Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Fyi

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

I Like this

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Big Update guys! motor is in! it was the fastest motor install ive ever seen. Our engine hoist operator got a little carried away with turning the handle to lower it down slowly.... balancer left a small dent in core support but it went in smooth other than that lol.

The Speed Engineering Headers fit great!

The transmission wasn't quite centered on our crossmember, so i loosened all engine mount bolts and was able to pull it to the middle by hand.

Only loose ends are
1. Drive shaft taken to be fitted/shortened.
2. Figure out how to get proper radiator hoses to fit 5.3 to our Aluminum radiator we had gotten when it was still a 350. (any Ideas guys?!?!)
3. make custom transmission lines uses 6-AN fittings
4. Have a High pressure power steering line made
5. Get 3/8 line I Bent Brazed into our sending Unit

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

i like the work you have done so far. you are an ls1 swap king. i use braided line for my power steering, transmission line, and fuel lines. they sell adaters for everything. When you ordering stuff, you gotta know the thread pitch. for the power steering punp i will weld on the -6AN bungs. good luck.

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Look'n good in the LS neighborhood!!!

I'm an old schooler Chevy engine guy, but the LS is an awesome engine!!! It's like 1955 all over again. Hot Rodders back in 55 were scrounging the salvage yards for freshly wrecked Chevys to extract the engines out of for their Hot Rod projects......
You've done an excellent job on your swap.

I'm learning about the LS deal. Just acquired a nice 05 1/2 ton a friend bought new, 5.3, I like it!!!

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Thanks for the support! I love the LS platform, only complaint is the Lifter Location....

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Update time!

1. Got my Braided lines made for the transmission!
2. Factory 5.3 Radiator hoses actually fit the Radiator (some hot water and stretching was included)
3. Got cooling fans mounted to Rad.
4. Driver side Battery tray is mounted.

Still thinking of best way to mount the PCM, been thinking of getting camaro/Firebird PCM mount from the salvage, its small and doesnt take up as much room as the Truck PCM mount. (Under the battery possibly).

OH FUN FACT!! was able to use the factory 1971 c10 Power steering hose after switching out the pressure fitting on back side of pump using the fitting from the 1971 pump. bent the line a tad and it fit like a champ!.

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Looks good. Did you keep the AC Compressor in the stock location? Are going to run AC?

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

With the ICT engine mounts we couldnt run the stock compressor. Next year i would like to
Install vintage air. We havent had air conditioning in the truck for a very long time!...

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Merry christmas everyone.

It was difficult not sharing with everyone what i had purchased back in November for my dad for christmas! One of the most important parts of a ls swap, dakota digital cluster!

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Man that's nice! Truck looks good

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Those gauges look awesome. great present and perfect for an LS swap!

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

I had mounts that were virtually the same as the ICT mounts just didnt have the name. . I was able to modify them to keep my compressor low. It took some work but now that its done its nice to have it down low. just an idea

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

progress has been slow, its to dang cold to do anything right now! On the bright side we got power to the truck again! still looking for a PCM mount that fits under the battery tray and need to fab up some mounts for our dakota digital control boxes.

Dakota Digital included its own oil sending unit and prohibits using the factory one. from what i have read i can just remove the factory oil sending unit from behind the intake and install the provided one? as long as it was an 2002 pcm the pcm doesnt require oil pressure input??

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Update!

Made a bracket for the Dakota Digital control box, came out really good! and dang does this dash look good all lit up!!

Got the driveshaft cut down and installed.

fuel pump wired up, just need to add a few hose clamps and get the fuel system primed.

got a shift linkage hooked up, gotta tinker with the adjustment tho, a little close to the header.....

We are within a week or two of finally starting it.

only issue I have ran into has been the two O2 sensor wires, im not sure which one is bank 1 or bank 2, all the wires are the same color, only difference is one is long and one is short.....

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Nice looking build. For the O2 wires, you'll most likely need to get a voltmeter and check continuity between the sensor plug and the PCM connector to be sure which is which, because you definitely don't want to get them swapped side for side, that makes for a hard to figure out problem, but I've seen people do it more than once.

