Another 6.2 for 5.3 swap going on.

iamdub · Nov 18, 2020

donjetman said:
Disconnect the fuel injection harness(es) or ignition harness(es) and crank it over with the starter until you see oil pressuere. You could also remove the spark plugs too.

Holding the accelerator to the floor when cranking kills injector and spark firing.

I cranked on mine for 2-3 20-second sessions (PCM cuts the cranking after 10 seconds even if you continue to hold the key) after I primed the system just to ensure it was primed with the pump sucking oil up into the pickup tube. Then I cranked it a little with the coil pack harness unplugged and foot off the pedal to prime the injectors. THEN I plugged everything in and went for the kill.

PatDTN · Nov 18, 2020

Wow. That's kinda an odd thing for us old school people. When you flood your engine you used to hold the accelerator to the floor and crank it to start. The idea was to let lots of air in and not create enough vacuum to pull fuel in through the carb. Eventually it would stumble to life.

This new situation seems like it's going to push fuel out into the catalytic converters.

PatDTN · Nov 18, 2020

After posting my pictures from the first head I went back down and did the second one. Things went smoothly mostly. I got done with the first two cylinders and took things apart on the third. After cleaning things up I popped the valves back in place and looked for my "straws". Hm. I must have knocked them off when I grabbed a rag. Nope, not on the floor, not on the table, where could they be? Then I took a close look at the second cylinder I did and noticed a faint green stripe on the top of the valve stem. Oh NO!

Testament to how easy it is to use this valve spring compressor I was able to put the keepers on the valve stems ON TOP OF THE FREAKIN STRAWS! So I quickly moved the tool back to that cylinder and took things apart. The straws were unharmed and I put things back quickly then did the next cylinder. As I'm compressing the springs back to put the keepers on I see it! There are still straws on the valve stems. ARGH. I must be getting tired. Luckily I could pull them out and continue on.

My suggestion is to make sure those freaky little straws are sitting where you can see them before you button things up. I don't even want to imagine what would have happened if I started the engine with those still in there.

The heads are bolted down, the valve covers have new gaskets and seals and are bolted down. I need parts off the engine in my truck to finish up but first I need to run out and find a temp sensor. Working with the torque angle gauge was new to me and in fumbling around I broke the plastic bits off the sensor.

I need to figure out where to hang the engine from the hoist when I pull the 5.3 and again when I drop in the 6.2. I also will need to figure out who I can get not too far away to reprogram for all the changes I just made. Hopefully I'll be driving with my new engine in just a couple of days. Shooting to have it done by the weekend.

PatDTN · Nov 20, 2020

Getting ready to do the engine swap meant clearing up some project materials. I had to pick up and carry over 1000 lbs of tile, thinner, and grout. My miter saw for fixing a glider on our deck got packed back up. Pieces of my mower from two years ago got put away or trashed. Finally I moved my wife's '68 Camaro RS out of my way. I moved my mostly finished engine over, some rolling shelves, and my engine hoist so I have room to pull the engine and set it down somewhere so I can swap parts across and drop the new motor in.

I pulled my Tahoe in and dropped the plastic skid plate out only to see my transmission cooler lines are leaking. I was hoping to find more things to buy. :-(

iamdub · Nov 20, 2020

PatDTN said:
Wow. That's kinda an odd thing for us old school people. When you flood your engine you used to hold the accelerator to the floor and crank it to start. The idea was to let lots of air in and not create enough vacuum to pull fuel in through the carb. Eventually it would stumble to life.

This new situation seems like it's going to push fuel out into the catalytic converters.

With a newer, FI engine, it's the same. It's the "clear flood" feature. Only instead of reducing vacuum to not pull fuel through the carb, the injectors just aren't fired.

PatDTN · Nov 22, 2020

Yesterday's progress was terrible. I spent the entire day disentangling the engine from its wiring harness. There's no place to separate it out that I can find. I can't imagine putting all that back while it's in the car. What am I missing? Are there ways to leave it on the engine and get to things?

Oh and that starter. It's loose and the wires are off it but no matter how I turn it I can't get it out. How would someone replace that sucker?

PatDTN · Nov 22, 2020

A couple of days progress didn't amount to what I wanted. It's Sunday night and I really thought I'd be almost done. In fact I barely got the old engine OUT.

I learned I can separate the fuse box and pull out large wire plugs to get those wires loose. Also a couple of plugs got the computer loose. From there it was a nightmare chasing wires, disconnecting them, feeding them back to the main loom, releasing the nearly 50 different styles of wire guides and 20 different plugs. Some of the things I just broke hoping the new engine has some that I didn't pay attention to.

Getting ready to tear the fuse block up.

Look at all those wires!

I didn't want to disconnect the power steering pump so I unbolted the whole accessory module and pulled it back on top of the computer support. Of course I snapped off one of the fingers that clamp the computer.

