81 K5 "Arctic Blaze" H.O. 5.3 / SM465 swap

[whitels1]

I figure I should just jump right in with a swap thread, If you guys are like me you just want to scroll and look a pics lol. I will however include some information.. so watch out. I purchased my K5 in 2009 for 500 bucks, 350/TH350/NP208, it had been sitting in the desert for 5 years, after some TLC, lift, tires, and a SM465/NP205 swap last year, it's been my wheeling and towing rig. I had a properly tuned Q-jet but even then climbing steep hills made for a pucker situation. Solution LS1 or similar LS truck motor, either way it didn't matter to me, I'm looking for driveability, rock crawlability, and towability.

After much parts gathering, I felt I had enough parts to make it happen so it was time to tie up the garage for a few months. Wife.... not happy!











Some clean up.






Mock up engine ready to go in, Advance adapters brackets, beef 3/8" thick.





Truck oil pan and pulley clear

[whitels1]

99 F-body manifolds fit great.





I will be mounting my 99-00 f-body PCM inside the cab to protect it from water, mud, etc so going through the 99-00 f-body harness was necessary, and lots of unneeded stuff was removed.


I started by labelling all of the wires that go into the Blue and Red plugs, and also got the pin outs from ls1tech.com.




I labelled and removed all sensor plugs from the harness except the Injectors and coils.

[whitels1]

Draping the harness over the mock up motor.


1 Sensor / wire at a time.




















2008 L92 water pump & Idler, and a Dirty Digo idler relocation bracket so I can run an LS1 intake.


Slight bit of grinding was necessary.

[whitels1]

The wiring, by far the most time consuming and also the most fun.

At first it seems like adding a few circuits would be no big deal, but it wasn't I found myself having to draw myself a schematic of the engine bay to keep on track. Attached is my current wiring diagram.

Before I started I made a trip to the pic-a-part to get a few needed items, buss bars from early 90's full size chevy trucks, and a 175A buss fuse and mount off an early 2k S10.


The goods, and man wiring stuff is expensive....!






Water proof relay and fuse panel box.








Wiring still needs to be loomed.

[whitels1]

At this point the wiring is completed in the engine bay, all that is left is to loom it up an run the wiring to the gas tank for the pump and tank pressure sensor, as I'm planning to use the evap purge to control my tank venting, I'm still not sure if I'm going to run an f-body evap canister yet but well I will see when I get there. I have modified the stock tank to accept an in tank pump from a 03 3500 truck, it fits perfect. Here it is mocked up with a 99 F-body pump assy. The tank ring kit was from vette works, boil / clean the tank, cut the old ring out to size tack on 4 corners and seal it.













Finally on to the motor, which is what was has been holding up my swap process, When I started the I had a complete minus heads 00 LS1 from an F-body, but after pulling it apart and inspecting the block it was no good, and turned into my mock up block.


So I was monitoring craigslist for a motor and found a complete 4.8, it had a spun bearing, and a chewed up cam, but the block was solid.








Interestingly enough, both of these motors had fram filters on them when I got them.....

[74 shortbed 406]

I have been wanting to swap in the same combo into my 78, but I am wanting the lq9 engine. Was curious on what was needed for it to bolt to the sm465.

[whitels1]

Engine details.

• 5.3/4.8 block
• LS1 Crank
• LS1 143 pressed rods
• 4.8 Flat topped floating pistons (bored to fit LS1 pressed rods)
• 862 Heads with LS6 Valve springs.
• Stock 02 5.3 cam(Drivability, Towing & Crawling)
• LS1 Intake / Injectors / Throttle body

From everything I have read and per the compression calculator, I should see about 10.4 compression. I might go with a larger cam in the future but for now with manifolds I'm sticking with a smaller proven cam. I want headers but haven't figured out what route I will go yet and / or which longtubes will fit. Same with the truck intake, I would like to run one but for now I have a complete ls1 with injectors rail etc.

The block got new cam bearings and some cleaning.


10/10 LS1 crank sitting on some clevites.


Ring gaps checked and pistons ready to go in.


Rod journals checked... alll good.






Cam, oil pump, windage tray and pick up tube installed.


Bottom end wrapped up!


Top end work now

Coat of Chevrolet Orange.


Valve lapping.


Exhaust valve before


After


Intake




New valve seals/seats and LS6 springs.




Where it's at now.

[68GMCCustom]

Welcome to the LSx club. Looks like its coming along nicely!

[whitels1]

Originally Posted by 74 shortbed 406

I have been wanting to swap in the same combo into my 78, but I am wanting the lq9 engine. Was curious on what was needed for it to bolt to the sm465.

