Wheatley is retuning it for me, should fire right up. Not sure.
Here is where I am at today, got the engine out and some kitty litter soaking up the mess I made. I put a rag and bag over the end of trans, but it developed a small leak that put trans fluid all over.

 

Yesterday didn't get too much done, got the motor mounts on the new engine, got the trans pan and tailshaft on, got the torque converter in and the trans mounted to the engine. I also took the front bumper off to give me a little more room. It should be back in today, but wife wants to go to a local festival so might not get much done. PCM wont be back until Tues or Weds anyway so I got a little time to get it buttoned up.

 

At least you're not replacing the 4.8 with another 4.8. I made that mistake with my brother's truck. I will never use a 4.8 without boost again...

 

my 4.8 ran pretty strong, but would never replace it with another one.LOL

 

well, its back in. Now to hook all the wires, exhaust, and accessories back up.

 

Wow, that did not take you long at all. Pretty straight forward swap I am assuming ?

 

I am almost completely done now, waiting on PCM that should be here tomorrow or Weds. I have to put in driveshaft, y pipe, battery. The worse part was all the wires. I labeled everything but there are a ton of grounds, and GM used every kind of clip so it takes a little looking to see how to open them. The grille and core support took longer than the engine, I forgot how alot of it went LOL. I wasn't working full days on it and taking my time, so if you bust your butt you could get it done fairly quick.

 

wow - How many hours do you think you have into it? Just curious as I will be starting my swap in a couple of weeks. Cept I will be running mine off the 4.8 ECU until I get my HP Tuners in to tune it.

 

I threw a 4.8 pcm tune in there today to see if it would fire up, fired up first try. Has a rough idle though, and oil pressure was maxed. I killed it, refired it and oil pressure was normal, but that idle was still pretty rough. After I get my tuned pcm back from Wheatley, if the idle is still bad I will have to check those plug wires and intake manifold. The plug wires I had to pull on pretty good to get them off, they were on there for five plus years. And the intake I may not have tighten it down enough. We shall see. My painted pacesetter headers had just a little surface rust underneath them, and the gaskets were still intact. They are 5 or 6 years old. I would say I have around 40 hours in it. That is taking my time, also cleaning things up, degreasing, etc. This is engine and trans, I did have to swap some parts over on the trans such as the tailshaft and pan. Also includes three parts runs to the store, and that is 45 minutes one way.

 

Hmm. I would like to hear how it runs with the Wheatley tune. I've been searching and from what I can find the 4.8 ECU can run the 5.3 engine, just won't be optimal for obvious reason. I also read somewhere about a crank relearn, but it sounds like you did not have to do that.