hah thanks for the help, i alone cant resurrect it.

 

Yeah, but it is 23 pages long.....

I started my swap a couple weeks ago. This past saturday, I slid the 2004 6.0L truck motor into the engine bay of my '99 Bravada, and its sitting on the mounts. Its a great thing to see it in there. But then I realized that the truck intake won't fit because its too tall. Guess its time to swap to the LS6 manifold.

Next step is to fab up the oil pan. Figured it'll be easier to build one from scratch than to modify the aluminum one. Spent a couple hours yesterday playing with cardboard and a couple minutes cutting steel. Need to spend some more time on it tonight.

I've already procured a 4L80E and some other pieces. New transfer case is shipping today, and LS6 intake is supposed to ship out Wed. Still have to figure out a few things, like fuel system stuff (I think I'll run the 'vette filter regulator), cooling system (need to decide on which radiator / electric fans package), and exhaust (need to figure out what will fit). Harness & PCM are being handled by CurrentPerformance, should be ready middle of this month.

Maybe by the end of the month it'll run....

'JustDreamin'

 

awesome! so ur keepin the AWD? i just made a list of all the parts im gonna need and its about 7k right now hehe. a corvette radiator will fit in our core support no prob and depending on where ur grille and hood latch is you might be able to squeeze 2 12" e-fans.

 

Yup, keeping AWD.

Changing to the 4L80E has required a fresh transfer case though. Didn't seem to make much sense to keep the 4L60E when it broke behind a 195hp V6 and it'll see ~350hp + behind the 6.0L (and also see regular towing duty of a 4,000lb boat). And since it'll be my daily driver, dependability is very important. I'm looking for this thing to be about as dependable as the sun (comes up every morning, right on time, sets every evening, right on time)

Fresh transfer case will be a custom built NV 136 / NV 246 hybrid. Basically the case and sensors from the 136 with the most of the guts of the 246 (32 spline input shaft, extra clutches in the clutch pack, heavier duty chain)with the exception of there won't be any low range.

I haven't decided exactly what to do with the cooling. The Bravada radiator and the Vette / F-body radiator are pretty similar in cooling area wise. The bravada is 425 square inches (28" x 15.2"), the F-body / C5 setup are about 455 sq inches (26" x 17.5"). But the radiator the motor comes with from GM is 595 sq inches (34" x 17.5") which is huge, and I don't think will fit period, which is a bummer since it has a really nice factory dual electric fan system. The 4.8L & 5.3L truck motors run a 28" x 17.5" radiator (490 sq inches) but there isn't a factory dual electric fan setup to fit it.

I'm running the LS2 / LS7 waterpump, which is significantly shorter than the LS1 pump (doesn't have that silly domed pulley.) Scored a great deal on it, $90 for a take off from an LS7 crate motor (had 10 minutes of run time). I'm hoping to avoid having to move the radiator into the core support and I definitely want to run "puller" type fans. "Pusher" type fans don't work nearly as well, and I want to avoid them.

I'm leaning towards the C5 / F-body radiator setup, but would prefer more cooling capacity. Still haven't decided what to do yet.

And the exhaust is another concern. The drivers side is pretty tight, with the steering shaft, drive shaft, torsion bar, front axle, and firewall all right there making it a pretty tight fit. Guess I'll have to see how bad the truck exhaust manifold is and go from there.

'JustDreamin'

 

bust out the hammer and torch, make room. lol. i think when i get my blazer running im gonna tear down my truck a little and take some measurements. in the summers here in alaska the sun doesnt set so its gonna be running a long time. heh. im going for more of a performance setup it seems, im shooting for 500 hp.

 

I was thinking / planning on going for more power, but with gas prices going threw the roof and the budget being tight (mostly because of the trans & new transfer case) I decided to keep the motor stock for now.

Ultimately, I'd like to do a turbo or maybe supercharger setup on the motor, maybe even stroke the 6.0L out to 408. But not right now. Gotta get it running for something close to on-budget to keep the wife's confidence in me.

