LS1 swap into 53 Chevy

Got the new manifolds/headers from Hooker today and the pipes for em, :cool::toocool::p:3dSMILE:;):D**):):D:D:D:D:D:D:D yippie skippy , do the happy dance, they fit beautiful, so nice I almost put the I Love my Hooker Headers sticker on the window. If they didn't fit I was going to flip and manifolds and turbo it or put a Cummins in it :LOL:

Got the motor mounts measured up with the manifolds on, and welded em to the frame and also did a little overhaul in a can to the motor. Just for future notice, the Mustang II ls mounts that are designed for the bolt on Mustang cross member do not fit the weld on ones very good at all. Best to use a universal kit. Also got the ECM mounted under the seat, so far it's all starting to come together fairly well for once. I'm working like a dog on it, but tons to do yet,so I'm not sure how friday night is going to end :LOL:

Forgot a pic, I dropped long bolts through the motor mounts to find the right distance apart.

Seth, it's looking very nice!

Those Hooker manifolds look and fit good. Looks like they fit your truck like they were made for it. It's always nice when parts really do fit like they're supposed to.

I researched those hookers for my stude 5.3, they are really nice, they are almost identical to the 2010 camaro manifolds. I really wanted them but I could tell from my measurements they wouldn't work for me. Nice progress, you're moving right along.

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Originally Posted by v8nutz

I researched those hookers for my stude 5.3, they are really nice, they are almost identical to the 2010 camaro manifolds. I really wanted them but I could tell from my measurements they wouldn't work for me. Nice progress, you're moving right along.

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I got some from a C 5 vette if they would work for you, They seem to be a popular one for swaps. They are a center dump header.

I decided nothing off the shelf would work for me, I had to build my own headers.

Looks great, Seth!

Thought I'd update on the 53. Wed night I was really cranking on the 53 thinking of my awesome plan for Friday and surprising the Mrs. Worked pretty late building a good time cushion. Thurs I did the same and at about 11:00 I thought i'd better double check the driveshaft for fit, I was told the 700 and the 4l60 were the same length, guess what, driveshaft was 2 inches to short. At that point I realized telling Kari about my plan for Friday was my only chance at brownie points,this thing wasn't going to be done. Friday morning after searching at the local yard and calling a couple of machine shops, by 11:00 I was getting another shaft shortened to fit, nothing else done yet that morning besides getting a driveshaft. Spend the rest of the day and evening getting all the ridged stuff done, like the exhaust, hoses, fan shroud, head shields, and what not, that all went as good as could be expected. Sat, my goal was 3:00 have it running and leave the house with it by 8 o'clock. I wired everything up with confidence and like it was going to work the first time. about 3:30 I called Kari to the shop for the first fire up :CRY: nothing, crank but no start. Checked connections and found nothing wrong and Kari went back to the house. As soon as she got the the front door I called her back, I had the ECM on the wrong key terminal, it lost power when cranking,Fixed that and it fired right up. Tied up some odds and ends and we were heading for Dairy Queen at about 9:00. So far we've put about 150 miles on it and it's all good. They gave me the wrong O2 sensors so I'm running wihtout any at the moment so its running pretty rich. Besides the water pump, power steering , engine and trans, there's no leaks either :LOL: All of them are an easy fix, just not today. I got to clean up some wiring stuff, get A/C brackets and try to figure out something different with the air filter but the non critical things are going to wait till this winter. Took it to Sioux Falls today and people were taking pictures of it so that was kinda nice to see, driving it sure is fun!

Kinda a fun B/F and after pic.

Congrats Seth! While not the perfect ending, it sounds like you're on your way to it.

Thanks, this thing has quite a bit more zip than the 348 and seems like it uses a 1/4 of the fuel. I'm not going to check until the o2 sensors are in. Not that mileage is my biggest concern but kinda curious. It's a much quieter engine in the cab going down the road, but it doesn't have the rumble of the 348 out the pipes but that,s ok. It's a cookie cutter engine but the reason they make cookie cutters is because so many people love cookies :LOL:

Nice one mate!
Its been a saga; but you've got it 95% (or more,) finished.
Pleased for ya!

Congratulations! Like all these projects. it's been a battle, but you won. Nothing like riding around in something that you built yourself. Enjoy.

Very cool to read that some one was able to meet a dead line! :LOL: That's awesome. One really nice thing about cookie cutters is lots of places make parts for them, write tunes for them, and the stuff is very reasonable. You didn't make any bad decisions. You can make those engines look just as attractive as any other engine. I've seen them disguised as old Ford engines too.

Wow you did that swap pretty damn fast, very nice.

