What ECU / Wiring harness to use?
11-12-2012, 01:49 PM
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What ECU / Wiring harness to use? Hello all. I am new here so please forgive me if this is in the wrong section.
For the last 6 months or so, I have been tossing around the idea of doing a GM V8 swap in my E30 BMW (1987 3-series). This has been done and documented on several different forums, including one case where some guy put a LS1 and T56 in his BM, and wrote up a 200 page guide on doing so, complete with AutoCAD drawings on how to make motor mounts, trans mounts, etc. I have this guide and have been reading it, and I really would like to move forward with something like this.
The problem is, I am a college student and don't have a ton of money. I've been looking around for good LS1 motors, and they are not particularly cheap. So I decided to start looking for L33 Vortec truck motors (the 5.3 with 9.9:1 compression and an aluminum block) but those are also somewhat hard to come by, and not all that much cheaper than an LS1. So I was thinking, though it does weight a decent bit more than the 2.5 I6 in it now, what if I just took a 4.8 or 5.3 iron block truck motor and dropped that in with a T56 behind it? Those motors are like $300-500 for a good one and you can find em anywhere!
I looked into this a bit and it will work. The handling of the car will not be quite as great, and the weight distro will be thrown off a few points. However, everything else fits, amazingly. I have to take an intake manifold from an LS1 or similar, because the truck intake mani's are very tall and the hood won't close. In order to use that manifold I THINK I have to change the timing cover and fuel rails, and maybe something else, I don't remember what exactly.
All of this seems *relatively* straightforward. I take the ECU and wiring harness from the truck and rig it to fit in the BMW, and basically abandon most of the ECU wiring from the old BMW engine, save for oil pressure lights, coolant gauge wires, etc, all of which are detailed in the LS1 guide I have so that isn't a problem. However, the questions I have are as follows: The LS1, in most cases I believe, uses a drive-by-cable TB. If I am using a LS1 intake, I need an LS1 TB as well, yet the truck motor will be set up for drive by wire because I am pretty sure all the mid 2000's trucks are. This would require different wiring and ECU parameters, because the DBC requires a throttle position sensor and an idle air valve wiring. I'd rather keep it DBC because that's how the car is now so it would be easier to set up, and I'd rather not have a truck gas pedal, I like my floor-mounted one!
So basically question #1 is, is there a ECU / Wiring harness that would support the 4.8 or 5.3 motor, but with a Drive-by-cable setup rather than wire? I read somewhere that some of the Express vans in the mid-2000's were cable driven with these engines and had an ECU and wiring harness to support this, however I lost where that was and haven't been able to confirm that it is true.
My second question is, what would it take to get a T56 to bolt up to a 4.8 / 5.3 block? I believe the bolt pattern will work, however I am concerned about clutch / flywheel / pressure plate clearance. Do I just use a flywheel from a vehicle with a Gen III V8 that had a T56 (i.e. a GTO) and use the clutch for that as well? I know the vast majority of trucks with the 4.8/5.3 motors were automatic, so I was wondering if that would fit.
Finally, what has to be done / does anything have to be done to a truck ECU if the engine is no longer driving an auto but a manual trans? Do I need to send the ECU off to get reconfigured for a M/T, because otherwise I'll plug it in and itll be like "yo where's my trans," or are they separate control units?
Thank you very much. -JB
For the last 6 months or so, I have been tossing around the idea of doing a GM V8 swap in my E30 BMW (1987 3-series). This has been done and documented on several different forums, including one case where some guy put a LS1 and T56 in his BM, and wrote up a 200 page guide on doing so, complete with AutoCAD drawings on how to make motor mounts, trans mounts, etc. I have this guide and have been reading it, and I really would like to move forward with something like this.
The problem is, I am a college student and don't have a ton of money. I've been looking around for good LS1 motors, and they are not particularly cheap. So I decided to start looking for L33 Vortec truck motors (the 5.3 with 9.9:1 compression and an aluminum block) but those are also somewhat hard to come by, and not all that much cheaper than an LS1. So I was thinking, though it does weight a decent bit more than the 2.5 I6 in it now, what if I just took a 4.8 or 5.3 iron block truck motor and dropped that in with a T56 behind it? Those motors are like $300-500 for a good one and you can find em anywhere!
