That gasser life

[mike diesel]

Sold my Duramax a few months ago and have since moved over to the LS gas world.

Here's what I have been up to.

Picked up this 03, 4x4, 1500, 5.3/4l60e end of July. Had 209k on it and got it for $5,000. Body has some dings but interior is basically mint. Truck runs great.



Wasted no time making it "my own"...debadged, fender flares removed, 20" KMC slides with 285/50/20 tires, 2" drop shackles and torsion bars lowered and swapped in some electric fans. Buddy gave it a cut and buff as well.



Took it to the track to get a baseline...with a miserable 2.6 60', it went 16.9@83mph.

Picked up a good used 4l80e off the local classifieds for $300, installed a transgo HD2 kit in it also and a Circle D 3200 stall converter. Got it swapped in and running great. These 4l80e sure click off some amazing shifts compared to allison lol





Modified cross member...

 

[mike diesel]

The driveshaft shop messed up and built me a 5" shaft instead of the 4" like I asked for...oh well, it works fine. Turns out a duramax/allison front driveshaft is a perfect fit for this swap...Picked one up for $50 from the wrecking yard.



Stock trans cooler...upgraded to a tru-cool 40k.





Now on to the better stuff...Picked up a 6.0, lq4 engine that turned out to be junk...only think salvageable was the block. Sent it off the the machine shop. Basically building an iron block LS2.

LS2 floating rods..



And flat top pistons, should be around 11:1 compression.



Got a free set of 799 heads also that are being freshened up and milled.

 

[mike diesel]

Took it all to my machinist for final machining and assembly last week. Hope to pick it up this week. Not a Callies crank, just a brand new OEM.



Ordered a set of long tube headers this afternoon to help it breathe. Not going turbo yet, maybe next year sometime. Looking for a nice solid 400whp, 4x4 daily driver. Should be right there after some tuning.

 

[Burn Down]

Sweet looking truck. Sure changed the looks of it:thumb:

What all did you do to swap the 4l80e in? I just picked up a 01' 5.3 and have 80e sitting in the garage, just haven't researched it yet. Obviously it's longer, needs a mount and drive lines. What about wiring and tuning?

 

[malibu795]

Nice

 

[mike diesel]

Sweet looking truck. Sure changed the looks of it:thumb:

What all did you do to swap the 4l80e in? I just picked up a 01' 5.3 and have 80e sitting in the garage, just haven't researched it yet. Obviously it's longer, needs a mount and drive lines. What about wiring and tuning?

A little more involved on a 4x4 truck. 2wd is cake.

As far as electronics and tuning goes, you can buy a plug and play harness from several different shops and you'll need to have the tune segment swapped with the 4l80e segment from another tune with the same OS. Easy to do with EFI live, but you burn a vin license.

For a 4x4 truck, you'll need to modify the cross member like I showed, you'll need the 32 spline input shaft for the transfer case and depending on which converter you use, you may need the 6.0 flex plate and spacer. My converter uses the regular 3 bolt 5.3 flex plate. Other than that, it's all pretty straight forward. There are several detailed threads on the swap for both 2wd and 4x4.

 

[new york lly]

Pretty talented guy always posting cool stuff to read & look @....great job!!

 

[Burn Down]

A little more involved on a 4x4 truck. 2wd is cake.

As far as electronics and tuning goes, you can buy a plug and play harness from several different shops and you'll need to have the tune segment swapped with the 4l80e segment from another tune with the same OS. Easy to do with EFI live, but you burn a vin license.

For a 4x4 truck, you'll need to modify the cross member like I showed, you'll need the 32 spline input shaft for the transfer case and depending on which converter you use, you may need the 6.0 flex plate and spacer. My converter uses the regular 3 bolt 5.3 flex plate. Other than that, it's all pretty straight forward. There are several detailed threads on the swap for both 2wd and 4x4.

Cool thanks.

Who's headers did you end up with? Pretty sure I'm going to turbo the 5.3 and beat living sh*t out of it:thumb:

 

[catman3126]

who is going to be tuning this. I have a couple LS powered swapped rigs I've thought about doing this too.

 

[mike diesel]

Cool thanks.

Who's headers did you end up with? Pretty sure I'm going to turbo the 5.3 and beat living sh*t out of it:thumb:

They're Speed Engineering headers. Great price and the reviews are good.

I'm not sure who's going to tune it yet, there is a shop local to me who will dyno tune it, they do a great job but they use HP tuners. I'd like to stick with EFI live. So I'm still weighing my options.

 

[NRA223]

I had a circle D 3200 converter in my Trailblazer SS. made a heck of a difference and was a great DD converter, but i wish it was looser for performance. This sound alike a cool build, can't wait to see the results.

 

[Burn Down]

They're Speed Engineering headers. Great price and the reviews are good.

I'm not sure who's going to tune it yet, there is a shop local to me who will dyno tune it, they do a great job but they use HP tuners. I'd like to stick with EFI live. So I'm still weighing my options.

I was looking at those headers they look nice for the money. I think I'm holding off on that stuff until it gets a turbo/turbos. No reason to buy it twice.

 

[baggedLB7]

Who's doing your machine work?

 

[mike diesel]

Who's doing your machine work?

Same guy who built my duramax motor. Danny Baird at Baird Racing Engines in Idaho Falls.

 

[Potthoffdmax]

Cool build!!!

 

[mike diesel]

She'll be making fire hopefully Wednesday.

11.1:1 compression, long tube headers and a healthy cam should make for some decent power and sound.

 

[Burn Down]

Get us a vid Mike. Love me some loppy cam sounds:thumb:

 

[mike diesel]

Will do, I can't wait for it to run.

 

[PureHybrid]

Not going to put ls3 heads on it? How big is the cam going to be?

 

[mike diesel]

Ls3 heads have square ports. I'd need all new intake parts. Cam is 224/224 @ .050", .600" gross lift with a 112LSA.