6.0/4l80e into 97 k1500 questions

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colthard

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Just as an introduction, my name is Colt and i'm from Jonesboro, AR. I'm new to this forum, but not new to forums in general. I have done a fair amount of searching on this forum as well as google, and cant really find straightforward answer to some questions i have regarding a 6.0/4l80e swap.

I like to do my homework and plan out as many things as i can ahead of time.

Heres a couple of my questions.....

1. Will the 6.0/4l80e bolt up to the OE t-case? (i believe its a np243)

2. Can it all be installed without having to shorten the driveshafts?

3. i understand that the 4l80e is a little longer than a 4l60e, but could this length difference be compensated for when making motor mount adapters without sacrificing a large amount of weight distribution difference?

4. i can have custom a/c lines made locally, but from what i have seen, no one uses the OE compressor from the 6.0, why is this?

any input here would be greatly appreciated

this swap is being done on as tight of budget as possible, so please try and keep that in mind. I plan on spending a full day at a u-pull-it and getting as many parts as possible there. motor & motor mounts, trans, ecu, complete wiring harness, and drive accessories are a given
 
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heavrolet9894

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Yes your factory transfer case will bolt up to the 80e. I'm not sure about the driveshafts but I do know that you could get a set from a truck that originally came with a 80e if you don't want to shorten/extend your factory ones. You will have to relocate your trans crossmember back about 6inchs. No one uses the factory compressor form the 6.0 because the original mounting location would put it in the side of the passenger frame rail. Check out LS1truck.com and go to the conversions section. Good luck with swap man and keep us updated. http://www.ls1truck.com/forums/lsx-truck-conversions/
 

Mike

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Welcome man, check out the article I have in the transmission section about a the 4l80e swap that'll fill you in on that part. Its pretty much a drop in and is really easy especially if you're doing a whole harness and etc for the 6.0. You don't have to change your driveshafts.

SBC to LS motor mounts move the engine back 2 inches putting the whole driveline where it should be. Street and Performance makes a really nice set of mounts I suggest using them.

People don't use the AC compressor because it is a different type. The OBS compressors turn on when you hit the AC button and turn off when you disengage it. The NBS compressors are constant on and use a cycle up/cycle down procedure. I've seen one person use the NBS compressor but he had a bunch of fancy wiring to run it. Most people put a Sanden compressor up on top of the LS swap motor and that will work like a factory OBS system.
 

noremac

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welcome... i am in jonesboro too.. i am guessing you are cody's friend seeing as you are asking bout the same questions..
 

BubbaZ71Tahoe

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the transfer case will need to be swapped to a 32 spline input to mate it to a 80e
 

colthard

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i appreciate all the responses.

due to budget constraints and availability constraints, we ended up purchasing a 99 5.3, complete with all accessories, harness, ecu, fusebox, and all of the other harnesses for the fusebox.

we have also purchased shoenfeld swap headers, trans-dapt motor mount adapters, and advance adapters LS to older style transmission flywheel adapter that will allow us to bolt the torque converter from the 97 4l60e up to the 5.3.

the engine is cleaned up and painted, and the engine harness has been cleaned up and we have removed evap, egr and downstrean O2 wires.

ive spent the last two nights labeling all of the wiring for the fusebox harnesses with diagrams courtesy of alldata.

the goal is to have only one fuse box under the hood and one ecu.



i do still have one question at this point though,

the coolant exchange tubing that goes between the heads has the outlet that passes through the throttle body then out to the radiator on the NSB trucks. can i cap this line or do i need to route it to the radiator and put a hose barb on my radiator?

it looks to me like it is the highest point of coolant in the engine and would allow air bubbles to escape that could potentially be trapped in the heads if capped.

also, does anyone have any ideas for blocking off the egr hole in the intake? the small evap hole was a smaler hole that i filled with quicksteel.

ill take some pictures next time im out at the shop.

are there any other issues i can expect to run into at this point?
 

CodyB

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Labeling and identifying all the plugs and wires on this NBS harness sucks. If anyone has a file of all the plugs and their exact uses Id appreciate it. Alldata just has for example connector c100, c101, c102...c951. So we are just matching the plugs by clicking individual links and comparing pictures. Now that we finally have wireless in the shop, its faster than going over AT&T Edge network (slow as crap...) but it still sucks.

We haven't touched the truck other than swapping out a set of rear leaf springs... Which turned out to be not as easy as it sounds, and I showed up halfway through that one too... Basically its a ~25 minute drive to the junk yard where we are getting the parts from. Colt had one set of springs picked up the day before, but turned out to be a 3" wide 5 leaf spring (The 1500 we are working on is a 2.5" wide 4 leaf spring) so they took them back and got a set off of a NBS but it was a 3 leaf. once we stabbed that up there and hunted down a set of u bolts we found out that it went from a decent arch to nearly flat sitting on the helper spring. No improvement off of what we had... This was also only the passenger side we were working on. So we load up and go back out to the yard in search of 2.5" wide 5 leaf set. Well we found a pair on what we assumed were an OBS frame with a composite gas tank. That shoulda been a red flag for me there. We didn't have a tape measure so we assumed it was the right length. Wrong. got the width right but those were tahoe springs. Not the length we needed... We eventually decide to just truck along and go with the 3 leaf NBS springs and a 3" lift block instead of the 2" block that was on there. That caused problems that we eventually had to custom make a set of plates to cross the top of the leaf spring due to the too short of a length of U bolts on the NBS spring with the OBS axle...

Well the driver side original spring bolt in the front of the leaf fused itself to the metal sleeve in the rubber bushing. After trying for probably a good 30 minutes of using a sawzall on the bolt, I had to use a plasma torch and cut the spring, the outer sleeve, the inner sleeve, and finally the bolt to get it out. the rubber bushing is VERY flammable right beside the gas tank... The tank didn't ignite, but I was just slightly nervous about that one...
 
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