Hey all, about to complete (have competed!!!!!!!!!!!!!) my 80 swap into my 96 k1500, 5.7L, 0411 swapped truck.
I wanted to cover some of the things I ran into while doing the swap and maybe shed some light on issues y'all might run into during this undertaking. Also, going to try and throw in some items you will need and measurements for things you'll need to modify.
I'll edit this from time to time, adding more things as I remember them.
I will give kudos to all of those who have helped me get to this point too. I am an estimated 4 hours of work away from the first test drive and am super excited!
More to come.
Please read it all. Pretty sure I put some warnings in there.
1) You WILL need to change the length of the front and rear driveshafts. I shortened my rear 1.625" and it worked just fine. I bought a front for a k2500 off Ebay and that worked ok. Here is the forward driveshaft. I didn't need to change the u-joints or anything.
2) I had to drill holes on my chassis to relocate the tranny crossmember. I drilled them 2.75" farther back and it worked for me. I know some earlier chassis had provision for the swap already. Mine didn't unfortunately.
3) You WILL need a new flexplate. I thought maybe the 4L60 one would work because it had all the holes, but it turns out half the holes are offset. It's weird. Anyway, Pioneer makes one that will work, P/N FRA-161, 168 teeth, 14.125" (or 14.13" sometimes... not sure why) OD, 2" ID. Now the ID is DEFINITELY bigger than 2" by about .065" on the crank and the flexplate. Not sure why they don't account for that, but I just "modified" the ID of the flexplate just a little and made it fit because initially it would not go in. I still kept it a relatively tight fit on the crank shaft.
4) [EDIT] You CANNOT use the original 60 dipstick/tube combo. You'll need a new one and Jegs sells it. Now, I can't speak for their quality control because I had to modify the mounting bracket to get it to fit. Best bet is to find an OEM one at the junkyard. If I had more time, I would've done that. I had plenty of time, but damn it, I was lazy!
5) [EDIT] Apart from opening up your transfer case and swapping to a 32 spline input shaft, you will need a new transfer case. The 60 transfer case is a 27 spline input. The output spline on the 80 is 32 spline. Found that out the hard way, but I feel like I should've assumed it was going to be different. If you look for a 241C transfer case, you should be golden; they're all over E-bay! Pleasant surprise though, your OEM 60 rear driveshaft yolk spline DOES match the new 241C t-case output spline!
6) I have HPtuners and segment swapped a 4l80e tune into my tune and it worked. [EDIT] So HPTuners has provision for 4WD Lo in the tune that has to be setup. It took some time to get the infor for this, but Supercharged111 pointed me in the right direction. So it doesn't look like you necessarily have to find a 4WD specific tune for it to work, but for a tune that is 2WD, you have to go in there and set the shift points for 4WD Lo manually. The main thing about segment swapping is it MUST be the same OS. Your OS and the donor tune's OS must be the same or it will not work. HPtuners has a tutorial spot on their website for this. See this video for more details. I would highly recommend HPtuners and the 0411 swap guys, at least if you are pre 98. It's super cool to be able to tune your own vehicle. If you decide to do it, I have the excel spreadsheet with the pinout. PM.
7) There is a great video here for rewiring the main tranny harness, re-pinning the 0411, and repurposing the 2 extra wires for the VSS. You will need to buy this harness. I would recommend doing this instead of buying a harness adapter for $100 somewhere. It was super easy!
8) Speaking of VSS. My transmission came with two of them, which was very unusual for my year, especially since it was a 4WD tranny. 2WD's use them both, if I understand correctly. If you are a 4WD use the one most fore on the tranny and disregard the aft one. It MAY just be a plug that looks like a sensor anyway. It doesn't matter either way, even if it is a sensor, use the fore one and use the one on the transfer case if you are a 4WD and let the aft one on the tranny serve as a plug.
9) You WILL need a new transfer case shifter rod. The 60 one is too short. I made it a point to buy a transfer case that came with the rod, otherwise I might've welded a bit of grade 8 bolt to elongate it
!
10) Your OEM shifter cable will work although you may want to swap out your 60 shifter plate onto the 80. The 80 one that came with mine had a slight curve at the end that I think would've caused some interference if I had used it.
