8x Series V8 Swaps (14 Viewers)

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It looks like you made a new hole higher up on the LC's shift lever. Did you find it was necessary to correct the throw distance between gear selections?

Why not leave push/pull interface as is and mount the shift cable coming from the back of the truck?

View attachment 3046807
I honestly don’t remember, but I think that’s just where I welded that pivot ball at. Centered.
 
Subject: P2138 (accelerator ped sensor) & Dakota Digital

Curious if anyone has run into this before. I've gone ~18 months since my 6.2L swap was completed (by a shop) with zero issues. Yesterday morning, after cruising for ~5 miles at 70mph with cruise control engaged, my acc pedal totally died. Truck was running fine but pedal had no life in it.

Check engine light immediately came on so I pulled the code (P2138), cleared it and pedal came back to life. Drove another 100 miles like normal (no cruise control) and zero issues. Tried to reengage cruise again this morning and same issue repeated within second of engaging cruise.. Doing some quick research, I found THIS thread but nothing definitive came from it, other than to acknowledge others have had random issues with the dakota digital cruise control interfering with their accelerator pedal.

Odd that this has never occurred before and I've got about 20k miles on my swap. I'll keep digging into it but wanted to see if anyone else has experienced a similar symptom.

Setup: 6.2L, 6L80, drive by wire with GM acc pedal and dakota digital cruise control
 
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Subject: P2138 (accelerator ped sensor) & Dakota Digital

Curious if anyone has run into this before. I've gone ~18 months since my 6.2L swap was completed (by a shop) with zero issues. Yesterday morning, after cruising for ~5 miles at 70mph with cruise control engaged, my acc pedal totally died. Truck was running fine but pedal had no life in it.

Check engine light immediately came on so I pulled the code (P2138), cleared it and pedal came back to life. Drove another 100 miles like normal (no cruise control) and zero issues. Tried to reengage cruise again this morning and same issue repeated within second of engaging cruise.. Doing some quick research, I found THIS thread but nothing definitive came from it, other than to acknowledge others have had random issues with the dakota digital cruise control interfering with their accelerator pedal.

Odd that this has never occurred before and I've got about 20k miles on my swap. I'll keep digging into it but wanted to see if anyone else has experienced a similar symptom.

Setup: 6.2L, 6L80, drive by wire with GM acc pedal and dakota digital cruise control
I've never used that particular cruise control. But from my experience those cheesy white electrical harness connectors are garbage. I've had a lot of trouble with connectors of that style giving intermittent issues.
 
EDIT: I think I figured it out. Don't ground your PCM directly to your battery unless you want starter current flowing through it! It will be a miracle if my PCM isn't bricked.

A terrible day. I've had many humbling days but this one really kicked me in balls.

So I somehow created a short and burned up my PCM ground wire.

I used a distribution block to attach all the sensor and PCM grounds. On the big bolt of the distribution block is the smaller gauge wire coming from the battery Negative. The 2 gauge battery negative I grounded to the alternator mount bolt to test everything before making new battery wires. (The main engine ground bolt snapped off in the block while removing the donor engine).

I can't see how the distribution block could have shorted on a power wire, I have all the IGN ON and BATT power wires insulated.

Is there something wrong with how I ran my Grounds?
Any ideas would be appreciated.

short.jpg
 
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EDIT: I think I figured it out. Don't ground your PCM directly to your battery unless you want starter current flowing through it! It will be a miracle if my PCM isn't bricked.

A terrible day. I've had many humbling days but this one really kicked me in balls.

So I somehow created a short and burned up my PCM ground wire.

I used a distribution block to attach all the sensor and PCM grounds. On the big bolt of the distribution block is the smaller gauge wire coming from the battery Negative. The 2 gauge battery negative I grounded to the alternator mount bolt to test everything before making new battery wires. (The main engine ground bolt snapped off in the block while removing the donor engine).

I can't see how the distribution block could have shorted on a power wire, I have all the IGN ON and BATT power wires insulated.

Is there something wrong with how I ran my Grounds?
Any ideas would be appreciated.

View attachment 3052785
Probably should start a build thread of exactly what your doing. Hard for others to keep track exactly of what your doing when posting in this thread and be able to help you. Afaik you have a ground problem from what you said. The ecu has many grounds though...
 
EDIT: I think I figured it out. Don't ground your PCM directly to your battery unless you want starter current flowing through it! It will be a miracle if my PCM isn't bricked.

A terrible day. I've had many humbling days but this one really kicked me in balls.

