90 GMC C3500 dually 6.0 4L80E swap in Frankentruck!

I've got this thread going in another site, going to condense it here.
This is how my truck was when I started Just finished almost the entire truck.https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-s...-no/truck1.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_...o/IMG_1399.JPG
and a bunch of dudes that had a chop shop seemed to take a liking to it also. Oct. 2nd around midnight they took it. fortunately my club has friends in Legal places and within 2 hours of me posting the news on facebook a detective saw it roll into the chopshop he had been watching for 6 months.
long story short he had to wait till all the guys put a hand on it so he could bust them all and they had stripped it down pretty good by then.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-R...o/IMG_2039.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-G...o/IMG_2047.JPG
got it back the next day and decided its time to use a crappy situation as motivation to do some upgrades.

I had an 05 express 3500 with 74,000 miles a 6.0 and 4L80 so I got to chopping!
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-3...o/IMG_2089.JPG
pulled the engine, trans, entire harness inside cab and under hood and lights!
I'm also using the fuel tank from the van being its the 15 passenger it had the bigger tank, fuel lines, cluster and column.
I've also picked up a 95 dash, 95 doors.
To start with I already had 99 seats, overhead console rear seat and center console in the truck, 5-7 drop, Alcoa wheels, custom paint, rear helper bags with tank and compressor, etc... etc... way too much to list.

The Plan is to use the 95 dash, 95 door guts and panels, 05 cluster, the entire 05 harness including lights. 05 column (surprisingly fits the 95 mount)

I know I need to change the column / brake pedal mount, already started that too. and of course the 05 6.0 and 4L80.

so Far I have stripped the van for all its goods, pulled the old dash and harness test fit the 95 dash (fits great)
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-m...o/IMG_0785.JPG
and today pulled the dash and all wiring back out and started taking out my 454 TBI and 700R4 got everything ready to come out, hopefully will get it out in the morning.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-w...o/IMG_2088.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-V...o/IMG_2087.JPG

12-16-13

got back into it tonight, didn't have allot of time but I did get the 454 and 700R4 pulled out. got most of the wiring out of the truck and started prepping the 6 liter and 4L80 to go in.
still need to get the rest of the wiring out after I finish gutting I should only have the taillight and trailer wires left, everything else including dash wiring, door wiring etc is coming from the donor.
looks like the fuel tank and lines from donor are going to work too!
so I will pretty much be reinstalling all of the 05 wiring into the 90 cab / chassis. just have to splice in the tail lights. and 95 door panels.
heres a few pics from tonight. didn't take many when we tore the van apart to get all the donor parts.

Out with the old.....
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v...o/IMG_2091.JPG
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-l...o/IMG_2094.JPG

need to get in here and clean and paint..
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--...o/IMG_2096.JPG

heres the new 6.0 and 4L80 standing by!
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-q...o/IMG_1041.JPG
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-o...o/IMG_1042.JPG

have not done a full swap with all wiring and electronics included before..
im using the column and cluster from the 05 also!! didn't have to cut anything!!

cluster works great!! and yes that's the actual mileage from the donor, Owned it since new till one of my employees got T-Boned!
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-C...o/IMG_0850.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-n...o/IMG_0141.JPG


12-20-13

anyway, a little more progress tonight.
stabbed the engine and trans in to figure out how I want to do the motor mounts, im extremely confused as to why people are cutting up their trans cross member or using adaptors? I was able to unbolt mine and slid it into place. once I get the motor mounts done it looks like it will bolt into existing holes in the frame that were behind the stock mounting location.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0...255B1%255D.JPG

going to blast it and paint it while its out. now that I have an idea of where the engine will sit and see everything clears I can pull it back out and clean and paint the engine compartment.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-t...255B1%255D.JPG

done for tonight, will get back on it tomorrow. Hope to get allot done this weekend.

