Swapping in a vortech 5.3?? (1 Viewer)

[jabhb]

Alright so i be decided on swapping in a v8. Im power hungry and truly enjoy the sound of a v8 . So im pretty sure ive decided on the 5.3. It has decent power, decent economy, and good reliability.. as well as I ve heard the chevy v8 s are the easier swaps.

i have some questions and am in need of some help. I need to know what I'm getting into. Obviously ill need to have a complete motor with all of the accessories. An adaptor, motor mounts, what else....?

Where can I source the adaptor and motor mounts?

is there a wiring harness for this? Or is it something that I can take to a fab shop and have the chevy ecu wired in?

I have yet to decide what transmission to go with. Is the toy transmission capable off dealing well with a v8?

As you can see I have several open ends here. My 1fe is getting tired with the 275000 miles...
Any help and insight is greatly appreciated. I am serious about doing this and i want to get everything together so I can do it within the next 2 months!

Thanks ya ll
Josh

oh and I tried using the search but its not working for me. My computer went down and im using phone ha ha

 

[97 40th]

If you do the 5.3 swap I would highly recommend changing the transmission as well. When you start looking for your motor in salvage yards I would recommend finding a motor/trans. combo. Then buy a wiring harness and transmission/transfercase adapter from someone like Advance Adapters. A 5.3 with the 4L60E with decent miles should run around $2500 and adapter should run around $300-500. My opinion you could get it done for around $5k and it would be a AWESOME cruiser. Just from my experiance you have to watch the some expenses like get the A/C and cruise control working. Little stuff like that will nickle and dime you to death. Just watch your small purchases.

 

[jabhb]

Thanks!
the only thing that scares me about the 4l60e is i heard a horror story about getting it programed on a swap??
i would LIKE to have my ac working but i have no idea what that would entail. cruise on the other hand i will need to work. This is still going to be a daily driver. i suppose even if i have to put on a cheap aftermarket unit i will.

 

[chattfj40]

The electrical WILL be the biggest issue, but if you get the ECU/trans computer with the motor it makes it a few orders of magnitude simpler.

I would suggest planning for a long time and making sure you know what you're diving into. This isn't a typical 350 drop in.

I also consider talking to a shop that might be in a position to help you out...

 

[bpassmore]

i couldn't disagree more with the transmission comment. these things are tough.
if you are worried, get a bus trans from a 91 to 94 (A442) and you will never over power it.
Putting in another trans will be harder than the engine swap.
New gas tank, new mounts, new drive shafts, etc...

this swap is done alot over seas. adapters are available for the 5.3 to the yota bellhousing.

 

[Dusty]

summit racing sells several cheap bypass computers for the 4l60e. while your swapping run an atlas tcase

 

[chattfj40]

i couldn't disagree more with the transmission comment. these things are tough.
if you are worried, get a bus trans from a 91 to 94 (A442) and you will never over power it.
Putting in another trans will be harder than the engine swap.
New gas tank, new mounts, new drive shafts, etc...

Alright, so how many of these have you done?

It's not about how tough the trans is, its about getting it to shift correctly. The A440/442 will certainly take the power of the 5.3, no worries, but its not the easist thing to get it to shift right. Can it be done, sure, with enough money and time...but since you didn't notate the difference in years, and the fact you lumped two separate trannys together, one hydraulic (A440-91/92) and one ECU (A442-93/94), you have no idea WTF you're talking about.

New Gas Tank? Nope The Adapter keeps the case in the stock location
New X-Member?...Maybe, but can probably adapt the current to work
New Drive Shafts? nope...unless you change cases, then at this point, a $100 retube is meaningless

 

[bpassmore]

Alright, so how many of these have you done?

It's not about how tough the trans is, its about getting it to shift correctly. The A440/442 will certainly take the power of the 5.3, no worries, but its not the easist thing to get it to shift right. Can it be done, sure, with enough money and time...but since you didn't notate the difference in years, and the fact you lumped two separate trannys together, one hydraulic (A440-91/92) and one ECU (A442-93/94), you have no idea WTF you're talking about.

New Gas Tank? Nope The Adapter keeps the case in the stock location
New X-Member?...Maybe, but can probably adapt the current to work
New Drive Shafts? nope...unless you change cases, then at this point, a $100 retube is meaningless

Wow. now I am sooo impressed.

 

[Skrewball]

I have done two swaps using the 4l60, one behind the 4.8 and one behind the 5.7.

both swaps went smooth and used a painless harness. i tuned the factory ecm with software that we have at the shop. if you don't have the software to do it, alot of companies will do it for you if you ship your ecm to them.

you should run with the 4l60 and adapt it to either the HF2a(stock 80) or splitcase(60/62).

the adapter for the hf2a behind the 4l60 is about $1300
the adapter for the splitcase behind the 4l69 is about $800

with the splitcase you will have a 2wd option(no more AWD)

depending on the year of your 80, you will have the "bus"(a440) trans.

If you are really serious about the swap, give me a call at work(Iron Pig Offroad) 1 866 iron pig, or 1 540 361 7400 my name is Vince and i would be glad to help you.

 

[jabhb]

thanks for your help!
my 80 is a 93.
so when doing a swap like this, what is everything that would need to be replaced? is there any sort of "list"? I know that might be alot to ask for....
i just know that here soon enough my motor is gonna pry dump out on me. I want more power. ive considered the supercharged 1fz route but then im still looking at 6k to rebuild my motor and sc it. and thats if i were able to get lucky! So i figure it might be more cost affective to go with swapping in a v8. on top of i might even get better gas mpg with a v8 sadly. ha ha

so whats going to be cheaper? rebuild, sc or swap in a v8?
my mind goes back and forth on all of this way too often....

also, is it worth it to try and keep the hf2a?
How would an 80 act with a centered rear output?

sorry for all the q's, just grinding gears trying to figure out exactly what to do here.

 

[tblume]

is this topic in the FAQ yet? might ought to be... just sayin'

 

[warpdriv]

is this topic in the FAQ yet? might ought to be... just sayin'

2x Someone that has done this needs to consolidate this swap into a definitive guide.

 

[Panzer]

Dear Mr Moderator,

This thread, and others like it need to be added to the FAQ in an engine swap chapter.
Far too many of our fabulous 80s are extremely high mileage and need some life extension surgery.
The pros and cons of rebuilt vs swap / which swap to do, etc
These are becoming common questions over here in 80 land.

 

[Elbert]

check out some of the engine swaps on the 60 section. If I were you...I would buy the engine and transmission all togehter from the salvage yard, and get the wiring harness and everything under the hood. On the newer engines teh PCM controls the auto trans. You will need to get the PCM reprogrammmed.. ask many quesitons and read a lot.

I would run the GM engine and transmission.

I have not looked but there may be some good engine swap threads in teh 80 section too.

 

[OGBeno]

You guys all really need to learn how to search a bit better (i.e., using keywords in the advanced search function).

There have been so many engine/tranny swaps over the past 5 years.

Digging up these old threads are useless. They provide nothing technically and they are just posturing.