Here's my first LS swap project, my 1992 Olds Custom cruiser wagon. I'm a huge fan of the 90's B-body sedans and wagons (currently have 4 wagons and 2 sedans ) and all but one so far have been LT1 cars. I like my rust free Olds, but the TBI L05 leaves a lot to be desired, so out it comes.
I'm swapping a 5.3l out of a 2000 suburban into it and am close to starting this project. Here's what I'm doing:

LS1 intake for clearance
F-body oil pan
2010 Camaro exhaust manifolds, rest of the exhaust TBD
Truck accessories with modified Camaro WP
High mount R4 compressor bracket (uses car's original compressor)
Custom motor mounts, trans located in stock location
96 4L60e from a Caprice
Reworked the wiring myself
Engine is mostly stock for now. I gain almost 100hp over the old engine as it is and down the road I have a great platform for some mods.

So far I've torn the engine apart and inspected everything, bearings look great, cylinder were very clean. I think this thing was rebuilt, does not look like it has 135k on it. New gaskets are in and engine has been test run on the stand (video below). This engine does have the 706 heads, but I didn't see any evidence of cracks so for now I'll run them. I had the emissions tuned out but left the wiring in place for now, I have to get this car through emissions next year and if I do need to make this stuff work at least the wiring will be there.

I hope to start the swap next weekend, this is gonna be fun!

The car:


Engine as it sits:


Video of the first start:
Yeah, I didn't really have it secured that well

 

135k isn't bad miles at all. I think most people just put them in with that kind of miles.

 

Looks good, i'm doing the previous gen custom cruiser, I started a build thread last week but havent had a chance to even pull the motor yet, heh...Ive got to keep mine emissions compliant too, but that wont be too hard. Just have to hook up the EVAP system, the only thing i need to figure out how to do is feed the ecu the 40-250 ohms it needs to see for the fuel level, not the 0-90 our cars have. And I need to keep te stock dash so changing the sender isnt gonna happen I saw one guy in a corvette forum that built a box to convert the signal, but his schematic leaves a little to be desired and hes been off the forum for over a year...That one have a mech speedo or electronic?

 

Does the PCM really need that info for a swap? I planned to leave the gauge wired directly to the sender as it was factory.

 

For the engine to run no. For the evap system to function as intended you'll need the truck canister, vent valve, the fuel tank pressure sensor and you'll need to retain the purge valve.

Operation of the evap system is pretty simple. THe computer needs to know the pressure in the tank, and fuel level. It only runs an EVAP test when the tank is 1/4-3/4 and fuel slosh cant be crazy, thats why it needs to know fuel level. The pressure sensor can be teed into the evap purge line that already goes to the front of the car, and the canister will also be in that line somewhere. I haven't looked at the diagram lately but its not a hard system to implement, provided you have the correct fuel sender.

So there are a few ways to do this,

1. Build a VCA/opamp type box that will take in a 0-90 ohm signal and pump out a latching linear 40-250 ohm signal.

2. Put in a second sender which you can get pretty darn cheep as a repair kit for late model trucks and attach it to the original sender, so there will be 2 floats or 2 senders on 1 float, but then you have to figure out how to get more wires to come out of the tank for that sender.

3. Replace the 0-90 sender with the 40-250 sender completely and have your stock gauge recalibrated, which im pretty sure most gauge repair places can do for you.

4. Ditch the EVAP system all together, but then you cant make it emissions compliant, at least in California you cant

Now you may be able to wire a resistor to the PCM to tell it that the tank is always half full. But I dont know if there is software in the PCM that will say hey now, the tank has been 1/2 full for 500 miles, thats not right and kick on the MIL. If they didnt put that software in there, then you can potentially do that. But i dunno if that may eventually kick an EVAP code for failing because having the tank too full or too empty can skew the test results. The system, has to reach a certain pressure (vacuum) in a certain amount of time and hold said pressure with said loss for x amount of time. Also I know for some of the more new cars and trucks they do positive pressure testing with fuel expansion and the engine off. So yeah, haha

When I get to that point in my build I will have a thread on making the EVAP system work as its a mystery to so many people. This weekend Ill finally be pulling the motor on mine and getting started! I look forward to your build

Mark

 

I can tell you first hand the 0411 does not need a fuel level input to operate and pass smog. My 1997 Express with the L31 had an early form of OBDII check for the evap system, merely a switch on the intake rather than an actual pressure sensor. When I swapped to the 2002 0411 Express L31 calibration I disabled the codes for the Evap pressure sensor and fuel level sensor. The EVAP monitor test goes straight to "READY" and the canister purge solenoid opens at the appropriate time. The EGR is also disabled in my tune for my marine intake. The engine compartment is so cramped and inaccessable nobody misses either. With the marine intake I use a 93-95 TBI style purge valve that hooks up with a vacuum line as the factory purge solenoid would not bolt to the marine intake without modification.

