motor swap checklist
 

The new motor is literally a matter of days away from being here!!! That being said, I want to have everything here waiting on it so I don't have another week of downtime with it sitting on the stand.

The 5.3 has got about 130K miles on it, so does everything else under the hood, minus the fans and turbo kit. I think some things need to be freshened up while I'm in there.

I plan on pulling the accessories and bead blasting all the aluminum to make it look new again and replacing a few things.

What would you replace, or normally do when you replace a high mileage motor? I'm guessing:

Water pump
Thermostat (ill get a new 160•)
Belts
Hoses
Sensors? Which one(s)?

Ill definitely have to get a few gaskets for the intake and exhaust manifolds and the turbo manifold. Like I said, I have a week or so to round everything up, where is the cheapest place to get a GOOD waterpump? I don't want aftermarket junk. The stocker works fine now, I'd just like to put a fresh pump on a fresh motor...

I wouldn't mind doing solid motor mounts as well... Its not a DD anymore :)

Honestly, I didn't change anything on the swap. Everything was swapped over from the prior engine, even the water pump gaskets were reused with rtv.

I'd imagine the best place to get a low mile waterpump would be the forums. Or maybe you could try car-part.com.

I'd say the biggest thing is have all your fluids ready, i.e. coolant, oil, etc. I didn't have the coolant because I thought I could catch it and reuse it, nope it got all dirty. So I ended up having to put tap water in with whatever coolant was still in there. So it cost me another $100 I think at the stealership to get that all flushed out and new fluid in.

I'd piss in the radiator before I paid someone 100 to "flush" a radiator....backflush it with a waterhose, and refill. But that's just me, I've already got sevral gallons of coolant sitting here as well as a case of oil for the first couple oil changes... I'm really talking about parts rather than fluids... But I know that can be easily overlooked.

While its out you might as well power wash the engine bay. would also be a good time to check your front end out, make sure your bushings are good and grease everything up.

Edit: maybe flush the power steering even.

I planned on taking the pressure washer to the engine bay, but that's a good suggestion on checking the frontend out since everything will be right there, and this trucks spent more than half its life dropped... I do have a power steering leak that needs to be attended to as well...

If you have the extra cash, and plan on doing a swap to last a long time, I like the idea of changing the parts you listed, and possibly the knock sensors and sensor sub-harness (I believe that the knock sensors have a sub-harness?). I know that the sensors are prone to corossion from water getting under the intake. At the very least, build an RTV "dam" around the knock sensors to keep water from getting down in the knock sensor holes and causing future problems. (Do the dam if you change them or not)

Yeah, I have planned on changing them. I was wondering about the cam/crank sensors too... But I've never had any trouble out of mine. Well, any sensor for that matter.

I am doing this motor swap RIGHT, I'm not going to stick a fresh forged longblock under old worn out stuff. At the very least I'm changing the knock sensors, water pump/thermostat and hoses... The belts are fairly new, and I swapped to a brand new 34" radiator last summer because I had a tank split on my stocker.

I need to order new ARP flexplate and converter bolts as well... I wanna use as much of their hardware as I can this time together....

Anyone else?

oil pressure switch. that one isnt very fun diggin behind that intake to get it out. especially if you have the bigger style

buddies to help??? haha im trying to find out if nonnie is gonna make the drive if so..... i'm comming too!