Running a SM465 with a Gen3 is basically the same, there is only a few differences. 1st is flywheel I will be using a NFW1050 $55 bucks at o'reilly is it deeper and makes up the .4 offset and will mount to a standard 11-7/8 clutch. 2nd an LS7 pilot bearing P/N 12557583 to properly support the input shaft because of the .4 difference in spacing between the block and crank. 3rd 5qty M10x1.5x40 bolts to hold the bell housing to the block. Additionally I have a full write up of the SM465 swap attached to the old 350 on my blog http://morecoffee.me/index.php?view=bulletin&blog=74 It pretty much covers it all.

[whitels1]

Originally Posted by 68GMCCustom

Welcome to the LSx club. Looks like its coming along nicely!

Thanks!

[yossarian19]

How did you get the VSS signal off of the SM465? Have an SM420 I might like to use, imagine the solution would be much the same...

[whitels1]

Originally Posted by yossarian19

How did you get the VSS signal off of the SM465? Have an SM420 I might like to use, imagine the solution would be much the same...

The plan now is to not do anything with it, just let my tuner do his thing. I would however like to have cruise ctrl in the future so I will be dealing with it at some point. For the speedo I'm going to use an autometer GPS speedometer.

[gringoloco]

Nice build! I'm stealing some of your wiring ideas, if you don't mind. The buss bar and lugs are on my junkyard shopping list.

Funny, this:

Originally Posted by whitels1

Reminds me a lot of this:

Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[whitels1]

Originally Posted by gringoloco

Nice build! I'm stealing some of your wiring ideas, if you don't mind. The buss bar and lugs are on my junkyard shopping list.

Funny, this:
Reminds me a lot of this:

Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks and you can't beat the buss bars for a buck a piece!

Hmmmm.... Now you got me thinkin' I should be able to hit 88 MPH pretty quick with this new motor........

[whitels1]

More progress today, picked up my head bolts and continued on.

[gringoloco]

Looking good! Nice to see someone painting the heads-- most leave them raw aluminum, but I like the 'sleeper' old school painted look for something a little different. Besides, pretty much everything these days has Al heads, so no need to show em off like a gen 1...
Posted via Mobile Device

Edit: by the way, the flux capacitor crack wasn't a knock on your work- I love those movies!

[whitels1]

Originally Posted by gringoloco

Looking good! Nice to see someone painting the heads-- most leave them raw aluminum, but I like the 'sleeper' old school painted look for something a little different. Besides, pretty much everything these days has Al heads, so no need to show em off like a gen 1...
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks, I like the aluminium look but had time on on my hands, and no money in my pocket so I figured what the hell... different is cool!

Originally Posted by gringoloco

Edit: by the way, the flux capacitor crack wasn't a knock on your work- I love those movies!

No offence taken, I love those movies too....... All I kept thinking about when I saw the flux capacitor was... How am I going to generate that kind of power!

[whitels1]

Everything is now loomed.


In her spot at last!


LS7 pilot bearing installed, the old ls1 pilot bearing did not come out without a fight!


Sachs NFW1050 flywheel. Notice the thickness.



Original clutch and bell housing on. Bell housing bolts 10 x 1.5 x 40. Running a howe hydraulic throw out bearing connected to a Tilton 7/8 master cylinder.

[chevy72blu]

Great progress! You are really flying with this thing. Also, props to another Vegas member!

[mcmlxix]

Originally Posted by whitels1

Before I started I made a trip to the pic-a-part to get a few needed items, buss bars from early 90's full size chevy trucks, and a 175A buss fuse and mount off an early 2k S10.

Where is this on the S10?.. I was in the yard this weekend and grabbed a buss bar off the full size, but didint see the fuse block on any of the s10s...

[Pop's C-10]

Great build..that motor is looking sweet..

[whitels1]

Originally Posted by chevy72blu

Great progress! You are really flying with this thing. Also, props to another Vegas member!

Thanks, I had to take a week off work to get the motor built and in, now things are going to start going slow again. This whole money thing keeps holding me up too!

Originally Posted by mcmlxix

Where is this on the S10?.. I was in the yard this weekend and grabbed a buss bar off the full size, but didint see the fuse block on any of the s10s...

The one I found was under the battery tray.

Originally Posted by Pop's C-10

Great build..that motor is looking sweet..

Thank you.

[whitels1]

Put these suckers back in today, This was the original cross member that came with the th350 / NP208 combo, it bolted to the SM465 / NP205 adapter with the same bushings. It moved forward on the frame roughly 2 inches.


Mocked up and tacked the exhaust, I got a 10' stick of 2-1/2 OD from an exhaust shop up the street for 30 bucks, then a few thrush welded mufflers from Oreillys. For the mandrel bends I cut up an old F-body y-pipe, worked out well.

Driver


Passenger

[whitels1]

Welded up and ready to go back in.




02 bungs in


I want to just dump them and call it good, but I know better. So after she is on the road I'll probably finish the piping, I want them to come out behind the rear tires on the side if the truck.

[68GMCCustom]

I'm confused....two bungs but on one side...and w/o a cat between them?