Hey guys my dads had a 6.0 sitting around for awhile and decided he is going to put a 6.2 in his 69' Camaro when he gets to that point. So now I'd like to swap it in my 88' Formula because it has a 350 tbi in it now and I honestly hate it. They told my dad it is a LQ9 and its out of a 2004 SUV, possibly a Yukon or Tahoe? Which leads me to believe its an LQ4, someone chime in if they can help me decode it. Anyways the dealership removed that engine because it had a tick and the customer wanted the entire engine replaced. It's common for this 6.0's to have a cracked lifter plus I'll put aftermarket ones in it anyways. My plans are to keep it very budget friendly. As far as performance upgrades all I plan on is a nice cam and tune. If anyone can recommend a nice cam with a nice lope to it that'd be awesome. I already have a SLP LS6 intake for it and LS1 injectors, fuel rail, and throttle body. I'm going to get the spacer/adapter so I can run the 700r4 in it now. Other than that if you guys have any tips and tricks for me please reply with any help and advice. I'm curious to see what you guys used for the fuel system and such. Anything you think I would need to know, summarize your swap if need be. I've read in one of the LS swap manuals that I should be ok with a Walbro 255. But I'm curious to see what others have done with the fuel lines, 4th gen tank, etc. I can get things such as a truck wiring harness very easily since my dads friend owns a salvage yard. Thanks in advance for the advice now here is some pictures!!

Here is my 88' Formula


Here is the 6.0


Clean on the inside

 

Are you going to tear it down and check the bearings over? Ive heard of lifter issues on earlier ones but I thought it was the 4.8's. They probably share the same lifter anyways. I would just toss in some LS7 ($130), a nice melling pump and a LS2 timing chain.

A single 255 will do you fine, if you havnt bought one yet I would maybe suggest just stepping up to a stealth 320 or a walbro 400.

There are literally TONS of awesome shelf grind LS cams, from the old magic stick 3 or the Texas Speed Torquer 2 etc.

The 700R4 will bolt up to the engine minus 1 bolt, you will however need to get a flexplate that will convert to SBC bolt pattern and have a ring to fit the snout of the convertor into the flexplate to insure its all aligned. TCI makes a nice kit, hughes is the cheaper option which i used before and it did the job.

Jay

 

Also I believe the only way to tell the LQ4 from LQ9 is the pistons, LQ4 is a dished lower compression which was in most trucks, LQ9 was a flat top. Also the LQ9 in earlier years was only for the caddy iirc.

I know you are keeping this with budget in mind but slapping on a set of LS6 heads would help a lot! Bump the compression up a ton.

Jay

 

Thanks for the reply, I looked in to those flexplate's

On the other hand I found a 98' Camaro harness in my garage which should save me quite a bit of money

 

Here's the specs on both.

 

Another option depending on power level of course. You can run a stock GM Flexplate spacer (I had one on my old 6.0L when I bought it) and run the 6.0L Flexplate IIRC. I think all you have to do is slot the converter bolt pattern on the flex plate a tad.

Also I am unsure about the 98 harness but Im pretty sure the 98 harness is different from the 99-02. So pinouts on the PCM are different. You are gonna wanna run a 99+ PCM Truck, or fbody doesn’t matter since the 98 is kinda the bastard child LS for tuning. I would say just pick a PCM up if you don’t have one, then get a PCM pinout for it and re-pin the harness. It’s a bit tedious and hard on the finger tips that’s for sure lol

Jay

 

Look at the PCM connectors. Thats not a 98 LS1 harness

 

Really? It has 4 pcm connectors, I know for sure one of the sensor plug ins plugged into the LS1 throttle body.

 

4 connectors points to LT1. Dig up the MAP connector

Does it look like the one on the left or right?

 

Just checked and it has the green connector like the one you posted.

 

Books are great resources to avail yourself of, and they reduce expenses over the cost of the project.
Here's a handy list of ECM's.

 

And pics of what they look like. These are from Joseph Potak's Swap Manual.

 

Those pictures look familiar, are they out of the GM LS series engine swap manual? Ive been reading a lot of it lately

 

Just bought a complete 5.3 with wiring harness and he's throwing in a PCM. Its out of a 2000 silverado with 90,000 miles. I also tracked down some F body LS1 accessories

 

Well looks like I'm going with the 5.3 now. I'm going to pick it up this weekend and then check it over. Next thing is to find some F body manifolds which is surprisingly harder than I thought. I'm probably going to go with the Muscle car oil pan from Chevrolet performance, its priced nice.

 

Ive got an extra set, plus Ill be in Moline next week $60

What are you doing with the old 6.0?

 

Does anyone know if LS3 manifolds will work? Like 2010+ Camaro LS3 Manifolds??

 

Doesn't that pan hang just a bit below the K member?

 

If your talking about the truck pan yes. They hang down quite a ways

 

From all my reading before I bought my motor, I thought I saw that the muscle car pan hung like just 1/2" lower than the k-member which is for sure an improvement over the truck pan.

 

Yep, thats the one I plan on getting. If I remember the muscle car pan is also really cheap compared to others

 

Is there any reason the CTS-V pan cant be used?

 

The muscle car pan is actually off a hummer, only marginally shallower than a truck pan. CTS-V pan is similar to an Fbody, but slightly deeper front and back, so it wont clear the stock K-member, notched or otherwise and hang slightly lower. If you have something like a Spohn K-member it will clear and the main hoop is crazy low, so the pan will still be protected at the cost of ground clearance

 

Thanks for that info! The muscle car pan has the same part number as a hummer pan lol.

On the other hand I got my 5.3 home today along with some other parts. The engine had the harness and came with a PCM. My "Uncle" threw in a set of 317 heads, extra valve covers, extra coils, beehive springs, comp push rods, and I also picked up my F-body accessories/brackets. The heads on the engine are 862's and I wasn't sure which head to use since I'm staying naturally aspirated and need the ones that will give me the most compression. Threw in a pic of my LS3 manifolds I cleaned up and painted






Ouch lol