So I somehow created a short and burned up my PCM ground wire.

I used a distribution block to attach all the sensor and PCM grounds. On the big bolt of the distribution block is the smaller gauge wire coming from the battery Negative. The 2 gauge battery negative I grounded to the alternator mount bolt to test everything before making new battery wires. (The main engine ground bolt snapped off in the block while removing the donor engine).

I can't see how the distribution block could have shorted on a power wire, I have all the IGN ON and BATT power wires insulated.

Is there something wrong with how I ran my Grounds?
Any ideas would be appreciated.

View attachment 3052785
So I think you need to have the battery ground to the block and the ground distribution block connected only to the engine block and not back to the battery directly. Is that what you figure?

Funny think is I am exactly at this moment planning the same idea of using a ground distribution block so I can break apart the rats nest circuits on my harness, I found two good videos on YouTube about grounding the ECU.

apatronic -
haltech -
 
So I think you need to have the battery ground to the block and the ground distribution block connected only to the engine block and not back to the battery directly. Is that what you figure?

Funny think is I am exactly at this moment planning the same idea of using a ground distribution block so I can break apart the rats nest circuits on my harness, I found two good videos on YouTube about grounding the ECU.

apatronic -
haltech -

Yes exactly that. I was able to repair the ecu grounds and move the battery negative to the block. No more electrical fire. And the engine finally started using starter fluid. I take it as a miracle the PCM survived. I also discovered my fuel pump is bad. I guess the car sitting for 12 years killed it.

A haltech video of all things got me pointed in the right direction with the grounds.
 
Hi Guys, I'm slowly skimming my way through this thread (pg. 27 for my own reference). I'm sure all my questions and more have been answered somewhere, but humor me :)

I'm pretty sure my motor just blew and I'm assessing all the various options. V8 swap is obviously one of those options. Over the last year, I have been spoiled by my 200 and the way it shrugs off the wife's camper and runs 80mph up I-70 with 35 tires. I have really enjoyed the additional refinement of the 6-speed transmission. I would love to get that level of performance out of the 80 and would happily get rid of the 200 if I succeeded. The 200 has 380hp/400tq, but also weighs a good 1000 lbs more than my lightly built 80, so I figure 330-350hp would be a good target.

So here are my preliminary noob questions:

1) anybody have recent experience with Air Care Colorado? I got my fj62 with a TBI 5.7 emissioned and registered without too much hassle, but that was close to 10 years ago.

2) All the 5.3's seem to max out around 300hp. Would a mild truck/RV cam get me into the 330-350 ballpark? What kind of reliability, efficiency or other tradeoffs might I expect from an aftermarket cam? How involved is a cam install, do I need to replace springs and lifters and whatnot? The 6.2 seems overkill for my purposes, but if the price is comparable to a 5.3 + cam and associated upgrades, I would consider it. Kind of assuming the 5.3 will get better mpg than the 6.2, even if lightly tuned. MPG is not primary consideration, but definitely in the calculus. Motor must come out of a "light duty" truck or car in Colorado, FYI.

3) I'm sure I would want a 6 speed transmission, so I gather that means I need a 2007+ motor, correct? I must be able to select gear manually, is this hard or expensive to accomplish?

4) Can I run a stock aluminum/plastic radiator, or do I need a Ron Davis or the like? Will I be able to buy a fan shroud that works with the 80 radiator, or do I need to make one?

5) aluminum vs. iron. Other than weight and price, should I care? Aluminum sounds cool and I like the idea of making my 80 lighter, but don't know if it really makes a difference other than feeling proud of myself.

6) Stupid question, I know: ballpark price range for genIV setup with a 6 speed assuming a used donor and doing pretty much all the work myself? Or another way to ask: aside from the cost of the engine and transmission, what might the parts cost be for "everything else?" And yes, I understand there are probably at least 50 ways to skin this cat, but throw a guess at me anyway :hillbilly:


Thank you for your patience, thoughts, ideas and insults. :flipoff2:
 
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Hi Guys, I'm slowly skimming my way through this thread (pg. 27 for my own reference). I'm sure all my questions and more have been answered somewhere, but humor me :)

I'm pretty sure my motor just blew and I'm assessing all the various options. V8 swap is obviously one of those options. Over the last year, I have been spoiled by my 200 and the way it shrugs off the wife's camper and runs 80mph up I-70 with 35 tires. I have really enjoyed the additional refinement of the 6-speed transmission. I would love to get that level of performance out of the 80 and would happily get rid of the 200 if I succeeded. The 200 has 380hp/400tq, but also weighs a good 1000 lbs more than my lightly built 80, so I figure 330-350hp would be a good target.