 

Turn the Evap pressure sensor codes off, turn off the fuel level sending codes and all that is uncessary. My Evap shows "READY" and the purge valve operates correctly. 1997 L31 Express with a 2002 0411 Express calibration.

 

Thats good info, but they will still need to see the matching canister and vent valve for the vehicle its pulled from.. Also I dunno if they are gonna look at the vin and go hey you said this is from a 2003 truck and your vin says van etc etc....im just tryin to keep it as straight forward as possible. If the codes can just be turned off that would be nice, long as the rediness shows a pass

 

Luckily in Texas they are not quite so assenine about things.

The 97 Express was OBDII to start with and had a vapor canister to start.

Sadly if I change the original 2002 vin in my PCM to the 1997 vin I can no longer use HP Tuners to tune it. Stupid idea on HP Tuners part, which if I had known I would have bought EFI Live to start with.

 

Im gonna end up paying a shop to do that for me, another $500+ is not in the bank for a tuner program and this swap. Especially with this is the only LSx car in the family. I need vats turned off, the A/C request signal changed and im sure other things modified

 

Like me!

I personally think 135K is just broken in on these engines. I pull the pan (usually to swap it) and check the valve covers then it's rock and roll time. I MIGHT get crazy and throw some LS6 valve springs in ($60) If I have them before I bolt the valve covers back down with the original gaskets.

This will be a cool swap.

 

I sent out the PCM and had all the emissions stuff turned off, I'll run it and see if it fails next year or not. Luckily being a 92 they put it on the dyno and run the sniffer test, so as long as it outputs less than the beat old 350 it should be fine. I left most of the emissions wired in for this reason, so if I have to make it work then I won't have to rework the harness much.

 

It's been a while, time for some updates! Over memorial day weekend the old L05 came out and the freshened up 5.3 got dropped in. The mounts I bought fit great. The crossmember was a pain to get in, drilling the new holes in the right spot was the challenge there. Last weekend I did get the engine fired up and moved the car around the driveway.

Here's what I've found out so far:

The stock PS hoses will work as long as you have the correct pump with the outlet on the back. My pump has it coming out the front for some reason.

You need the 105A alternator if running the truck accessories, the large case doesn't clear the hood

I tried running 2010 Camaro exhaust manifolds, DS clears with room to spare, PS fits if the flange is ground down, a lot. It fits but I don't think I can get a pipe on it. Waiting on some 98 F-body manifolds and ordered some ebay shorty headers to try

#8 coil lines up perfectly with the heater core lines, gotta work on a relocation method

Front bumper and core has to come off for the hoist to reach

I used a Delco pump for a late 90's chevy truck, it fit perfectly in the sending unit and the engine runs good on it. Part number is ACD1000

There is a disconnect point for the return line next to the fuel filter under the car, the Corvette filter can probably be located in the factory location. I already plumbed it under the hood before I noticed that.

Truck throttle cable needed to be shorted where the pedal connects, match it up to the old cable and recrimp it. Some of the plastic had to be shaved off to fit through the fire wall.

Now I gotta work on the cooling system and exhaust. I decided to run an LT1 radiator and coolant tank, gotta make that fit now. I didn't take many pics, but did take a few videos:

Out with the old:


Block bolted up:


Holes for LT1 crossmember. For future reference, those 2 small holes were already in the frame and line up with the ones I had to drill


Some accessories on:


Videos:



Running on the TBI pump before the truck one was put in

 

Looks good man! My olds is falling behind, I yanked the front clip for cosmetic reasons and am dealing with that right now, after this weekend I should be able to get back to it and have the motor restabed in a few weeks and actually get somewhere haha. Ive decided against re drilling my frame and im gonna cut and re weld the crossmember.

You using the clutch fan? or gonna go with electrics.

 

I'm going with electrics using a radiator and electric fan setup out of a Roadmaster/Caprice

 

Got a few things done this weekend. Picked up another PS pump and a new hose, it fits good now with no mods needed. Also test fitted my coil relocation brackets I made, they leave enough room for the heater hoses now. Just gotta throw some paint on them and get some angled ignition wires.


Also got the headers in (Chinese ebay headers). They look well made for Chinese parts, nice thick flange, good looking welds and they came polished. I'm happy to say they clear the frame and look to be a good fit. The pic below shows them compared to a 98 F-body manifold setup. The F-body ones fit, but would have needed some small mods to clear everything.

 

those headers look good, and look like they would clear my G-body frame also. Would you mind posting the link to those headers? Or if that violates some rules or something, PM it to me?

 

Not sure if I can post eBay links here. The item number is 291116699099, looks like the seller added an extra 1 to the price lol. There's a few sellers selling these things on ebay, most say in the description "Works well with cars that have a center crossmember under the engine" and are usually sold for a 62-67 Nova. Another auction that looks like the same thing is 261484891071.