Blake Fish

I have recently purchased a 1993 k1500 Chevy pick up. It a regular cab long box with a 5 speed. The truck is mint because it’s my old work truck and never seen salt. The truck has a 305 in it but I’d like to put a 5.3 in it.wondering what the best way to do this is and not spend a pile of money I was thinking about 1500-2000 not including the motor. Is this possible and how?

ss.slp.ls1

iTrader: (36)

I don't know the specifics of the swap into your chassis, however 2000 seems like a tight budget to get the motor mounts, oil pan?, headers, custom wire harness, and fuel system. That doesn't even address the transmission. Are you looking to use a T56 for your conversion?

G Atsma

Keeping in mind your truck is 4WD, you might want to find an engine/drivetrain out of a late 4WD truck and use the newer engine/tranny/transfercase complete. And make sure you get ALL electrics that go with it, out of the donor truck. Many headaches will be averted!

freda155

Make sure you get an oilpan with integrated oil filter bracket. I have remote oil filter and those AN -10 hoses and connections add plenty of "wasted" money. (Oil pan was included in a deal, and getting another pan was much more expensive than completing the remote filter system.)

My climate doesn't dictate external oil cooling, so it is a complete waste. And routing the hoses and placing the filter took some time, too.

Also: the brand new fuel filter/pressure regulator was faulty out of the box, too. So get hold of a fuel pressure gauge early on.

B52bombardier1

Its possible to do what you want to do but not easy and I agree with all that is posted above. Are you good with re-pinning wire harnesses and reading electrical diagrams?. Do you have a multimeter and know how to use it? Engine hoist? Really good set of metric tools? A welder might be needed, drill press, etc . . . hard to say in your case. You will need somebody with powertrain control module (PCM) modification skills and I prefer to deal with somebody local to me rather than mail order modding. And these folks charge money because software licensing your now modded PCM costs money - not a lot, but some, its unavoidable. We can give you all kinds of advice here but also take advantage of You Tube. Just search on terms such as "LS engine swap" to reveal an avalanche of swap videos, discussions, etc.

You might get lucky and find that somebody has done a swap on your vehicle style already.

Rick

JoeNova

Since you had a 305 in yours, the 5.3 should be an easy swap.

The completely stock 5.3 should drop right in using a $22 flexplate adapter (and a dremel) and some $30 ebay motor mount adapters to use the stock mounts from your 305. Stock 5.3 truck oil pan SHOULD fit, as should the 305 fan shroud if you decide to use the water pump mounted fan on the 5.3. Bolt it to your old transmission and you don't have to worry about the drivetrain. Its physically bolted in for less than $100.

The swap doesn't have to be complicated or expensive.

DT69cam

The little incidentals will cost you 1000 alone. Ask me how I know.

ryeguy2006a

iTrader: (27)

Well said! I was thinking the same thing, these swaps don't have to be crazy expensive. Other hurdles that you will need to worry about are the wiring harness modifications/Fuel system/exhaust. I would be willing to bet that the truck manifolds will work, but if not possibly fbody manifolds.

JoeNova

Truck manifolds should work, so no added cost there. You can buy flanges to build the rest of the exhaust around them for $30.

Wiring harness is $50 if you do it yourself with the stock one. That cost will cover new pins for the PCM so you can shorten excessively long wires (or you can bundle them up and loom it and save $25 on pins), $10 for a 6-pin fuse panel from parts store, $2 for an ebay relay for fuel pump. $5 for some terminals. That's about all you need.

Fuel system usually runs me $250 going from carb to EFI. That's inline Walbro 255 with 6AN fittings, vette regulator with fittings, 40 feet of 6AN pushlok hose from Summit, some hose ends, fuel rail fitting. If you have return style rails, skip out on the vette regulator, buy a cheap filter and put there instead, and then run the return line back from the rails to the tank (I just drill a hole somewhere, filler neck works). If your fuel system is setup for 58 PSI already, then you can use that, you just need to hook the old lines to the rails.

Exhaust? Cheap local exhaust shop and $200 usually does it.

G Atsma

To avoid looking for exhaust flanges, from the donor vehicle if possible, cut the pipes below the flanges, and take them along

gjestico

iTrader: (5)

Are you paying someone else to do it ? or do you have a bunch of free expert help on hand ?

jeffs55chevy

i plan on doing a similar swap in my brother s 1994 k2500 350 5 speed. the research ive come up with, is to use stock 5.3 truck manifolds,stock 5.3 truck oil pan, 1'' setback mount plates, either an in-tank walbro pump, or a stock fuel pump from a 98 silverado with the spider injection setup. i havent read about the clutch/flywheel setup yet, but it might just be as simple as getting a nfw1050 flywheel, and the appropriate clutch for the tranny. you should be able to use the power steering lines from either truck.supposedly the gauge cluster senders/sensors for the 93 truck should fit the 5.3 or might have to be adapted to fit. but then your cluster still works. i plan on reworking the harness to be stand alone using lt1swap.com. ive used that info before works great. reworking your 5.3 harness will save a lot of money. i think your budget of $1500-$2000 is very doable even if it includes the price of the motor.

Blake Fish

gjestico

iTrader: (5)

For another dose of honesty maybe check out this thread :

https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...67-camaro.html

G Atsma

x2 on the thread! Reality!

GonHuntin

iTrader: (2)

'93 is already a fuel injected truck with the pump in the tank.......I'd think worst case you would have to change the pump and use a regulator for the 5.3

CattleAc

iTrader: (7)

Scared that guy so bad, he never came back after his first post...

G Atsma

Either that or he just soaked up all the good (???) advice, kept quiet, and carried on... lol

92_Corvette

iTrader: (1)

It can be done for a very affordable cost. I did my 91 c1500 with a 5 speed about 2 years ago. For the pump just upgrade the in tank Pump, install a corvette filter. As for oil pan and headers the stock truck stuff fits just fine. For a clutch setup to use with your nv3500 use a clutch kit for an 04 Silverado with a v8 and 5 speed.

For wiring cut up a donor harness, and use a 98 transam coolant temp sensor. Two wires are for he pcm and wire the third to your temp gauge. And you can adapt the oil pressure switch from your truck to fit the ls block with an adapter, I forget the sizes.

hope this helps

Blake Fish

Thank you everyone for the advice so far i just picked up a LM7 motor with 62000 miles came with all the goods and harness and pedal assembly. The motor came out of a vehicle with anti-theft, is the security system delete something i will have to have a dealer do or is that something a decent snap on scanner can do. im a ways out from turning a key but some of these odds and ends are the potential budget killers im trying to avoid or at least plan for. at this point along with a few tools i "needed" im closing in on 1100, iv got a fuel pump, transmission parts, motor mounts, gasket kit. things i need yet are a cam, springs, and new fuse block. Possible headache im seeing is a/c the truck im installing in has it, is that something i can transfer with a few wires and fabricated bracket? And as far as being scared away not the case like said earlier i was just soaking up knowledge. one last thing almost forgot what is a good multi meter for this project....doesnt have to be top of the line because its going to be the first and last time i use it for the most part.