lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

I actually started this project at the beginning of this month, so i've got quite a bit of progress into it already. I'm putting a 2005 6.0 in my Crew cab that had a 350. I'll be keeping the turbo 400 for now and will eventually put a 4l80e behind her later in the year. I just barely bought this crew cab back in August for $3k as my designated hunting truck. The 350 and turbo 400 was supposedly built 38k ago. I guess the truck originally had a diesel in it, but whoever swapped the 350 did a pretty good job. And to be honest, the 350 ran great, but i've been obsessed with these LS's since my recent Ford to Chevy conversion 2 years ago (bought an '06 Vmax).

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after i added bushwacker flares, replaced rear chrome bumper

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the designated 6.0....unfortunately no harness or ecm

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

my 6.0 had the harness all hacked up, I talked to jon@ psi performance, he's going to send me a new harness ($525) and a reflashed pcm. ($200)

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

Looks like a clean 6.0. I'm sure someone on here has an extra harness and computer. Looks like your setup is Drive by wire. Did you get the gas pedal to go with it?

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

Sorry guys, i didn't explain. I have a harness now. I bought one on ebay for $200 a month ago and already have it hacked up and about installed. I still have all the pictures of my progress to post. All i have left is to get an ecm and the tune to go with it.

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

I do have a pedal and Tac that i paid $125 for. The only thing i'm a tad worried about is that i think it was for a slightly different year and a 5.3. I've been told you want the TAC and pedal to be compatible with the throttle body. I wish they had a list with compatible S/N's for both TB's and TAC/pedal combo's.

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

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Here she is when i first bought her in August

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

I have an extra ECM from a 2003 5.3 and the guy that did mine charges $75 to flas them I think. Not sure what the computers are worth...

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

i do have a slight hang up you guys might be able to help me with. I bought the adapter bung for the passenger side head, and have already installed it, i belive its a 12mmx1.5? Anyhow, i need a 1/8 npt temp sender for the stock gauge in my truck. I'm definitely not sure if i need the full sweep, or short sweep. I do know that it needs to be the shallow temp sender (doesn't have the 1/4" unthreaded end) in order to fit in the bung. I found the autometer 2254, but it doesn't specify if its the shallow one or the long one.

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

Does that ECM have the blue and green or the blue and red labeled sockets?

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

I'll have to go look....

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

Blue/Red

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

From what I just read in one of my swap books I need the green blue ecm to be compatible with the year of pedal and tac I have

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

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front clip detatched
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front clip removed
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350 removed

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

sweet, this is gonna be a fun ride with that new lq4! cant wait to see more!

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

got the 350 hangin', the 6.0 at the bottom of the pic, and a 5.3 i got for $200to the right of the pic
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the stock motor mounts with the triangle dimples ground down
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the stock motor mounts bolted to the adapter plate (has holes for 1" foward, stock, or 1" back)
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Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

looks good in there.

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

What service # is the ecm you have and how much would you want?

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

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Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

Got my fuse box today. Its made by blue sea systems, and cost me about $50.

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Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

Lookin' good!

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

nice

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

I've been going crazy trying to find some decent price exhaust manifolds for about a month now. In my research i found that the F-body manifolds would be the best bet to fit, but no guarantees. So after looking for the past week for some, i finally had a set turn up on ebay. I bid on them and then decided it would be wise to sell a few of my truck manifolds that i had in my parts box. As i got pulling them out, it turns out, i have had some f-body manifolds all along. I remembered i had got off a blown up motor a friend gave before he moved last summer. I just bolted 'em up on my '85 and they fit perfect....tons of room. If you need any measurements off these manifolds let me know. The SN's are: 12611640 and 12611641. I google'd them and it looks like they're about $83-$100 a piece.
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I had originally started notching the passenger side frame for the truck manifolds but then stopped when i realized the driver's side was gonna be a lot worse to pipe up due to it sticking outward instead of rear-of-truck-ward. Driver's side frame is not notched in these pics (stock)

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

Here's the clearance issues with the stock truck manifolds.
passenger side
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driver's side, its resting right against the frame. I'm positive it would consistently hit every time you revved the motor.
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driver's side underneath where it fits into the frame rail. Its turned sharp enough towards the frame that you could pipe it up, but it'd be a pain and kinda ugly.
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Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

The other hang up i've had was trying to get my temp sender installation figured out. I initially bought the autometer adapter for a 1/8 temp sender i had sitting around, but the snout on the temp sender was too big to fit into the adapter. Not to mention, i don't even think the temp sender itself had the right ohms ratio to match my stock gauges. But i did try to drill out the inside of the autometer adapter and actually got the temp sender to fit. Problem is though, when i installed it and snugged it down, it broke the adapter threads off at the collar and so i had to use an easy out to back the brass threads out of the hole. I thought of buying the S&P adapter to fit my 1/2" stock sender, first they're spendy and second they're so freakin' long it looks ugly sticking out not to mention i was a lil worried about clearance with the A/C box. So i found where people have been Milling the stock 1/2" senders down and Dying them to 12mmx1.5. Turns out i have a friend at our church that machine's for a hobby. So I had him turn it down and dyed it for me and it fits like it belongs there. I HIGHLY recommend this approach. Looks good and is very easy to have done.
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Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

What year F-body? They look like newer Camaro or G8 manifolds. The fit is nice :cool:

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

I believe they're the 2010 manifolds, but i don't know, when you search the SN's you get 6.2 for the description. The block they came on was supposedly a 5.3 out of a truck. My friend got the motor from a dealership that had the motor replaced on warranty. He gave it to me cause he was moving to Florida and not wanting to haul a mystery motor with him. I tore it down and found a cylinder sidewall blown open and a bent piston rod. The block has the 4.8 5.3 stamped on the outside, so i know those manifolds probably didn't come with it, since the 2010 camaro's are 6.2's right? I'm guessing the dealership threw them on there for some odd reason.

