Green Beater

[Jeramy]

have not double checked but it was running a double roller in it when i pulled it apart. have a brand new stock timing set sitting on shelf may just use that. have not made decision on cam or heads yet. have a local pull a part that sells heads, any heads, for 50 bucks a set. may take a chance and see about picking up a set of used vortecs like Gregski. Would prefer to buy aftermarket aluminum set new for 637 good for .550 lift with 2.02 and 1.6 valves.

[Jeramy]

made a trip to pull a part today and scored a pair of vent windows in good shape for 30 bucks. ones in truck are mismatched and seals are shot

[rusty76]

Looking good

[Jeramy]

went to the pull a part and took the front center jump seat/console out of a 94-02 ram for 22 bucks.
did some test fitting this afternoon. nothing is bolted in just set and wedged in place. going to dye all three black until i can afford to have all recovered in same material

didn't even bother to clean them. will do that when i get ready to dye them.

[Jeramy]

considering stripping down my bench seat and mounting the buckets fixed to the lower frame kinda like the old buddy buckets. according to measurements will work but not sure how frame will look under bench foam and having very little luck with searches

[Jeramy]

after talking it over with my wife, she gave me some good advice/permission. she said "quit messing around with ok stuff and do what you want to to it"

so i sold my engine i was building and am LS shopping. its not going to be extravagant.
stock engine(slight cam at most)
factory intake
will rewire harness myself and pay the 75 bucks for vats delete
stock style manifolds
transdapt stock location adapters
reuse my radiator since its new
round up a 4l60e
ep381 pump and 87 sender
no a/c since everythings missing from my truck to begin with

[Liltroy]

when you go to do your pcm tuning, talk to aknovaman. He's helped me tons!!!

[Jeramy]

may have found a "free" 4l60e today. couple of problems though

first its from behind a 2.2 so i will have to change bellhousing. thats 50 bucks on ebay

second it needs rebuilt. i have checked and all 98-00 4l60e list the same master kit.

third i will have to run a spacer behind the flywheel because it will have the shorter input shaft length. i will have to verify this once i get it home. that will run me another 50 bucks

fourth will have to buy a torque converter the 2.2 unit has a weird small snout

ok maybe more than a couple things lol

[GM-power]

Just read through all of it. Great build thus far!!! Rock on man, dig the look of your rig. Are you going to be getting a 87+ fuel tank for the efi? I believe you can use a 96+ fuel pump in a 87 tank. I was debating about keeping my ls swap efi and that's just some info I got. Just noticed your in Arkansas!!!! Heck yeah man!

[Jeramy]

Originally Posted by GM-power

Just read through all of it. Great build thus far!!! Rock on man, dig the look of your rig. Are you going to be getting a 87+ fuel tank for the efi? I believe you can use a 96+ fuel pump in a 87 tank. I was debating about keeping my ls swap efi and that's just some info I got. Just noticed your in Arkansas!!!! Heck yeah man!

Thank you much. yep planning to go the 87+ tank and sender. fuel lines will depend on what injector rail set up i end with.

[Jeramy]

Just made a deal on a wrecked 01 4x4 tahoe. minus transfer case and front diff which i don't need. can hear run before i hand over the money. should be able to have output shaft changed from my 2wd 4l60e over to the 4x4 and reuse all accesories. then part the good out and sell of my sbc pieces to recover a good bit of cost.

found it 30 miles from home and been hiding on craigslist for a month

[Jeramy]

scratch that last post. truck was sold before i could make it down to pay on it so now am on the hunt for a new donor or engine set up

[LT7A]

Oh man, that disappointed me, I'm sure you felt it much more. Hopefully another like that will come along. I have done that where a rig or part has been on CL for weeks, I find it and figure no rush, then somebody else buys it as soon as I'm interested. Now I just go that night or the next day, ha. Hope a better one comes along for you.

[Jeramy]

bought my engine today. 2002 5.3 from 1500 Silverado. claims to be only 150-180,000 miles. came with everything but the a/c compressor which is fine because the Beater has no a/c any ways. will pull the wiring harness from it this weekend to start removing unnecessary things like downstream o2's and egr valve. need to get computer reflashed to pull vats and various other things.

