Conversion Progress Report

Seeing some good progress on this conversion by staying very busy on this 3 day weekend. I started the weekend by deciding to tackle the conversion of the wiring harness. After a phone call to Chevy-Art, he convinced me that the wire complication was pretty much in my head and it's really a lot easier than one would think. I followed the guide on LT1swap.com, using the 04' harness guide. Mine is an 05' Tahoe harness and I found no differences between the two. Very easy task, but requires some attention to detail. I followed Art's advice and laid the harness out on a flat open surface and removed all the tape. Everywhere the harness splits or turns, I put a ziptie there to help maintain the factory shape of the harness. After ziptied, start pulling pins from the PCM following the guide.

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These are all the wires and plugs that ended up being removed. I think that I will hold on to these until the motor is in place and wired. This is in case I need to lengthen anything.

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Question: I cannot figure out what these 2 plugs are. The wiring removal guide ended up having me remove 3 out of the 4 wires that run to this plug. The only wire left to both plugs are a pink power wire. Does anyone know what these are?

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Engine Compartment: My engine bay was in really bad shape as far as filth goes. the frame had no more paint on it and everything was covered in 19 years of dirt, oil, and grease. Since I am putting all this effort into giving my truck a new start in life, might as well throw in the kitchen sink too.

Here is nasty bay before:

http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/...1358127328.jpg

And here is what it looks like after 10 hours of scrubbing with a tiny wire brush, some brillo pads, and a bucket of Dawn and Thinner and then painting.

http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/...te/image-2.jpg

Thanks for looking so far.

Awesome progress so far. That engine bay looks new. On what connector do the pink wires end up at?

There are two connectors that are the same. Each side of the harness has one. The back end of the plug has been cut because it was wired into something else on the donor vehicle. Here are some better pics of this plug and the cut plug to the vehicle.

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This the vehicle side of the plug that was cut and just left hanging on the harness.

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those look like o2 sensor connectors; if they are the front sensors, you'll need all the wiring; if they are the rear o2 connectors then remove the wiring and connectors completely.

You are absolutely right. They must be the rear one because the front ones are still on my engine unplugged, not cut like these.

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Thanks for the quick information on this. One more question on this. Since these are the rear, as you stated, I will not need these at all and you suggest to remove them completely and does this need to be programmed into the PCM when I have that done? I have not taped the harness back up yet for reasons like this so I can alter it in case of need to remove/add something else.

Yes they will be removed in the PCM by the tuner.

Thanks guys. Here are some more updates that I got accomplished today. The DBW pedal and TAC module are in place. To start, the new DBW pedal is larger and longer than the previous TBI pedal. When I first bolted it down using only the factory bottom bolt for the old pedal the new DBW pedal was touching the transmission tunnel. I cut the pedal in half between the "S" bend or dog leg and then slid one over the other and held it together with a visegrip to check how it fit. Now the 2 will be TIG welded back together tomorrow.

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Looks pretty natural when looking down from the drivers seat.

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I then sized up the firewall plug and matched it to the correct hole saw size. After making the hole and a extensive de-burring, I fed the wire and and plug through. Its a tight fit like the factory would have intended. I then select the place on the firewall to mount the TAC module. Here are some pics of completion.

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I noticed you still have the cruise control unit mounted to the firewall. The TAC module handles the cruise function of the DBW setup and mounts directly into the same location as the cruise unit.

Jeff

Thanks, wish I would have known that earlier. I am glad that I don't need that thing and it will get removed immediately when I get off work tomorrow. Any advice on how to incorporate the factory cruise control functions in the cab to make this work? Thanks for chiming in, I can use all the help I can get.

looks great! Thanks for keeping us posted, interesting swap.

Thanks everyone for all the help and tips during this conversion. I got the pedal welded up and installed. I also removed the old cruise control unit and relocated the TAC module to it location. Still awaiting the motor mounts which shoud be here tomorrow and then I can move on to getting the motor in and positioned correctly then start routing the harness.

Good work, nice job on the engine bay!

I am interested in how to keep cruise control, I am doing a swap into a 2 door 98 model tahoe 2 wheel drive soon, I will be doing a drive by cable setup, anyone have any suggestions?? Sorry to hijack the thread somewhat

Thanks and do worry about the question, it is something that I need to know as well. I need to know how to integrate the cruise controls on the steering column with this TAC module.

