hey guys any help would be greatly appreciated. i am going to put a duramax into an 84 chevy blazer that curently has a chevy 350 with a raptor 700r4 transmision. as you know this truck has no on board computer tecnology. how would i go about this project and is it even possible? i am hoping to find a duramax truck in a junk yard and take the engine out of that. will the transmision i currently have work for this?
That transmission probably won't work very well at all. It takes a serious build to make a 700R4 hold a lot of power. I think the stock torque of the dmax would work it over pretty quickly. It wouldn't be tough to include an Allison 1000 in your build, thats what I would do. A 4L80E can be matched up with decent results. Thats whats in the vans I think.
From what I understand, to make a fully functioning duramax swap your going to need the dash, cluster, BCC etc. all out of a duramax truck. Reason being is that all the operating info of the motor is going to be a certain electronic signal and works best running through the vehicle wiring harness of whatever it was meant to be in... just as an example, it might be tough to figure out how to wire up an aftermarket speedo, tach, water temp etc.. I could be wrong though. I was planning something like this and was looking to just use the motor, trans and its wiring and ECM/TCM and do everything else custom and simple. I didn't have much luck finding info though. That project is on hold anyways.
Check around on the site here, someone has done it before and made it work pretty good. I think it was into a suburban or an older chevy half ton though.
From what I understand, to make a fully functioning duramax swap your going to need the dash, cluster, BCC etc. all out of a duramax truck. Reason being is that all the operating info of the motor is going to be a certain electronic signal and works best running through the vehicle wiring harness of whatever it was meant to be in... just as an example, it might be tough to figure out how to wire up an aftermarket speedo, tach, water temp etc.. I could be wrong though. I was planning something like this and was looking to just use the motor, trans and its wiring and ECM/TCM and do everything else custom and simple. I didn't have much luck finding info though. That project is on hold anyways.
Check around on the site here, someone has done it before and made it work pretty good. I think it was into a suburban or an older chevy half ton though.
You can use an ECM/TCM combo and have everything but tow/haul mode in the trans I have found. To get tow/haul you will need a BCM wired into the set-up. For an older vehicle like the 84 K5, I would think it would be money ahead to swap over the cluster and such with it so you get a working speedo and tach easier. The 700R4 wouldn't make it very long at all, that is if it could hold up to the first couple of shifts. The old 6.2's that were non turboed would eat a 700R4 for lunch, a DURAMAX is a whole lot more than a 6.2 could ever dream of being.
Fermanator, did you use the BCM, dash and cluster from a DMAX truck?
If not, I'm interested in understanding how you wired up all the gauges etc. Also, where you wire up the OBD2 plug to and what not.
I'm interested because I still want to put my LB7 into an 88-92 std cab long box half ton. I think just by hooking up the motor wiring harness with the ECM/TCM and necessary wiring I could get it to start and run fine, but I would need a bench harness to program the ECM/TCM and I have no idea how I would wire gauges into the setup.
If not, I'm interested in understanding how you wired up all the gauges etc. Also, where you wire up the OBD2 plug to and what not.
I'm interested because I still want to put my LB7 into an 88-92 std cab long box half ton. I think just by hooking up the motor wiring harness with the ECM/TCM and necessary wiring I could get it to start and run fine, but I would need a bench harness to program the ECM/TCM and I have no idea how I would wire gauges into the setup.
I used the stock 95 cluster in mine and got pretty much everything to work. I'm going to be putting a BCM into it in a limited capacity so I can get tow/haul mode to work though. Currently I don't have one in it. The stock cluster will work, I re-used my old oil pressure sensor and had to put in a remote temp switch for the coolant guage. The OBD2 plug is easy to hook-up, 2 grounds, one battery power and then hook the 2 class 2 data bus wires together and hook them up to the data spot at the OBD2 plug and it works fine. The speed sensor output from my 01 ECM works the speedo just fine. I removed the DRAC/VSSB module and hooked the wire going to the speedo to the speedo wire from the 01 and I can calibrate it through EFILIVE now. The check enginel ight and wait to start light are both on there own wires comingg from the ECM, so those are easily hooked in as well. I know pussow over at DP has a BCM in his without the cluster and has tow/haul mode functioning(just no indicator for it).
The 01-02 LB7 is by far the easiest to swap into older models from what I found when I researched my swap. Later model engines are doable as well though. Transferring the cluster and BCM can give you more functionality without so much extra wiring, but you will always have warning lights and such going off at you constantly unless you also transfer the ABS and airbag system over. I tried to keep mine as simple as possible when I did it, and unfortunately it got me with the tow/haul mode.
The 01-02 LB7 is by far the easiest to swap into older models from what I found when I researched my swap. Later model engines are doable as well though. Transferring the cluster and BCM can give you more functionality without so much extra wiring, but you will always have warning lights and such going off at you constantly unless you also transfer the ABS and airbag system over. I tried to keep mine as simple as possible when I did it, and unfortunately it got me with the tow/haul mode.
Not being an ass but search through this section a little bit then see if you might have a specific question. I'd venture a guess that there's no less than a half dozen threads about this same conversion. 
Good luck
Good luck
I bought a rolled 01 gmc and took EVERYTHING Its not that complicateed to use the abs and everything. As far as guage clusters goes IDK im making my own If you have a Facebook acc you can see some of my progress just lookup [email protected] as of now Im driving it about here and there.
Ive used A drivers side drop 205 with a Cummins manual trans input and coupler as well as a custom adapter. I allso used the AAM axle, Sender unit and pickup assy, rad core suppourt fit really nicely as well Youd be amazed that it allmost seems like GM meant it