bodydrop and ls1 swap for a obs.

Hey guys and gals! This is my first time joining a forum and so far this place has been a very helpful. As of yesterday I picked up a 98 c1500 rolling chassis to start my custom firewall back stock floor body drop and since I am going this far it makes perfect sense to ditch the stock 4.3l in place for some new age fuel injected power. I have narrowed it down to one of these motors to swap into my 94 c1500, the lq9, ls1, or lsx engine, the problem that I worry about is I want to make sure the motor will clear the hood with a 3" stock floor body drop, I did some searching but haven't found much on anyone that has done a bodydrop along with an ls motor swap. I assume the ls1 would be my best bet seeing they are in a vette or camaro, vs the lsx 5.3l and lq9 are both truck motors. If anyone out there has done this kind of swap in an OBS any info would be greatly appreciated! Also I will be posting pics and info on the entire project this winter. Thanks!

As long as u use a car intake ie. LS1,2,3,6 u should be fine. Ive seen plenty of body dropped chevys, but mostly 99 and up with no problems.

Ok cool, so will the ls1,2,3,6 intake manifold fit on a lq9 or the L33 5.3 engine? Since I have not made my final decision as to which motor I end up purchasing. Also if anyone can help me out as to go with a cable throttle body or the fly by wire? How difficult would it be if I did go with the fly by wire to do the swap? What are the advantages to using the wire over the cable throttle body?

Dependant on the year of the motor you get it could be as easy as just swapping in a DBW pedal.

My bad the LS3 will only fit the l92 heads cuz they use different ports. U can put l92 heads on a lq4/9.

any of the car intakes..ls1, ls6, ls2, ls3, l76 and ls7 will clear.

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Originally Posted by 1low94

Ok cool, so will the ls1,2,3,6 intake manifold fit on a lq9 or the L33 5.3 engine? Since I have not made my final decision as to which motor I end up purchasing. Also if anyone can help me out as to go with a cable throttle body or the fly by wire? How difficult would it be if I did go with the fly by wire to do the swap? What are the advantages to using the wire over the cable throttle body?

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some say a cable driven TB has better throttle response, ive driven both and i think theyre full of it :lol: so either or would be fine, id stick with a DBC prolly be easier in your case.

My question today is if I buy a ls1, lm7 will the 4l60e work out of my 94? It has the 4.3 in it now. It still super smooth shifting and if it would work I would rather use it till I wreck it than buy a second tranny. Any help would be awesome.

Attachment 6341Well I made my purchase lastnight, its an lq9 out of an 05 silvo SS 50k miles with a Texas speed ms4 cam with matching valve trane, shoenfeld headers, 3500 stall in the 4l60, motor came with a Texas speed stand alone harness all ready to go into my 94 chev, the guy I bought it from was putting it into a 91 rcsb so it will work out awesome! Will save me a good deal of cash seeing it came with the harness and swap headers for my truck already, going to drop it off today at Northern Cylinder Head to have them give it a once over to make sure she's all good to go, then from there off to paint. I will prob need to swap out the alt bracket to move it down to fit it under the stock hood on a bodydropped 94 and swap out the truck intake manifold for the ls1 style but no big deal. I'm super pumped to get this rockin!

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Originally Posted by 1low94

Attachment 6341Well I made my purchase lastnight, its an lq9 out of an 05 silvo SS 50k miles with a Texas speed ms4 cam with matching valve trane, shoenfeld headers, 3500 stall in the 4l60, motor came with a Texas speed stand alone harness all ready to go into my 94 chev, the guy I bought it from was putting it into a 91 rcsb so it will work out awesome! Will save me a good deal of cash seeing it came with the harness and swap headers for my truck already, going to drop it off today at Northern Cylinder Head to have them give it a once over to make sure she's all good to go, then from there off to paint. I will prob need to swap out the alt bracket to move it down to fit it under the stock hood on a bodydropped 94 and swap out the truck intake manifold for the ls1 style but no big deal. I'm super pumped to get this rockin!

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What a score. I'm not sure if that cam will work very well in a heavy truck. That cam needs atleast a 4000 stall in a light F Body to retain any type of low end torque. I would swap it out for a TSP 228R or maybe a Torquer V3 since you already have a nice stable valvetrain. Someone will chime in with a better answer than that. Other than that I think it will definetely be a fun truck to drive. Any type of porting done to the heads?

