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1993 Chevy 1500 4.8 swap

16K views 78 replies 12 participants last post by  SmokeyThaLo 
#1 ·
Well, since I've lost my keys I will be home for a bit. Might as well make a build thread right?

Starting with this:





1993 RCSB c1500 v6. I am the third owner. she has 285k on her but drives better than just about any car/truck i have ever driven. The guy before me had it since 1995 and has treated it wonderful. Complete new a/c system last year, shocks, bushings, tires, etc. If the seat didn't have a rip and the paint was not shot, it would be just like a new truck.

But its slow. Very Very slow. So why a 4.8 and not a 5.3? because I still want to get 20+ on the hwy, and I will only be towing the jetskis with it. Plus down the road a turbo makes up for the displacement loss and still keeps the mpg.

So I bought this:





And a bunch of stuff to put it in with.












And that's where I am as of now. Still waiting on a few parts from ups. Then a trip to the junkyard for new keys, and a few misc things I need for the swap, and it will be going in. Hope to have it back on the road by the end of the month.
 
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#32 ·
If I can't find a replacement for a decent price, I'll be ordering up a pump off eBay after ripping this trans apart to look for any other damage. Just pissed right now. Runs so damn nice. Ac blows cold. Power steering works great. It wants to go drive. But has no drive. Or anything else. Lol.
 
#35 ·
I want to. I'd be fine with a non pwm 80 out of a 92-96 too. But I'd also have to send my ecu out, again, for a retune. If I find one at the junkyard I'll do it though.
 
#36 ·
Just got back from the junkyard. Got a 4l60 to put in for now and grabbed a 4l80 to rebuild for later when the boost happens. Hopefully this 60 is good. Seems good from what I could test on the ground.

Would just run the 80 now as is but it has 350k miles on it (truck had 350k anyways) and my ecu would need a new tune to shift it.

So hopefully 2-4 hours from now burnout videos. Wish me luck.
 
#37 ·
Took a shit load longer than I wanted... But she is alive and driving. Its dark. No video. Black truck, no street lights, night time.... Bad for video.

If I'm off Tuesday early enough I'll see you fuckers at the drag strip.
 
#42 ·
Well, after a week of driving this thing, here are my thoughts.

First and formorst, truck needs a good tune. Badly. Its slow. Not quite as slow as the v6 was thanks to the 140+ HP and 40+ft lb difference. But its disappointing. I expected more. Maybe I should have swapped the 3.08 rear for a 3.73. Its still an option.

The motor itself however, is wonderful. Smooth as hell, no noises... Its like driving a new car. I think I could stack pennies on the intake manifold. I can tell the power is there, but I just can't make good use of it thanks to gearing. Hell top of second is right under 100 mph.

I also need to get the 4l80 ready. The trans I'm running is out of an 01 v6 truck and it just feels weird. So I'm in the process of ordering parts for the 80 build up. After that's done I'll start gathering up parts for boost. Hopefully by the years end it won't be so slow.

Also, if anyone has HP tuners, I will buy the license credits needed for my truck, I would really like to do some tuning. If not I'll have to push back transmission and turbo to buy hpturners. Just don't wanna spend 500$ to tune my truck and have all those credits left.
 
#43 ·
Put new mirrors and vent visors on. Looks 10x better. Emissions tomorrow then replace the cat and the rest of the system and get some power back hopefully.
 
#46 ·
After watching the maf flow on the obdII it looked like it was reading low... So I got to poking around and found a hole in my intake pipe I must have missed somehow. So its got a ghetto ass coupler right off the Tb to the maf and filter. It looks like shit. But my god. The leaks must have been there for a bit and I never noticed. Truck seems to have 50 more HP. I'm just shocked and can't figure out how I didn't see it. I'm gonna try to go take a video of a pull in it here in a few.
 
#48 ·
Now let's spray it. I have 2 kits of nitrous, 150 on the first kit then another 150 on the second kit.
 
#53 ·
And then this happened...


Numbers say its a. Hx40w off a 2002+ Cummins of some sort.

I need an exhaust housing and some other junk now...
 
#55 · (Edited)
Plan is to find a t4 16cm2 housing for it. Should spool around 2500 rpm and hold till 6k, while flowing enough not to choke the motor. Not looking for a ton of power out of it for now. Way too much to replace first.

Once I get a new rear end, do some suspension work, and put the 4l80e in, I'll put a bigger turbo on it and put the hx40 on the 2jz.


Or..... I find another one, run BEP t3 .63 housings, and have twins.
 
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