In July of 2007, Kevin rolled his truck in Pismo. After buying it back from insurance (it was totaled), there were many salvageable parts that could be reused. He ended up parting out most of the interior and random parts, but Mike ended up with the good stuff - A 2004 5.3L Engine with 4L60E transmission...

Mike already had the truck on the lift for a couple weeks now due to a previous Pismo trip that blew his transmission. At the same time, he wanted to go ahead and fix that annoying exhaust leak coming from his exhaust manifolds...

Here Mike works on pulling the transmission apart from the engine

A nice transmission jack comes in handy, especially when working by yourself

Here's a good shot of the transmission out of the truck...

Dan and Mike get right to removing the old 5.7L out of the truck

A crane is nice and easy to use for removing and installing engines.

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The engine compartment sure looks messy now (and will continue to look messy until the very end of the project)



We decided to pull the bed off to have easy access to the gas tank





Our original plan was to swap out the original gas tank and install the tank from the 2004 for emissions purposes. However, we decided to leave the original tank in for now and install a fuel pump with the proper pressure (the 5.3L requires around 50 PSI while the old 5.7L Pre-Vortec requires around 15 PSI). We will eventually need to install the 2004 gas tank to get the truck smogged, but I am predicting it will be difficult to wire into the truck's computer (we'll worry about that in Summer 2008, as the truck is due for smog in November 2008)



I bought Rustoleum brush on paint for a thick coating on the frame. I also began to use it on the engine compartment, but it didn't look that great. I went with a Rustoleum Satin Black spray applied paint for the compartment, which turned out pretty clean (but not as thick)



Here is a shot of the pulled 5.3L. This shows the original transfer case out of the 95 Chevy, as the new transfer case is not compatible with a straight axle truck (due to auto-trac). Luckly it bolts right up to the newer style 4L60e transmission...





The old tranny is now a core sitting in storage. It will eventually be rebuilt and installed in Daniel's Jeep.



Here is a pic of the engine compartment in the early stages of the swap. At this point, the new harness is ordered...and I am wondering how the heck I am going to identify all these wires. I need to determine which wires are still required and which ones aren't. This is one of the most time consuming parts of the swap, as you don't want to remove wiring that is still needed.



Here is the custom harness for the new motor I ordered from S&P Performance (www.hotrodlane.cc). They make it specific to your swap, so it is not a "one size fits all" harness. Wiring is difficult even with the harness, but would be nearly impossible without it.



Here is a shot of the engine compartment after a little cleaning and paint. At this point, Mike still has yet to start the tedious process of eliminating wiring that is no longer essential for vehicle functions.

As you may recall, the older chevy's have the battery located on the front passenger side of the engine compartment. But, the newer chevy's have them located on the driver side front of the engine compartment and have the intake air filter located on the front passenger side. Mike wanted to run the K&N off of the new 5.3L, which means he would have to relocate the battery to the drivers side. While he was in the mood of fabricating battery trays, he put a 2nd tray (pic below) on the passenger side rear of the engine compartment. The old radiator overflow tank used to be in this location, but the he ended up taking Kev's 04 tank and mounting it on the passenger fender.

The original motor mounts would be used in conjunction with S&P's motor mount adapter (below). I believe it is worth the extra 100 bucks to pick up the adapter, as it positions the engine in the correct location and makes it very easy for installation. You can also see the new A/C Compressor bracket, as the factory compressor on the 5.3L is in conflict with the 95 frame rail. The bracket set Mike back over 400 bucks from S&P, but A/C is essential in the Central Valley climate. Mike picked up the required Sanden 508 compressor off ebay for 100 bucks, when S&P wanted over 200...





Dan and Mike complete the first stab of the motor and transmission. This was only to check clearance and confirm that the motor mount adapters would work. Everything checked out and the assembly got pulled that same night.