12-21-13

Beyond excited with todays progress, got the engine and trans in!
I ended up sliding back the existing trans crossmember and mounted the trans to that. then we played around with the motor mounts and ended up cutting the frame mounts from the van and retrofitted them to the truck. total cost =$0
so now my truck is using the stock 05 express van 3500 motor mounts.
lots of room. under the hood compared to the 454. amazingly the driveshaft is perfect, just need to swap the yoke to the one from the van.

only got in a few hours today. tomorrow I can clean the hell out of everything and work on getting the van fuel tank and lines in and then start routing the wiring and hope to have time for the column swap. Maybe start putting it back together.
here's a couple of shots I took from my phone.
Looks goooood in there!
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7...0/IMG_2119.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-y...0/IMG_2118.JPG

12-24-13

here's a shot of the way I did the motor mount.
we took the engine mount perches from the van. they bolt to the frame in the van, after cutting the stock frame mounts off the frame of the truck we could then cut the van mounts down to contour the frame of the truck.
we bolted them to the engine, when the engine was in the correct spot I tack welded them to the frame. unbolted the engine and finished the welding and shot some black paint. saved quite a bit of money not having to buy adapters.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-D...o/IMG_2148.JPG

Taking a break for Christmas will get back on it later in the week!
hope to a have a video of it running soon!

Merry Christmas everyone!

-Jim

Damn that suck someone broke into your truck, glad to see your putting it back together in a good way.

Yea they tore it up pretty bad. In total it was just over $15grand in damages.
I hardley got to work on it today. Wrestled with some of the wiring the driveshaft and fuel tank got frustrated because the truck is soo low even on jack stands and I'm burned out from Christmas. I decided to tow it over to the shop where I have a lift. Should make the rest of the work fly by having everything we could need at my disposal.
So tomorrow morning I'm going to flatbed it over there and hopefully should have a running truck in a day or two.
Will update this as soon as I have some progress.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by canada4g63

Damn that suck someone broke into your truck, glad to see your putting it back together in a good way.

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Wish it was just broken into. They stole the whole truck! There's allot I didn't get back so unfortunately I'm going to have to repaint. Was a new paint job too!!

didn't get it to the shop yet, going to get on that in the morning, I did get a few hours in tonight. I took out the old 90' brake pedal assembly seen here.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-K...0/IMG_2157.JPG

then was able to get the 95 assembly in and welded into place.
we drilled the welds out and welded the new setup in.
this is it before welding it in.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-G...0/IMG_2158.JPG


after that I was able to get the 05 column into place. fit perfect!

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Y...0/IMG_2161.JPG

tomorrow is the big day, will get it up on the lift and get the tank swapped and start hooking everything up!

Got some time to work on the truck today. I got the yoke on the driveline, and it was the perfect length, no modification (besides yoke) needed.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-M...o/IMG_1165.JPG

so we went ahead and got her up on the lift and mounted into place.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-u...o/IMG_1170.JPG

then good ol' Murphy jumped up and bit me!
everything was going great! I knew it was tooooo easy up till this point.
time for the fuel tank, got the old one out.....
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Q...o/IMG_1166.JPG

went ahead and started to test fit the Van tank into place, looked real good at first then noticed a section of the frame just wouldn't let it go in. so down it came, not going to work.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x...o/IMG_1167.JPG

so now I'm trying to retrofit the pump from the van into the truck tank. not sure if im going to go that route yet. took the pumps and sending units out of both and will play around with some other configurations.. here is the van pump disassembled.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-T...o/IMG_1168.JPG

am going to look into maybe a late model gm dually tank or a shorter van wheelbase tank..my main goal is to retain the fuel gauge with the 05 cluster so I need that sending unit in the tank. need a day to think over how I am going to tackle it, Suggestions would be awesome!! shop closed early tonight for new years so I started playing around with my new grill ornament design pretty sure im going to use this..

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Y...o/IMG_1211.JPG

this is my 3D prototype machine, pretty fun, can print damn near anything in ABS plastic. going to come in handy for a few more custom parts im going to make for the interior and making brackets to retrofit all the 05 stuff.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-z...o/IMG_1151.JPG
anyway, Happy New year everyone, will be back on it on Thursday going to take tomorrow off.

why exactly are you trying to swap tanks/ sending units??? the pumps themselves are direct swaps utilizing the stock units.... i have a 95 and all i did was change the pump to a delco 381. straight forward.. unless your in cali and doing a legal swap like i did then there is more involved which i can try and help with but idk your loacation... just saying there is no need to swap the full unit out.... just the pump itself will be fine to get the pressure you need...

