Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

dropped the oil pan to validate if this is a 5.3 or a 4.8 since the PCM VIN suggests a 4.8 but it was listed on Craigslist as a 5.3

oh yeah... that's Dusty in the background, Rusty's daddy!

well according to Cliff's How To Channel on YouTube 4.8 or 5.3 LS Vortec? How to Know For Sure! my crank number is not 12552216 so it is not the 5.3

Side note, the oil pan is nice and cast aluminum, awesome work GM!

[Gregski]

ok now for some good news, with much persistence I built a Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit computer and finally got that darn Tech2Win software to work with the Chinese knock off VXDIAG VCXNANO Vehicle Communication Interface

[Gregski]

so as you ride shotgun with me on this my first LS Journey, I would like to document and share all of the LS Lessons Learned aka LSLLs for the fans and prosperity

the first thing my buddy who owns an LS2 equipped Chevy Trailblazer asked when I shared with him I scored an "LS" enjin and transmission, was: "Did you get the TCM?" huh what? I responded, what the hewk is a TCM

the Transmission Control Module he replied, earning my blank stare, ha ha

which brings us to Lesson Learned # 1.

LS Lesson Learned #1 - we are going to call this there are Three Kinds of Computers, although that's not what we really mean, but allow me to explain

PCM stands for Power Control Module, this is what our LS truck engines come with 1999-07 respectfully this single computer box controls both the engine and transmission

ECM aka Engine Control Module, you guessed it, the ECM controls the engine alone

vehicles with ECMs have a separate cousin box called the TCM which is the Transmission Control Module I guess, I really am not up on that, but that's as far as I go

[Gregski]

one thing I always do when I buy an engine off a car is remove the oil pan from the engine and clean the crud out of the oil pan, this is a good idea for a number of reasons:

1. it tells you how well the previous owner(s) (mis)treated the vehicle, ha ha

2. it prevents the 20 year old crud from contaminating new oil and straining the new oil fiters

this brings us to LS Lesson Learned #2.

The factory stock oil pan gasket in riveted on in two places to the oil pan and those rivets need to be drilled out in order to replace the gasket

the Greg did not know that

[Gregski]

this sums up my current LS level of expertise, ie cleaning the oil pan

honestly guys the reason I am showing you that Target bottle of regular dish soap, because I always hear of guys looking for that magic silver bullet of cleaning, Simple Green, Orange Purple Power stuff, Sea Foam, expensive Brake Cleaners, etc... when all you need is something to break down grease and oil, now if only we had such a thing already in the household... hmmm

simple cheap dish soap and hot water works great

I also think that any time you get an engine out of a car it's a must to drop the oil pan and clean it out perfectly clean, it is way better than pumping in any type of Synthetic high mileage engine snake oils or using super duper oil filters made from unobtainium, ha ha

and don't get me started on guys who change the oil but don't change the oil filter!

so turn on some music, drink a beer or two, and have at it, it's very therapeutic

[end rant]

[hatzie]

If it's not leaking the gasket is re-usable.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by hatzie

If it's not leaking the gasket is re-usable.

thanks bud, unfortunately mine separated (rubber from the metal part)

[Gregski]

figure I make a list of the things I will need to take care of to make this LS Swap happen, sort of high level, feel free to share your thoughts give me your input, these are sort of in order of how you can do this, ie dependencies

BASIC LS SWAP REQUIREMENTS LIST

1. Thin out wiring harness (optional)
2. Make bench wiring harness for programming the PCM yourself (optional)
3. Disable anti theft in the PCM (DYI or send it in to a specialist)
4. Motor Mounts (ie adapter plates)
5. Transmission cross member? or will the stock one work (I have 4 to choose from)
6. Fuel Pump / Sending Unit (like to use an in tank one, hopefully factory OEM will fit)
7. Fuel Lines (hose adapter fittings, do I use my hard lines or run high pressure rubber ones)
8. Transmission Lines (will I need extensions? / adapter fittings)
9. Build Custom Fuse block (optional if using factory one)
10. Install engine wiring harness
11. Drive shaft lengthened / shortened?
12. HP Tuners - disable Emission Controls (EGR, Evap, post cat O2s, etc.)
13. Some sort of gauge cluster to see my LS engine feedback

* Green means done!

I am going to update this list throughout the project as things change or creep up on me as they always do. This is my first swap, so be gentle. The end goal of this list is a self propelled vehicle, not an 800 horse power twin turbo pavement scorcher.

[Gregski]

Motor mounts, motor mounts, motor mounts

seems like the first thing we need to do is find a way to install the actual engine in the truck... and for that we need to find a way to bolt it in some how, and there is an obvious difference in the blocks motor mount system SBC (3 bolt) vs LSes (4 bolt)

many choices, people seem to like the aluminum LSX Innovations (some hate them cause supposedly they crack, but I hear that is user error, see one of the videos below)

I like making my own solutions, so I really dig this young man and how he is a problem solver, rare these days in the iPhone iGeneration

MrJohn613 Budget LS Swap : Adapt Motor Mounts Free DIY question is, would you do this?


