67c-105.3

The 350 in my truck was on its last legs; the heads were cracked, valve seals leaking, cylinders heavily worn and pitted and it failed the emissions test misserably, so it was time for something new.
I picked up an almost complete 5.3L for around the cost of a low milage sbc. I decide to keep the TH400 as with my 30" tall tires and 3.08 gears I wouldn't be needing overdrive, although torque converter lockup would be nice.
Yesterday I pulled apart the front end of the truck and pulled out the tired 350

Today I finished preping the engine and bolted it to the transmission using a spacer GM12563532 and new longer bolts GM12563533. The spacer and bolts are to make up for the shorter torque converter of the TH400. I had heard that the flexplate had bolt holes that would match up with the th400 torque converter, however I did not find this to be the case. Using the extra raised pads on the flexplate I carefully drilled holes to mount up with my torque converter. This seemed to work good.


I was then able to drop the engine in keeping the transmission in its stock location so that the shifter linkage and driveshaft would be uneffected. For the motor mounts I used common adaptor brackets and swaped the original trucks pedestle mounts side to side and 2 of the 3 bolt holes lined right up. The third one I will drill.
I test fitted the factor 5.3L exhaust manifolds and the drivers side fit with minor modification.

and the passanges side with a little more modification. The frame will need to be slightly clearanced as well. However If I not mistaken the 67's have wider frame rails around the engine then the 68-72s so it may not be an issue with other trucks.

The heat shields caused problems on both sides so I will leave them off for now, but the should fit with some modification.
I'll keep this thread updated with my progress, the plan is to have it finished by the end of the week.

custom 68

iTrader: (9)

looking good. keep us posted.
Where are you located? I did the swap but used the 4l60e tranny.
Dave

67c-105.3

Custom 68: I am in BC Canada

Today went a little slower then I was hoping for. I under estimated how much I needed to notch out of the frame to get the passengers side exhaust manifold to fit. but I did get it in eventually.

I then spent some time hooking up vaccum lines, linkages etc.

One item that didn't come with this engine was the starter, I went down to the parts store and they list at $450, I couldn't believe it. My cost was $275 but even that is like 3 times the cost of a sbc starter. And the starter bolts at $13 a piece, making me start to wonder if this Gen III thing is a good idea.

The rest of my day was spent on the fuel system. I converted the pickup for a return system.


and installed a low pressure pump.

I decided to run the fuel system on the out side of the frame rails as the inside is tight with the exhaust and brake lines.

Tomorrow I have to find a fuse/relay box get some adaptors for my fuel system and power steering and figure out the air intake. I guess I should have been more prepared, it might be tough to get this wrapped up this weekend.

custom 68

iTrader: (9)

I assume you are going to port the low pressure pump into a high pressure pump.
The clearancing doesnt look like you took out too much.
good luck
On my power steering I just removed the high pressure fitting on my old pump and replaced the metric one on the new pump I had to bend the lines a bit but the old stuff worked great.
Dave

busta9876

iTrader: (3)

Good work on fitting the passanger side manifold. I could not get manifolds to work at all with my 6.0L in my 67 pickup. The manifold hit the plate that goes from the frame to the crossmember.

Search around on ebay for the starter, I've bought several of them from $25 - $75.00. just have to be patient.

Yes the frames are wider in 67.

I'm in the middle of a 81 front end conversion, with the Rubber A arm bushings, sway bar, etc.

Hey Do you have disc brakes? I just bought a complete 81 pickup front frame stub with all suspension. I've got spare set of spindles I'd part with real cheap, say shipping + a few bucks for my time. anyways if interested in what needs done for disc brakes let me know. I did a disc 5 lug conversion.

I made some homemade headers for my 6.0 in my pickup you might be interested in making something like them.

www.lt1swap.com/vortec6l.htm

I had a 6.0L with TH400, I sold the 6.0L a while back, but now I have a 5.3L i'm in process of installing. www.lt1swap.com/vortec53l.htm

What motor mounts did you use? I used the transdapt ones, had to move trans cross member 1" forward. maybe why manifolds hit my motor mount plate.

67c-105.3

Custom 68; Thanks for the great tip on the power steering I would have never guessed that that fitting would remain the same when GM changed every other fitting on these engines compared to the old sbc's.

Busta9876; I bought my motor adaptor plates off ebay but they are the same design as the TD ones, but like I said I flipped the engine frame stands side to side so I wouldn't have to move the transmission crossmember and my exhaust manifold clears because of it. Yes I do have disc brakes they are 6 lug and out of an 88 chevy pickup.

Today I finished my fuel system with my reserve tank, high pressure pump, lines filter, etc.



I used the Russell quick connects to mate to the fuel rail


Then I took some time to start the wiring

Earlier I made use of the ECU pinout and removed all unnecessary wires from the harness such as transmission, EGR, etc. I must have pulled a third of the wires out which makes things a lot simpler. I'm not to happy how the main junction of harness is located right in the middle of the intake, so I'll probably take some time to reroute the wires to make them more hidden.

I also put the radiator support back on as well as many other missalanious things.

Indyjc

iTrader: (1)

Nice job you seem to work fast. When do you plan on having your truck running? Is your truck a long bed or short bed? Good luck

67c-105.3

Indyjc; Its a long bed. The plan is to drive it to work on Monday as I just lost the clutch in my firebird.

67c-105.3

Today I went out looking for a fuse box and came up with this,

its out of a 1994 Grand Prix and seems to have everything I need and puts it in a nice package.