k..my main goal is to retain the fuel gauge with the 05 cluster so I need that sending unit in the tank. need a day to think over how I am going to tackle it

i guess i missed that... i think your gonna have to do what i did as you have two options. option one.... install newer style sending or tank with new sending unit like your trying to do along with a new gauge cluster for everything to work properly. the older gauges use a different resistance than the newer ones. plus the pcm supplies 5v to the sending unit rather than 12v.... option 2..... do like i did, keep the same tank, change fuel pump to the newer style, and add the sending unit to the tank.. not the whole thing... just the float part. i basically have two floats in my tank now. the original that uses 12v to keep the old gauge working like it should. and the new added one just so the pcm can see whhat the fuel level is at. if you do this though, you will need to add wires going into the tank...

my truck is a 90 so the newer 95+ fuel pump assembly wont fit in it. I am thinking maybe a 99 truck tank might work. was worth a shot to get the 05 tank in there but that would have been too easy.
I might just go with an inline fuel pump and just put the new sending unit into the tank so I can keep the 05 cluster fuel gauge working.
im not keeping any of the 90 interior components at all. the column is 05, the dash is 95 the dash harness is 05 the AC blower is the only thing inside still 90.
this is why its a Frankentruck! I am putting parts from many others into a 90 cab..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kewljay223

why exactly are you trying to swap tanks/ sending units??? the pumps themselves are direct swaps utilizing the stock units.... i have a 95 and all i did was change the pump to a delco 381. straight forward.. unless your in cali and doing a legal swap like i did then there is more involved which i can try and help with but idk your loacation... just saying there is no need to swap the full unit out.... just the pump itself will be fine to get the pressure you need...

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Were you able to put the delco 381 in the old pump hanger?
That sounds like my best option right now without going external.
If I can put the. 381 in place of the 90 pump I would just ad the sending unit to the old hanger?
Does that make sense?
I'm in Las Vegas by the way but for emissions I only need the tailpipe probe and a good gas cap. No obdii on a 90 so they won't have to check the computer when I smog it. Which is coming up soon. Forgot about that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JunkYardPirate

Were you able to put the delco 381 in the old pump hanger?
That sounds like my best option right now without going external.
If I can put the. 381 in place of the 90 pump I would just ad the sending unit to the old hanger?
Does that make sense?
I'm in Las Vegas by the way but for emissions I only need the tailpipe probe and a good gas cap. No obdii on a 90 so they won't have to check the computer when I smog it. Which is coming up soon. Forgot about that.

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ok hold on. your truck is a 90 but your putting a 95 dash... im assuming this means DASHBOARD. but your putting an 05 gauge cluster in. is this correct? I think I'm following now... lol.

well in that case you won't need the old style sending unit at all since it sends the signal in a different manner. in 96, that's when obd2 started and gm changed to the newer style. so your EASIEST option would be to find a tank from a 96 to 98 truck. the duallies kept the body style until 2000 iirc. any of those should have the newer style sending unit and the tank should fit right in there. not sure if the duallies had bigger tanks tho.... and that would be it. fuel pump AND sender solved. but a tank isn't exactly cheap.

or you somehow remove the float wiper of the old unit and put the new wiper/float on. this would be the cheapest but would require some serious engineering! lol. and you would still need to swap the pump to the newer style also.

OR like I mentioned, do like I did and make a bracket for the new float and install it inside somewhere. you could use the wires from the old one since u don't need it. that way you don't have to add wires to the tank and try to seal it. that was a pain in the ass...

other than that, I can't think of any other way...

Ha! Confusing right?
It's a 90 truck with a 95 complete dashboard an 05 cluster in 95 dashboard. And an 05 complete steering column. I also have the 05 dashboard wiring harness in the 95 dashboard.

Anyway. It does have the larger tank because it's a single tank dually. So it's 32 gallon I believe.
I'm going to look at the 931 and see if that can replace my stock pump. It had a 936 right now.
Might work!
- Jim

I grabbed a 931 today. Looks like a perfect fit. I haven't put it in place yet but I'm pretty sure it will work just fine. I need to make a few fuel line adapters. I got the exhaust hooked up and had to break for a while. I will post pics later!

