Well now that im starting to slowly get parts for my lsx swap I think it was time to make a thread about the progress and have some questions as I go on with the swap. On to the details of whats goin on so far. Picked up a 5.3 motor complete from work from Intake to oil pan with 3 wiring harness 2 pcm and 2 truck MAF sensors starter and alternator. Motor ran well compression is good nothing wrong with the motor other than it was in a work truck and dirty as hell, our engine guy didnt wanna go through the troubles of replacing the gaskets that were leaking so they put the motor in the core pile. So Here is the ran down of what I get so far.
2001 5.3 truck motor
2001 4L60e 2wd transmission (needs rebuild)
2000 Ls1 intake and injectors
2000 LS1 Camaro cam spec .500" good upgrade for the 5.3







this how it seat after I tool all the junk off the motor It needs a good cleaning I know .


Harness #1


Harness #2


Harness #3
this harness will Be used for extening the wires and connectors that need to replaced.





pulled the oil pan off to get out the crank case Looks pretty clean inside the motor so Im happy with It. I dont have any pics off when I pulled the valve covers off But it was very clean on the top side besides oil the oil buildup everywhere on the block. Also you can see was making my own swap plates But Im just goin to order a set to save the trouble of making my own plates.

 

For my oil pan options Im on the look out for a f-body oil Pan which is pretty hard to come by I been checking out the ls1tech and everytime one comes up my funds are not there. But I been checking out the holley pan and mast pan Im leaning over more the mast pan cause it looks like it'll hold more oil than the holley pan Im still up in the air on that part.



This was waiting for me when I got home from work, The wife was home but she didnt answer the door Thank God they left the package on my deck.



This is what came in the package (No the dog didnt come in the package)
Ls1 Intake, Injectors and Cam



From the numbers on the cam that I looked up it is a .500" from 98-00 camaro Which the seller said it was .500" so it will be a nice lil upgrade for the 5.3 its no ls6 cam but its good enough for me.





I waisted No time last night to run over to my dads place to put the intake on the motor and wow what a big differenance it was to see it in person made the motor look so much cleaner already just sitting there. I have a LQ4 T/B at work in my work truck I forgot to bring home that will be Goin onto the intake. Nw that I got the intake and injectors I can start to mock up my harness that I have already started to cut up.

 

let the fun begin.

















So far with the wiring I have all the wires budled up and labled waiting to be routed on the motor, In the last 2 pics you can see Im goin to be running a cavalier under hood fuse block its has all the relays and fuses and more I would need to run the motor, I have seen a few guys run this setup which looks clean, Ill be mounting this block in the back of my car in the spare tire area along with my battery Im trying to stay away from as much wires as i can from being in the engine bay. Im think I have found a good spot on the firewall to run the harness threw which is right behind the motor just behind the intake im not a 100% just yet still looking for ideas. well thats should be a wrap for now.

 

Today I order my swap mount plates will be in on thrusday so if all gose to plan I should be dropping the motor and trans in place for mock up for 2 reason one im intalling my doors and need to block them on the car so I wanna get all the weight back on the frt end so I can align everything and 2nd is I got a Ls4 oil pan from work for free today so I know the k-memeber will need notching which isnt a big deal, I know alot of you will tell me to just get a f-body pan but right now I dont have the funds for it so I figure what the hell this pan didnt cost me anything and if i F up my k-member I have a spare. Here are some pics.







If all gose well with the notching of the k-member I will grab the rest of the parts needed for the pan, like windage tray, pick up and dip stick. Also Ill be grabbing the Ls4 fuel Rail to try out on the ls1 intake I know my injectors are taller so Ill have to add spacers but it ll look good since its Chrome looking, later on Ill be order an aftermarket fuel rail once Im back to work at my other job.
I do have one question tho, I wanna run the lokar throttle cable but they have different lengths for ls1 I was thinking of go with the 36" cable is that the right lenght or sounds right?

 

Yeah, it looks like the Lokar cable I bought from Hawk's is a 36".

You might want to set the engine down on top of the k-member with the mounts aligned with the k-member motor mount brackets to see how much you would need to cut before doing any cutting. As long as the bottom of that pan is, I don't know if you would have enough meet left on the k-member to keep it structurally sound. Just my two cents.

Are you planning on cleaning & painting the engine before putting it in the car?

 

The motor is far from being done I have gaskets on the way to replace all the gaskets, the block will be cleaned up and paint red like the gm lsx blocks are, and for the k-member that was the plan to see how much i need to cut before any cutting starts I plan to reenforce the k-memeber if lots is cut out. Thanks for the anwser with the lokar cable that will be getting ordered soon

 

Cool. That will look nice. No problem.

 

So last night i went over to the shop and tried working on my motor, i wanted to pull off the frt cover and inspect the chain and oil pan which im probley got to end up replacing, first I had hell of a time trying to get the balancer bolt off, my 1000 ftlb impact couldnt even break it loose so I had to jam a bar between the floor and balancer to stop it from turning the motor which worked well, now time to pull the balancer off I grabbed my 3 arm puller and tried to pull the balancer off and my puller kept slipping even after many times adjusting the arms. Have any one else had problems pullin there balancers off the crank shaft? Some tips and help would be great

 

got the balancer off last night what a pain in the rear after an hour fighting with heat and the puller it came off. It was pretty dirty behind the timing cover so it will be cleaned up before goin back to together, Im goin to replace the oil pump with a ls6 pump and Im also goin to replace the time chain it looks like it has alot of slack in the links. Any Ideas what I should do for the timing chain, I was looking at just a stock chain setup. I also had my brother take my timing cover in to work for cleaning and to be powered coated silver, we'll see how that turns out and Ill get my valve covers done too after I have them smoothed out and coil mounts removed all so. will post some pics of the timing chain area after work.

