Hey y'all, I'm a 24 y/o husband and dad trying to build my dream truck. Not a ton of mechanic experience, but recently did a timing chain job and a transfer case rebuild job that gave me a lot of confidence in my ability to figure it out. I have friends with lots of mechanic experience including swaps and rebuilds to ask questions to and help along the way. Looking like I might have access to a large shop and lift also for this. So, as the itch grows, I'm going to start gathering information and parts to hopefully attempt the swap this year.
Reason for swap: Better fuel milage, I want to daily this Cruiser as well as take in on cross-country road trips. More power, and amazing V8 exhaust sound. I don't want new vehicles, I want this truck to last me 20 years.
Cost: Goal is around 5k. I will be doing all the labor myself as well as some unpaid mechanic friends. Cost might go over depending on if I get a custom harness, and how much a shop charges me for a fully custom exhaust.
Engine: gen 3 5.3 LM7 or L33. I really like the idea of the L33 and found some for sale around 100k miles for $6-700ish. I don't want to rebuild the engine, but I will replace seals gaskets and timing components before installing. I will also be installing all new accessories on the 5.3.
Transmission: 4L60E or 6L80. While I would prefer 6 gears, 4L60 seems to be way more plug and play as far as wiring and ECU goes. If anyone has information on this I would love to hear it.
Adapter and Transfer Case: stock Tcase with Marks adapter.
Wiring Harness: Not sure if I should get a parts truck and retrofit the GM harness? I don't really know what the difficulty on that is, some youtube videos I watched made it seem there's only a few things you have to retrofit (AC, gauges, etc) Also I believe I have to keep the stock ECU? Or should I purchase a custom harness from PCI or someone? I'm willing to make the investment if it removes the guesswork.
Method: Because I am also doing a full restoration, painting the engine bay, treating the frame and axles for rust as well as coating, replacing the body mounts, I'm gonna just pull the body off the frame. I want to be through as I live in the rust belt and I want this truck to last me 20 years. In theory this should make a lot of things easier such as pulling the engine and mounting the new one.
I'm new to MUD and am not very good at finding the important information and write-ups, if you know of some good information, I'd appreciate it if you could link it to me here!
I will be documenting the swap and restoration on the Instagram account @5.3cruiser and will eventually compile a YouTube video or two.
I'm the newbie to all this stuff so feel free to correct me or point me in a different direction if you like. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Reason for swap: Better fuel milage, I want to daily this Cruiser as well as take in on cross-country road trips. More power, and amazing V8 exhaust sound. I don't want new vehicles, I want this truck to last me 20 years.
Cost: Goal is around 5k. I will be doing all the labor myself as well as some unpaid mechanic friends. Cost might go over depending on if I get a custom harness, and how much a shop charges me for a fully custom exhaust.
Engine: gen 3 5.3 LM7 or L33. I really like the idea of the L33 and found some for sale around 100k miles for $6-700ish. I don't want to rebuild the engine, but I will replace seals gaskets and timing components before installing. I will also be installing all new accessories on the 5.3.
Transmission: 4L60E or 6L80. While I would prefer 6 gears, 4L60 seems to be way more plug and play as far as wiring and ECU goes. If anyone has information on this I would love to hear it.
Adapter and Transfer Case: stock Tcase with Marks adapter.
Wiring Harness: Not sure if I should get a parts truck and retrofit the GM harness? I don't really know what the difficulty on that is, some youtube videos I watched made it seem there's only a few things you have to retrofit (AC, gauges, etc) Also I believe I have to keep the stock ECU? Or should I purchase a custom harness from PCI or someone? I'm willing to make the investment if it removes the guesswork.
Method: Because I am also doing a full restoration, painting the engine bay, treating the frame and axles for rust as well as coating, replacing the body mounts, I'm gonna just pull the body off the frame. I want to be through as I live in the rust belt and I want this truck to last me 20 years. In theory this should make a lot of things easier such as pulling the engine and mounting the new one.
I'm new to MUD and am not very good at finding the important information and write-ups, if you know of some good information, I'd appreciate it if you could link it to me here!
I will be documenting the swap and restoration on the Instagram account @5.3cruiser and will eventually compile a YouTube video or two.
I'm the newbie to all this stuff so feel free to correct me or point me in a different direction if you like. Any help is greatly appreciated!