It's been a while since I updated this thread, but have got the truck to where it's driveable and enjoyed it the last few weeks.
I wasn't able to get the air intake finished before I got it to the exhaust shop so I bought a cheapie $50 air intake from Amazon and made it work. I'm still throwing a MAF sensor code but I think it's due to the intake tube being 4" which is larger than stock. I'm going to be redoing the intake with a stock 60 series intake and an 80 series lid. This cheapie setup has worked pretty well in the meantime to putz around with.
I'll then take it to have a proper tune put on, even though the BP Automotive base tune is pretty damn good.
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The exhaust shop did an incredible job, I went with a stock sounding exhaust with a single tailpipe. I'll grab some pictures when I'm back home in February but its pretty quiet and is routed really well.
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Before I left town I was able to get a few weeks of driving time in and the LS swap is 100000000% worth it. Here are my first impressions:
- Even with the 5.3 instead of the 6.0 there is so much more power than stock. I actually find myself speeding more often than I’m not – which is absolutely insane in an old brick like this!
- The H55F with 3.70 gears (due to the 10% OD gears in TC) is fantastic. It’s more like a four speed though, in normal traffic I’m typically starting in 2nd gear to takeoff, and can cruise at 1800 RPM going 50 in 4th gear. I haven’t taken it on the highway yet to see what those RPMs are but think they’ll be relatively low.
Prior to the swap I had never pulled an engine by myself, and knew next to nothing about LS engines. I had never rebuilt or even removed a transfer case before this build. This swap is doable by literally anyone with a good set of tools and are willing to put in the time to do research. There is so much valuable information on this forum and through it's members that I am so grateful for. Special thanks to the below members who helped guide me along the way:
@cruisermatt
@BurntToast
@dbbowen
@tmxmotorsports
@Dubs2017
I mean it when I say literally anyone can do this, and it's singlehandedly the best upgrade you can do on a 60 series to make it a practical daily driver.
I'll post some more pics/updates when I'm back in a few weeks!