96 Chevy 3500 needs a real motor
- Thread starter Dan P
- Start date
Heres some reading to get you started. http://www.thetruckstop.us/forum/threads/95-suburban-to-a-01-duramax-allison.10142/
I will say I would NOT do one again. The earlier GMT-400 chassis is just not up to what even a mild DURAMAX can do. And for what you will spend in doing a swap into the earlier trucks, you could buy an LB7 truck turnkey with bigger brakes, better frame, and many more improvements over the older trucks. In hindsight I wished now I would have found a newer BURB to have used for my swap. Also being yours is a gasser, that adds even more work to the swap over everything I had to go through with mine. Yes it's a nice BURB with sleeper appeal to it, but it really isn't all that practical as a newer BURB would have been MUCH better in the long run. Not trying to burst your bubble or tell you what to do, just trying to introduce a dose of reality into your decision making process.
I agree with Frem. There are deals on lb7's starting to pop up. I just bought an 01 that has EVERYTHING already done to it, its a maxed out stock motor, for 11k. I totaled up his investment and I just basically paid for the performance parts, I got the truck for free... lol...
You guys are on track! I appreciate your honesty. I have kicked this around for quite some time and have found a few folks who have done this. After reading between the lines, lots of pros and cons AND bucks to this endeavor. Probably best to rebuild the 502 and hit it with a supercharger. That should curb my adrenaline issue for a bit. Thanks again!:thumb:
A big block would be ALOT cheaper to get big power out of, and fits in the GMT-400 ALOT easier. The DURAMAX is nice and all, but no way would I do this swap again. It would have been 10 times easier to have fixxed my donor truck and had a 3500 dually 4X4 than it was to do my SUBURBAN swap. It is a neat novelty piece, but just really isn't that practical in all honesty.