Registry 8x Series V8 Swaps (81 Viewers)

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It can be mated to a 5.3, but it must be a gen IV
 
The 6 speed can certanly be used with the 5.3L. It comes that way from the factory from like 2007 on. As far as i know or remember you need to have a gen IV engine with the 58x reluctor for it all to work. Remember the 6 speeds have their ecm in the tran pan and use a different engine ecm. Not sure if anyone has mated one to the gen III engines. i imagine it could be done but if your shopping for a combo just look for a gen IV and it would be less headaches. The guys out at pacific fabrication have a really good reputation and the prices are very good on low mileage takeout drivetrains. I dealt with Walter out there and he hooked me up with everything I needed for one price. Including brand new wiring harness, Good guys to work with
 
Thanks for the comeback.....
 
Some of the jumps between gears are just too much, IMO, in a perfect world.

Yeah.. one thing I'm seeing in the youtube on-road videos even with the lQ9 is a BIG jump between gears, to the point it sounds like it takes the engine out of the power band.

So, 6-spd is virtually mandatory for me. Not to mention the much lower first and slightly taller top gear. This does bring up some inconveniences that have been posted before.. no easy way to get park/neutral interlock, no easy way to adapt factory gauge cluster gear indicators, "black boxes" for tap-to-shift/gear indicator/cruise stalks are very expensive. The shifter posted on 'Mud that has tap-to-shift for a 6L80/90 is $400 from speartech, for instance.

And gain.. when I price out a 5.3 + 6spd it gets really close to the cost of a 6.0.. so why not go that route? and if I'm gonna do 6.0.. why not do 6.2 for a few extra hundred? The 6.2 L92 engines seem way more expensive but when you consider the L96 generally comes with a 6L90E that must have the output shaft changed (~$200 for the 32-spline part needed by the mark's adapter, I'll be calling a GM dealership tomorrow to see if I can get it cheaper). I added up the extra fuel costs of requiring premium unleaded and it's manageable, given this isn't my daily driver.

One interesting thing I'm noticing is the Gen V GM direct injection engines are coming really close to 6.0 power with 5.3L and RUG (even better if you run E85 but I think that would damage our tank and lines), AND are surprisingly cheap with low miles. I guess people aren't having to replace them much yet, so little demand. BUT.. there are a few issues.

GenV issues:
Possibly the biggest one: * Gen 3/4 exhaust manifolds don't fit. So we have very little in the way of options to get our exhaust to clear the frame for the time being.
* no provision for mechanical fan if that's what you want to run (I do). The water pump is mounted roughly between where the alternator and PS pump are on gen 3/4 truck engines. This may eventually be addressed on the engines sold in 2500/3500 van/pickup since GM traditionally specs those with mechanical fans.. but so far they are still using the L96 Gen IV engine with mechanical fan in those chassis.
* no PS pump (there are brackets you can buy to add a PS pump, but it puts the PS lines on the passenger side and makes an already wide accessory setup even wider) Alternately you can run an electric PS pump but this would probably have issues running our PS gearbox.
* VERY wide accessory drive.. not sure if it'll fit into a J80 engine bay
* Very little manifold vacuum for brake assist due to VVT and DoD. On earlier trucks they set up the VVT and DoD to cancel as soon as you hit the brakes.. they gave up this strategy on the Gen V in pursuit of better mileage and added a belt-driven vacuum pump but I'm not sure if this will give the vacuum needed for our brakes.
* Very little info on tuning these online. Some places are making harnesses for them, but I have no clue if there are CANBUS issues or if the wiring is nearly as simple as GEN3/4 GM setups. Also I am reading that the torque tables when you "tune" the engines are FAR more complex.. but as far as I know this only matters if you actually tune the engine for more power. From what I gather most people interested in swapping a GM engine into a landcruiser are simply trying to make it work with our chassis harness.
 
Well.. did a bit more digging and.. NOPE.

Apparently the 6L90E uses a couple output shaft designs, and both are different and much larger than the 6L80E. Mark's kit is only designed for a 32-spline output.. on the site they mention a Holden HSV with the 6.2L LSA engine.. I'm currently trying to figure out if this is available in the states.. and talk to someone that has done a 6L90E swap into a cruiser already.

Just wanted to post that detail


So apparently the US spec 6L90E in the camaro ZL1 and CTS-V both use the really large 36-spline output. So I'm not sure of another way to try and get a 6L90E 32-spline output shaft inside the states.

Advance adapters mentioned being able to order one from Mark's 4wd along with the 6L80/90 adapter. Will post when they email back with pricing and availability.
 
The park / neutral and reverse micro switches were pretty straight forward to add to the factory shifter. Between that and the cable brackets I fabricated I probably have a days time invested. I modified the gates on the factory shifter slightly to match the throw required on the trans. Remember the 6L80E only needs drive and manual positions for forward. I am currently working on a momentary rocker switch that will go into the spot where the o/d button was to control the tap shift. Pacific fab's harness gives me a wire for upshift and one for downshift. You apply voltage to one or the other to make the thing shift. There harness for the tap shift has some kind of resistor pack heat shrinked into it. I will post when I get it working.
For the gear position indicator, I bought the one Speartech sells and plastic epoxied it to the front of the gauge cluster behind the clear plastic cover. I think it looks good and it works great.
I have a 4L65E behind the Gen III 6>0l in my off road jeep and I can tell you that the 6 speed kicks but over it from a daily driver perspective. It shifts so smooth and the low 1st gear is great. I have had no issues with gear hunting. I don't know what "tune" is loaded into the trans but I am going to get the 2 computers tuned locally next week.
As far as the trans spline size and such, The piece Mark's supplies is really beefy and I have no doubt it will hold up fine to the power output of the engine.
 