It had to be done fast, summers here and we need to get some miles on this thing **)
This whole project has been a fighter though. Throwing in a 5.3 doesn't mean you won't have problems though. I've been fighting a idling issue with this thing for the last couple of nights. When you first started it up it would hardly run and would get better as the engine warmed up, but never good. Did a lot of swapping sensors around and swapped the MAF with another one and that did help a lot but not enough. Did some more diagnosing ( aka google and you tube ) and the problem was leaking intake gaskets. I replaced them tonight and it's a day and night difference, idles smooth and exhaust doesn't stink anymore.I It even fixed my noisy fuel pump for some reason. I'm really liking these LS motors though, It hardly took about an hour to put intake gaskets in it.

I didn't like mine very much when I tore it down and started putting it back together, Jeez all the special procedures and tools for every little thing. Nothing at all like rebuilding a small block chevy or ford. Oh yeah and parts are way more expensive too. But I do like a modern motor, I don't think I could go back to a carb and distributor now. Your progress make me feel guilty for not working on my truck.

Got two out of the four leaks fixed now, had a cut o ring on my steering pressure hose on the rack. That was the worst leak by far. Put new water pump to block gaskets in for the water leak. I almost put in a new pump also, but from experience, I'll trust my 140k mile pump not to leak out of the seal before a new Chinese pump from the parts store. The engine oil leak is just a missing gasket on the drain plug, and the trans leak may or may not have quit. That was coming from the torque converter area and leaked so little I don't know if the drop ever hit the ground. The seal may have worked itself in. A/C is next but I think I'll start back on my other progress thread as I'm pretty much where I left off when I pulled the 348.

You've done an amazing job on the engine swap, and getting all of the more modern stuff working right. As the say way down south, Good on ya', Mate! It's a crash hot beautee! Now rattle ya' dags and get out there and give it a hear!

(Translation jb?)

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Originally Posted by rspears

You've done an amazing job on the engine swap, and getting all of the more modern stuff working right. As the say way down south, Good on ya', Mate! It's a crash hot beautee! Now rattle ya' dags and get out there and give it a hear!

(Translation jb?)

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"You've done well my friend! It's ultra beautiful! Now get a move on to get it out and play with it loudly!"

Incidentally...Happy Birthday Seth. Fill ya gob with Tip-top! (Translation: Be sure to eat lots of ice-cream!)

jb

Happy birthday Seth and another saying for you guys up there from us down under is, " Give it some jandal now " which translates to push the go pedal long and hard to warm the tyres up.

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Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

Happy birthday Seth and another saying for you guys up there from us down under is, " Give it some jandal now " which translates to push the go pedal long and hard to warm the tyres up.

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Hmmmm, I thought Seth's birthday was back in April? :confused:

On that saying, it helps to know that "jandal" is the Kiwi slang for a flip-flop sandal, which were often made in Japan in the earlier times.... Right? ;)

Did you put a pressure reduction kit in your power steering pump? They put out way to much pressure for a ford rack. I got mine on eBay.

[QUOTE=rspears;568082]Hmmmm, I thought Seth's birthday was back in April? :confused:

On that saying, it helps to know that "jandal" is the Kiwi slang for a flip


It's a bastardisation of 'Japanese sandal'.

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Originally Posted by v8nutz

Did you put a pressure reduction kit in your power steering pump? They put out way to much pressure for a ford rack. I got mine on eBay.

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Do it right, build a bracket to mount the Ford pump.

.

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Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

Happy birthday Seth and another saying for you guys up there from us down under is, " Give it some jandal now " which translates to push the go pedal long and hard to warm the tyres up.

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My birthday is actually in April, you had me worried I slept too long this morning. Yep, I've got the tires warmed up a few times already :LOL: The first time I tried was with the bad intake gaskets and it didn't break um loose because it stuttered too bad. That turned out to be a good thing because I didn't see the Police car 1/2 a block away :LOL:

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Originally Posted by v8nutz

Did you put a pressure reduction kit in your power steering pump? They put out way to much pressure for a ford rack. I got mine on eBay.

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The first rack I had on leaked before I even started it with the 348 and type II pump,but I didn't have the pressure turned down and it was awful touchy going down the road. I got reducing kit with both the relief valve and orificed down fitting with this rack and Saginaw pump and wow, it drives 100 times better. I could put a Ford pump on to match it perfect like Tech mentioned but it works good for right now, maybe this winter I'll look at doing that.

You don't want ford pump, they are noisy.

Now that you say that, I remember that's the one thing that always annoyed me about 80's and 90's ford pickups. I had an 88. Yeeeaaaarrrrrn, yeeeeeaaaaaarrrrrrnnn

I have a 5.0 ford in my miata and the pump makes it sound like i have a gear drive, it's obnoxious.

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Originally Posted by v8nutz

I have a 5.0 ford in my miata and the pump makes it sound like i have a gear drive, it's obnoxious.

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A 5.0 in a Miata,I'll bet that thing has some gitty up !

It's really fun, drives like a very torquey gokart.