Ok, it's been a year now since I have posted on this thread. My budget and build/conversion came to a screaming stop last February when I had to give $1400 of it to my dog's vet bill. It's that time of the year to get back to business. I had a busy and productive day yesterday. Here is how the truck has been sitting for the past year in my garage.

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The motor and transmission are in with the dirty dingo adjustable mounts. It fought a little trying to squeeze over the clamshells, but I won in the end. I had to remove the control arms to get the V8 mounts in place of the old 4.3 mounts.

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Got a brand new 05' Silverado radiator and fans for a great price.

http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/...ps180e757f.jpg

Had to trim and drill holes in the core support so the radiator could drop in seat flush. The rear portion had to be trimmed off so the fans could seat in the holding slots on the radiator.

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Here it is with bungee cords hold it so I can start fabricating a bracket.

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I took a narrow piece of stainless and bent it up to align with the mount holes on the radiator. Once all of the the bends were correct, I used it to made a large support that spanned 40 1/2", which is the width of the radiator.

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Here it is with both the radiator and fans installed. I welded the nuts to the inside of the flange to make a permanent nutplate for easy and quick install/removal.

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Now I attempted to tackle this devil again......wiring. I had originally planned to used the factory under hood fuse box, but after many incidents of confusing myself, I decided to abandon the plan and thin the harness like LT1Swap.com tells me to.

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Here is the original and destroyed 4.3 harness.

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I decided to mount the computer before finishing up the harness. I am putting it where the factory air box use to attach to the fender. I bent the flanges flat and welded them a piece of steel that I cut to fit the computer. I applied some extra time epoxy and bonded it to the computer.

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And here it is mounted in place.

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Now that that is mounted in place, I started to run my wires. This was very difficult for me because I dropped my harness when crawling into the engine bay and my nice coil job became a tangled mess. I got it sorted out mostly. Still needs some TLC.

http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/...psa8e648bc.jpg

I am going post some questioned later today after I finish up in the garage about graphing the tagged and labeled ends of my harness into the truck. Thanks for looking and any help in advance.

B. E. A utifull. Just make sure its cooled off before you try and poke the exhaust every night... at least I would any way :LOL:
You could leave the wires like that, and it would still look more at home than the TBI motor lol

Thanks brother, I am happy so far with the progress, even though it's much slower than I originally wanted. On my other post I said I found a pinout for the cluster gauge to help take the guess work out of guessing which wire controls what gauge. This covers the clusters for both 91-prior and 92-up.

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I also after messing up my water pump trying to tap it like a lot of people recommend (hole had substructure casting that interfered with fit), I figured out that I can take the factory sending unit and put it in the lathe and turn it down to 11.96 MM and then thread it to M12X1.5 to fit the factory bolt plug on the rear side of the passenger head. $58 learning lesson for the better though.

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I still have a question about a wire left over from my gas pedal lead wires to the Tac module. One is a pink power wire, which I can figure out, but the other is a light blue wire that went to the C200 under hood fuse connector which states A10 L-BU 1320 CHMSL Supply Voltage/Stop Lamp Supply Voltage (KUP).......... What do I do with this wire? Also does anyone have the pinout for the 94'ish C100 pinout and the factory cruise connector pinout?


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I would like to thank everyone on this forum that has helped me up to this point. I still have a little ways to to go, but everyone's input has been nothing but beneficial so far. Thank you all.

Have you surfed the lt1swap.com. it has all you need to know on cruise control and if that blue wire stays or goes.

+1 to lt1, he emailed back on that question,but did not mention anything about that wire. His website has been my wiring guide through this entire project.

Found it .Stop Lamp Supply Voltage - This wire should be hooked to the same wire that feeds you're brake lights 12v+ when you press on the brake pedal. THIS IS NOT THE SAME WIRE AS TCC BRAKE SWITCH THAT THE PCM USES TO UNLOCK TORQUE CONVERTER.

http://www.lt1swap.com/dbw.htm

I must have looked at this website a 100 times and don't know how I missed that, thanks for the link, sincerely.

