HT383E Stroker Engine Swap

[notfastenuff]

If you can put two wires together and solder them, you can swap in a GenIII or GenIV engine. No joke. The aftermarket has made it that simple.

To your point though, yes it is easier to swap in a 383, but you'll still need a tune which adds to the cost. It's your money though.

I know I'm grave diggin a bit here, but I want to hear about this two wire LS swap! From everything I've read, the parts list is at least a foot long and it's a lot more than two wires. Please elaborate as I'm debating either an LS or HT383E.

 

[DRAGGIN95]

Check out the LS swap sub section in the perfromance area, and also check out LS1truck.com!

 

[notfastenuff]

Check out the LS swap sub section in the perfromance area, and also check out LS1truck.com!

I'm familiar with both, Draggin. I've seen you in a lot of threads there, but you know as well as I do that there's a helluva lot more to it than "soldering two wires". I just don't like it when people make rocket science sound like pounding two rocks together. I've seen many a great project turn into piles of scrap because people took on more than they could handle at the recommendation of someone else claiming how easy it is. I've done my homework. It's a lot of work. I've kicked around the idea of the HT383E. I'd like to hear what kind of mileage people are really getting with them. As far as costs, if you do a 6.0L, buy a harness, reflash, headers, fuel rail adapters, redo your exhaust, and the other little odds and ends, you really aren't gonna be THAT far off from the $4500 that you can pick up an HT383E for. Once you get within a grand, I think it becomes a moot point unless you're wanting to build stupid amounts of power. That doesn't even begin to take into account the A/C issue.

 

[DRAGGIN95]

I agree that it is an involved swap, and yeah it isn't cheap, I have ridden in several 383 truck's and in those that I have ridden in couldn't touch the power of a mildly modded and tuned 6.0. That's just my experience though!

 

[notfastenuff]

For my truck, I'm just wanting a dependable, daily/weekend cruiser with working a/c that I can attempt to get decent mileage (for a V-8) and cruise. I want it to pull a trailer when I need to. I've got a '69 Camaro and a '96 Impala SS if I wanna haul ass. As far as my comments earlier, I just didn't like the guy saying it's as simple as hooking up two wires. Things like that irk me. There are easy, moderate, and extreme swaps. An LS into our trucks is a moderate swap. The Integra B20 swap I did was easy. There's a BIG difference.

 

[DGA1]

You can build your own 383, for a lot less than the GM advertised one. I was specking everything out, everything being new excluding the intake manifold, for about $3000 and that is with a tune and a 411 swap, new 67cc heads, machined block, bigger cam than the one in GM's 383, fully balanced rotating assembly, etc... The caveat being is that I'd do the wrenching myself.

Edit: The biggest problem with the LSx swap, for me, is that you are paying a lot of money to put a well used, over 100K miles, engine in your truck. There is no guarantee on what kind of previous maintenance that engine had and what was it used for, out of a fleet truck pulling trailers all of it's life.

 

[blue_92_sierra]

I was thinkin about doin a 383 in my 92, or an lsx swap. I would love to have a 6.0 but im not sure which route to go. Build my own 383, buy a new crate 383 or do the ls swap? DGA1 had a good point, you dont know what kinda ls motor your getting and how it was maintained/used before.. Since my 92 isnt a daily driven truck fuel mileage isnt a huge concern

 

[DRAGGIN95]

You can build your own 383, for a lot less than the GM advertised one. I was specking everything out, everything being new excluding the intake manifold, for about $3000 and that is with a tune and a 411 swap, new 67cc heads, machined block, bigger cam than the one in GM's 383, fully balanced rotating assembly, etc... The caveat being is that I'd do the wrenching myself.

Edit: The biggest problem with the LSx swap, for me, is that you are paying a lot of money to put a well used, over 100K miles, engine in your truck. There is no guarantee on what kind of previous maintenance that engine had and what was it used for, out of a fleet truck pulling trailers all of it's life.

I agree with the mileage statement, I would never buy a motor that had more than 35K miles on it!