I looked into this a bit and it will work. The handling of the car will not be quite as great, and the weight distro will be thrown off a few points. However, everything else fits, amazingly. I have to take an intake manifold from an LS1 or similar, because the truck intake mani's are very tall and the hood won't close. In order to use that manifold I THINK I have to change the timing cover and fuel rails, and maybe something else, I don't remember what exactly.
All of this seems *relatively* straightforward. I take the ECU and wiring harness from the truck and rig it to fit in the BMW, and basically abandon most of the ECU wiring from the old BMW engine, save for oil pressure lights, coolant gauge wires, etc, all of which are detailed in the LS1 guide I have so that isn't a problem. However, the questions I have are as follows: The LS1, in most cases I believe, uses a drive-by-cable TB. If I am using a LS1 intake, I need an LS1 TB as well, yet the truck motor will be set up for drive by wire because I am pretty sure all the mid 2000's trucks are. This would require different wiring and ECU parameters, because the DBC requires a throttle position sensor and an idle air valve wiring. I'd rather keep it DBC because that's how the car is now so it would be easier to set up, and I'd rather not have a truck gas pedal, I like my floor-mounted one!
So basically question #1 is, is there a ECU / Wiring harness that would support the 4.8 or 5.3 motor, but with a Drive-by-cable setup rather than wire? I read somewhere that some of the Express vans in the mid-2000's were cable driven with these engines and had an ECU and wiring harness to support this, however I lost where that was and haven't been able to confirm that it is true.
My second question is, what would it take to get a T56 to bolt up to a 4.8 / 5.3 block? I believe the bolt pattern will work, however I am concerned about clutch / flywheel / pressure plate clearance. Do I just use a flywheel from a vehicle with a Gen III V8 that had a T56 (i.e. a GTO) and use the clutch for that as well? I know the vast majority of trucks with the 4.8/5.3 motors were automatic, so I was wondering if that would fit.
Finally, what has to be done / does anything have to be done to a truck ECU if the engine is no longer driving an auto but a manual trans? Do I need to send the ECU off to get reconfigured for a M/T, because otherwise I'll plug it in and itll be like "yo where's my trans," or are they separate control units?
Thank you very much. -JB
12-06-2012, 11:35 AM
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Hello all. I am new here so please forgive me if this is in the wrong section.
For the last 6 months or so, I have been tossing around the idea of doing a GM V8 swap in my E30 BMW (1987 3-series). This has been done and documented on several different forums, including one case where some guy put a LS1 and T56 in his BM, and wrote up a 200 page guide on doing so, complete with AutoCAD drawings on how to make motor mounts, trans mounts, etc. I have this guide and have been reading it, and I really would like to move forward with something like this.
The problem is, I am a college student and don't have a ton of money. I've been looking around for good LS1 motors, and they are not particularly cheap. So I decided to start looking for L33 Vortec truck motors (the 5.3 with 9.9:1 compression and an aluminum block) but those are also somewhat hard to come by, and not all that much cheaper than an LS1. So I was thinking, though it does weight a decent bit more than the 2.5 I6 in it now, what if I just took a 4.8 or 5.3 iron block truck motor and dropped that in with a T56 behind it? Those motors are like $300-500 for a good one and you can find em anywhere!
For the last 6 months or so, I have been tossing around the idea of doing a GM V8 swap in my E30 BMW (1987 3-series). This has been done and documented on several different forums, including one case where some guy put a LS1 and T56 in his BM, and wrote up a 200 page guide on doing so, complete with AutoCAD drawings on how to make motor mounts, trans mounts, etc. I have this guide and have been reading it, and I really would like to move forward with something like this.