No problem. I missed twice lol.
I'm still not getting what you mean by the 94 ish connector. Is it a stock connector on the truck?

It's the C100 that goes thru the drivers side firewall. Yes it's the stock connector.

Try this. Its mid way/tword the bottom of this page
http://www.truckforum.org/forums/che...vy-only-3.html

Alright, the front portions of the fuel supply line done. I took the supply fitting from the old TBI and reamed it to .372 which is OD of the fuel rail where the push lock fitting would have gone.

http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/...ps95897f47.jpg

I then pressed fitted the old TBI fitting on the back of the rail and TIG welded it in place, then painted it.

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Here it is installed back on the truck with the old factory line attached back to it.

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I think I might be able to reuse the push lock that came off the rail to make my supply and return the same length to the vette filter. Being as it was cut and it's just a thin plastic tube with braiding round it, not sure how a would do getting clamped back into it.

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Sub'd for some great work

why not just use the earl connectors for an line and be done with it vs trying to rig the old lines? an lines are damn near leak proof. plus they just look awesome with braided stainless. lol

Looking good. I guess you're glad to be back on track after the yearlong hiatus.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kewljay223

why not just use the earl connectors for an line and be done with it vs trying to rig the old lines? an lines are damn near leak proof. plus they just look awesome with braided stainless. lol

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Agree, but I already have a easily adaptable fuel line that ended up costing me nothing. The braided lines do look great, but they are expensive and when the hood is open you can only see a few inches that line. Maybe my next swap will have it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mickeymotormount

Looking good. I guess you're glad to be back on track after the yearlong hiatus.

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Thanks, I am glad to be back on track. The year did give me time to think about all the things that need to be done vs what I want done. Got to machine a bunch of little parts and fittings that probably saved me $150 or so.

Very industrious build, especially the fuel line part

Thanks, I am starting this comparison between my old factory axle (the 10 bolt) and this full float 14 I had laying around my garage. The 14FF has 4.56's as where the 10 has 3.42's. I has wrote a program for my water jet to make all the parts for the disk brake conversion, but I am trying to decided whether to use this big axle or just beef up my 10.

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Using this, I would have to convert the front to 8 lug, or convert this to 5 lug. I found this, which converts the hubs for $400!

http://www.solidaxle.com/productcart...&idproduct=139

I tried googling 5 to 8 lug conversion for the front IFS and seen the question has been asked a lot which no one getting an answer of finished product. I have some time to think about it and do cost comparison, but the 14 would be cool.

Nice build. Im looking at options for my 10 bolt as well. I think I will just put a limited slip in it and roll. My build is just a stock setup so I dont need too big of a rearend.

Thanks, I just finished getting it back together, and there is a limited slip in it, so I think I am going to keep it and look into the lug conversions. Put new seals and bearings in it. Got the old massive cover de-rusted, primed, and plasti-dipped. I have a ton of parts for this laying around from the original project of a solid axle conversion, this was one of the axles I acquired for it.

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Has anyone ever heard of converting the front IFS to 8 lug from 5?

You could swap the axles in the 14b to some 6 lugs and get 98 2500 6 lug rotors.

Already looked at that and it cost the same $400 from that link I posted or $530 with disc brakes brackets from another manufacturer. Then I have to pay for the parts to make the ifs match. I would rather pay for one or the other rather that both. If 8 is possible it will the cheaper in the end because I have some nice 8 lug rims that came off the 14FF donor. I already have 5 lug wide as hell aluminum rims that I hate but look good (can't keep the truck clean) that require a wide tire.

So? Whos the musician in the family?

That's me, I play guitar. Use to play in a band, but being in the military, people move a lot.

What's your AFSC Tirebite? I'm sheetmetal at Little Rock....You got me curious cause of that radiator support you made, looks exactly like what I do! Sub'd ftw! I like how you've got all your details posted, makes me feel a little better seeing all the details. I've just started on my 6.0 swap in my '90 RCSS.

I was Sheetmetal for 8 years, I have be retrained into Metals Technology. I graduated Pensacola in 2004 and have worked F16's, B52's, and B1's as Sheetmetal. I always wanted to do Sheetmetal on 130's because I love old school hand forming and I heard its like the 52 but with a more forgiving T.O. By the way, is Soger still there?