 

I'm glad you were able to get the balancer off. I meant to reply to post #8, but forgot about it when I had to restart my computer. Yeah, my balancer bolt was real tough to remove too. I just sat there with my impact gun on it for quite awhile before it finally came loose.

I'm not sure about the timing chain. My engine was already built when I bought it, so I didn't have to do any of that stuff. I would probably check out a Comp Cams timing chain though. That's what I have on mine.

Are you going to relocate your coils?

 

put an ls2 timing chain on it and call it good.

 

Yes im goin to relocate my coils to the fram rail beside the mOtor just to clean up all the wiring on top of the engine these motor after they are all cleaned up look so sexy with no coils on top of the valve cover. I also purchased a alumin fuel rail i should see it next week some time, its painted green but ill be striping the paint off it and polisihing them. Also my brother may have my z28 wheels sold for so that would a nice chunk of change to put towards a k member which right now im leaning towards the spohn k member just. Cause its not as long of a wait. I was thinking about run the ls2 timing chain just wasnt sure but thanks. Ill be purchasing one on my next pay hopfully

 

well here are the pics I said I was goin to post.


the cover got a little blk from the smoke from the torch but it cleaned off, which Now its already powder coated Ill snap pics of it tomorrow.



Now this is probley the wores part of the inside of the motor. Ls6 oil pump has been ordered and Ill be looking for a ls2 timing chain or ill order a new one, The timing area will be cleaned up before I swap the cams, just another step closer to finishing the motor, also I have been looking at the Pa Racing k-member just waiting to hear back from them on a shipping price and I may go with that k-member since its alit cheaper than the spohn k-member, and I already Have a set of wheels picked out for the car once I get a few big cheqs from the new job they will be ordered.

 

well its update time, I had started to intall my wiring harness on the motor and taping them all together I still need to add the o2 harness and coil harness but Im waiting to install the motor in the car first to find placement for the coils and to make sure the o2 sensors clear in the engine bay, also the trans harness needs to be add in which Ill probley do this weekend by mount the trans to the engine. and my fuel rail also came in as well so the top end is almost done. now on to the pics.


yes it came green the wife says I should keep it green.


powder coated timing cover thanks to my brother.









So far it dont look like I need to extend alot of wire but well see when its in the car, Im goin to be running my harness where the blower motor wires were coming out of the fire wall it should big enigne to fit the pcm connectors. so the plan this weekend is to finish routing my harness and I need to replace my cam senor connector the wires were pulling out of the connector, and Im goin to swap in the ls1 cam so I dont have it in my tool box any more and get that out of the way. Now Im goin to reuse my truck p.s pump and mount but the mount will be modifed and Im goin to mount the alt on the pass side but Im goin to be using the older tbi style alternator, Now Do I need to wire the alternator to my pcm at all Cause my truck harness has the alternator wiring for a newer style but Im sure that cause it turns the alternator on and off, if some one can shed some light on that this that would be great.

 

Well I worked abit on the motor this weekend got the rail installed on the intake and looks pretty good, cleaned up some of the wireing and pulled the intake off with the wires to start extending wires at home, so I wanted to swap the cam in the motor and i pulled the push rods out and turned the cam a few times to set the lifters in the holders and I started to pull the cam out but one lifter wasnt sitting in place so I said F it ill pull the heads and pull the lifters out cause they probley need a cleaning, which was a good thing I pulled the heads cause they need a good cleaning, well as for the lifters I couldnt pull them out of theres by hand I had to use my channel lock pliers to pull them out what a pain in my butt so needless to say Ill be upgrading my lifters as well. Now I have a set of 316 heads in my shed I know if i slap them on the motor it well drop my. Compression with the dish pistons that are in there now are they heads a good up grade if i had them milled down? I plan to running boost later on down the road but not sure when and also I can probley get my hads a core 5.3 alumin block i was thinking of swapping the piston out for the flat tops they come with, any ideas or suggets, ill up load pics tomorrow some time I think it ll be a rain day tomorrow.

 

the liftes dont look to bad in the pics but when I was pulling them out the retainer clip that was in the center had gotten damage pulling them out. Im heading to my old work today to check out some core l33 motors for parts and see if I can find a good one to get the pistons and lifters and maybe the heads from

 

update: Picked a parts truck to replace the 5.3 I had tore aprt cause the rust on the cylinder walls are too deep to hone out so Ill have that motor for a mock up or rebuild later on down the road. thinking strocker with a s/c. Ill be sending out the trans from the parts truck to have the output shaft swap out for a 2wd shaft since that trans was rebuilt before. Only thing Im doing to this new 5.3 is swap the cam over to the ls1 cam i had picked up for the first motor and thats it and make it look pretty and get it running, I order a holley swap pan for my swap cause finding a f-body pan shipped up here will cost the same as a holley swap pan so I went for it. my engine harness is almost done just need to drop the motor in place to run the harness to see where i wanna run everything, also I need to find a good place to send my pcm to for a stockish tune to run my car any one know any good places?

 

pcmforless.com has the best prices as far as i know,. If you check out 'tech theres people on there who do some good tuning so check that out