The problem is, I am a college student and don't have a ton of money. I've been looking around for good LS1 motors, and they are not particularly cheap. So I decided to start looking for L33 Vortec truck motors (the 5.3 with 9.9:1 compression and an aluminum block) but those are also somewhat hard to come by, and not all that much cheaper than an LS1. So I was thinking, though it does weight a decent bit more than the 2.5 I6 in it now, what if I just took a 4.8 or 5.3 iron block truck motor and dropped that in with a T56 behind it? Those motors are like $300-500 for a good one and you can find em anywhere!
2003–2004 Chevrolet TrailBlazer EXT
2003–2004 Isuzu Ascender
2004 GMC Envoy XL
2003–2004 Chevrolet SSR
2004 Buick Rainier
I looked into this a bit and it will work. The handling of the car will not be quite as great, and the weight distro will be thrown off a few points. However, everything else fits, amazingly. I have to take an intake manifold from an LS1 or similar, because the truck intake mani's are very tall and the hood won't close. In order to use that manifold I THINK I have to change the timing cover and fuel rails, and maybe something else, I don't remember what exactly.
All of this seems *relatively* straightforward. I take the ECU and wiring harness from the truck and rig it to fit in the BMW, and basically abandon most of the ECU wiring from the old BMW engine, save for oil pressure lights, coolant gauge wires, etc, all of which are detailed in the LS1 guide I have so that isn't a problem. However, the questions I have are as follows: The LS1, in most cases I believe, uses a drive-by-cable TB. If I am using a LS1 intake, I need an LS1 TB as well, yet the truck motor will be set up for drive by wire because I am pretty sure all the mid 2000's trucks are. This would require different wiring and ECU parameters, because the DBC requires a throttle position sensor and an idle air valve wiring. I'd rather keep it DBC because that's how the car is now so it would be easier to set up, and I'd rather not have a truck gas pedal, I like my floor-mounted one!
So basically question #1 is, is there a ECU / Wiring harness that would support the 4.8 or 5.3 motor, but with a Drive-by-cable setup rather than wire? I read somewhere that some of the Express vans in the mid-2000's were cable driven with these engines and had an ECU and wiring harness to support this, however I lost where that was and haven't been able to confirm that it is true.
http://lt1swap.com/cable_conversion.htm
My second question is, what would it take to get a T56 to bolt up to a 4.8 / 5.3 block? I believe the bolt pattern will work, however I am concerned about clutch / flywheel / pressure plate clearance. Do I just use a flywheel from a vehicle with a Gen III V8 that had a T56 (i.e. a GTO) and use the clutch for that as well? I know the vast majority of trucks with the 4.8/5.3 motors were automatic, so I was wondering if that would fit.
Finally, what has to be done / does anything have to be done to a truck ECU if the engine is no longer driving an auto but a manual trans? Do I need to send the ECU off to get reconfigured for a M/T, because otherwise I'll plug it in and itll be like "yo where's my trans," or are they separate control units?
Thank you very much. -JB
Finally, what has to be done / does anything have to be done to a truck ECU if the engine is no longer driving an auto but a manual trans? Do I need to send the ECU off to get reconfigured for a M/T, because otherwise I'll plug it in and itll be like "yo where's my trans," or are they separate control units?
Thank you very much. -JB
http://www.hitechtuning.com/mail-order-form/
12-06-2012, 06:53 PM
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Thank you very much for all the advice, I ought to buy you a beer! 
I am going to keep this in mind, as I can't even begin to afford to do this right now, but later on I may be able to and I think it would be really neat to do, especially if I could find an aluminum block that wouldn't upset the weight distro too much. Right now, however, I am focusing on getting the suspension fixed up in the car, which is expensive enough in itself on a BMW! Breaking My Wallet.
Anyway, I've got this bookmarked and I really appreciate the help. Thanks again!
I am going to keep this in mind, as I can't even begin to afford to do this right now, but later on I may be able to and I think it would be really neat to do, especially if I could find an aluminum block that wouldn't upset the weight distro too much. Right now, however, I am focusing on getting the suspension fixed up in the car, which is expensive enough in itself on a BMW! Breaking My Wallet.
Anyway, I've got this bookmarked and I really appreciate the help. Thanks again!