So here are my preliminary noob questions:

1) anybody have recent experience with Air Care Colorado? I got my fj62 with a TBI 5.7 emissioned and registered without too much hassle, but that was close to 10 years ago.

2) All the 5.3's seem to max out around 300hp. Would a mild truck/RV cam get me into the 330-350 ballpark? What kind of reliability, efficiency or other tradeoffs might I expect from an aftermarket cam? How involved is a cam install, do I need to replace springs and lifters and whatnot? The 6.2 seems overkill for my purposes, but if the price is comparable to a 5.3 + cam and associated upgrades, I would consider it. Kind of assuming the 5.3 will get better mpg than the 6.2, even if lightly tuned. MPG is not primary consideration, but definitely in the calculus. Motor must come out of a "light duty" truck or car in Colorado, FYI.

3) I'm sure I would want a 6 speed transmission, so I gather that means I need a 2007+ motor, correct? I must be able to select gear manually, is this hard or expensive to accomplish?

4) Can I run a stock aluminum/plastic radiator, or do I need a Ron Davis or the like? Will I be able to buy a fan shroud that works with the 80 radiator, or do I need to make one?

5) aluminum vs. iron. Other than weight and price, should I care? Aluminum sounds cool and I like the idea of making my 80 lighter, but don't know if it really makes a difference other than feeling proud of myself.

6) Stupid question, I know: ballpark price range for genIV setup with a 6 speed assuming a used donor and doing pretty much all the work myself? Or another way to ask: aside from the cost of the engine and transmission, what might the parts cost be for "everything else?" And yes, I understand there are probably at least 50 ways to skin this cat, but throw a guess at me anyway :hillbilly:


Thank you for your patience, thoughts, ideas and insults.
I went through air care about 4 years ago. I think it was in Broomfield. I initially contacted a referee before I got too far along, then saw the same guy for my actual inspection. Just follow his guidelines.
A stock 5.3 with a performance tune will make 330 to 350hp and 350 to 380ftlbs torque with a stock cam.A cam install is simple. There are a million youtube videos. A LS motor is the easiest motor on the planet to repair and modify. Much easier than a 1fz. Go with a 6.0 in Colorado because of the elevation power loss if you can. More displacement gives torque below 3000rpm. A cam swap will not increase power below 3000rpm much. A cam swapped 5.3 will make about 400tq and 400-430hp. My stock 5.3 made 220hp to the wheels in Denver with a performance tune from black bear. The stock tune is very conservative and leaves a lot of power on the table. You could also do a 6.2. You could even do a LT motor with direct injection and an 8 speed. As far as light duty car or truck there is a way around that when I did it. Pm me if you want on that.
The 6 speed needs a gen 4 motor, so yes 2007. It can shift manually. You will need a better radiator if you are towing. You have lots of options on fans and shrouds.
Aluminum or iron doesn't matter.
Doing it all yourself figure 8k. It's very time consuming. A emissions compliant swapped 80 series is worth a lot more than a non compliant.
 
Thanks for the reply! Broomfield is also where I got my TBI checked out. I thought the 6.0 was phased out around the same time the 6l80 was going into service? 6.0 would be in the sweet spot power wise.
 
Thanks for the reply! Broomfield is also where I got my TBI checked out. I thought the 6.0 was phased out around the same time the 6l80 was going into service? 6.0 would be in the sweet spot power wise.
I thought the 6.0 came with the 6l90e. I could be wrong. This thread should help you out...
 
Ah, I see. His 6.0 + 6l80 came in a 2011 HD2500 truck, so I guess I would need your secret cheat code to get that combo through emissions. Or looking at the silverado wiki, it looks like they used the 6.0 + 6l80 combo in some 1500 trucks from 2007-2009.
 
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Ah, I see. His 6.0 + 6l80 came in a 2011 HD2500 truck, so I guess I would need your secret cheat code to get that combo through emissions. Or looking at the silverado wiki, it looks like they used the 6.0 + 6l80 combo in some 1500 trucks from 2007-2009.
As colorado gets more strict it might be best to buy a 1500 silverado of one of those years. Part out the truck with the leftover parts and make some if not all of your money back.
 
Whew! A week later and I've read the whole thread once. My head is swimming, but I think I understand more than I did a week ago. I might PM a couple of you Colorado dudes for advice or a joyride :cool:
 

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