dan95gst

Working on building a drag toy with an LS swap and eventually a turbo. my hope is to have the project running and driving for ~3000 and im on pace to meet those numbers. im following the sloppy mechanics dont bs me build nearly to a T.

Picked up this 01 suburban for 300 bux and 120 to tow it home. unfortunately it had been the victim of arson... According to the old timer that i bought it from, his 19yr old grand son drove the burb over and parked it blocking access to the back of their property. He asked him to move the truck and this was the most insulting thing the teen had ever heard so in defiance he set the interior on fire. upside is the fire department was fast and put it out before it spread too far and the 5.3 under the hood appears to be in perfect condition which is good for me cause thats the only piece i want.




Here she is in all her glory



note the OBS bumper on it lol




heres a progress pic i started stripping stuff off the front last night this was before i went in for dinner. After i came back out i got about 30 minutes and it started to rain so i had to hurriedly clean up and run in.

dan95gst

Getting some lights setup








we ended friday with the trans mount, motor mounts, drive shaft and some wiring left to be removed so we could pluck the engine out.

dan95gst

Sunday's fun. James and Doat came to add more helps to getting it out.



this was right after we realized the cylinder on the hoist didnt have the nuts to hold up the engine so we ran to HF and bought/installed a new cylinder which worked like a champ.





free 10mm socket with purchase lol



it is out and on the engine stand.


ordering a cam this week and slamming that in once it shows up then ill get it bolted to the 4l80 and bring the swap candidate home.

dan95gst

The chassis has arrived!







Its a 99 V6 Auto car originally. cloth interior but power everything. A friend of mine got it new in 99 and drove it until 2011 when he sold it to another friend who pulled the motor and was going to terminator swap it but ended up having a kid. Its sat since then and he finally asked me if i wanted to buy it since i was eyeballing mustang chassis's for this build i wanted to do. We made a deal and here it is.

Already has a GT 8.8 under it with 4.10 gears and came with lots of extras including some mosier 31 spline chromolly axles.

Going to test fit with the bare aluminum block i have to see if i am going to need an oil pan or not (i think im going to) and then slam the cam/valve springs into the motor and get it ready to drop in place. i think im going to end up needing to hammer the trans tunnel out a bit but ill find out once i start test fitting stuff. excited to get to work.

dan95gst

wife and i went out this morning to do a test fit with the bare alum block i have. wanted to see truck oilpan clearance as well as trans tunnel etc. slammed the spare truck pan i have as well as the spare heads i have on it to see what we have.



You can see how thrilled she is. she doesnt exactly like mustangs but gets the cheap racecar idea.



LIKE A GLOVE!





oil pan hangs really low. going to need to order the muscle car pan.


headed out to install the cam into the motor and see if the heads on it are castechs and if so they are coming off and the 862s i have on the shelf will be going on. Next update should have lots of fun motor pics while we are working on it.
Might also setup the gopro in timelapse mode to video it.

dan95gst

Cam and springs installed into the 5.3 saturday night.




motor was surprisingly clean inside. no sludge at all. normal wear on the cam. just all around good looking engine. the spark plugs were new and had clean dielectric grease on them. this car was taken care of it seems. shame the kid was such a smurf.





new cam headed to its home



Was nice enough to put another chain/gear i had laying around on it. the other one had so much slop in it i was actually impressed



Valve springs going in


5.3 is an oil pan away from being ready to slam into the chassis. ordering that today.

dan95gst

Did a Dump from the other 2 forums im documenting this build on. This wraps up the last couple weeks of work ive been doing on the project.

im using the adapter flanges and 4.6l motor mounts and it looks to clear really nicely.

prepping myself for having to beat the trans tunnel into submission but maybe ill get lucky lol.

booboo37

iTrader: (43)

Muscle car oil pan hangs just as low as truck pan i think.................. ,..you need Ls1 f-body...or CTS-V oil pan.....maybe.............Think theres only 3/4 of a inch difference between the truck pan and the Muscle car pan.....

First pan is truck pan and the bottom pan the Muscle car pan....

booboo37

iTrader: (43)

Most guys use the AJE Ls k-member and trans cross member and use the f-body oil pan or CTS-V pan.......

dan95gst

yea i was just thinking the same thing yesterday as i was looking online at measurements. I dont think the Fbody pan will clear the stock K Member.

its not going to be a street car so the truck pan will "work" but im going to be super nervous of hitting anything and cracking it.

and doing a kmember swap isnt really in the budget right now.

Toddoky

The new Holley 302-3 oil pan would be a good option for you as well.

Mungface78

Another stang to the list! Keep it up man! So I take it you went with the Jegs cam?

dan95gst

ill take a look, thanks for the info

elgin brand, i got it off ebay for 245 shipped! but yes i think they make them for jegs and summit. seemed like a really nice piece.

Stampede4ever

What are the specs of the cam?

Thanks.

dan95gst

228/230 .585 112

Stampede4ever

I have the 220/224 0.575 cam.

Stampede.

zipster

iTrader: (5)

Muscle car pan fits with the stock kmember

Muscle car pan. Hangs down 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch.

G Atsma

Watch those speed bumps....

dan95gst

not a ton of progress due to some personal issues going on this month. Im trying to devote an hour a day to SOMETHING on the project since ill be traveling a bit for work this month and wont have as many weekends. i have the last week and a half off and planning on going hard on it to get some progress done.

last night i got the motor mostly buttoned up and ready to go into the chassis.

the oilpan was off, the waterpump needed new gaskets and the crank pulley needed back on.


got all those buttoned up and cleaned off the intake manifold mounting surfaces.


not a ton of work but some none the less.

i also pulled a 4l60 bellhousing that i had and slapped it onto the testfit block in the chassis. Rigged the motor to the core support so it doesnt lean back on the mounts as much and i could remove the wood block i had under the oilpan holding it up. Tonight im getting it up on jackstands so i can get under it and assess the tunnel situation and do some measures to see if its going to work with the 4l80 or if i am going to need to do some hammering.

dan95gst

i just had a thought. is the stock starter going to have enough protrusion to get to the 80e flywheel to spin it? with the spacer it moves it a good bit away from where the starter would be engaging it. do i need to find a starter off a 2500?