Thanks for the info, as far as I know they are stock 6.0 heads I don't think there has been any porting done to them. I guess I can't complain too much for what I paid. I guess I never thought too much about the cam vs weight thing, but you may be right, I'm not looking to stick a bunch into the motor but would be open to suggestions, I am doing this build with the intent of having a bad ass motor that still gets somewhat dec mileage because I drive it long distances to attend truck shows and have ZERO intrest in building a trailer queen. But like I said if something will work out better I am def open to suggestions. Thanks guys

With those plans I would definetely pull that cam out and put in something smaller. I'm building a 6.0 with ls6 heads and a comp cams lsr cam. Look into one of those cams maybe. You can probably sell thatms4 cam for a fair amount especially if it is new. I drive my truck everyday to work in socal traffic and have no issues with the set up I have in my sig. It makes good power for what it is but I want more. You will be happy with the 6.0. When I finished my swap and drove mine for the first time it was a night and day difference between the 5.7.....and I went down to a 5.3. Good luck with the swap and feel free to pm me with any questions.

I just put the hood back On mine today and the stock hood will clear the truck intake and alternator I have a 94 burban channeled and stock floored 3" and it clears on 24" billets

It's not gonna clear the square engine cover on the truck intake though

Awesome guys both of ya have great info!! Glad to hear its going to clear with the stock accessories still may ditch the truck manifold but we will see. Classic1 I just may take you up on that especially if I run into any issues:-) Bigbody glad to see someone else has done this swap on a stock floored truck, With the stock hood. good lookin out!! Thanks boys!

I did some searching but came up empty handed, does anyone have pics of there swaps with relocated coil packs? Was thinking about moving them to clean the engine up a bit.

Attachment 6411Attachment 6412It is not body dropped or a Gen3 engine, but here are my coils on a 98 Gen1.

Jeff

Nice thanks Jeff! That's quite the setup you have there, looks sweet!! What wires did you use with the coils mounted behind the engine?

I was able to reuse the Gen1 5.0 Vortec wires. That worked out very well because they were low mileage MSD wires. If I wre to do it over---Instead of all 8 coils next to each other and almost touching; I would have about a 2inch space in the middle (4coils-space-4coils) The wires would have a little more wiggle room like that.

Jeff

Cool thanks jeff, ya I am leaning reared moving the coils and think that is an easy solution to cleaning the engine up a bit. Thanks for the info and pics! Much appreciated. -Neil

Going to be a nice build

Thanks man! Ya I cant wait to get it on the streets this spring. Should be a bit of an upgrade from the 4.3 tbi. Lol

Well I got a call from Northern Cylinder Head today, he said they were starting on the teardown of the lq9, he said he took the headers off and I guess a mouse or two had made there way up the header this winter and made himself a little home, so I have my fingers crossed there were no exhaust valves open, hopefully from here on out it will be nothing but good news from the guys at Northern from here on out.

Well picked up my lq9 from my engine shop today, super pumped now, brand new lq9 ready to install. Whole motor tore down and gone through all new seals throughout and rebuilt and ported the heads to help out that magic stick ms4 a bit. Bout damn time!! Trans has been to my trans guy and he ran it through all the gears and were good to go, now its time to get the motor cleaned up and ready for paint. Got my rear end narrowed, custom axles cut, 4.10s with eaton locker as well as my rear drum to disc conversion done, should look good behind the 24" raceline billets. Hopefully have it all in and frame finished in the next month or two, then its time to hit the streets!

Sounds like a pretty bad build man, im new ti this site too, doing an ls1 swap into an 89. Good luck! Post some pics of the truck man!

This will be badass! Get some pics up in here!

Attachment 7216Attachment 7215Attachment 7214Attachment 7217Attachment 7216[ATTACH=CONFIG]7215[the pic of the motor strapped down was from the day I bought it. And the other shots were just a few I took the other day after it was completed, then just a random badass pic of the truck

Attachment 7671Attachment 7672Attachment 7670

here's a few shots of the truck, currently the truck is getting assembled for the first time, the frame is about complete, rear end with wilwood disc swap is done, motor is built but still needs to be torn down again for paint and actual accessories that will be on the motor, next on the list is to build the 3" stainless magnaflow exhaust, button up the frame, finish the fuel cell, smooth the firewall, and trans tunnel, then tear it all apart again, paint everything and piece the truck back together and get it wired up and tuned and we will be ready to roll!

