1981 Stepside 5.3 swap

[mej005]

Originally Posted by Sodell

That dash looks great, how much did you use from the donor truck?
What size tires are you running?

Sorry for the questions but I hate to spend money on a n after market dash when I could have the look you achieved, awesome idea!

Thanks, I used the entire dash from a 64-66 C10 and added more metal to make it fit around the windshield and A pillars. It was also widened a couple of inches. The tires are 255/60/15 on the front and 275/60/15 on the back.

[83 Silverado]

Truck looks great and I like the dash swap, but I'd like to know if you re-work the stock wiring for the 5.3 or is it a aftermarket harness.

[dsanc754]

Did you have to use the dirty dingo mounts or could you have made it work without them? And where did you get your wiring harness from?
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[mej005]

It's the stock 5.3L harness, I just reworked it using diagrams and instructions from lt1swap.com. I also built my own fuse block using parts shown on there also. It wasn't hard to do it was just time consuming.

I used the dirty dingo mounts for the adjustability. The engine I have has the mechanical fan and I wanted to be able to put it in the fan shroud where it needed to be. I could have made it work with just the adapter plates, but I wanted the adjustability.

[dsanc754]

what did you use to mount trans?

[mej005]

Originally Posted by dsanc754

what did you use to mount trans?

I used the stock crossmember, just redrilled holes to move it back.

[dsanc754]

did you have to swap oil pans or did it just because you dropped the truck?

[Jonboy]

The truck looks great! Just a few questions, though. 1. What exhaust manifolds did you use? 2. What did you use for a radiator, or more specifically- how did you deal with the steam hose? 3. did you modify the gas pedal (DBW) or is yours using an accelerator cable?

[mej005]

I didn't have to swap pans, I only did it for clearance because of the drop. The stock truck pan works, but it hangs down to low for my comfort.

I'm running tbss manifolds, stock 4 core radiator with 2000 silverado upper and lower hoses, and the steam port ran to the upper hose using an adapter I got at Jegs. It's dbc and I was able to use the cable from a 2000 silverado with the 1981 pedal.
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[Jonboy]

Cool, thanks!

[mej005]

Originally Posted by Jonboy

Cool, thanks!

No problem, if you think of anything else don't hesitate to ask.
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