On a side note... Is the truck a '91 Chevy truck color? A buddy of mine painted his '72 a similar color back in '90 I believe, and I think it was called Brilliant Blue, and was a new color on the trucks that year.

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

I will have to try that, i didn't even think of doing that :dohh:

If memory serves me right, the color is actually a 90's model Ford Probe color lol (http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3818467/1991-ford-probe/). Dad had walked into a paint shop asking questions and the guy had a old dodge he was painting, and the stripe down the side was the same blue and my dad fell in love with the color. I think thats how that went :lol:

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Looking good. Subscribed

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

I put power to the PCM tonight for the first time, so i could see if my Dakota Digital would communicate through the OBDII port and it wouldnt.... Even tried using my scan tool i keep in my car to monitor MPG ect and still nothing.

let me start by saying im completely self taught at wiring, very basic.

But tonight i had to get out of my comfort zone lol. So i found the pin out diagram on google for the PCM and found that pin 58 on the blue connector is the serial data for OBDII, so i got my Multi-meter and did a resistance test to the plug and got nothing.

next I removed every bit of the Loom to the PCM and traced the wire back to the number 50 pin out on the red PCM connector which turns out to be the VSS signal.... Turns out the VSS signal wire was wired to the 58 pin out on the blue connector with them being completely swapped.....

We are gonna try to start the truck tomorrow and hope the guy in OKC who did our standalone loom didn't screw up anything else :m6:

Wish us luck guys! i was able to get fuel pressure tonight and got the coolant added, just gotta turn her over a bit to build up some oil pressure and to get some fluid thru the trans.

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Got it running! Video to come!

It was a pain in the butt tho! Cranked and cranked and cranked! Cylinder number 1 was the only one even trying. Put fuel pressure gauge on it and had around 60psi at the rail. Checked for spark had that, then rented a injector noid light kit from autozone, had each injector light up. So at this point im like what the heck could it be lol. Pulled fuel rail off and not a single injector was squirting!
So got a guy in town who does a bunch of these swaps loan us some injectors and that solved our problem.

Our steering box is leaking like a sift and our electric cooling fans never kicked on, maybe not tuned right?

Edit: Heres the Video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_FR...ature=youtu.be

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Sounds really good. I had an issue like that. mine just cranked for a few times. turned out i had no power to the coils haha. worth it when it finally fired though. my fans kick on around like 204-6. did you let it warm enough to trigger them?

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

I'm pretty sure I let it get over 210, i would have let it run longer, but steering box was leaking really bad at our return hard line. (ordered a new one from LMC lol). next video i put out will be much better.... it was past 10 at night and 36 degrees outside and i was quite cold..... I had to keep foot on gas to keep it running, so still needs a good tune, hopefully i can figure out if fans are being triggered during that too.

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

Lol im sure that was fun having fluid shoot everywhere after you just spent all that time getting everything clean ha. Depending how long you let it idle it prob wasn't warm enough for fans. the LS runs really cool. Mine this morning took a long time to warm to operating temp on my way to work and it was like 60 degrees this morning. once it does warm it'll stay right where it should be until im in a drive through or something sitting for minutes on end, than itll kick the fan on for a second and right back off. I'd bet if you only had it running under 5 minutes it wasn't to temp yet.

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

well we let it get some more run time yesterday and used my scangauge to monitor the temp. got up to 216 without fans kicking on, I've gotten mixed ideas on what the fan turn on is lol. ive read some say it is 220, that seems a little hot.... ordered a new pressure side power steering line hoping to fix our leak at the gear box.

anyways got a much better video up on youtube now. still open headers :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td_5GWFD8kE

Re: 1971 5.3/4L60E first time swap
 

I've read up to 220 as well. Mine was tuned by Brendan at LS1swap.com
Maybe he sets the fans different? im not 100% sure. One thing I can say for sure is my low fan comes on around 204-6. wounder if the different years make a difference. mine is from a 2000 Tahoe.

Sounds healthy in the video. I really like the intake