I swapped a 2002 5.3L into a 98 K1500. I reused the original 5.7 wiring harness and added wires when needed. I also kept my original transmission. It's not quite finished, but it's about as close as I'm going to get it for now. The exhaust needs to have a few holes patched up, but I'm not really willing to spend the time to do that for such a little return.

There were numerous things that did not turn out correctly the first time. I ended up making all of the swap brackets to keep my alt and compressor in the same place. That took a bit of machining and it's still not complete. I was also under the impression that my stock exhaust would line up, and in a way it did, but for the effort involved with making it fit the 5.3, it was simpler to simply remove it and replace it. I ended up using the stock exhaust from a 2000, and cutting it up to fit along with pacesetter long tubes.

I didn't really have a budget going in, but I wanted to do everything I could without having to buy things. This meant that I reworked my harness myself, machined and cut my own brackets except for the engine mount brackets. I bought my own tuning software and am learning to use it. I think all in all I am around $1k for the swap, not including the tuning software. I was able to get my engine/ harness/ computer for $180, which was the only reason I actually did the swap.

Before actually doing the swap I had toyed with the idea for around a year. I didn't start buying things until a few months before hand though. I did a ton of research to see what other people had done and ways in which I could improve upon it. This research is what lead me to finding cheaper alternatives to a lot of the parts people were using or allowing me to manufacture my own.

Don't tow.

I mainly did this as a learning experience. I think that if I could find the deal I got on my engine/ computer/ harness then I would definitely attempt the swap again. I would also benefit from having already made some parts that are expensive, and being able to save time and money on them. I'd rather go with a 6.0 over a 5.3 though, just want more power. I wouldn't do this in an attempt to create a race truck or to put a lot of money into it because, to me, at the end of the day it's still a 16 year old rusty truck.