Bad Luck Garage WHICH LS SWAP ENGINE MOUNTS DO I USE? recommends the LSX Innovations motor mount adapter plates

these work if you want to keep the factory LS AC according to Lonnie's Garage (Puppetkicker) 1984 C10 Project ---- LS Swap Part 1 (Motor, Mount Adaptor Plates, and More)

[hatzie]

There are multiple threads about disabling GM VATS on the hptuners board.
Your PCM may not even have VATS.

[LeesTruk]

Some food for thought; think about taking the nose of the truck off (12 screws IIRC). makes the swap SOOOO much easier! You can use your 350 engine clamshells(they bolt to your engine plates) to place the engine onto the original V8 frame mounts. Before thinking about a trans crossmember, set your engine/trans combo into the truck and see where the new trans wants to be. You may find that one of your four trans mounts will suffice and that also your stock driveshaft may work as is, too. My big concern for you is your vehicle being California Emission compliant. Do you have to go through emissions testing/inspection?

[hatzie]

Rusty is a 1974.
Unless I'm mistaken it's exempt in California since the model year is prior to 1975.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by hatzie

Rusty is a 1974.
Unless I'm mistaken it's exempt in California since the model year is prior to 1975.

Correct, and a huge reason why I bought it, at the time I had a kid at a tattoo parlor drop his '77 stepside (with rotted out wooden bed floor, missing inner fenders, but really nice engine from a Nova he said) from $2,500 down to $500 but I wanted no part of SMOG testing, and he knew it, the magical year is 1975 or prior, the window was supposed to slide to 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979... but Swartzeneigher terminated that... (see what I did there?)

[LeesTruk]

OHHHHHHMYEYES...…….

[Gregski]

parts starting to show up

other than the obvious things like engine mounts and different exhaust manifolds, the two biggest differences are the fuel system and the wiring system

FUEL SYSTEM - unlike the small block Chevy, the LS(ish) engines use fuel injection which means pressure 10 times that of the SBC

WIRING - below I show the components needed to roll my own fuse block, I will be following Brandon's instructions found on Fuse Block and OBD2 Port Wiring Information with the exception that I will not be lumping multiple components on the same fuse like he does, so for example in my design the coils will have their own fuse and the PCM will have it's own

[Gregski]

so it shall be written, so it shall be done, the LS Swap commenced at 2100 last night - being a one man circus act I decided to pull my Edelbrock Estreet heads off this Milk Shake Machine whilst still in the truck, and that engine bay was recently cleaned and painted but then I ran old valve covers on brand new aluminum heads and that gyzered oil all over my firewall, before switching to those super awesome tall and cast BRODIX beauties, whah whah whah, we shall clean that up too

[Gregski]

my solo hood liftin' days are over, luckily we had 4 teen boys for a sleep over for our son's graduation so they did the heavy liftin' ... and the stage was set

[Gregski]

the rest was a solo act, but this wasn't my first Rodeo so it was out in a Jiffy...

a heavy duty floor mat makes for a great core support shield, who knew? just flip it upside down for leakage protection

[Gregski]

getting stuck in this garage floor crack was the worst of it

[Gregski]

and then I got to clean up the oily mess left behind from me being cheap and trying to run my old original valve covers on the brand new aluminum Edelbrock E-Street cylinder heads - those two just didn't pair very well

[Gregski]

Of Note: this is where I have something interesting to share, some of you may recall that I spent the last 4 years chasing a clicking clacking noise which I thought was:

1. rockers
2. exhaust leak
3. bearings
4. fuel pump
5. distributor
6. I forget what else I tried to blame it on

well, when I went to pull of the passenger side clam shell motor mount to transfer it to the LS engine I realized it was only barely held on with one bold, the other two fell out !!!

[Gregski]

with the engine bay clean enuff for the girls we go out with... it was time to drop the new(ish) LS engine in, and I would be lying to you if I said it was easy or that I am done, the engine likes to sit tucked way back and I need to go around and loosen all the frame mounts to slide them forward as much as possible to get that engine away from the firewall some

to be continued...

[Gregski]

I don't usually do LS Swaps, but when I do I ensure it's 105° F out! ������

engine is mounted

trans is mocked up using one of my four trans cross members (not too fond of this x-member, prefer my double hump ��)

driveshaft is at least 3" too long so I might get a new one made as this one is out of an 305 ci El Camino it's one oof them 3" tappered down to like 2 1/2 at each end

[Rich84]

Looks like it belongs there..I'm just thrilled that I don't have to read all that carburetor mumbo jumbo stuff anymore. I had no idea what the heck you were talking about half the time. LOL

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Rich84

Looks like it belongs there..I'm just thrilled that I don't have to read all that carburetor mumbo jumbo stuff anymore. I had no idea what the heck you were talking about half the time. LOL

LMAO, yeah me too!