Hi, my name is Sarah and I am interested in trying to do an engine swap from my 4.3 V6 to a 5.3 V8 and I am not sure if it will work. I am pretty sure I will have to change out my wireing harness and a lot of little things but I was wondering if anyone of you have done this before and can give me any tips as to what will or wont work, any tricks to get it to work, ect. Or is it not even worth it?

This is my lil truck...


Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

 

What trans do you have?? It can be done....

Where in Cali are you located?

 

I am in Sacramento

I have a 4L60E transmition... Does that make a difference in being able to do the swap?

 

The 60-E will be perfect for what you want to do......I just wanted to make sure you did not have the 5 speed. The swap can be done, and you will need a harness and a PCM upgrade to get her going! BTW welcome to the board and NICE TRUCK!

 

I'll take your old 4.3L when you are done with it!

 

Sarah if your going to switch to a 5.3 you might as well by a 6.0 liter since it's basically the same hook up. Just get one that is pulled out of a wrecked or used truck from a salvage yard that has low miles. Or check out ebay and you can find some with the wiring harness and everything. You might even want to look at a ls1 considering their are alot on ebay that have the wiring harness and everything shuld hook up pretty easy. You might be able to find a good deal on a total package tranny with engine and you can take out your old tranny and rebuild it to make it tough enough to stand up to the power. Good luck on your project. truck looks awesome

 

Just go witha 6.0. There should not be a major price differece between the 5.3 and the 6.0.

 

I dont think the LS1 harness is the same as the truck harness, so youd probably be better off not buying a LS1 with a harness. But I may be wrong.

Also, do like everyone else is saying and go with a 6.0 instead of the 5.3 if you are gonna go through all the work to swap it out

 

the truck harness is definately different. the injector plugs for example. and definately find a 6.0 for it and just get it over with, just get one that is 2000 or newer with the short crank or your tranny won't bolt up.

 

WOW... Thanx for all the replies! Of course, I have a few more questions.

You're all right, I think I am just going to go with the 6.0L and get it over with... the faster the better!

As for my tranny, would it be worth it to get a new one with the engine or rebuild mine? Would it need to be fully rebuilt to do the swap or just slightly modified?