[MDPotter]

It's been awhile since my first post - my dad and I have been working on his 64 and it's taken a lot longer than we anticipated and we only work on it one day a week. But all of the systems are done - fuel, brakes, cooling, steering, and wiring. Now we have to put all the front body panels on and load the doors.

As far as my 68 goes, I've been slowly working on my LQ9. The harness has been stripped of all the unnecessary wires/connectors, power wires merged, re-loomed, and PCM reprogrammed which is as far as I can go with it until I get it in the truck. I've really enjoyed that process - it's rewarding to do the rework yourself and couldn't have done it without Brendan at LT1Swap and all his info. Hopefully when I go to start it everything works! If not, I can always buy a harness.

I bought the LQ9 out of an 04 Escalade from a dismantler in New Hampshire and it's got quite a bit of rust and corrosion as you can see - I think they took the hood off it and let it sit out in the weather for at least a year. According to the seller, it only has 111,000 miles on it and I did find the salvage listing with the VIN they provided me and the mileage matches. Being a "trust but verify" person, I pulled off the manifolds and spark plugs and was able to shine a flashlight in to see the flat top pistons and I can even see the writing on them (they're that clean), so I feel pretty good about the engine. My initial plan was to rebuild it, but in the interest of budget and considering the condition of the engine, I've decided to replace a few parts and drop it in with the internals as-is. I've got it pretty well stripped down and a power steering pump (with 2 returns for future hydroboost), water pump, Speed Engineering headers, Speed Engineering engine plates, idler pulley, tensioner, starter, 4L80 flexplate, and rear brake rebuild kit on the way.

For anyone considering going the route I am - buying the engine separate from the transmission and going the "value" route - you get what you pay for. My dad chose to spend more on a complete dropout all aluminum Gen IV 5.3 with a 6L80 and it's immaculate compared to my LQ9. I've had to replace a few connectors that were damaged in addition to the parts I listed above. It's also got a lot of rust, corrosion, grease and grime on it. Going the route that I did will nickel and dime you every step of the way and take up more of your time, but it will save you money overall. If you want a complete dropout in excellent condition, you have to pay more.

I finally got a sport bumper put on as well. If you're buying repop brackets, make sure the ends of the inner brackets that attach to the bumper are flat so that when you tighten the bolt it doesn't damage your bumper. I got this heads-up in a bumper bracket thread and was able to heat up the portion of the bracket that had a bit of a curve to it and flatten it out and it worked just fine.

I'm hoping to finish up my dad's truck in the next few months so we can tear into mine. I've taken all the lessons learned and time up front to research all my ls swap parts so as to get the best value. I'll be ordering a reman 4L80 this month and at that point I'll have all the parts I need to mount the engine/trans to the truck. Just need more time!