On the LS swap on my 90 C1500.
It seems the more I read the more confused I become. I've been researching this for well over a year. All I read is all the issues everybody is having. Wiring to make this or that work. Engine codes with no fix in sight. Can't make the cruise, gas gauge and other essential systems work.
My goal, like it seems to many, is to have a "modern" power plant with better gas mileage and power than the factory 5.7 with the outdated TBI. My electrical/computer skills related to automotive will not support me in doing this swap.
Ken
Greetings kenh,
Merging a next-generation powerplant into a GMT400 engine bay can cause a 'chicken or the egg'
troubleshooting scenario. Is the engine the perpetrator of the issue, or is it a victim of something
in the engine bay/wiring harness that I didn't marry properly?
My suggestion is that you consider a Divide and Conquer approach, by adding an intermediary step
where you verify that your engine works + you know how to get the wiring harness set up properly
to make it run on command? An engine run stand will allow you to do this.
Personally, when I am coming up to speed on a new technique, I always like to find both the minimum
acceptable procedure, followed by the max effort approach, and this way I can figure out where on the
continuum I'd like to be.
With that in mind, Here are 2 short videos to check out.
The first is the minimalist approach. Nice explanation of the bare minimum of what you need to get a
LS motor to fire up on a engine stand. (With an unspoken tip of the hat to the Evel Knievel lifestyle?)
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On the other hand, the second approach is how to minimize all risk, and maximize the moment. No
surprise, Jay Leno demonstrates how it's done when you are one of us motorhead types that is playing
the game while owning Boardwalk with a hotel on it:
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There you have it.
Soup to nuts.
A-Z.
Figure out where you want to be on the engine test stand continuum, buy it, use it...and when you are
done it, sell it to the next GMT400/LS swapper guy in line. Bonus points for locating a used engine test
stand for the right price, using that, and then selling it for what you paid for it?
And for what it's worth, I'm plenty comfortable with making engines work, and troubleshooting my way out of
a no-joy situation. But I wouldn't buy a treasure yard LS motor and stuff it directly into a GMT400 engine bay.
I know it's done all the time. Some of the time it works right off the bat, but other times there's significant
chase your own tail sorting out after the fact.
But I would have no trouble if the engine bay was in good shape *before* the project was started. And then
the donor engine is made to run on a stand. Then the 'marriage' of good engine bay + tested-good LS engine
is just a matter of careful bolting & connecting, with very little pondering why did I choose this $^#%*& hobby? :0)
And if you document your build in here with sharp photos and the occasional question for us to kick around, we
might end up with a nice, self-documenting How To LS-swap build thread that others could learn a lot from.
Sounds like fun to me.
Cheers --