y5mgisi
1 ton status
(If anyone disapproves of this "duplicate thread, i'll gladly delete it Its just that the old one ended up being REALLY long!)
This thread is more or less a condensed version of my original thread. Just a lot less filler so here goes.
Here is the original thread,
http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291277
First thing i did was research for nearly a month! I searched and searched and read all kinds of stuff that didn't necessarily apply to me but had hidden info embedded into it. I read stuff like putting an LS1 into a fox body mustang because it still had good lessons learned in it. Some very good sites were lt1swap.com, ls1tech.com (in the conversions and hybrids section) and ls1truck.com (again in the lsx swap section). Aside from that there was countless bits of info by searching on every truck site i could think of and on google for terms like ls1 swap, lsx swap, lq4 swap, lm7 swap, gen III swap, vortec swap, etc. You name it, i was searching for it!
The result of all my searching made me decide that i should go with a 5.3 with a throttle cable style throttle body. It also, however, let me know that the DBW (drive by wire which means there is no throttle cable but instead is a position sensor mounted on the pedal that runs through a "TAC module" then to the computer to tell the throttle how far to open) are certainly a fine option if you come across one and to not be afraid of them as they are reliable, precise, and easy to deal with(also slightly more plentiful then the older cable style setups).
Once i had researched to a point where i felt comfortable getting started i made my big purchase!
After i got it out of the truck i brought it in the garage and started to cleaning it up a bit. Also pulled the intake to clean it and to avoid damaging it when i went o put the motor in the suburban.
Pulled a valve cover and it looked nice inside.
Its supposedly an 02 Chevy Tahoe motor with 82k miles. I bought it from a guy that does ls swaps and stuff as work on the side so here is where my build gets a touch unusual. He had bought this motor with the intentions of putting it in some kind of vehicle for his wife and just never got around to it. So he had swapped the intake manifold to (i think) an 03 model to eliminate the EGR setup. He also swapped to 03 exhaust manifolds for the same reason. More on the exhaust manifolds later. Anyway, This motor i bought as a "complete" hear it run motor. The guy already had a programmed computer and modified harness for it that went with the motor. The harness as it turns out is one out of an F body camaro. Normally this wouldn't work out because the injector plugs are different but he swapped the harness to truck style injector plugs. Because of this i was able to mount the computer in the stock location under the dash. Otherwise it would have been mounted in the 02 Tahoe stock position on the driver side inner fender.
If you didn't buy your motor this way you would now be looking into either A, where to buy a harness or where to have yours modified or B how to modify your harness yourself. Most likely you would have decided on a place/ how to do it in your lengthy research. LT1swap.com has excellent how to instructions but there are dozens of companys out there that build and modify harness to fit your needs.
With that there are now more purchases to be made!
I ordered these car shop inc motor mounts. They work good and are very affordable at only $50! In retrospect however, i would have gone with the dirt dingo mounts as they don't require any modification to the motor mount itself like the car shop inc ones did, and they allow the engine to be set in place into the motor mounts and then slid back to meet the trans which would be convenient.
To use my stock th400 trans all i had to do to mate it to the new 5.3 was to order this spacer and bolts from GM and elongate the torque converter holes in the flex plate. Works out perfect and lots of folks do it but not the preferred method. Again, in searching you will find the ins and outs of what works and what doesn't. Pirate4x4.com had one of the better how too's on the matter.
Next up was the fuel system. Again, lots of searching to be done here and how you go about it depends on two things. One, whether or not you have an in tank fuel pump already like i did and two, weather you have a new style returnless fuel rail on the motor or an older return style like mine. If you have the new style you will have to run a corvette fuel filter which has a fuel pressure regulator built into it. If you have the older one like mine, the fuel pressure regulator is built into the fuel rail like mine. Because i already had an in tank pump and my fuel rails were the older return style, all i had to do was swap the pump out for an EP381 pump and adapt my fuel lines at the rail. Other then that, the original inline filter works good and all the lines are good for the higher pressure! The pump is a drop in replacement that just puts out higher pressure. Also don't forget a new fuel pump "sock" filter or you will get angry and have to run to the parts house and pick one up in the middle of swapping in your new pump...