What intake manifold is everyone using? I have a 6.0 LY6 VVT out of a 2500 van with stock intake. Should I be looking for a different/lower profile to fit?
 
I'm running the truck intake on mine and it fits fine. I use the f-body pan ind positioned it about an inch above the round crossbar that is behind the drag link
 
For the gear position indicator, I bought the one Speartech sells and plastic epoxied it to the front of the gauge cluster behind the clear plastic cover. I think it looks good and it works great.

Is the brightness of that thing adjustable?
 
No its not, however it matches pretty well with the factory dash lights. I bought the green model. I thought I had a video of it but could not find. I will take one tomorrow and post it
 
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Here are some pics and a quick video of how I mounted my speartech display. It does constantly display the gear position. My wife has gotten used to it ( it's her truck). I was hoping that when you put trans in "D" that only a "D" would be displated and that when you clicked the shifter back into manual it would display the actual gear. It doesn't quite work that way but oh well. What you end up with is a display of constantly changing numbers (1-6) as you drive. Basically just what the video on speartech's site shows. I bought it in green LED's and it matches good.
 
So I'm about to pull the trigger adapter for my swap using a 2002 4l60e transmission. What is the difference between these two adapters on Mark's site?

4L60E 6 bolt to LandCruiser 4-speed auto HF2A Transfer Case

and

4L60E to LandCruiser 4-speed auto HF2A Transfer Case

It is obvious that the second one lacks the adapter for the 6 bolt tail shaft 4l60e, but is that the only thing different? I just thought it was weird that that one is "out of stock" but the other one which appears to be same minus an additional piece is not.

Another question... I noticed this written on the description for both:

"The transfer case will need to be disassembled to fit the new input shaft supplied in the kit. "

is that correct? I don't see why that would be so, and it also isn't in their installation instructions. I'd call and ask them myself, but yeah, they are probably sleeping right now. LOL

Thanks
 
So I'm about to pull the trigger adapter for my swap using a 2002 4l60e transmission. What is the difference between these two adapters on Mark's site?

4L60E 6 bolt to LandCruiser 4-speed auto HF2A Transfer Case

and

4L60E to LandCruiser 4-speed auto HF2A Transfer Case

It is obvious that the second one lacks the adapter for the 6 bolt tail shaft 4l60e, but is that the only thing different? I just thought it was weird that that one is "out of stock" but the other one which appears to be same minus an additional piece is not.

Another question... I noticed this written on the description for both:

"The transfer case will need to be disassembled to fit the new input shaft supplied in the kit. "

is that correct? I don't see why that would be so, and it also isn't in their installation instructions. I'd call and ask them myself, but yeah, they are probably sleeping right now. LOL

Thanks

4L60 tailhousings

DSCN2878.JPG
 
I tried this with my swap. Yes you can correct the tach so that it reads the 8 cylinder engine correctly but for whatever reason the signal coming from the GM harness isn't strong enough to get the tach to work. I still had the use the dakota box as a signal booster. the gm PCM took care of the pulse count correction.


What you say here is true. We also had to use the Dakota Digital SGI-8E to get the factory tach to work. My builder has HP Tuners and a factory GM tech that can flash things and neither worked.
 
6L80/90E tuning

Can we talk a bit about the 6L options? I'm looking at dozens of engines on ebay, and many don't come with transmissions. I'm seeing advice to run a transmission from the exact vehicle, but sometimes that is prohibitive.

Are there general guidelines as to which PCMs can be flashed to which transmission? Which ones need special tone rings?

Are there options besides fabricating the addition of bolts and microswitches to get P/N interlock and Reverse lights? I know there's a dakota digital adapter to eliminate the GM body control module from being necessary for DBW cruise... but something for P/N/R?

Did you get all the answers you need? PM me with specific questions.
 
I found enough to decide on an engine/transmission and put down a deposit.. (6.2L L92 + 6L80E) but good info on what transmission/TCM will work with what engine/PCM is hard to find, beyond GenIV for 6spd and GenIII for 4-spd.

There are some issues with 24x or 58x reluctor wheels but that has more to do with which PCM will work with which engine.. downstream of that is transmission control, but for the purposes of the 6-spd, good info is hard to find.
 
The gen IV's have a completely different ecm's. The one I have is an E38 and it is much smaller than the previous gen III ecm. The Gen IV's are all drive by wire and despite what you read on some forums there are several gas pedals that work. I found the corvette version fit our 80 series perfectly and has a metal arm that can be bent if needed. The gen IV's are all 58x crank reluctors and the 6L80E trans have the ecm in the oil pan of the trans itself. The trans ecm can only be programmed through the obdII port, meaning it has to be connected to the engine harness. This is what I have learned from doing this swap in my LX450.
once you see how the engine and trans wiring is laid out, it is pretty straight forward. I like the fact that all the sensors for the trans are contained in the trans
I believe towards the end of the GenIII run ,some had 58x reluctors. This wont help with the 6L80E trans though because those GenIII's use the earlier pcm that also controls the 4L trans. Read through the link I posted above. It goes pretty in depth into the mechanical differences.
If anything I posted is incorrect please reply. I am still learning about these newer engines and have noticed a lot of conflicting info out there
That's my disclaimer.
I can report that the 6 speed is worth every penny I spent on it. I also like the idea that the t case adapter is 1 piece and the trans has its own seal on the output shaft so there is no fluid in the adapter for a potential leak
 

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