CK5
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My 5.3 swap thread!

The bailing wire works pretty dang good! I have a few hundred miles on it so far! Im not proud of it, but it is getting me by until i finally make it to the junk yard. You can kinda see it in this pic.

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very nice sir, it seemed pretty quick in your video. i cant wait to get mine in and running, and if mine is anywhere near as fast and 11-12 mpg holy s**t! thats better than my 8ish for sure.
 
Well hop to it! Finally went to the junk yard and picked up a throttle cable that looks like will work. It's out of a 98 tahoe. I also got A power steering bracket for my 78. So i paid for the bracket and stuck the cable down my pants. The bracket alone ended up being 10.75 so i feel like I paid for it anyway! This way, yea they raped me, but I also stuck my hutus in their mouth while they were sleeping.
 
Where did you go about tieing into your stock harness to get your ignition feed for the new setup? By the way your suburban came out looking great. Good job on getting it done as quick as you did as well. Trying to finish up the wiring on mine so I can drive it again. Went with an LS2 in an 88 K5
 
Nice man! For the ECM's "IGN" power source, i just used the (fused) Coil power wire from the TBI setup. Its a big pink wire that used to go directly to the TBI Coil. Thanks for the kind words.
 
Thank you. When I first pulled the old tired drivetrain out, I ended up cutting most of the wires right up against the junction block on the firewall. Wasnt thinking when I did it :doah:. So I went and pulled an engine harness and will try and go about it the right way now lol.
 
Well if everything goes right i'll be getting the computer "retuned" sunday. Been talking to the dude that hooked me up with the current program in it and he says it was probably a file from a 6.0 swapped camaro. So, with getting it tuned for 5.3, getting the vss and park neutral recognized by the comp and getting the FOUR codes im getting now all situated, i should be all dialed in. For how good the truck runs now, it should run even better when im done with him on sunday! Exciting.
 
Not quite. Just runs good. Im getting the truck painted right now. Im also working on selling one of my other trucks. Soon as the burb comes back from paint and the other truck sells, im going to send my computer out for a 5.3 "performance tune". Right now its tuned for an LS1 and a 6 speed... So it doesnt run 100% perfect. Slightly rich until the o2 sensors click on and correct the issue and too rich at wot. During cruise, between the MAP, MAF, and o2 sensors, it runs pert near perfect. For the most part you would never know that the computer is not tuned right as it runs all but perfect. If it wasnt for watching the fuel trims and seeing the bit of black smoke at wot, you would think it was running perfect. Kinda surprising how good a 5.3 runs on a 5.7 tune actually! So anyway, im excited to get the computer tuned. Not only would a stock 5.3 tune make it run better than it does now, but it will have a "performance" 5.3 tune on it. So it should ought to run pretty tits then. Also curious to see what increase i get in mileage as right now its giving me about 12.
 
Not only would a stock 5.3 tune make it run better than it does now, but it will have a "performance" 5.3 tune on it. So it should ought to run pretty tits then. Also curious to see what increase i get in mileage as right now its giving me about 12.

Depending on what you intend to do with your truck I would be a little careful with a "performance" tune.

The newer motors extract just about every bit of power out of the stock tune. Usually the way the "performance" tunes get more power is to us a more agressive ignition map. Which is fine in a car running on premium. But a heavy truck that might be used for towing and it's not the best idea.

12 mpg is pretty good. I get about 8.6 mpg with my 383 towing a 4k lbs boat. I towed it to green peter damn from hillsboro last weekend. Being able to tow up hill doing 70 mph while in overdrive I thought was pretty impressive. Considering the stock motor was only able to do 55mph in 2nd gear up hill.

Your gas mileage will probably go up once you get the tune worked out.
 
I think you are mostly right except the factory tunes are fairly conservative so that people dont have the oportunity to damage them. Me not being an idiot and having knock sensors i think will probably never have a problem. On the flip side, if i blow it up, a $600 junkyard motor later and i'll be back in business! These motors are pretty tough. You read the article "the big bang theory" right? The one where they took a stock junkyard 4.8 and made 1200 turbo charged hp. I think as long as im not running nitrous i think i will probably be ok.
 
I think you are mostly right except the factory tunes are fairly conservative so that people dont have the oportunity to damage them. Me not being an idiot and having knock sensors i think will probably never have a problem. On the flip side, if i blow it up, a $600 junkyard motor later and i'll be back in business! These motors are pretty tough. You read the article "the big bang theory" right? The one where they took a stock junkyard 4.8 and made 1200 turbo charged hp. I think as long as im not running nitrous i think i will probably be ok.

Well i dont know how bullet proof. I know someone that recently stuck a SC on and melted 3 pistons he was making 465rwhp. He had 12.3:1 fuel ratio during the entire dyno run. So that junkyard engine person is probably not telling the entire truth. First I seriously doubt the stock injectors or fuel pump could support those power levels. So at a minimum those were changed which no longer makes it stock.

Knock sensors are only able to retard so much. I wouldn't depend on them to remove all your knock exspecially under a heavy load on a hot day just saying.

*edit* I went and read the article the one by hot rod. That motor is far from stock lol. That is kinda funny about that article they stress that its a stock junk yard motor regardless of all the changes they made. I think it's probably safe to say the bottom end is capable of those power levels in stock form.
 
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Ok heres the deal man. Im going to be honest with you. And the rest of the forum, please dont take this as asign of my metality but,

Dude, I dont like you. You are a constant negative Nancy. So please do me a favor stay out of my threads. It would be greatly appreciated.
 
Ok heres the deal man. Im going to be honest with you. And the rest of the forum, please dont take this as asign of my metality but,

Dude, I dont like you. You are a constant negative Nancy. So please do me a favor stay out of my threads. It would be greatly appreciated.

no problem dude dont get your panties in a wad. Just offering advice that I have seen first hand if you think that is being negative so be it. Maybe you are just a bit sensitive I know metro is the new in thing and all. I thought you had a pretty cool project. If I had to redo mine would probably go a similiar route. Best of luck to you. :thumb:
 
*edit* I went and read the article the one by hot rod. That motor is far from stock lol. That is kinda funny about that article they stress that its a stock junk yard motor regardless of all the changes they made. I think it's probably safe to say the bottom end is capable of those power levels in stock form.

That is the point of the article. You can't just slap a power adder on and expect to have happy times without supporting mods. The base engine, the short block, can take some abuse. Heads and everything north of that is "bolt on". So, I guess, stock short block would be a more accurate term. Still pretty impressive.
 
So, crazy stuff... I have no idea how i mind fked myself into thinking this hole was not a hole, but com to find out, i have had a 1/4" vacuum leak this whole time! Im a mixed bag of emotion!

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Anyway, im super excited that i found it, but disappointed with not catching it from the get go... The funny thing is it never made itself known. I could have gone on forever not knowing that it had that problem. Anyway, the hole ended up being perfect for a left over break bleader cap i had. So i jambed it in there with a little black RTV. Letting it set up and then i'll let er rip.

The hole,
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Another of the hole,
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And light through the hole,
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The cap,
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The cap in the hole,
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And here is a shot of the head casting number cause i can never remember.
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The LS motors are just so cool! I wanna put this one in it next! 630ftlb from 3000rpm to 5600 rpm! And only $11,000!

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http://www.truckinweb.com/tech/engine/1013tr_5_3l_383_stroker_engine_build/viewall.html



Actually, my motor exhibits some of the famous piston slap when its cold. I really want to bore it out to a 350! Quite a bit of research says that its fully doable and that all thats needed is a set of ls1 pistons. Bada bing bada boom, 5.7L!
 
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