1slo5ohh

Cars looking good man. I'm just getting started on my 95 swap, I was reading through your thread you mentioned that you kept the stock ecu to run the gauges, now since you haven't been able to get them working did you just go ahead and remove the stock ecu? Is the stock ecu needed at all? I know nothing about wiring and its honestly the only thing I'm not able to wrap my head around for some reason lol. Mechanical stuff is a breeze but for some reason wirings got me lol. I did see that you got your fuel qauge to work what did you do for that? I was also thinking of removing my abs, was it worth the headache for you? What did you remove it for, just to clean up the bay and free up room? Sorry for the questions. Just trying to get as much input from as many people as possible lol

tired2valve

Thanks man it still has the factory 327's

Thanks, stock Ecu is still there. Will still
Use it for the gauges. No haven't got to the gauge wiring yet since it's not priority number 1, was just wanting it to run and drive right.
Fuel gauge works without anything. Turn the key and the volt and gas gauge works automatically (since I still run the factory body harness)
I removed the abs block because I don't think it worked in the first place. Plus it gave me room for my alum rad. I just bought all the stuff I needed at 5 auto zones and oreillys lmao since they only carried a few fittings at a time so I ran everywhere to get the rest of the fittings. Then my buddy had a mac tools double flaring tool that works a million times better than the one you get at autozone. Took me all of a few hours from never flaring a brake line to the finished product. Had to make 1 new line on the drivers side and I only had to enlarge the flare on one fitting because it was leaking so I'd say it's not that big of a deal.

tired2valve

i realized i haven't updated this thing in a while. well the 5.3 lost oil pressure shortly after my last post, lost the cam bearings and crank. block is still good, my fresh cam i just bought is on the fence right now. I'm going to take it to the machine shop to see if i can save it, if not i just flushed 300+ dollars down the drain.
anyways after pulling the 5.3 and trans it sat for a couple weeks until a buddy wanted to throw his 4.8 in there. its just a stock 4.8, high compression 10.5:1 custom turbo cam headwork studs.

well the car has been in and out of tuning, was having trouble with the fuel pump, the alt took a dumb, replaced it and was still having charging issues. so its been brought to my attention you can't use 1 wire alt with a 2 wire harness, haha figured that out. after putting the correct alt on its now charging fine.
took her out to the track last sunday for the first time in 3 years, the cars setup for turbo and it shows. not what i was expecting out of it but its a start.
other than that its really been sitting. waiting for me to get turbo stuff going.

my original 5.3 is coming along, block is been cleaned and checked. new cam bearings are in. had to buy a new crank bought some 4.8 pistons and they are sitting in a bucket of diesel cleaning right now haha. gonna raise compression to 11-11.5 when it all comes back together. have some pics and vids but they are not on this comp. vids should be on my youtube page.

Will Smith

I know it's an older thread, but I'm curious as to what you did for a crossmember on the 4l80. Also what shifter did you go with? Was the top plate over the shifter something you fabbed up? Thanks.

tired2valve

I don't have an 80e
I have a 400
I used everything from aje. They make a mount for the 80e.
I use a tci outlaw shifter and yeah I fabed everything to fit it. Even the cover on the center console

64post

iTrader: (5)

Did you get your charging issues settled?

tired2valve

I just put the correct alternator that went with the harness I have. Works fine now.

Update:
Car is almost finished. Again
5.3 with 4.8 flattop Pistons in and running again. Need to get it retuned.
Car has been on the back burner as I get my new project running.

Sube

iTrader: (14)

Have you been able to drive your car with the TH400, how do you like it compared to your T56?

tired2valve

Here's a vid of the other day driving around. Everything is working pretty good now.
I wish I had an overdrive sometimes but it's whatever. Drive it multiple 30+ mile trips and no problem.
Compared to the t56. I'd say 6 speeds the way to go hands down any time of the day! But the t56 I had was having problems with the 3/4 shift syncros so getting a worthy comparison isn't all that great. But I would do it again if I could.

With the factory 3.27 gears out back it cruises 70 with ease around 2500ish rpms(don't have a working tach yet)
Should be having a couple updates here in the future. Been working on getting this road worthy so I can get back on my el Camino daily project.

1bad03snake

iTrader: (16)

Nice car, I am thinking about swapping my 5.3 S475 th400 into a 99 V6 i picked up

Murdered03gt

I'm starting my build which is very similar to yours. I have a 5.3 with ls1 heads and manifold and a ms3 cam. I read something about fuel pump change, will my stock 03 gt pump work for now?

Sube

iTrader: (14)

Question, did you rattle can or spray gun your engine bay? I got a 98 and I'm wanting to paint my engine bay black also and yours looks really good.

tired2valve

It's from a gun. I bought the quart duplicolor can that's ready to spray from autozone.
Used a 30gal crappy compressor and the crappiest suction feed spray gun ever. But it did do a good job. Only a couple runs because I laid it on thick! I think I got 2 or 3 coats on it with it. Turned out great. To this day it still looks great. I have to touch up a couple spots on the frame rail where I throw the tools when I working on it.

tired2valve

Yep. You will have to run a new feed line since the mustang is return less. follow how I did it and it works fine.

Sube

iTrader: (14)

Question: when you had the T56 in the car, did you use the AJE cross-member and if so did you have to clearance the transmission tunnel at all? I have a 98 and I have the transmission pushed up as high as I can go and it still needs to go up 1/2inch to an inch to be able to work.

tired2valve

I cut the tunnel an inch to clear the Trans.
Yes I used everything aje

cobra30689

I've been intently reading this thread as you basically have the same car I do, and your end result is pretty much what I am looking to do (LM7/4L60) including AC. Question (one of many I may have if you are open to it)....did you have any clearance issues between the compressor and the swaybar? I'm looking into a CTS-V style accessory drive, which is supposed to be tighter to the block than the Vette/Firebird. What compressor did you use?

tired2valve

No issues with the fbody compressor.
It's a bitch to put it on though haha.
I have plenty of room around the sway bar.

Oscar14

Just saw your video on youtube i know its kinda old but im currently doing an ls 5.3 swap to my 01 mustang it was a v6 so i had to buy a gt diff im kinda on a short budget too but i already have like 70% done, im using a 4l60E tranny for now, i bought a stock harness and just missing some basic stuff but my questions are what kind of headers were you running ? Did you modify a lot the harness? Other than the basic stuff what did you have to buy ? Like the steering ? Do i have to make a custom drive shaft or is there any way if using the stock one? You would help me a lot if you could answer this questions

tired2valve

Everything you need to know is in this thread.
If the 60e is the same length as the t56. Then you will not have to get a custom driveshaft. If using aje stuff.
The harness I took a bunch of stuff out.
I bought a lot of stuff! I basically started with a long block that had nothing on it. I had to buy all hardware/parts.
If I had to do it over (which I did with my elco) I'd buy a complete running wrecked truck. Then part out what was left.