[Russell]

Just figured I'd show off my Tahoe a little bit here. I did an LB7 Duramax / ZF6 swap on it about a year ago and absolutely love it!

If anyone has any questions about swapping Duramax engines around, I am fairly well versed on the LB7, LLY and LBZ engines and what it takes to swap them around (particularly from the electrical standpoint)

The LB7 is a great motor, but they have some drawbacks vs the newer engines. One is injectors. They suck to change and are quite expensive. It also sucks when a return line leaks after you swap them out and have to tear the engine down a second time to fix it. The ZF6 makes the swap. It'd be cool with the Allison, but the 6 speed stick downright blows people's mind and is a ton of fun to drive. If I wanna be especially retarded, I can wind my truck out through 3 gears before I hit the other side of an intersection at full throttle. Tends to attract a little bit of attention with the 4" MBRP exhaust I installed though....

The installation was actually quite easy. I purchased the swapper's guide from thedieselplace.com simply to get the engine mount templates, and they work pretty well. There is now a dude on eBay who sells engine mounts that allow you to use the stock engine side clamshells just like the LS engine swap mounts do. The engine fits in this truck exceptionally well as it was designed for this body style but wasn't released until after the new body style was. I am still running it without an intercooler as there is no room to fit one up front with the rad and the AC condenser. I am running the stock Cab and Chassis tune (230HP), so I haven't had any EGT issues with it (even in 50C weather pulling hard up a hill I could just barely hit 1400F). Electrical is kind of my thing and wasn't hard at all. I integrated the engine wiring with my stock underhood fuse block using diagrams from alldatadiy.com for both the Duramax and my Tahoe. The LB7 uses all the same fuses as a 6.5L diesel does so things panned out pretty well. All my stock gauges plugged straight into the LB7 sensors except for the coolant temperature sensor. I just drilled and tapped a water jacket for it and got it working but there is a dual element sensor available that you can replace the stock one with to avoid drilling and tapping the crossover pipe. I did have to run a new 1/2" fuel line for the dmax as the CP3 can easily over-draw even that line, forget the stock 3/8" line.

Anyways, on to some pics... To start, the old engine had to come out... This was made more fun because the front diff had been out for new inner Cs to be welded on to correct some pinion angle and castor problems I'd been having earlier and I had the truck up on jack stands. Gotta love that good ol' skidsteer... Such a handy toy!