Are you running LT's or shorties?

Long tubes straight back with a crossover pipe to dual 3" magnaflows dumped before the rear axle.

Very Nice Build

Great build.
When possible if you can get pics of your lt header clearance in the engine
Bay for me. I'm slowly building mine and the exhaust is concerning me for clearance.
Also did you end up using the stock truck pan? I know you got the car intake but I'm using the truck intake and I don't think I'm going to have hood clearance based on my rough measurements on the current 350 position and the ls truck pan and intake combo.

Cool man glad ya like it! Yes I am using the stock truck pan and when aired out it will clear the ground by about a 1/2 inch. I wasn't planning on swapping out the intake manifold at first but found a killer price on a manifold setup so I couldn't pass it up. As far as running the truck intake with stock hood with a bodydrop I've seen it done but it was so close he couldn't run a intake manifold vortec cover so you had to look at that ugly manifold. So it can be done but your prob better off searching for a good deal on a car manifold, it will make your life way easier! Also spend the money on the full adjust Dirty Dingo mounts! They are freakin' awesome! It will allow you to use your stock driveshaft if you want which is great, also you can place the motor wherever you want it.

Attachment 7686Working on this 22 gal stainless fuel cell, for use with 99-06 fuel pump. Fits nice between that bent tubing!

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Originally Posted by 1low94

As far as running the truck intake with stock hood with a bodydrop I've seen it done but it was so close he couldn't run a intake manifold vortec cover so you had to look at that ugly manifold. So it can be done but your prob better off searching for a good deal on a car manifold, it will make your life way easier! Also spend the money on the full adjust Dirty Dingo mounts! They are freakin' awesome! It will allow you to use your stock driveshaft if you want which is great, also you can place the motor wherever you want it.

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Thanks! I did assume the cover would have to go so I took care of the ugliness.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...ps40980cb9.jpg
I actually thought about fabricating my own brackets so I can get the pan as low as I can. But I have seen the dingo mounts and they aren't overpriced like some others so thanks for the heads up!
I was thinking of swapping out the pan but if it worked for you ill give it a shot before I invest in a new pan.
Thanks again.

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Originally Posted by 1low94

Attachment 7216Attachment 7215Attachment 7214Attachment 7217Attachment 7216[ATTACH=CONFIG]7215[the pic of the motor strapped down was from the day I bought it. And the other shots were just a few I took the other day after it was completed, then just a random badass pic of the truck

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the heads have been off of your motor at one point or another. those sharpy lines on the head bolts are to help degree the bolts. with that cam, i wouldnt be able to keep myself from pulling 1 head to see what's going on inside.

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Originally Posted by TXsilverado

the heads have been off of your motor at one point or another. those sharpy lines on the head bolts are to help degree the bolts. with that cam, i wouldnt be able to keep myself from pulling 1 head to see what's going on inside.

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Those pics were from when he got it back from his engine builder...they ported the heads and did a basic rebuild on it. I would hope the heads came off for all that to be done. :lol:

Yes sir that motor has been completely gone thru, we have to finish all the sheet metal work on the firewall and trans tunnel before we yank the motor out and get it ready for paint. It's been a longer process than I first thought but when everything under the body is 100% new and fully custom on top of that i should've known it was going to take longer than expected... Lol

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Originally Posted by bangbangskeetskeet

Those pics were from when he got it back from his engine builder...they ported the heads and did a basic rebuild on it. I would hope the heads came off for all that to be done. :lol:

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makes sense. for some reason i was thinking it was just a pull out with a big cam in it.

Well I did end up ditching the stock 6.0 oil pan, the trans tunnel would be too big and look shitty, also I didn't like how the headers would line up with the exhaust. Sooo I ordered up an fbody camaro oil pan kit to solve this issue, and will allow us to drop the motor 1.25" and it will make for a much smaller trans tunnel, and the headers will line up about perfect! Only issue will be with the exhaust and the crossmember, so we are building new crossmembers which will allow the exhaust tubing to run through the crossmember, should be pretty sweet once its all wrapped up.