TR65 LS2 T56 Engine Swap 65 C10

[boynton]

Excellent write up.

[crakarjax]

Thanks for this, I could not find a bit of info other than this thread on using the TBSS / SSR engine mounts! Looks like you found a fairly simple solution that's also pretty flexible wrt engine placement. How far is your oil pan from touching the crossmember with those mounts?

On a side note the brackets themselves are proving nearly impossible to find

[TR65]

Thanks crakarjax,

I set the clearance at about 3/4", pan to cross member. The mounts have worked well with no trouble for several years now. They really are out of the way of everything.

TR

[crakarjax]

Originally Posted by TR65

Thanks crakarjax,

I set the clearance at about 3/4", pan to cross member. The mounts have worked well with no trouble for several years now. They really are out of the way of everything.

TR

Nice! I did find a set of brackets and mounts on ebay, and I also found these aftermarket trailblazer mounts which look to give even more clearance:
http://www.tbssowners.com/forums/tra...or-mounts.html

I'm not sure I like that bushing style for motor mounts though. It looks like they were created in response to TB owners' mounts breaking, but I think I'll go with the stock mounts and brackets at first unless I run into clearance/breakage issues.

I will be running an f-body pan which is shallower above the crossmember, so I think I may try to sink the mounts into the crossmember to the point where the bottom of my oil pan ends up just slightly above the crossmember bottom. Do you foresee any problems with that approach based on your experience?

[Low Elco]

Wow, this is nice! Great work.

[TR65]

Thanks Lo.

crakarjax,

That should work. Best to hang the engine in and adjust to the clearance you want and the correct drive line angles.

I really like the OE mounts, oil filled, and pretty sophisticated to isolate the engine from the frame, and out of the way. Allow the low mount for the AC compressor.

Good luck,

TR

[crakarjax]

Another question for you, why did you fab the driver's side engine mount? I see that the stock one is offset which is weird, but it should mount to the crossmember just fine right?

[TR65]

Hi Jax,

The intermediate OE drivers side bracket was not symmetric with the passenger side and would move the cross member mount to a bad position. So I just mirrored and replicated the passenger car side intermediate bracket.

So that made the mounts symmetric.

TR

[crakarjax]

Originally Posted by TR65

Hi Jax,

The intermediate OE drivers side bracket was not symmetric with the passenger side and would move the cross member mount to a bad position. So I just mirrored and replicated the passenger car side intermediate bracket.

So that made the mounts symmetric.

TR

Can you clarify what you mean by bad position? If it's just about symmetry I'll run them as-is, but if there's a clearance issue I'll cut to the chase and fab a bracket. I can't think of anything in that area that would interfere at the moment though. Thanks again!

[LostMy65]

Originally Posted by TR65

Thanks for the kind words men.

Alex,

I have posted the mpg story on some of the mpg threads. After careful measurements, Odometer calibrated with GPS, same gas station parked the same way at the same pump etc. I can't get but an average of 17.5 mpg. I have a C6 Vette with exactly the same final drive ratio, both run 70 mph at 1800 RPM. Basically the same engine. On the same circuit same speeds back and forth to work the Vette gets a true 21 mpg. That huge difference I believe is due to aerodynamics. Our trucks are rolling billboards.

So I was disappointed but the truck is a great ride and I drive it every day in good weather, the Vette is the bad weather car.

TR

Took me long enough to poke my head in here.
Great write up. It's cool it was your dad's truck.
Glad your pictures are still up.

[BlueJeep]

Truck is very impressive in person! Looks good Tim!

[TR65]

Thanks Chris,

Looked at my wiring diagrams when I got home.

So, the Vintage Air gen4 controller cuts the compressor on and off per the evaporator coil temperature. (So it runs about 1/2 the time I would say)

The LS computer controls the fans based on the high side pressure in the AC. Higher pressure more fan. So for me low speed is one fan, high speed is two fans. Of course the engine temp turns on one or two fans as well but the Ac is usually more in need of them.

TR