'JustDreamin'

 

so how high is the truck manifold cause I was hoping a cowl hood will clear ?

 

it should clear with a stock hood.

 

im almost think of just doing a stock ls1 for a little while atleast. right now my parts list for the swap is about 8k roughly.

 

"Does anyone know if a Tahoe or Silverado fuel pump can be fitted to an s10 tank" there is no need for a different pump the stock pump will support a stock bore/displacement motor but if you still want to change it I think it will work they have the same plugs. I am unsure if the guage will be accurate or not.

 

Hey Guys....

The truck manifold is definitely taller than the car manifold, but I don't have an exact measurement yet.

I think we need to be very careful when discussing what will clear and what won't, especially because 2wd and 4wd are so different, and clearance will depend upon the height of the engine mounts.

In my case, I'm 4wd, and where the engine MUST sit to clear the front differential, the truck manifold doesn't look like it'll clear the hood. And the heater core outlets run smack into the back of the intake manifold also. So, for me, that's two strikes, and the fact that the truck intake runs out of breathe at about 5500rpm is the third strike. I'm swapping to the LS6 manifold.

In the 2wd trucks, depending upon your set of mounts and where you've set the engine vertically, a truck manifold might fit just fine. I don't know, because I'm doing a 4wd.

'JustDreamin'

 

That's one of the reasons I went with the LQ4 6.0L truck motor. Reduced cost (picked up the motor fairly complete for $1300). Another couple of reasons are the block is a bunch stouter (more suitable for boost), and can be overbored (which the alum blocks really can't at a max 0.005" overbore, which often isn't enough to get rid of scratches or ridges). And the weight penalty won't be all that noticeable in the nose of my Bravada. I expect the V8 will weigh about the same as the V6, since the V6 has iron heads and an alum / plastic intake, vs Alum heads / plastic intake on the V8.

'JustDreamin'

 

8k sounds about right I'm there now but that includes cost of truck and tools for restore ,here"s what I got so far -5.3-$2065,4L60E-$1000,8.5 posi,ZQ8 brakes & auto shift consol-$1385,headers and mounts-$436,Vette rims-$400,bucket seats off ebay-$130,TAC module & MAF-$160,Current perf harness-$1230,thats $6806,just got the frame blasted$175,rotisserie & engine stand&crane $1600,POR15 $500,portapower to straighten frame $200,misc tools $300,I figure I'm about half way there.Not bad for a $1300 truck that was going to be a winter beater

 

where you getting ZQ8 brakes? they are all the same on 2WD trucks wether its a ZQ8 or a Z85.

 

Current perf harness-$1230 Is that the going rate for these? I was planning on going this route,but jesus I figured they were about 600-800$

 

im very happy with my wait4meperformance.com harness, (truck section sponsor), it was $320 shipped when I gave them my stock harness/pcm.

 

Current Performance is doing my harness & PCM reprogram. Harness was quoted at $750, and the reprogram is another $415, for a total of $1165. I expect that price probably varies by model year / application. In my case, the reprogram includes a Predator handheld. And so far, Current Performance is the only vendor I could find who confidently said "we can make your '99 S10 dashboard and gauges work with the PCM, we've done a number of them". I talked to a couple of other vendors and they said they THOUGHT they could do it, but hadn't done it before. Didn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I don't have time to be somebody else's guinea pig on the harness / PCM programming. I've got enough time tied up being my own guinea pig (building custom oil pan, custom AC compressor bracket, exhaust work, etc.).

Also, that harness cost is outright. They don't need a core wiring harness to modify (which is good, because I don't have one.)

'JustDreamin'

 

Cool,that sounds better since I allready have my own programming .Thats not too bad ($750) for an all new harness considering Jared is the ls1 s10 wiring GOD!!!!

 

true, jared is the man.

 

i just need to get a guage that reads up to 7k rpm and 180 mph. haha