So I’ve been a member for a while now and have been working towards this swap for a long time. As I sit here mid project, filled with a bit of frustration, I’m thinking it might be therapeutic to do my own write-up. I’ll add to it as time allows. Comments welcome. If you choose to continue reading, please keep the following in mind. My primary purpose for owning a truck is to use it as a truck to get work done. It’s not a commuter vehicle for me. I want it to do what I ask of it, when I ask it to do it. This includes hauling rocks, dirt, mulch, car parts, large items, a trailer carrying a car/truck/four wheelers/lumber/logs and whatever else one can fit in it. And most importantly to my wife, our ‘97 23’ Chaparral Bow Rider boat. While I’d love it to look all shiny and pretty looking while doing so, family priorities often limit such wants. Hence spending $40-50k on a new truck is tough to justify as well. I’ve been messing with cars my whole life so owning a used truck as a secondary vehicle seems to make more sense to me.
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Ever since I was a kid, riding to school everyday I passed a Chevrolet dealership. I still remember my first time seeing my first GMT400 in 1988 and how much I drooled over that truck. I watched every year from 1988 until I graduated in 1995. I remember thinking that they just kept getting better and better looking and by 1995 I was loving the new grill and interior. My first GMT400 was a 1988 C2500 RCLB 7,200GVW that was a highway department truck that I repainted black/silver.
Fast forward to 2012. A house, a wife, and two kids later. Perusing through Craigslist one night I see two CCLB K3500’s for sale in my area. I say to my wife, “what do you think if we get a bigger truck that can haul the whole family?” To my surprise she says sure! I looked at both of them. The first one was a maroon on maroon 5.7 Vortec. I couldn’t make a deal with him, plus the bed was showing quite a bit of rust at the cross supports. So I go look at the second one. It’s a 7.4L TBI that this guy bought the previous year in SC without an engine. The PO pulled it to put in his boat so the story went. So this guy got a direct swap engine from a junk yard and installed it. He couldn’t tell me how many miles were on the engine except that it was more than the 144k that was currently on the truck. He decided to sell it because he wasn’t happy with how it towed his 10,000lb travel trailer plus 1000lbs of tools when he travelled from job site to job site. For a guy who has lived in the rust belt his whole life, this truck was amazing. Not a single spec of the crusty rust that invades our trucks here. Yes it was dinged up and the paint pretty faded but it was solid as a rock! It ran okay, but definitely needed some TLC. I was also digging the blue on blue and it was loaded with all the creature comforts. So we made a deal and she was mine. After giving it all the TLC it needed like brakes, rotors, bearing seals, wheel cylinders, hydro booster, reinstall the cat, new front seats, grill, tow hooks, steering gearbox, A-arm bushings, pitman and idler arms she went to work as our weekend warrior truck.
Come to find out, that engine should have stayed in the junk yard! It wasn’t long before I was adding a quart of oil every tankful of gas! But it got the job done taking everyone to and from the hardware store on the weekends or the boat to and from the ramp not too far from the house. I only put about 3k miles a year on it. It wasn’t long though before I started planning for a drivetrain rebuild not know how long this engine was going to hold out. I really wanted a L29 Vortec but the TBI did what I needed it to do. I happened to come across a 2000 RCLB K3500 with the L29 7.4L Vortec for sale for parts on CL. Complete with only 114k miles on it, but could no longer pass inspection because the frame was so rusted. So here I think I found my solution. Refurb or rebuild the ‘00 drivetrain and just have everything ready to swap over. I took a bit of a chance on it since it wouldn’t run for more than a second or two due to a security code. Once I got it home, I did a security relearn procedure on it and it fired right up. Drove it around the block without any power steering or brakes and a leaky exhaust long enough to tell that it had no major issues and seemed to run and shift well. I eventually got around to stripping it down and selling any part of value that I wasn’t going to need for the swap.
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Ever since I was a kid, riding to school everyday I passed a Chevrolet dealership. I still remember my first time seeing my first GMT400 in 1988 and how much I drooled over that truck. I watched every year from 1988 until I graduated in 1995. I remember thinking that they just kept getting better and better looking and by 1995 I was loving the new grill and interior. My first GMT400 was a 1988 C2500 RCLB 7,200GVW that was a highway department truck that I repainted black/silver.
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Fast forward to 2012. A house, a wife, and two kids later. Perusing through Craigslist one night I see two CCLB K3500’s for sale in my area. I say to my wife, “what do you think if we get a bigger truck that can haul the whole family?” To my surprise she says sure! I looked at both of them. The first one was a maroon on maroon 5.7 Vortec. I couldn’t make a deal with him, plus the bed was showing quite a bit of rust at the cross supports. So I go look at the second one. It’s a 7.4L TBI that this guy bought the previous year in SC without an engine. The PO pulled it to put in his boat so the story went. So this guy got a direct swap engine from a junk yard and installed it. He couldn’t tell me how many miles were on the engine except that it was more than the 144k that was currently on the truck. He decided to sell it because he wasn’t happy with how it towed his 10,000lb travel trailer plus 1000lbs of tools when he travelled from job site to job site. For a guy who has lived in the rust belt his whole life, this truck was amazing. Not a single spec of the crusty rust that invades our trucks here. Yes it was dinged up and the paint pretty faded but it was solid as a rock! It ran okay, but definitely needed some TLC. I was also digging the blue on blue and it was loaded with all the creature comforts. So we made a deal and she was mine. After giving it all the TLC it needed like brakes, rotors, bearing seals, wheel cylinders, hydro booster, reinstall the cat, new front seats, grill, tow hooks, steering gearbox, A-arm bushings, pitman and idler arms she went to work as our weekend warrior truck.
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
Come to find out, that engine should have stayed in the junk yard! It wasn’t long before I was adding a quart of oil every tankful of gas! But it got the job done taking everyone to and from the hardware store on the weekends or the boat to and from the ramp not too far from the house. I only put about 3k miles a year on it. It wasn’t long though before I started planning for a drivetrain rebuild not know how long this engine was going to hold out. I really wanted a L29 Vortec but the TBI did what I needed it to do. I happened to come across a 2000 RCLB K3500 with the L29 7.4L Vortec for sale for parts on CL. Complete with only 114k miles on it, but could no longer pass inspection because the frame was so rusted. So here I think I found my solution. Refurb or rebuild the ‘00 drivetrain and just have everything ready to swap over. I took a bit of a chance on it since it wouldn’t run for more than a second or two due to a security code. Once I got it home, I did a security relearn procedure on it and it fired right up. Drove it around the block without any power steering or brakes and a leaky exhaust long enough to tell that it had no major issues and seemed to run and shift well. I eventually got around to stripping it down and selling any part of value that I wasn’t going to need for the swap.
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
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