I am gathering parts out here in Cali to swap a twin turbo lq4 into a 66 chevelle with a 4l80 e. Great write up. I will have to keep checking on this, and if I figure out how, I will take pics and start a build. JW from northern cal

 

in the same boat as you . in the fall my nova was n/a 406 sbc. decided to go turbo ls so i sold the engine and left my self no options. rebuilt a 6.0 lq4 with a small cam stock engine all except injectors and bought a microsquirt system from efisource built the harnes and did all the work myself and loved it the learning curve of doing the work helped me understand the system and now i couldnt be happier dropped from a 3.73 to a 3.23 gear and tightened up my convertor to 3000 and the car runs like my yukon and has way more power than my old 11 sec 406. i refuse to let anyone do anything to my car except me so i loved the challenge. even if i have to stop and research it


keep up the work it will run before you know it.

 

Yenko,

Nice. Yes, sounds just like my situation and what I'm trying to do.

I really enjoy the snap of the current 4.56 gears but it will be nice to go back to a more highway friendly gear setup while at the same time increasing power output.

Thanks.

 

I don't think you will miss anything. mine spools fast and a 6.0 is a good engine before boost .

I went with a stock truck engine and used it all except the power steering pump shimmed the fuel line for 80# injectors and I just couldn't find a better option than the microsquirt for fuel and spark.

 

Took off after lunch to the salvage yard and ended up getting a 5.3 out of a '07 Silverado for $500.

He did said it was a running engine but the #7 cylinder was ticking and he felt
it was a lifter issue. They were having it pulled out today and I'll go back and pick it up Tuesday.

To get the wiring harness, ECU, and pedal would run another $1,000
I decided to hold off on that before I committed as it sounded a bit high to me.

Anybody have any thoughts on the harness, ECU, and pedal for that price?

 

You can do much better finding a Camaro or earlier truck harness. Along with the PCM. Then find a cable driven throttle body.
Obviously DBW works, but I think it adds unnecessary complication.
I think I have $350 total in the whole setup including the Lokar cable.

Ron

 

Sounds good. Thanks Ron.

I'm anxious to pick the motor up tomorrow so I can find out which block it is as well and getting it torn down and seeing how things look inside.

I'll hopefully upload some pics and more details this week.

 

Well my wife picked the engine up for me today. Not pretty but it's a place to start.
I have to call back tomorrow to get the VIN off the truck it came out of but it's supposed to be an '07 with 130,000 miles.
The block casting is 12567392 which I believe is an LM7.
Heads are aluminum and have 706 stamped on them. There was also a label on one of them which I've attached a picture of if anybody might know what it means.

 

I that ought to keep you busy. And dirty! Ain't it great?

Ron

 

And the fun begins! What motor mounts will you be using? And will you be running the stock truck accesories or going with a different setup? I plan on running the truck accesories for now, but i have yet to drop the engine into the car and be shown otherwise haha

 

Look out for a DOD cam, lifters and valley cover.

 

I worked on an 08 DOD motor a few weeks ago. Bad lifter.
It had 243 heads and flat top pistons.

 

Heh my 06 envoy Denali has DoD. Not sure what I am going to do with it just yet. Right now I am getting the 4x4 straightened out. Next will probably be cam, lifters and valley cover. Might have to do chain as well, not sure.

 

Yeah, I think he charged me an extra $5 for the dirt and mud dauber nest on the oil pan, lol.

Right now I'm not thinking too far ahead and I'm just going to start tearing it down this week and see what I'm dealing with. He said the #7 cylinder was ticking so I'm curious to see what I'll find. Hopefully nothing major.

Man, I don't even know what a DOD cam is...ha, I still have a lot to learn about these LS motors.

 

DoD is displacement on demand. There are special lifters, a cam with a little different cam and a funky valley cover that uses oil to control all this. Easily swapped out with a nice new cam, valley cover and lifters. Problem was probably the lifters as they are known to go out and cause that ticking noise.

 

Do yourself a favor and hose it down with a good degreaser and pressure clean it first. Makes a BIG difference!

Good luck!

 

Thanks. Certainly will. If anything it will make me feel all warm inside with it clean

I thought I might start the cleanup and tear down tonight but I'm thinking about heading out to the track this weekend for some test and tune on the current setup so I'll spend the evening removing the exhaust system.

Ahh, the sweet sound of open headers...

 

Thanks Sarg. Good info.

 

ECM/ECU shouldn't be too hard to find a good used one for pretty cheap. As far as a harness you can get a completely custom stand alone harness for well under $1000. My custom harness from Current Performance Wiring was ~$700 and to me was worth every penny as it made life A LOT easier if wiring isn't your strong part since a custom made harness will already be made to be stand alone (mine also came with the fuse box/panel and fuses all built in) As far as a pedal I'd just go cable.

 

if your not going to run an electronic trans it is hard not to run a microsquirt. i was looking to run a stock ecm and hptuners but it was way to expensive gm ecm and a good harness is $500 bucks and then you still need hp tuners for 5-700 depending on the one you buy. and the gm computer has a ton of stuff you dont need to run just the engine. i bought my micro thru efisource and built my harness but even if you buy there plug and play micro it is $799.00 complete and you can download tunerstudio for free and you are up and running and tuning. with my old trans it was a easy decision. JMHO.