11) Your neutral safety switch is the same between trannys! ****, I used a 99 model switch. O'reilly's computer said it wouldn't work, but it sure did. Everything was exactly the same except the part number. I only tried it because it was the only one they had in stock LOL.
12) You will need to modify (slightly) the fluid lines you have. I ended up adding a secondary cooler and ran some hose to make things work. I know that's vague, but you'll see what I mean when you come to it. My 80 had the two line fittings near the front of the transmission because it's a 96 model. The upper line coming out of the tranny is hot or discharge, the lower line of the radiator is hot inlet. You should be able to figure out how to set it up from there. I went from discharge of tranny ---> inlet of radiator ----> discharge of radiator ----> inlet of cooler ----> discharge of cooler -----> inlet of tranny. Only the OEM cold line is long enough to make work if you were just going to use the OEM cooler setup. The hot line was a bit too short and SUPER tight even after modifying it, making me worry it would've broken the radiator if I hadn't incorporated some flexline into the system. ALSO THE OEM COOLER LINES FOR THE K2500 OR K3500 WILL NOT WORK. I bought them and wasted about $80. Routing is case by case and you may want to route it through the secondary cooler first and then the radiator if you're in colder climates. Your discretion.
13) I bought a 96 year 80 and it was super easy to setup. Nice little trick I learned from a buddy is when you're trying to line up the bellhousing with the back of the engine, you can get QTY 2 4-6" allthread or QTY2 long bolts (Cut off the heads), thread them into the lower bolt holes of the block and use those for lining it up. It makes it WORLDS easier to do it this way. After getting the allthread into the bellhousing holes, just slide the buttnugget into place. As Ace once said, "LIKE A GLOVE!" Start with the top bolts to keep it there and then remove the allthread.
I'll add more things as I remember them and if you guys have any questions not detailed here, I'll definitely try and answer them so HMU.
Took the truck for a test drive today and it ran beautifully!
If you're worried about doing this yourself, don't be. It's not too difficult. Just tedious and time consuming, especially if you're like me and have to reloom all the wiring while you're down there and make everything pretty LOL. I did all the lifting, removals, and installs all by myself and I've got a bum shoulder and diabetes
YOU CAN DO IT!!
Kudos go out to NickTransmissions, DF2x4, L31MaxExpress, and Supercharged111 for their awesome input and help while doing this job!!!
I wanted to cover some of the things I ran into while doing the swap and maybe shed some light on issues y'all might run into during this undertaking. Also, going to try and throw in some items you will need and measurements for things you'll need to modify.
I'll edit this from time to time, adding more things as I remember them.
I will give kudos to all of those who have helped me get to this point too. I am an estimated 4 hours of work away from the first test drive and am super excited!
More to come.
Please read it all. Pretty sure I put some warnings in there.
1) You WILL need to change the length of the front and rear driveshafts. I shortened my rear 1.625" and it worked just fine. I bought a front for a k2500 off Ebay and that worked ok. Here is the forward driveshaft. I didn't need to change the u-joints or anything.
2) I had to drill holes on my chassis to relocate the tranny crossmember. I drilled them 2.75" farther back and it worked for me. I know some earlier chassis had provision for the swap already. Mine didn't unfortunately.
3) You WILL need a new flexplate. I thought maybe the 4L60 one would work because it had all the holes, but it turns out half the holes are offset. It's weird. Anyway, Pioneer makes one that will work, P/N FRA-161, 168 teeth, 14.125" (or 14.13" sometimes... not sure why) OD, 2" ID. Now the ID is DEFINITELY bigger than 2" by about .065" on the crank and the flexplate. Not sure why they don't account for that, but I just "modified" the ID of the flexplate just a little and made it fit because initially it would not go in. I still kept it a relatively tight fit on the crank shaft.
4) [EDIT] You CANNOT use the original 60 dipstick/tube combo. You'll need a new one and Jegs sells it. Now, I can't speak for their quality control because I had to modify the mounting bracket to get it to fit. Best bet is to find an OEM one at the junkyard. If I had more time, I would've done that. I had plenty of time, but damn it, I was lazy!
5) [EDIT] Apart from opening up your transfer case and swapping to a 32 spline input shaft, you will need a new transfer case. The 60 transfer case is a 27 spline input. The output spline on the 80 is 32 spline. Found that out the hard way, but I feel like I should've assumed it was going to be different. If you look for a 241C transfer case, you should be golden; they're all over E-bay! Pleasant surprise though, your OEM 60 rear driveshaft yolk spline DOES match the new 241C t-case output spline!
