Engine and trans swap from 94 to ???

[emccomas57]

First, if this belongs in the Stupid Engines Question thread, mods feel free to move it there.

I have a 94 C1500 extended cab 2 WD with 250,000 miles on it. This truck is pretty ugly, both inside and out. I don't really care much about that but my wife is now making noises like "fix it or get rid of it".

While is has a quarter million miles on it, the previous owner has the local Chevy dealer install a new crate engine and transmission (which now have about 15K miles on them and it runs great). The truck also has a new rebuild steering box, and new tires.

The body is so bad in so many places that it really isn't worth trying to fix. It even has bondo on the roof that is now showing through the Maco paint job.

OK, so I am looking for a decent body, with a decent interior extended cab 2 WD truck that needs an engine or trans or both. And here is my question

My truck is a 1994 5.7, automatic, 2 wheel drive.

What years and original engine sizes will make the engine swap from my truck to the "new" truck a reasonable effort.

I have been advised that I should not consider the following as possible transplant candidates:
1. A 4 wheel drive truck
2. An original V6 truck (the wiring harness is significantly different)
3. An original manual transmission truck

So, if this is true, then I am looking for a 2 WD, extended cab (I want to keep the extended cab capability), original V8 equipped, original auto trans equipped truck.

But what year(s) trucks will work for me.

I know that with enough money and effort, any year truck can be made to work, but this has to be a real low budget operation. Basically, take the complete engine and trans from my truck and drop it in the "new" truck. I really do not want to do major engine parts swaps to make things work. I can see my way clear to swapping the intake and FI system, but not much more involved than that.

We are looking at trucks from 1988 to 1998. Obviously all of those years are not good candidates, and I suspect my best option would be a 1994. But is there a lot of difference between 1994 and 1993, or 1992, or 1995, or...

You get the picture.

I am in the Huntsville, AL area, and there are plenty of used trucks available, but I am not sure what will work for me on my limited budget.

Can you all point me in the right direction?

 

[RawbDidIt]

First, if this belongs in the Stupid Engines Question thread, mods feel free to move it there.

I have a 94 C1500 extended cab 2 WD with 250,000 miles on it. This truck is pretty ugly, both inside and out. I don't really care much about that but my wife is now making noises like "fix it or get rid of it".

While is has a quarter million miles on it, the previous owner has the local Chevy dealer install a new crate engine and transmission (which now have about 15K miles on them and it runs great). The truck also has a new rebuild steering box, and new tires.

The body is so bad in so many places that it really isn't worth trying to fix. It even has bondo on the roof that is now showing through the Maco paint job.

OK, so I am looking for a decent body, with a decent interior extended cab 2 WD truck that needs an engine or trans or both. And here is my question

My truck is a 1994 5.7, automatic, 2 wheel drive.

What years and original engine sizes will make the engine swap from my truck to the "new" truck a reasonable effort.

I have been advised that I should not consider the following as possible transplant candidates:
1. A 4 wheel drive truck
2. An original V6 truck (the wiring harness is significantly different)
3. An original manual transmission truck

So, if this is true, then I am looking for a 2 WD, extended cab (I want to keep the extended cab capability), original V8 equipped, original auto trans equipped truck.

But what year(s) trucks will work for me.

I know that with enough money and effort, any year truck can be made to work, but this has to be a real low budget operation. Basically, take the complete engine and trans from my truck and drop it in the "new" truck. I really do not want to do major engine parts swaps to make things work. I can see my way clear to swapping the intake and FI system, but not much more involved than that.

We are looking at trucks from 1988 to 1998. Obviously all of those years are not good candidates, and I suspect my best option would be a 1994. But is there a lot of difference between 1994 and 1993, or 1992, or 1995, or...

You get the picture.

I am in the Huntsville, AL area, and there are plenty of used trucks available, but I am not sure what will work for me on my limited budget.

Can you all point me in the right direction?

You could go for any year of you're willing to swap the heads and intake over. Not a bad idea, you'll want to have the heads redone for a few hundred bucks, but worth it for vortec heads in my opinion. If you're not into that, I'd stick to 94 and earlier. I personally have a thing against 95s as they have a lot of one off parts due to the new interior and the TBI engine. You can make your TBI work in a newer vehicle, I think you just have to swap out the exhaust back to the cats if I recall correctly due to the ECM using only one downstream O2 sensor (IIRC). PlayingwithTBI really is better at the differences between TBI and Vortec though.

Sent from my SM-N976V using Tapatalk

 

[stutaeng]

Is it really that hard to do a swap on the V6 models? The TBIs had less electronics than the vortecs, so perhaps not that much additional wiring. Will need a wiring diagram for sure to cut/modify any sensors that don't match.

Plenty of V6 to V8 swap writeups on this site.

As for the tranny, is your truck an automatic? Again, conversions from one to the other are possible, as both were originally offered from the factory. I would imagine manual to auto would be a but easier than the other way around?

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

Obviously all of those years are not good candidates, and I suspect my best option would be a 1994. But is there a lot of difference between 1994 and 1993, or 1992, or 1995, or...

To start off, TBI was used from 87 - 95, where 87 was a Square Body, of course.

I personally have a thing against 95s as they have a lot of one off parts due to the new interior and the TBI engine

I agree, in 95 the trans was different too with PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) lock up. You probably have a 4L60E trans which came out in late 92, IIRC. Your PCM is probably a 16197427 which was used only in 94 - 95 so, unless you're willing to do a PCM and wiring harness swap you're pretty well stuck with a 94. If you want to do a swap you can go with 88 - 94, along with some wiring changes for the dash on some earlier years like 88 - 91. For easier and cheaper applications, I'd stick with a 94.

 

[emccomas57]

Is it really that hard to do a swap on the V6 models? The TBIs had less electronics than the vortecs, so perhaps not that much additional wiring. Will need a wiring diagram for sure to cut/modify any sensors that don't match.

Plenty of V6 to V8 swap writeups on this site.

As for the tranny, is your truck an automatic? Again, conversions from one to the other are possible, as both were originally offered from the factory. I would imagine manual to auto would be a but easier than the other way around?

My truck is an automatic. I think it is a 700R4 trans.

Also, the V6 to V8 swap involves a considerable amount of wiring changes, all of which I wish to avoid.

 

[emccomas57]

OK, looks like a 94 is my best and easiest option. So I am looking for an original V8, automatic, extended cab 1994 truck.

 

[98 Nitro]

OK, looks like a 94 is my best and easiest option. So I am looking for an original V8, automatic, extended cab 1994 truck.

93 and 94 use the same transmission so both years are good to look for.

 

[Erik the Awful]

When I was looking for a 700R4 a few months back I found that 1993 was the year of the switch to the 4L60E. The definitive way to tell is to see if you have a TV cable. If there's no TV cable you have a 4L60E.

 

[240 Gordy]

I just swapped a 1989 4.3 with a 5 speed to a 5.7 with a 700R4, in my '89 Short Box Standard Cab. It was a smooth swap. HOWEVER, I was advised by my friend who has been with a Chev Dealership for 35 years, to buy a donor truck of the same year. I was able to find an '89 long box donor truck with a good running 5.7 and a 700R4. It was plug and play, except for the motor mounts. The 5.7 motor mounts are different than the 4.3. Also the drive shaft, you have to get one from a short box automatic, or get a custom drive shaft, as they are all different lengths. Other than that smooth sailing.