RJFguitar's resto-mod - went offroad

[y5mgisi]

This is where i got my info. It would seem that i forgot that engines that came mated to 4l80e's already had the spacer between the crank and flex plate from the factory. So thats probably why you were able to get away with it. They were both orignally bolted to 4l80e's!

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/chevy/866064-tech-gen-iii-iv-ls-motor-auto-trans.html

 

[Deuling]

An '01 and '02 drive by wire? Are you sure you didn't mean cable?

I thought that's what they were referred to as. Yes the cable one.

 

[rjfguitar]

This is where i got my info. It would seem that i forgot that engines that came mated to 4l80e's already had the spacer between the crank and flex plate from the factory. So thats probably why you were able to get away with it. They were both orignally bolted to 4l80e's!

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/chevy/866064-tech-gen-iii-iv-ls-motor-auto-trans.html

This is almost funny. They removed the 4L80E flexplate/spacer off my 6L and put a 4L60 flex plate on....to make sure I had the right flex plate for my 700R4. #enginestillnotintruck

 

[Chevy305]

I thought that's what they were referred to as. Yes the cable one.

Yes wire = electric and cable = mechanical [emoji6]

 

[y5mgisi]

Wtf... Sorry about your luck with them! Truthfully, it seems there have been several folks have a not so swell experience with them. Almost everyone that gets their crossmemeber kit is pissed that it is in the way of the brake lines and fuel lines when it is supposed to be "bolt in". I'm not bashing them, but if they want to maintain this reputation they have for being some kind of one stop shop and charging ungodly amounts of money for everything, they should probably get on the ball.

 

[ashman]

I'll agree with that. I wasn't "super pissed" but it was disappointing that I had to modify the crossmember

 

[rjfguitar]

Wtf... Sorry about your luck with them! Truthfully, it seems there have been several folks have a not so swell experience with them. Almost everyone that gets their crossmemeber kit is pissed that it is in the way of the brake lines and fuel lines when it is supposed to be "bolt in". I'm not bashing them, but if they want to maintain this reputation they have for being some kind of one stop shop and charging ungodly amounts of money for everything, they should probably get on the ball.

They are super nice guys and have the LS thing pretty much all figured out, but yeah..... there has been some pretty silly bloopers here with my purchase.

If I had my engine by the original promise date, I'd be driving my K5 around yesterday and enjoying it. If I had the correct flex plate, I'd be stabbing that sumbitch in yesterday. I wound up and had yesterday off, didn't feel totally beat physically like normal, and could have made some real progress yesterday.

As far as price goes, yeah you are paying a premium to do one stop shopping with them, but it's not that high of a price really. Around here I couldn't seem to come up with a 6L for anything under $1500, without harness and computer. 5.3L engines all day long for $500, but not 6L's. I figure I spent an extra grand over piecing it together myself. Although....doing this over again so far, I think I would have went with dirty dingo mounts so I didn't have to mess with the factory crossmember. PF talked me out of the DD mounts because they mount the engine "too high" in the engine compartment. As I was cutting up PF's crossmember to get it to actually fit, I thought to myself " I have a 3" body lift and a cowl hood, who cares if the DD mounts raise the engine a little bit.

 

[y5mgisi]

Not to mention the fact that a good percentage of people who have done the swap use dirty dingo mounts. Either way. We all pay to learn sometimes. I don't think you will be unhappy once it's all done!

 

[Teck]

This is with dirty dingo mounts and a 1" body lift and it all fit fine. It is tight in the back but it all clears.

I don't think it sets to high.

 

[rjfguitar]

I finished the crossmember, welded a piece of 1/8" plate to the ends and bolted it in, then welded the crossmember to the motor mounts themselves.

New F'ing problem. I bolted on my adapter plates and clamshell motor mounts, and this engine appears it is going to be roughly 1" too far forward, meaning once bolted in, there looks like there is going to be a 1" gap between the block and bell housing.

 

[y5mgisi]

Is there no adjust-ability in the mounts/cross member? The mounts i used from car shop ink were one inch set back mounts which move the engine one inch rearward. which i was confused about initially but come to find out, that "one inch set back" is actually into the stock location in relation to the bell housing.

 

[y5mgisi]

These are my mounts. You can see they are a little different than yours.

 

[Avery4jc]

On my friend's LS swap we had to move the trans/t-case mount forward to take up the gap once the engine was set in place...

 

[rjfguitar]

On my friend's LS swap we had to move the trans/t-case mount forward to take up the gap once the engine was set in place...

Why don't people talk about this kind of stuff! I thought an LS swap was supposed to be simple. Freaking frustrated right now. I have little time to do this since it's gotten so late, I spent a ton of money to what I thought was taking the express route around all the bull crap problems, and guess what.

 

[y5mgisi]

I talk about it in my swap thread! lol sorry man. Hope it starts going easier.

 

[rjfguitar]

These are my mounts. You can see they are a little different than yours.

Yep, yours look correct, mine don't. I was specifically told that if assuming everything in my truck is stock (it is) that this engine would drop right in and bolt up. Nope.

Whatever. Maybe if I do move my tranny forward 1", it will help with my rear driveline vibration that I have, ever since I installed my 14BFF, which made the distance from the yoke to the Tcase shorter than with the smaller 10B rear.

 

[rjfguitar]

I talk about it in my swap thread! lol sorry man. Hope it starts going easier.

I must have missed it. It can be tough sometimes with these build threads that get 40+ pages long, hard to read everything. I appreciate your help.

 

[rjfguitar]

Photobucket just started working again. Pics, sprayed on rubberized undercoating on everything.

On a good note I got the exhaust manifolds off without any broken bolts. I couldn't get the fan clutch off though, two guys, one holding the tool that grabs the water pump pulley, and the other guy trying to get it to break loose. Both of us used 3ft cheater bars. Wouldn't break loose, finally I just did my thing and cut it off with the torch.

 

[Avery4jc]

Why don't people talk about this kind of stuff! I thought an LS swap was supposed to be simple. Freaking frustrated right now. I have little time to do this since it's gotten so late, I spent a ton of money to what I thought was taking the express route around all the bull crap problems, and guess what.

I understand it can be frustrating but don't forget it wasn't that long ago that swapping in an LS was freaking magical... as tech becomes more and more "common knowledge" we tend to forget how much was involved in paving the way for this stuff.
If anyone told you an LS swap was a bolt in and go Sunday afternoon project they lied. It's MUCH easier than it was just a few years ago but there are so many variations within the blazer/truck/suburban '73-'87(91) that nobody should guarantee a "bolt in" install without expecting some minor hiccups in the road.

You can check out the truck I was talking about here. LS swap starts around post 82...

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=301539&page=5

Best of luck to ya! You've got this and it'll be worth it in the end.

 

[ashman]

Yep, yours look correct, mine don't. I was specifically told that if assuming everything in my truck is stock (it is) that this engine would drop right in and bolt up. Nope.

Whatever. Maybe if I do move my tranny forward 1", it will help with my rear driveline vibration that I have, ever since I installed my 14BFF, which made the distance from the yoke to the Tcase shorter than with the smaller 10B rear.

If you are interested in adjustable mounts I'm going to be getting rid of mine.

I didn't end up needing them and they have 3 different mounting points to use. Stock/1" back/1" forward I think.