I thought dropping in a early 5.3/6.0 was easy on these.. Better engine, more power, and a few other things.
Can anyone offer input on that?
Can confirm earlier 5.3 into GMT400 replacing the 5.7 feels entirely better on right pedal to floor ratio... "dropping in" is a phrase tossed in there by the keyboard experts. I had a complete donor 5.3, w/ 4L60E from an '02 with harness & PCM, working nights and part time some weekends took about 7 weeks to thin out the 5.3 & 5.7 harness & integrate the two so factory gauges and AC would function. Spent a couple of weekends and some nights getting the motor & transmission into a '97 Suburban, another weekend reworking fuel lines & transmission lines, $800 bucks in ICT Billet brackets to relocate the alternator to the passenger side & AC compressor to driver side, just so I could reuse stock lines for AC and not have to custom make a set, then there was the belt measurement, power steering pulley debacle, the pulley didn't seat on the shaft all the way, off by one rib and shredded new belt on start up, ordered new PS pump & pulley, and new belt, rework the air intake tube trying to reuse the stock intake box, either too close to the exhaust or to high to close the hood, fabricated a box for the filter that mounts behind the bumper and tubes up & 90's into the throttle body... so the mechanical fan is no longer an option, trip to the pick n pull for some electrics, then another Amazon order for relays to control the fans, take the harness apart to re-pin back to the PCM for fans control... and the road goes on forever lol. The whole swap started in April, pulled into my shop with a busted radiator, 297k on the odometer, numerous oil leaks, and the 5.3 was sitting in the corner for another "project", hey why wait, let's use it for this one! Rolled out of the shop Labor Day weekend. Was definitely worth the effort, much more fun to drive, sounds great, also built new 3" duals for it, so will I do another one? Absolutely!