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

Very nice work, looks great!!

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

6.0 edlebrock shorty headers fit perfect on my driver side on passenger needed some slight hammer work to fit nothing im worried about they came on motor and i'm not a fan of frame notching also depends on the motor mounts had mine been set forward i would've had more of a problem

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

Got a question for ya. I've just about got my wiring all done. Was wondering how the check engine light wire works coming out of the PCM? Does it constantly supply 12v or a ground and then interrupts it, or vice versa?
I found a mystery plug going into my firewall that has 2 plain yellow wires, one yellow black stripe wire and a solid black wire. When i let the black wire hang free, my check engine light comes on. But when i put it to 12v or ground, it goes out, so i'm assuming this used to be a switch or something that ran off the carb or diesel motor somewhere between the two engines that have been in this truck. I even went to the junk yard and went through about 6 old chevs/gm's and they didn't have this plug. I'll try and get pics tomorrow if i remember.

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

Great build so far. Killer looking truck!

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

Guess i better update whats happened the past month. 2 days ago i fired her up for the first time! It was a huge relief....started on the first crank. I was worried about the DBW working completely correct and it did!

I did have a few other issues to work through though. For one my exhaust wasn't fab'd up yet, so i just hung the O2's just under the manifolds with some fencing wire. It would start up just fine, but when it idled down and tried to smooth out, the idle would deteriorate within 40 seconds to a bad lope to where it was about to die. Since then, i finally got the exhaust fab'd in and it fixed that idling problem.

Second problem was my temperature. According to my dash gauge i was hitting 240 degrees and my thermostat wasn't opening (top and bottom rad hoses were still cold) and my electric fans weren't kicking on. I was worried it was gonna over heat. So i left it alone till i could borrow a temp gun from a friend. Turns out my dash gauge is way off. I'm guessing the gauge doesn't match my temp sender, so i'll be heading to the junk yard to find another gauge. I'd change the sender out, but i had it milled down and threaded to metric for the block. I finally just ran it around town and then let it sit in my driveway and the top hose finally got hot and then my fans kicked on, so i'm positive my gauge is not mated with my sender correctly.
Third problem, i broke my VSS. For some reason the square stock that you use to run from the transfer case into the VSS is too long and when i tightened it down, it pushed into the VSS too much and eventually broke the stem inside. So now my truck surges a little when first starting out and drops off a hair too much when i let off since it doesn't know its moving. New VSS should be here Monday though. I did drive it with the VSS working before i tightened it down more, so i know this is the drive ability issues i'm having.

The fourth issue i'm still working is that my Power Steering pump is whining. It doesn't do it when i'm idling, just when i give it some RPMs and if i apply the brakes (hydro boost).

Other than that, she runs like a champ. Definitely has A LOT of top end compared to the 350 i had in there before. And it cruises so smoothly!

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

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Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

Nice progress dude!

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Been driving it for about 2 weeks now. I don't think i'll ever run a carbureted motor in an old vehicle again! The difference is substantial! Very very smooth, Tons of top end, Fires up first try everytime, Runs very cool. And although the TH400 isn't helping my mileage, its still better than the 350 i had.

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

Awesome build! I am thinking about doing another LS swap with a crew cab like yours. I am currently doing one in a 68 SWB and I also love the added power and drivability it has. When I got mine fired up, it was whinning like that also, and I thought it was the PS pump going bad, but I was checking the PS fluid level and noticed the fluid was really dirty. So I ran it for a little while. Shut it off, got a turkey baster, and sucked out as much of the fluid as I could. Filled it with fresh fluid and flushed again. It made all of the whining go away and now doesnt make any noise at all. I think it was from the engine sitting or the original fluid never being changed. Its worth a shot. Im very interested to see how this turns out.

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

What kind of mileage are you getting with the TH400 behind it? I am about to tear my truck down for a LS engine, and like you will be running my th400 for the time being.

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

my 6.o/4l80e is better on gas than my 305/700r4 was...with double the hp/tq.

Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

Yeah, I understand that. I am curious what he gets with a non od tranny though.
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Re: lq4 6.0 swap into '85 Crew Cab Shorrbed
 

With the carbed 350 i was only getting about 10-11 mpg. With the 6.0 i've been getting a consistant 12-13, but i have had my foot into it quite a bit more than i did with the 350. Its hard to let that extra 100hp just sit there if you know what i mean. I'm currently in the process of acquiring a 700r4 that i will be putting the TCI constant pressure valve body it it. And i'm certain i'll be able to get it up to about 15-17 mpg.