After that there is a couple more things that will need ordered. One is a oil pressure sending unit adapter and the other is a temperature sending unit adapter. I kinda messed up twice on mine so learn from my mistakes. For one, the oil pressure sending unit adapter was an autometer piece that would have worked perfectly if i had an older vehicle with the 1/8th NPT thread on my sending unit. Mine however had a 1/4NPT thread on it... The fix was simple but frustrating. Just had to get an 1/8th -1/4 adapter from the hardware store and was good to go. For the temp sending unit I experimented on a VDO sending unit that had the appropriate 12x 1.5 thread and the appropriate "spade" style connector to hook up to the stock wire for the gauge. Unfortunately, it doesn't give the right signal to the gauge... So, instead im going to order the only adapter that i can find to go from 12x1.5 to 3/8NPT which is from Street and Performance (hotrodlane.cc) so i can use a stock temp sender.
Autometer 2268
The VDO sender i tried that didnt work. At 195* my gauge reads around 250*
After that there is pretty much nothing that really needs ordered. Most everything else can be had at the local autozone/NAPA. But you will need several items like upper and lower radiator hoses, Gaskets, coolant, ETC.
Back on track with the wiring is modifying your existing vehicles wiring. This varies greatly depending on what year truck you have. Mine being a 90 had a decent amount of wiring to be delt with. If you had an older vehicle it would be much easier.
Here is some during pictures of modifieyng the truck harness and uniting it with the new engine harness.
Now, as crazy as it looks, it really wasn't too bad. All i did was found a wiring diagram online of the TBI wiring harness and went along and snipped everything out that i could see went straight to the computer. Everything else stayed. While snipping out the wires i labeled everything that stayed in the truck so that i could inquire about it later. I labeled where it went or what pin on the TBI computer it went to. Russle was able to advise me on virtually every one of the left over wires and what i should do with it which was an amazing help! Again, if you had an older vehicle, you would have a very few wires if any that need clipped out.
This thread is more or less a condensed version of my original thread. Just a lot less filler so here goes.
Here is the original thread,
http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291277
First thing i did was research for nearly a month! I searched and searched and read all kinds of stuff that didn't necessarily apply to me but had hidden info embedded into it. I read stuff like putting an LS1 into a fox body mustang because it still had good lessons learned in it. Some very good sites were lt1swap.com, ls1tech.com (in the conversions and hybrids section) and ls1truck.com (again in the lsx swap section). Aside from that there was countless bits of info by searching on every truck site i could think of and on google for terms like ls1 swap, lsx swap, lq4 swap, lm7 swap, gen III swap, vortec swap, etc. You name it, i was searching for it!
The result of all my searching made me decide that i should go with a 5.3 with a throttle cable style throttle body. It also, however, let me know that the DBW (drive by wire which means there is no throttle cable but instead is a position sensor mounted on the pedal that runs through a "TAC module" then to the computer to tell the throttle how far to open) are certainly a fine option if you come across one and to not be afraid of them as they are reliable, precise, and easy to deal with(also slightly more plentiful then the older cable style setups).
Once i had researched to a point where i felt comfortable getting started i made my big purchase!
After i got it out of the truck i brought it in the garage and started to cleaning it up a bit. Also pulled the intake to clean it and to avoid damaging it when i went o put the motor in the suburban.
Pulled a valve cover and it looked nice inside.
Its supposedly an 02 Chevy Tahoe motor with 82k miles. I bought it from a guy that does ls swaps and stuff as work on the side so here is where my build gets a touch unusual. He had bought this motor with the intentions of putting it in some kind of vehicle for his wife and just never got around to it. So he had swapped the intake manifold to (i think) an 03 model to eliminate the EGR setup. He also swapped to 03 exhaust manifolds for the same reason. More on the exhaust manifolds later. Anyway, This motor i bought as a "complete" hear it run motor. The guy already had a programmed computer and modified harness for it that went with the motor. The harness as it turns out is one out of an F body camaro. Normally this wouldn't work out because the injector plugs are different but he swapped the harness to truck style injector plugs. Because of this i was able to mount the computer in the stock location under the dash. Otherwise it would have been mounted in the 02 Tahoe stock position on the driver side inner fender.
