Build thread - LMG 5.3 to L96 6.0 swap

tuning sounds like it was a roller coaster. the cold start flare should be adjustable in the airflow table you're talking about for that temp range.


I'm curious, as I only use hptuners for newer stuff, and old diy stuff for obd1 prom based ecm's. why did you have to go so deep searching for a 6.0L base file? could the stock 5.3 file not be tuned to run the 6.0?

my thoughts was since both were stock engines(cam wise), it would be basically the same as building a stroker motor,jusy displacement change. you change the engine displacement size in cc in the tune, that scales everything in the airflow model. since you swapped, make sure the injector data is correct. the size and info that matches what you're running. I'd have probably started by swapping the 5.3 injectors into the 6.0. should have enough head room on gas only, unless you plane to run e85. and start tuning the maf and virtual ve tables from there like normal for standard mods, like free flowing intake and exhaust mods.


forgive my ignorance haven't not used tuner cat, ls edit or you exact swap.

j91z28d1 said:

tuning sounds like it was a roller coaster. the cold start flare should be adjustable in the airflow table you're talking about for that temp range.


I'm curious, as I only use hptuners for newer stuff, and old diy stuff for obd1 prom based ecm's. why did you have to go so deep searching for a 6.0L base file? could the stock 5.3 file not be tuned to run the 6.0?

my thoughts was since both were stock engines(cam wise), it would be basically the same as building a stroker motor,jusy displacement change. you change the engine displacement size in cc in the tune, that scales everything in the airflow model. since you swapped, make sure the injector data is correct. the size and info that matches what you're running. I'd have probably started by swapping the 5.3 injectors into the 6.0. should have enough head room on gas only, unless you plane to run e85. and start tuning the maf and virtual ve tables from there like normal for standard mods, like free flowing intake and exhaust mods.


forgive my ignorance haven't not used tuner cat, ls edit or you exact swap.

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That was the plan for sure but the files just ended up being so different from each other. Many tables had different axes and scaling. One would have fuel flow rates in grams/sec, other would be lbs/hour. Just a lot of stuff like that. Would have been a lot of work in excel converting things. And then the VVT tables made it even more complicated. Everything added together just made us both nervous about errors and lots of trial and error. But was gearing up to do just that and then I discovered that 2500 burbs still used the e38 and exact same op sys as mine. Was a no brainer once we made that discovery, because then we could do entire engine segment swap.

TunerCat is bit archaic. He uses it because it was a one time investment years ago and he doesn’t have to pay a fee for every VIN. He also has all the stuff for EFI Live, but that’s a fee for my VaiN. We were going to do it that way if we had to do all the conversions and table migration, but didn’t need to in the end. EFI live has a free version that is fully functional, it just won’t flash or read live data. But he flashed new tunes with tuner cat and then read them with EFI live and emailed them to me, so I could see what was going on.

This all may have been easier with HP tuners - a lot more support resources. In hindsight I maybe should have bit the bullet and bought into that system. Still might….