I got that huge mass of wires peeled back and layed over the right fender. I'll clean that later. When I pulled the intake off I found a mouse house on top of my valley pan. Hm. I just realized I need that throttle body. I need to learn to pull the plug and drain antifreeze from the block. I keep undoing things and making a huge mess. Amazing how much coolant came out when I removed the water pump. There was even more when I got the engine out and it tilted forward on the floor.

Does this mean I have a Chevy Mouse motor officially? Those intake runners are NASTY. This new engine is going to be so much cleaner.

After a number of adventures I got the engine out. There's a stud sticking up off the back of the right side coil pack. It doesn't hold anything, it's just there. When I lifted the engine that hooked on the AC hard lines on the fire wall. I freed that and started moving forward when something hung up again. That same stud had found part of the wiring harness and locked onto that. You know I'm putting just a bolt back in that.

My leaking transmission cooler lines also managed to play a huge part in getting in the way. I didn't realize that they were in a bracket bolted to the block until I started pulling. I couldn't get to it with a wrench at that point so I popped the lines out of the bracket. I guess I need new lines to fix that leak anyway. Those lines are also keeping the starter from coming out with the engine in.

Getting to this point wore me out for the day.

PatDTN · Nov 26, 2020

I got the new engine sitting in place and started assembling.

The engine is a little farther along now. I had a tough time getting all the bolts to hold the transmission to the block but not too bad. I ended up cutting down a deepwell socket to about 2/3 length to get onto some of them.

I rotated the engine so there was a bolt hole in the flex plate lined up with the torque converter. Slid under the car and pushed a bolt right in. Dang. It should have hit a bolt hole in the torque converter. I had to rotate things about 3 degrees to line it up. I popped a wrench on the crank bolt and rotated it what I figured for 33 1/3 turns, slid back under the car and found I had rotated it just about 2 degrees farther than what I could get the bolt in place. Rotated it back just a smidge and put the second bolt in. Another shot and lined up the last one. Better to be lucky than good.

I made my intake manifold ready to go in then remembered that little blocking plate that goes behind the fuel rail and bolted that to the head. Then I slid the new gaskets onto the manifold and put it in place. I torqued it down by hand since I don't have an inch pound torque wrench and they want to be around 4 or 5 lb-ft.

At this point I wanted to be sure what goes next; the wiring harness or the fuel rail so I came back up to look at the pictures I made. Just in time for dinner. Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving.

PatDTN · Nov 26, 2020

Oh yeah. That stinking AC belt. No tensioners so you put it on fully tight. I figured out to slip the belt off the back of the crank pulley and onto the AC Pulley. Then I pulled the belt up to the top of the harmonic balancer and pulled as much of it around as I could. Put a wrench on the bolt and slowly started rolling the engine over. I did find I had to pull the belt forward between the pulleys to keep it rolling onto the AC. It went right on.

Fless · Nov 26, 2020

PatDTN said:
A couple of days progress didn't amount to what I wanted. It's Sunday night and I really thought I'd be almost done. In fact I barely got the old engine OUT.

I learned I can separate the fuse box and pull out large wire plugs to get those wires loose. Also a couple of plugs got the computer loose. From there it was a nightmare chasing wires, disconnecting them, feeding them back to the main loom, releasing the nearly 50 different styles of wire guides and 20 different plugs. Some of the things I just broke hoping the new engine has some that I didn't pay attention to.

Getting ready to tear the fuse block up.

Look at all those wires!

I didn't want to disconnect the power steering pump so I unbolted the whole accessory module and pulled it back on top of the computer support. Of course I snapped off one of the fingers that clamp the computer.

I got that huge mass of wires peeled back and layed over the right fender. I'll clean that later. When I pulled the intake off I found a mouse house on top of my valley pan. Hm. I just realized I need that throttle body. I need to learn to pull the plug and drain antifreeze from the block. I keep undoing things and making a huge mess. Amazing how much coolant came out when I removed the water pump. There was even more when I got the engine out and it tilted forward on the floor.

Does this mean I have a Chevy Mouse motor officially? Those intake runners are NASTY. This new engine is going to be so much cleaner.

After a number of adventures I got the engine out. There's a stud sticking up off the back of the right side coil pack. It doesn't hold anything, it's just there. When I lifted the engine that hooked on the AC hard lines on the fire wall. I freed that and started moving forward when something hung up again. That same stud had found part of the wiring harness and locked onto that. You know I'm putting just a bolt back in that.

My leaking transmission cooler lines also managed to play a huge part in getting in the way. I didn't realize that they were in a bracket bolted to the block until I started pulling. I couldn't get to it with a wrench at that point so I popped the lines out of the bracket. I guess I need new lines to fix that leak anyway. Those lines are also keeping the starter from coming out with the engine in.

Getting to this point wore me out for the day.

That a '67 Galaxie in the way?

Another 6.2 for 5.3 swap going on.

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