While at work one day, Mike stumbles across a site that claims to have complete wiring diagrams for almost every vehicle out there (he was on his lunch break, of course). He decided to spend the 6 dollars per vehicle for the diagram...and it proved to be the best 12 dollars he ever spent. There is a picture below of 1 page out of the diagram. There was a total of about 80 pages for each vehicle. (The site is www.ahdol.com)

As soon as Mike gets the diagrams emailed, he gets started on cutting out wires he doesn't need. They came in pdf format, so you can print new pages if you get them dirty in the shop.



Below you can see where we drilled and tapped the head for installation of the engine coolant temperature sending unit. The factory 5.3L sensor needed to remain in place (driver side front of engine) so that the PCM could still know the temperature of the engine coolant. However, we needed to install the factory sensor from the 5.7L as well, so that it could send the signal to the instrumentation (or else you wouldn't know your engine temperature, as the gauge wouldn't work). We will run into issues like these alot, especially with the A/C controls...





Above you can see the 5.3L oil pressure sending unit on the left. This serves only to provide the instrumentation with the engine oil pressure. In this scenario, we can pull the factory 5.3L sensor and replace it with the original 5.7L sensor.

Below you can see the new 5.7L sending unit (we broke the old one when we pulled the motor). The brass piece also came off the old motor. We couldn't find a bushing to adapt from metric threads to pipe treads, so we found at metric bolt that fit, drilled out the center, and tapped it for pipe thread so the brass piece could thread into it. Worked out pretty well, although it was pretty redneck...





We also ordered up EFI live so we could disable the anti-theft feature on the PCM. The initial investment is pretty large, but luckly Daniel, Mike, and Kev can all use it for their vehicles, so they ended up splitting the cost. EFI live can control all sorts of vehicle functions, including speedometer calibration and electric fan control. We'll save that for another day discussion...





Here are some random pictures of our messy work area...





The wiring continues to get cut out, but it seems to get messier at the same time. There were about 15 wires that got completely cut out that went to the 95 transmission, as the new transmission is controlled by the 04 PCM and wired through the custom harness. If Mike were to just swap the motor and not the transmission, there would be much more original wiring left in place...





Mike also worked on organizing the wiring going through the firewall. He had many stray wires that were added at different times (stereo system, trailer brake control, fog lights, off road lights, etc.) that needed to be cleaned up. He ran them all through a common grommet through the firewall.



You can also see above that the factory ABS Unit is removed since it is now useless with the straight axle . The location where it used to be (the empty black plate) will now house the 04 PCM.



Some more pics of the work area...Dad was not a happy camper when it came to housekeeping





Since Mike was in the mood of bumming updated parts from Kev's truck, he stole the booster (above) and the master cylinder (below). It turned out that the booster couldn't be swapped in, but the newer master cylinder was compatible with the old booster.







The wiring is finally looking a little cleaner...





Here are some good shots of the driver side fender wiring. The new fuse block on the very right controls the new custom harness, while the factory fuse block remains in place. Most of the original fuses were still required, even though the original engine was gone. Note the clean installation location of the relays. Before the swap, Mike had relays located all over the place. He ended up combining all of them into one nice location. They control aftermarket items such as the On-Board Air Compressor, Fog Lights, E-Locker, and Off Road Lights. He added a 5th relay for future use.







Above, Mike tried to clean up the factory wiring/loom as best as he can...

Below, you can see the 2nd battery and new radiator expansion tank. Mike bought a dual battery isolator, but ran out of time on the swap. He will hopefully get around to installing it, but for now has the batteries wired in parallel (acting as one big battery)

Here is the engine compartment just about finished up. I think it turned out pretty clean....

We will get the final pictures up pretty soon...as Mike wants to clean up the engine compartment for some good photos. He would recommend the swap to anyone, as the power difference is unreal. He gets about 12.5 MPG in the city (compared to the old 7.5-8 MPG) and 14.5 MPG Highway (the old motor got 10 MPG). It runs way smoother and cleaner.

The swap is still not finished, as Mike still needs to install the 2004 gas tank and work on getting the truck to pass the strict emission standards in California. He is also working on posting up a write-up on his new electric fan setup, which is now controlled through the PCM.

Just sit tight for now guys...as Mike is a busy man.