6.5 Diesel to 5.7 swap

[97ttpuller]

Kind of a strange one but what the hey. I have a 1997 K1500 with a great running 5.7L the truck is bone stock and has 3.42 gears. The gears are too tall for towing my trailer. I found a 1996 K1500 with a blown (surprise, surprise) 6.5 diesel. It has factory 3.73 gears AND a 4L80E tranny, transfer case ect, ect. I have the guy talked down to about $800 for the truck.

My plan was swaps, axles, tranny&transfer case ect. But I'm thinking more along the lines of an engine swap instead. Has anyone ever given this one a try? Pulling out the wasted unreliable 6.5 and putting in a 5.7. I think all I should have to do is swap engines, engine electrical harness and reflash the 5.7 ECM for the 4L80E.

I have the guy with the dead 6.5 talked down to $800, he has papers from AAMCO for an overhaul on the 4L80E about 35K ago. I've more less got him to let it go for $800. So for less than he paid for the tranny OH I get, the tranny, T case, correct length front & rear drive shafts, a front 3.73 gear axle, a rear 3.73 gear axle. Anyone have any advise?

 

[great white]

Everything under the hood engine related or electrical. You can save the hydroboost if you swap the power steering pump on to the gasser.

Entire cab harness. All of it. 6.5 trucks are closer to OBDI than OBDII. More like OBDII programming stuffed in OBD1.5 hardware. The PCM is up behind the glovebox and is incompatible with running anything in a gasser. Engine or cab.

Gauge cluster (diesel is different than Gasser cluster)

Fuel lines. Diesels have an in line lift pump and different lines.

Fuel pump. Nothing in a diesel tank except a tube. You'll need the rear frame wiring harness to run the gasser pump too. Might as well swap the whole thing over.

Exhaust.

Diesels are "fly by wire". Electronic throttle. No cable throttle. You'll have to swap that over.

Cruise control, AC and an S-Load of other things are also going to be a major pain.

Gaskets, fluid, broken/rusted small parts and all sorts of little things are going to nickle and dime you to death.

My advice: don't.

Huge PITA job and likely to cause more problems than it would solve. Other than the body panels, running gear and some minor electrical bits, they might as well be totally different trucks.

Make absolutely sure it has 3.73's. 1500 6.5's were made for MPG and nothing else. 3.42's are very common in the 1500 6.5 trucks.

Or, you can spend 7-10 grand to get a new 6500 Optimizer (plus supporting parts) in there and run the diesel.

But it still won't be a powerhouse.

Outside of Bill's LSR truck, there's only one real killer 6.5 out there and I'm not selling it. I've also got a ridiculous amount of time and money into it and it's still only about a powerful as a stock LB7. Well, maybe Ronnie Joe's could hang with mine, but I don't know if he even still has a 6.5....

However, judging from your other posts, I'd say you wouldn't be happy with it anyways.

Take the parts you want from the dead 1500, junk the rest.

Actually, I'm kinda learning towards advising you to sell your 1500 and get something newer that is equipped the way you want from the get go.....

 

[454cid]

Why not swap just the axles? You could probably get axles for less than $800, but you'd have your own parts truck and could sell off what you didn't need.