I tried to get some 4' aluminium bends for my intake but the local performance shop does't carry anything that size so Monady I'll get some 4" 304SS bends from work and fab up my intake. Untill then I bought a 90 degree plastic plumbing pipe and clamped it in.
The majority of my time today was spent on wiring. It was something I was looking forward to but once I got my game plan set up it went pretty smoothly. I managed to move the harness around so all the wires didn't sit right in the middle of the intake, instead tucking up around the backside. I got the majority of the wires soldered and heat shrunk into there respective locations and some just temporarily wired until I have more time tomorrow. I plugged in my ecu, which has been reprogramed by Wait4me Performance and primed the fuel system to check for leaks. Finding none I tried cranking it, to my disappointment it didn't fire. I confirmed spark and fuel pressure and I'm pretty sure that the injectors are firing so I'm not sure what the problem is. The guy I bought the engine off of had poured tranny fluid down the cylinders Earlier I had done my best to drain it but the spark plugs are fouled so I'm thinking that a fresh set might fix the problem. It was geting too late to keep working so I called it a night. Hopfully tomorow I will get this wrapped up.
Any suggestions on what might be wrong are apprecaited.

shifty`

iTrader: (3)

hey! i was hoping you'd post over here also. i replied to your thread over at the truck forum about what possible problems could be there - hope someone chimes in over here as well....

67c-105.3

Today was very frustrating, for most of the day I was trying to figure out why it wouldn't run. I keeped confirming spark and checking the injector harness. I had spark and my homemade injector test light confirmed they where getting a nice pulse. But it still wouldn't run. I checked fuel pressure, then thought maybe the fuel rails were full of air, mad sure they weren't, but it still wouldn't run. To make things more interesting the #2 cylinder always fired but no others. I took some time off scratching my head to make the passangers side exhaust. It turned out to be clogged injectors. I pulled them out and 10 minutes later had the engine running. It was a huge relife, but all the time I wasted prevented me from getting the truck done so I won't be driving it to work tomorrow. I still need to do the drivers side exhaust, mount the passangers side fender and hood, remove some un-needed wiring (old alternator harness) and finish a few things with the engine harness. Hopefully I can get this all done tomorrow and only fall one day short of my one week swap goal.

67c-105.3

I pretty much got it all wrapped up today, at least enough to start driving it. A new intake is in the plans as well as hooking up the check engine light, the OBDII connector, finishing the exhaust past the mufflers and probably a few thousand other smaller details. I didn't get to the insurance place in time so I won't be able to start driving it until tomorow after work. I'll get some more pictures tomorrow.

IOwnCalculus

I think you just blew away the record for fastest-done LS1 swap in these trucks

shifty`

iTrader: (3)

No fair, he cheated....somehow

G-Body

iTrader: (4)

Sleep deprivation and 23hour workdays

I did my swap in 2 weeks, but a bunch of that time was spent waiting for parts, or chasing after them. If you have everything you need you can do the swap very quick.

67c-105.3

I know I said I would post yesterday but I took a little break from this truck thing to catch up on everything I negected for the past week. I have been driving it to work. The first time I drove it was to work which is about 35 miles away so I was a little nervous. but I had no problems and I am now pretty confident in it. It definatly has more power then the old 350 and it is very smooth, I haven't really opened it up yet as my throttle cable only allows me to get 3/4 throttle so thats an item for the to-do list.

As far as cheating I did do the harness before hand and have the majority of parts onhand. I only worked on it for about 5 hours a day for the Monday-Monday build with the exception of Saturday which was 10 hours. I could have probably done it a lot quicker if I had forseen all my problems. For my Firebird conversion I went from running cabureted to running injected in less then 4 hours and that included ECU programming (although I am still perfecting the "tune" 2 year later)

Well here is some picture of the running install, I still have a lot more work to do to clean up the wiring, fix the throttle cable, make an intake, add some tailpipes to the exhaust, maybe paint the ecu black so it doesn't stick out so much and probably a few more things.




And now to let you see my truck, possibly the ugliest genIII swap vehicle out there, but it is a work in progress and be sporting some beter sheet metal and a lot more black paint over the next few months.


the oil spots on the driveway are actually from my firebird not the 5.3L

Lane

iTrader: (1)

Congrats on the swap! Firebird looks nice too!

Good luck with the truck.

lazybra1n

Just checking out your thread... Nice job on the 2 week swap! I did mine in about 3.5 months (2-3hrs a day/ 8hrs on weekends) along with working 8hr days (swing shift) and waiting for parts. Just gor it running on the 6th. That is a pretty ugly vehicle to have a GenIII in but mines not much prettier. Looks good!

67c-105.3

I thought it was about time for an update. After I got the truck running I spent all my spare time for the next 2 weeks building a race car, then spent the next week at California Speedway, then the following week waiting for our loaner Ford F350 diesel to get its head gaskets replaced in LA. Since I got back from California I still haven't had much time to do much of anything with the truck but I drive it at least 70 miles everday and haven't had any problems. Its nice to have an engine that is completely reliable, fires up every time, is twice as good on gas as the tired 350 I pulled out, and has more then enough power to get me to work everyday. I did finally finish the air intake and figured out how much this whole thing cost me. The total came to $2,690.71CAN ($2,565.21US) However had I been a little more carefull to make sure the engine was more complete when I bought it and used cheaper stainless braided lines and standard AN fittings I figure it would have only cost $2,144.44CAN($2,067.96US)
Attached is a picture of my air intake and an excel spreadsheet of purchased parts

Ford_Assassin

iTrader: (4)

Digging up an old thread, but did I miss the part where you had the computer tweaked to eliminate the computer inputs for EGR, rear O2 sensors, transmission, etc?

I ask because I just bought a 5.3 engine complete from a 2004 Tahoe and I am gong to drop it into my '69 C10 re-using my TH350c (lockup) tranny.

I am going to use tubular engine stands and adapter plates. I might get the 1" longer one's just to set the engine as far back as possible.

Thanks!!