I thought I snapped more pics, guess I didn't. here is a few test fitting and I am able to use the van exhaust! will work for now, I think I will keep the front cat on each side and delete the rear cats.. the way its sitting in there now I cut between the two cats on each section of pipe from the manifold back. so I can connect to my old exhaust from here back.. hangs a hair lower than I would like but I think it will work for now. might play with it later..
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-N...o/IMG_1241.JPG
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-5...o/IMG_1242.JPG

glad its working out. looks like you got a major leak of some sort though!! lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kewljay223

glad its working out. looks like you got a major leak of some sort though!! lol

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I need to blast everything when I get it all bolted together. The stuff you see on the crossmember is from when I blasted it with cleaner before welding the motor mounts.
After all the fab work is done I will get under there and get the undercarriage cleaned up.
There shouldn't be any more leaks the LQ4 didn't have any. Going to replace some gaskets just to be safe.

yeah i figured it was just some residual stuff from before. was just messin with ya. my tbi leaked from every possible orifice that had fluid..... coolant, oil, trans, ps, ac.... lol it was just not worth fixing. it sure is nice to have no leaks now!!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kewljay223

yeah i figured it was just some residual stuff from before. was just messin with ya. my tbi leaked from every possible orifice that had fluid..... coolant, oil, trans, ps, ac.... lol it was just not worth fixing. it sure is nice to have no leaks now!!!!

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Haha! That's why my undercarriage is covered in gunk. That TBI leaked everywhere!!
Wish I would have had the time to really detail the frame and engine compartment while the engine n trans was out. Unfortunately time is a luxury on this build. Not sacrificing quality though. I think I've done pretty well so far on such a minimal budget.
I'm in the whole drivetrain / interior conversion $2800 and that's including the van purchase price 2 years ago when it was wrecked.
The nickle dime stuff is getting me now. I've got. 4k set aside for this. Hardly touched it yet!

Huge progress today. Will post pics n info soon!!

Blah!!
didn't get it done today!! got a bunch of little stuff done, tightened everything up hooked up a few more components. sucks working on other peoples schedule!!:upyours: shop is only open till noon on Saturdays and closed Sunday's so I'm stuck till Monday.
went back to the Pick-a-Part yard today and found a 2000 to hijack some parts from, found a shifter cable in better shape than the one I had, also found the elusive transmission dip stick I have been needing and an oil cooler block off plate. I am going to run an oil cooler just not yet..
I think I am done part hunting so I should be able to wrap up the drivetrain swap within a few hours on Monday..
then hopefully I get my test drive!
plans after that is to get it home and finish the dash and door panel swap.

nothing really interesting to take pics of so heres a few general shots.....

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-j...o/IMG_1256.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-P...o/IMG_1257.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-r...o/IMG_1259.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-k...o/IMG_1253.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--...o/IMG_1254.JPG

off till Monday, comment away!!

lookin good. almost there!

Back on it in the morning. Going to get it ready for transport. Tow it home and finish it up here. If I can test start at the shop I will. After the trans and oil filters and fluid changes I don't need the shop or lift anymore plus I can work on my own schedule here and I have my tools!!

Got allot done today. Days not over yet!
Wrapped up just about everything at the shop. Changed the oil and threw a few quarts of fluid in the trans.
It's on the tow truck on its way home and I will meet it there shortly. Should be able to fire it up later tonight or tomorrow. Will try and wrap up wiring tonight.
Update later. Picking up my kids from school right now, will put them to work cleaning the truck! ;)

the Very last time (I hope) my rig should ever be on this rig!
got her back home today.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-h...o/IMG_1266.JPG
always good to have a buddy with a tow truck!

anyway, Got all of the lines done today, changed the fluids, put the oversized trans cooler in, buttoned up everything underneath the truck. tried to get a shot of the trans cooler lines we made....
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-C...o/IMG_2198.JPG

trimmed and installed the escalade dual electric fan setup, tons of room now!
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-N...o/IMG_2205.JPG
when I got it home, I plugged in all the electrical connectors and started tying down and placing wires and components under the hood..
I'm pretty close to having under the hood done, just need to go pick up new radiator hoses, the two I have fit, but I want new.
I think for the exhaust I am going to make a Y-pipe to fix this,https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_...o/IMG_2199.JPG run two into one for now, will do dual down the road. that's me old pipe running back to flowmaster 50 and then dual from there back.
I got allot of business to handle over the next few days, but I will try and get a little work done tomorrow night, maybe fire it up.
I did turn it over by just the starter to get some of the new oil running through the system..
after those last few things, on to wiring the 95 dash and 05 cluster..
stay tuned!

-Jim

ITS ALIIIIIIVE!
holy crap its loud, sounds amazing... I had given up for the day and it was bugging me that I didn't start it, so I spent another hour, found a bad ground and bam! shes running!!
will finish it up so I can drive it, need to tune first but heres a quick video if it works...
http://youtu.be/Am2Es0yncvk