If you didn't buy your motor this way you would now be looking into either A, where to buy a harness or where to have yours modified or B how to modify your harness yourself. Most likely you would have decided on a place/ how to do it in your lengthy research. LT1swap.com has excellent how to instructions but there are dozens of companys out there that build and modify harness to fit your needs.
With that there are now more purchases to be made!
I ordered these car shop inc motor mounts. They work good and are very affordable at only $50! In retrospect however, i would have gone with the dirt dingo mounts as they don't require any modification to the motor mount itself like the car shop inc ones did, and they allow the engine to be set in place into the motor mounts and then slid back to meet the trans which would be convenient.
To use my stock th400 trans all i had to do to mate it to the new 5.3 was to order this spacer and bolts from GM and elongate the torque converter holes in the flex plate. Works out perfect and lots of folks do it but not the preferred method. Again, in searching you will find the ins and outs of what works and what doesn't. Pirate4x4.com had one of the better how too's on the matter.
Next up was the fuel system. Again, lots of searching to be done here and how you go about it depends on two things. One, whether or not you have an in tank fuel pump already like i did and two, weather you have a new style returnless fuel rail on the motor or an older return style like mine. If you have the new style you will have to run a corvette fuel filter which has a fuel pressure regulator built into it. If you have the older one like mine, the fuel pressure regulator is built into the fuel rail like mine. Because i already had an in tank pump and my fuel rails were the older return style, all i had to do was swap the pump out for an EP381 pump and adapt my fuel lines at the rail. Other then that, the original inline filter works good and all the lines are good for the higher pressure! The pump is a drop in replacement that just puts out higher pressure. Also don't forget a new fuel pump "sock" filter or you will get angry and have to run to the parts house and pick one up in the middle of swapping in your new pump...
After that there is a couple more things that will need ordered. One is a oil pressure sending unit adapter and the other is a temperature sending unit adapter. I kinda messed up twice on mine so learn from my mistakes. For one, the oil pressure sending unit adapter was an autometer piece that would have worked perfectly if i had an older vehicle with the 1/8th NPT thread on my sending unit. Mine however had a 1/4NPT thread on it... The fix was simple but frustrating. Just had to get an 1/8th -1/4 adapter from the hardware store and was good to go. For the temp sending unit I experimented on a VDO sending unit that had the appropriate 12x 1.5 thread and the appropriate "spade" style connector to hook up to the stock wire for the gauge. Unfortunately, it doesn't give the right signal to the gauge... So, instead im going to order the only adapter that i can find to go from 12x1.5 to 3/8NPT which is from Street and Performance (hotrodlane.cc) so i can use a stock temp sender.
Autometer 2268
The VDO sender i tried that didnt work. At 195* my gauge reads around 250*
After that there is pretty much nothing that really needs ordered. Most everything else can be had at the local autozone/NAPA. But you will need several items like upper and lower radiator hoses, Gaskets, coolant, ETC.
Back on track with the wiring is modifying your existing vehicles wiring. This varies greatly depending on what year truck you have. Mine being a 90 had a decent amount of wiring to be delt with. If you had an older vehicle it would be much easier.
Here is some during pictures of modifieyng the truck harness and uniting it with the new engine harness.
Now, as crazy as it looks, it really wasn't too bad. All i did was found a wiring diagram online of the TBI wiring harness and went along and snipped everything out that i could see went straight to the computer. Everything else stayed. While snipping out the wires i labeled everything that stayed in the truck so that i could inquire about it later. I labeled where it went or what pin on the TBI computer it went to. Russle was able to advise me on virtually every one of the left over wires and what i should do with it which was an amazing help! Again, if you had an older vehicle, you would have a very few wires if any that need clipped out.
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