hit the manifold. I have a 5.3 hydro 465 in my truck i had to use a set of ls1 manifolds
 
Hey Ryan B. what is your email address? I want to talk to you about harness reworking and all. I know I have in the past but need to get that done sometime soon.
 
went for a last joy ride today before the big block gets yanked poser time..

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took off the iroks to lower it down for the motor swap..all I can say is that it was a fun drive on the little skinnys:cool:
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Im starting to the think the ups guy hates me:D

in other news it turn out my 5.3 is actually a 4.8.. EDIT.. TRURNS OUT ITS A 5.3 DOH!

so back to the drawing board..I think I am going to do a 6.0 now
 
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Why not take the opportunity to build a mild 5.3? The only real difference between the two are the crank and rods. Everything else is the same.

Also, nothin' like hanging a couple hundred pounds from the top of the cage. :p:
 
if I have to buy another motor I am going to just get a 6.0, fuk it!

Tired of choosing to settle only to have it bite my ass afterwards, ive already screwed up the plan a whopping three times now..

I would be sitting pretty if I had just hung on to the last motor I had but I figured I would keep the big block..I should stop figuring things:doah:
 
Road trip to the midwest, visit Kert's shop, and I'll take you to a junkyard where you can get a 5.3 with 75,000 or less on it for $300. Hell, last I checked there was still one there that got hit from the passenger side, ripped the manifold bolts out of the head, everything else was fine. That one was $150, you'd have your crank and rods. :D
 
Road trip to the midwest, visit Kert's shop, and I'll take you to a junkyard where you can get a 5.3 with 75,000 or less on it for $300. Hell, last I checked there was still one there that got hit from the passenger side, ripped the manifold bolts out of the head, everything else was fine. That one was $150, you'd have your crank and rods. :D


No thanks, I want to smile when I hit the gas... im planning on heads, cam and maybe some giggle gas for the dunes.
 
Road trip to the midwest, visit Kert's shop, and I'll take you to a junkyard where you can get a 5.3 with 75,000 or less on it for $300. Hell, last I checked there was still one there that got hit from the passenger side, ripped the manifold bolts out of the head, everything else was fine. That one was $150, you'd have your crank and rods. :D

Really?? Where might this be?
 
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