1993 LS Swap (6.0L LQ4 and built 4L60e)

[eplazajennings]

A few more pics. Don't forget to add the notch for the new gear you have with the 4L60. A dremel easily took care of this.

 

[eplazajennings]

Here's how I took care of the oil pressure sender. I followed these autometer instructions. The toyo oil pressure sender is 1/8 NPT threads. Simply drill out and tap.

 

[eplazajennings]

A few pictures of the pedal installed. - sitting in the cab with this in place felt like a big step. Its all starting to come together

 

[eplazajennings]

Of note- Hooker recommends upgrading spark plug wires with their headers. You do in fact need to do this as the stock plugs rest on the headers. Hooker recommends MSD 32819. Don't get these they are too short for the truck intake. Get MSD 32829.

 

[eplazajennings]

Fan Shroud- this has been the most tedious and frustrating part of the build thus far. Part of me wishes that I had gone with electric fans but it's over and done so no looking back. I changed the clutch on the fan while I had everything apart. Its a $60 part and it seemed like cheap insurance since replacing it would require taking a lot of stuff apart.

Getting the fan on and off the engine is kinda a chore. They make a special tool that goes into these little holes on the pulley that the fan attaches to. I don't have one, but the wrench you use to change discs on a big 6-8" angle grinder works well.

I also ordered a new radiator. Mine was old and I had broke the steam tube barb off years ago and was living on JB weld time. I ordered the all metal (made in malaysia) CSF 2517 radiator for $317. Fun fact, which I didn't know before this build- the toyo radiator because of its plastic tanks cant be rebuilt. So you have to buy a new one!

As for shroud parts - I ordered summit 380457 for $60 bucks. They send you a nice aluminum shroud that fits the toyo radiator perfectly. they also send hardware and additional aluminum to make the circular surround that envelops the fan.

The problem becomes the fact that the GM fan goes both above and below the toyo radiator. This means that you have to get creative with your shroud construction. I had to go to the local hardware store and get some angle iron for the top. For the bottom, I used the aluminum that I removed when I cut the big hole.

Also, getting this thing in and out is difficult. The 3" piece that goes around the fan is a little too wide. 2.5" or maybe even 2" would be preferable. As it is, the fan shroud and radiator all have to go in and out as one unit. Once the radiator/shroud are in place you tighten up the fan onto the pulley.

Not ideal, but hopefully I don't end up having to pull anything for a long time!

 

[eplazajennings]

I also used a lot of rivets in addition to the hardware supplied with the radiator kit. They were just so much easier to put on.

All told this took me about 2 days to accomplish and I had a plasma cutter at my disposal. Not for the faint of heart.

One other observation. The flimsiest part about this radiator are the L brackets on the bottom that the should rests in. My radiator was rattling around in those quite a bit when I installed it. To fix this I just took a hammer and bent the L's inwards to get them snug on the shroud. Hopefully this holds over time.

 

[eplazajennings]

Little part that a lot of people forget. Plugging up the evaporator purge solenoid.

Part number X000WLHGOV

got it off amazon prime.

 

[eplazajennings]

Brakes- Also another annoying small part. If you have a truck engine that had brakes powered by the power steering then there is no vacuum port on your intake. You need to get PN 12559760 - <$10 on amazon.

This goes in the back of your intake on the driver side. There is a plug in the port. DO NOT YANK IT OUT. There is a red ring which you depress in and then the plug comes out easily. Then you just pop the new barb in.

I went to the auto parts store and got a little extra vacuum line, then went to the hardware store to get a brass barb to hook them together.

Easy job.

 

[Str8Razor]

Looks like it is coming along nicely, your attention to detail will pay off in the long run... Excellent work keep after it...

 

[eplazajennings]

Air Intake

Parts first:
Airaid 200-912 (while expensive this was the only thing I could find that would fit with a mechanical fan)
KNN-RE-0870 Air Filter (This this was longer than I expected - I'd shop for something shorter)
Spectre (I Used this brand because they sell it at O'Reillys- it's nothing to write home about)
Elbow PN 9798
Coupler PN 9771

I went with a full 4" exhaust system for my build. The hardest part was finding and intake that cleared the fan as the clearance is very tight. Mine is within .5" from the fan shroud. From the intake I connected the elbow by sleeveing it over about 2" on the intake tube and clamping it down with the silicon coupler. Then I used the coupler that came with the airaid intake to plumb in the MAF sensor and finally connected the K&N air filter over the other end of the MAF.

In order to support the new intake I fabbed up a square bracket which sits under the aluminum elbow. I welded some large washers to the top and then ran a large hose clamp around the elbow and through the washers to tighten everything down. There is a perfectly located stock toyo fender nut that I used to secure the whole thing to the fender.