6) I have HPtuners and segment swapped a 4l80e tune into my tune and it worked. [EDIT] So HPTuners has provision for 4WD Lo in the tune that has to be setup. It took some time to get the infor for this, but Supercharged111 pointed me in the right direction. So it doesn't look like you necessarily have to find a 4WD specific tune for it to work, but for a tune that is 2WD, you have to go in there and set the shift points for 4WD Lo manually. The main thing about segment swapping is it MUST be the same OS. Your OS and the donor tune's OS must be the same or it will not work. HPtuners has a tutorial spot on their website for this. See this video for more details. I would highly recommend HPtuners and the 0411 swap guys, at least if you are pre 98. It's super cool to be able to tune your own vehicle. If you decide to do it, I have the excel spreadsheet with the pinout. PM.
7) There is a great video here for rewiring the main tranny harness, re-pinning the 0411, and repurposing the 2 extra wires for the VSS. You will need to buy this harness. I would recommend doing this instead of buying a harness adapter for $100 somewhere. It was super easy!
8) Speaking of VSS. My transmission came with two of them, which was very unusual for my year, especially since it was a 4WD tranny. 2WD's use them both, if I understand correctly. If you are a 4WD use the one most fore on the tranny and disregard the aft one. It MAY just be a plug that looks like a sensor anyway. It doesn't matter either way, even if it is a sensor, use the fore one and use the one on the transfer case if you are a 4WD and let the aft one on the tranny serve as a plug.
9) You WILL need a new transfer case shifter rod. The 60 one is too short. I made it a point to buy a transfer case that came with the rod, otherwise I might've welded a bit of grade 8 bolt to elongate it
!10) Your OEM shifter cable will work although you may want to swap out your 60 shifter plate onto the 80. The 80 one that came with mine had a slight curve at the end that I think would've caused some interference if I had used it.
11) Your neutral safety switch is the same between trannys! ****, I used a 99 model switch. O'reilly's computer said it wouldn't work, but it sure did. Everything was exactly the same except the part number. I only tried it because it was the only one they had in stock LOL.
12) You will need to modify (slightly) the fluid lines you have. I ended up adding a secondary cooler and ran some hose to make things work. I know that's vague, but you'll see what I mean when you come to it. My 80 had the two line fittings near the front of the transmission because it's a 96 model. The upper line coming out of the tranny is hot or discharge, the lower line of the radiator is hot inlet. You should be able to figure out how to set it up from there. I went from discharge of tranny ---> inlet of radiator ----> discharge of radiator ----> inlet of cooler ----> discharge of cooler -----> inlet of tranny. Only the OEM cold line is long enough to make work if you were just going to use the OEM cooler setup. The hot line was a bit too short and SUPER tight even after modifying it, making me worry it would've broken the radiator if I hadn't incorporated some flexline into the system. ALSO THE OEM COOLER LINES FOR THE K2500 OR K3500 WILL NOT WORK. I bought them and wasted about $80. Routing is case by case and you may want to route it through the secondary cooler first and then the radiator if you're in colder climates. Your discretion.
13) I bought a 96 year 80 and it was super easy to setup. Nice little trick I learned from a buddy is when you're trying to line up the bellhousing with the back of the engine, you can get QTY 2 4-6" allthread or QTY2 long bolts (Cut off the heads), thread them into the lower bolt holes of the block and use those for lining it up. It makes it WORLDS easier to do it this way. After getting the allthread into the bellhousing holes, just slide the buttnugget into place. As Ace once said, "LIKE A GLOVE!" Start with the top bolts to keep it there and then remove the allthread.
I'll add more things as I remember them and if you guys have any questions not detailed here, I'll definitely try and answer them so HMU.
Took the truck for a test drive today and it ran beautifully!
If you're worried about doing this yourself, don't be. It's not too difficult. Just tedious and time consuming, especially if you're like me and have to reloom all the wiring while you're down there and make everything pretty LOL. I did all the lifting, removals, and installs all by myself and I've got a bum shoulder and diabetes
YOU CAN DO IT!!Kudos go out to NickTransmissions, DF2x4, L31MaxExpress, and Supercharged111 for their awesome input and help while doing this job!!!
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