[Jeramy]

ordered my fuse block and relay sockets to start building my stand alone harness. going to pull a part on saturday for a couple of pigtails and an air cleaner box...maybe. would like to move my battery to the drivers side and use a factory air box from a 99 up truck

[Jeramy]

Pulled the harness from the motor today. have a few pigtails that need to be replaced along with the other modifications.

Then i hit one of the local pull a parts to look for half the a/c box since mine has a hole in the middle.


on my way back out the front gate i passed a 77 1 ton and just happened to glance inside. It did not have a 77 interior which turned out good for me.
Got both door panels with armrest and inserts and the dash pad. The dash pad has been wrapped by some one but is alot better than the one i have now.


a little dye and be right as rain.
also picked up a left side window regulator since mine feels like its going to come apart at any minute.
not bad haul for 72 bucks

[Jeramy]

This is where 4 hours got me to on the harness. still waiting on relay harnesses i ordered to wire up fuse block and power supply. until then i will leave the oem connectors on. Followed the plans over at lt1swap.



this is the waste minus a few connectors i kept for spares

[Jeramy]

Have not done much in the way of the swap lately. Had to rebuild and sale a riding mower and then messed around and ended up with 2 none running goldwings to mess with.

Do have my materials to wire up the fuse block and relays but waiting to do that until i make a final decision on where i want to mount them.

today i bought a instrument cluster unit from a 1991 suburban.

[Jeramy]

so decided i was tired of not getting anything done to the truck and decided to install my "new" interior panels and dash pad.

Of course first they had to be cleaned and dyed. also repainted most of the interior and door jambs while at it.



the carpet will get taken care of when i do the bucket seat swap

also replaced my jacked driver side window regulator while at it
and as a reminder this is what i used to have

[Jeramy]

since the interior was now a lot easier to look at i turned to making the outside less bad.

pulled the bumpers, grill, headlight bezels, grill surround trim, wheel well trim, mirrors, door handles, tail gate panel and instrument bezel and sprayed them with spray on bedliner. rest of truck got a scrb with scotch bright red pad to remove oxidation and bird poop then recoated in krylon olive green.

the truck will eventually get a real paint job( still od green) but for now this makes the wife less reluctant to ride in truck

the "beauty shots"



and my favorite shot

[Jeramy]

Going to go look at a th400 tomorrow to use in my ls swap. the 4l60e i have is not even worth rebuilding apparently. i can pick up the 400 for next to nothing, modify it to run a vss setup and live without overdrive for now.

[Matt Man]

red scotch brite is one hell of a wash sponge

[Jeramy]

Originally Posted by Matt Man

red scotch brite is one hell of a wash sponge

no soap needed, not recommended for the wifes shiney car lol

[Jeramy]

so... here is a run down of the weekend...ish
looked at and picked up a th400 on friday for 50 bucks. nice clean fluid fairly clean pulled from a motor home that was gutted for the engine.
PROS
nice and clean
simple operation
easy to install
was dirt cheap
Cons
no torque converter, but plan to run one from my th350
will require crank spacer
no overdrive

move on to Saturday i decided it was long past due to lay my hands on the 5.3 i bought months ago and get some work done. Stayed after work, seeing as had been storing it in the warehouse behind store, and pulled front accessory set, exhaust manifolds, intake, fly wheel, coil packs, and starter. Already had the wiring harness off and home. basically stripped to a long block.

then loaded up and brought home to place on engine stand and stuck it in my shed.

roll on to Sunday. after church i decided i needed to do something that i had not done yet but apparently should have done to begin with. i attempted to turn the engine over by hand. NO GO. serious snafu in my day i tell you.

so off comes the heads and i find cylinder 5 rusted up fairly well and cylinder 6 starting to. Sprayed all cylinders down with sea-foam deep creep and scrubbed #5 with a piece of red scotch brite to remove what i could. then taped all pistons with the wooden handle of a 3lb hammer. now it spins over but now i have to decide how far i want to take this thing apart.

also have 3 broken exhaust manifold bolts to fix and middle water pump bolt on passenger side snapped off

[Jeramy]

i will be honest. im broke right now so no really cool fun build is going to happen. more than likely i will finish tearing engine down, hone the cylinders and slap back together with new rings, bearings, and gaskets.