I have a LS1 block, crank, heads and intake. But NONE of the sensors or electronics, wiring or fuel system. This is the stuff that adds up fast.

I'm thinking the best bang for the buck would be to buy a $1200-$1500 low mile 5.3 pullout with everything on it and computer and swap out the block with my 5.7 LS1.

Are any of the sensors different from a iron to alum block?

I'm looking for resources for differences between the GEN III and GEN IV wiring harness & PCM

A 5.3 PCM can be tuned, right?

Thanks,

--JMarsa

 

Why are you looking for GEN III and IV differences? They are both III. You can get a harness made or see if you cant get just the harness from a salvage yard. That would be the easiest thing for you to do, and probably the cheapest. Allen Nelson from Nelson Performance makes one hell of a harness, then all you would need is the sensors, and yes you can use the pcm, just have it flashed with a full OS for an LS1.

 

I wasn't sure if there was a significant software change in the PCM or not. I know the change from the 24x reluctor wheel caused probs for a while on the LS2's, stuff like that.

Thanks for the tip on Nelsons. I thought they only built kickass engines!

--JMarsa

 

Haha, they do kickass everything! Are you doing the tuning or is Nelson or someone else? Sounds like its going to be a good setup.

Yeah, Nelson has a great harness. He can even do custom lengths for relocation of sensors or custom setups. I think its a very reasonable price also.

Chris

 

I'm new to all this. I'll have to farm out the tuning. I'm in Detroit. so there are some shops arounds here. I'm hoping for close to 400RWHP but I'm not sure if I can get there on budget 5.3 or LS1 heads and have a streetable cam.

--JMarsa

 

Not sure on a budget 5.3 build. Just do an LS1 with a mild cam, headers, all the usual crap and a good street tune. I say street tune because you want it to have good driveability since I assume it will see more street than track. You can get it tuned up on a dyno, just make sure all the part throttle is done on the street.

 

Been reading in the dyno section. Looks like for that target I'll have to have to invest in head work. I'll look into porting the ls1's or the 5.3s.

Thanks for the advice on the electronics. Not havng any harness, sensors or fuel system for a transplant car makes the initial buy in steep. I think this is a good plan to get started.

--JMarsa

 

5.3 pcm = ls1 pcm

 

Your line of thinking with the 5.3 is slick my friend. 5.3s are plentiful, cheap, iron block-spray the **** out of it. Now add this idea, Vic Jr. Intake, blows away the competition, and if you want to go absolute budget run a carb to boot. Ok now you are asking what about spark? Gotcha covered on that one too. Use the stock coils and pcm! You can have a custom program setup for this. I have done this with success.

 

I like your idea too Doc. For roughly the price of a LS6 intake and cable TB 78mm or larger, I could buy the Edelbrock intake w/ injector bosses and thier 4BL throttle body.

So in this case the stock PCM would drive the OEM injectors and the TPC and IAC of the Edelbrock 4BL TB right?

--JMarsa

 

You could do that or just run a carb. Or you could goto Intake Elbows dot com Sponsor----> and get one of their elbows and hook up a TB. Endless cheap results. Don't tell anybody tho...

 

One last thing. If I went with the Edelbrock set-up, my tuning would be speed density right because I wouldn't have a MAF right? Is this compatable wth the stock PCM? Is it less granular than tradition tuning with a full OEM style set-up?

Going to check out the sponors now!

--JMarsa

 

No reason why you could'nt use a MAF. That is the beauty of this setup. You can make it as complicated as you want it to be.

 

Just checked out www.intakeelbows.com

Crazy things is I have sketches of the same products thay have. I was just thinking the other night that someone needs to make elbows that accept a std TB to a 4BL style mount.

Thanks again,

--JMarsa