 

[eplazajennings]

Temp Sender
I plan on retaining the factory toyo gauges. I debated this quite a bit. I looked into OBD gauges as well as the typical dakota digital options. In the end I think this will prove the simplest. I'm already use to the speedo being off from running larger tires and I don't really care much about tach as I can hear that with my ear. I'll probably get it working eventually.

So for the temp sender I finally found the correct sender on the toyo engine. It's on the drivers side under the intake. It has the 1 wire connector.

It is a M16 x 1.5 thread and the LS engine has a M12 x 1.5 port. My way isn't the most elegant but it works.

I ordered this Bosch adapter set off Amazon- PN SP0F000009 for $9. This got me and M12 x 1.5 to standard pipe thread adapter. From there I went down to Home Depot and got 3 more brass pieces eventually getting me to 3/8 FIP pipe thread. This is surprisingly close to M16 x 1.5 thread you can get 3 to 4 turns in before it binds up.

I drilled out all the brass as large as I could to get better flow then mixed up some JB weld and tightened down the toyo sender.

Be sure to have a copper crush washer when putting this into the head.

 

[eplazajennings]

Time for some 37's!!

 

[suttonkb]

Nice work. Subbed.
I'd love to have this done to mine one day. I'm tearing it apart right now doing head gaskets... I'd be lying if I said I did't think of diving into something like this everyday.

 

[eplazajennings]

Nice work. Subbed.
I'd love to have this done to mine one day. I'm tearing it apart right now doing head gaskets... I'd be lying if I said I did't think of diving into something like this everyday.

If its not your current DD and you know how to weld this is totally doable for anyone adventurous enough to do a head gasket!

 

[eplazajennings]

SHE RUNS! Fired right up!



I'm behind on the build posts but couldn't wait to share.

 

[NCFJ]

The smile on your face says it all! Congrats

 

[eplazajennings]

Transmission Cooler

This part of the build actually took me longer than I expected. One of my buddies had a bunch of extra AN fittings lying around so I decided to use that for most of this.

Parts:
AN adapters that screw into the 4L60e - FRA-481670-BL
Lots of hose to run from the trans to the radiator ~10ft
AN to barb fittings - DER-98200 or DER-98204
Lots of 3/8" hose - I just got a 25' of continental hose (CEL-65128), I've used probably 70% of it.
optional - inline filter - B&M 80277 - this has 1/2" NPT so you might need some NPT to AN adapters here as well - for ex. Russell 660490
A bunch of larger rubber hose to prevent rubbing as you route all these hoses - I ran rubber hose over the SS braided stuff the entire length of the fender to prevent paint getting rubbed off.

The actual routing of the lines was pretty straight forward. I ran them up over the bell housing and into the drivers fender. Then exited them under the batter tray. Right at the battery tray is where I switched from AN braided hose to rubber 3/8".

One thing I struggled with was that I though I could use -8AN hose to go over the 3/8" toyo barbs and get some fancy aluminum racing hose clamps (like Earl 900110ERL) - this turned out to be a bad idea. First of all the clamps dont work well because stainless braid always sticks out and pokes you. But the main reason is that you're supposed to use -7AN hose on 3/8" barbs so everything I had was over sized. I decided to just order nice 3/8" fuel hose and use that for the last runs to all the different barb fittings up in the grill. Also once you plumb all these lines in, things start to get tight up front around the drivers fender.

I also didn't realize that the transmission cooling system ran through the radiator until I started in on this so that was good to figure out. I retained the stock finned trans cooler as mine was in good shape. You can find diagrams for this online but the trans fluid goes through the radiator then through the finned cooler then back to the trans.

One thing I struggled with was figuring out where to but the rather large in line filter. I finally settled on the inner passengers frame rail right near the sway bar connection. I plumbed this first in line right after the hot fluid leaves the trans as fluid is best filtered hot.

Getting all the connections made on the transmission is also a little tricky once the drivetrain is in place. Certainly not impossible but plan on spending a decent amount of time on your back with a helper up in the cabin. DO THIS BEFORE YOU PUT THE INTERIOR AND SHIFTIER BACK IN.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[eplazajennings]

More Pictures

 

[alia176]

SHE RUNS! Fired right up!



I'm behind on the build posts but couldn't wait to share.

AWESOME job. I was jumping behind the keyboard when she fired up. Daughter poked her head into the office and asked me "what's wrong with you?"!!!!!

"baby was sleeping next door", yeah whatever, she RUNS damn it and the baby can suck it, as they usually do anyways.

 

[JeepinPete]

eplazajennings, you could have shown a little emotion Good job