Im waste deep in this project and decided it is time to share. I picked this 2006 V6 shorty late last year for 1500 bucks. I really miss my last rcsb, so it was time for version 2.0.



This was the day I picked it up, complete with crooked bumper, grandpa style running boards, a 4.3, 5 speed combo ( clutch on its last legs though). Its as plain-jane as you can get; rubber floor, crank windows, manual locks, no cd player, no cruise obviously, or A/C. Surprisingly it has factory G80 though. It did have the steel grey wheels on it, but I swapped the aluminum ones off my green obs in the background. Lastly included with the sale was an 07 Chevy Express to use for a drivetrain swap.

Amazingly I managed to put 2000 kms on it before winter came to start the tear down. The clutch disk split at the rivets and fell apart as soon as it came out, haha.

 

Before the tear down started, I pulled off the running boards, replaced the upper portion of the bumper, and changed the grill. I also gave it a brake job, then I cleaned and waxed it within an inch of its life.
then I cleaned and waxed it within an inch of its life

 

The thrashing started by parting out the 4.8 and 4l80 out of the van. The vans are not very fun to pull the eng/trans complete by the way. I also pulled the dana 60, wheels and tires, and other worth while items, and sold them off to help with the swap fund. Once the van was scrapped, I pulled the V6/5speed out of the truck and sold those off also. After all that was done with, I tore down the 4.8. It had worn down a cam lobe, and I found a bunch of rocker needle bearings in the pan. That surprised me as I drove the van home, and it didn't sound bad. So I completely dis-assembled it, and cleaned the hell out of it to r&r. Then re-assembled it with just an ls1 cam, ported the 862s, installed arp head bolts, and did the comp trunion upgrade to the rockers. The new supplied allen head bolt is shorter, and do not protrude into the intake port (since the bump was removed during porting) . I also picked up a pair of JBA stainless longtubes. The 4l80 just basically got a filter change. Originally I was planning on a single turbo, but after splurging on the long tubes, I would like to do some sort of blower in the future.






Some interesting things to note when using Express, or Savana parts for a swap;
-the engine mounts are different from the trucks
-the engine and trans dipsticks are extended, and not usable
-the van had an oil cooler that I didn't use. I installed the truck style bypass plate
-the harness is different than the trucks, and fuse box connector is different entirely.
-the tac module looks basically the same as the trucks, but the gas pedal is very different. The harness is also part of the dash wiring in the vans, and has to be cut out.
-the steering column looks basically the same from the tilt flange forward to the steering wheel, but it has different mounts further down the shaft
-the air intakes completely different, and use a different style maf
-this van still uses a clutch fan...not sure if all vans were like that, or any came with e-fans, but i'm keeping the fans out of the truck.
-the vans come with 3 inch dual exhaust into the muffler, but the frames are wider, so it doesn't fit on the trucks...the 4.8 doesn't need that kind of flow anyhow
-the van 4l80 cooler lines fit the truck, with just some slight bending to the short upper hard line right where it comes out of the rad to clear the lower rad hose.
-the rad, and lower hose however are not usable on the trucks. The heater hoses are also way different.
-the intake is slightly different than the truck version (no boss for the plastic engine cover to go into)
-the van also had hydro boost, which I didn't end up using.

 

Continuing onto the swap, this is when I first stabbed it into the truck. The truck and van both used non return fuel supply, so I didn't have to do anything special there. This is however before I realized I had to buy truck style engine mounts. The van intake is still on in this picture also. The 5 speed crossmember is set back a little bit, but its still not long enough to mount the 4l80. The front side also interfered with the pan. It needed another couple inches, so I cut it up, and redid the mount. Im hoping I can run the drivers side exhaust through the crossmember, turn it under and around the tail shaft before it twins up with the pass side. I plan on running borla xr1 mufflers...not sure on where the tail pipes are going yet (side or out the back)

 

I ended up shortening the driveshaft 3 -5/8". I have a larger diameter aluminum shaft from the van I plan on using once the truck is lowered. It would contact the further back crossmembers at droop, at stock height.

 

So as I mentioned above, then van harness was no good to me. I was back on the hunt for a truck harness, but it was impossible to find one that hadn't been chopped up at pick and pull. It was also hard to find an 05 or 06 for years using the battery generator module. I ended up buying another 4.8, with harness from an 06 2wd Silverado. I got them to include the steering column, ecm, bcm, tac module and gas pedal for $650 bucks. The engine only has 130k, so now I have a spare to do something with. I got the engine home and on the stand, and peeled the harness off. While it was off I re-wired it for the 4l80, then installed it on the truck. I also swapped intakes out so I had the right truck intake. It was nice to just use a plug and play harness! Less stuff for me to screw up. After that I got the accessories, hoses, rad, fans, etc...basically everything else assembled on the engine, and put the hood back on. The only thing left to do is torque up the crossmembers, and mounts, install a starter, and build exhaust.

 

Onto the inside of the truck, I pulled out the 5 speed column, and bcm, and clutch pedal, and installed the donor auto column, bcm, and gas pedal. The Silverado column had a nicer leather wrapped wheel, so I swapped the gmc airbag into it. So far I found a snag with the tac module harness grommet. The clutch m/c hole in the firewall is bigger than the tac module grommet. The clutch pedal is a pain in the *** to take out btw. Im going to have to make a reducer of some sort to seal up the hole, and pass through the tac module wiring. I also still have to make a plate to patch up the shifter tower hole in the floor, and pull up the rubber floor to install the shifter cable.

 

Had a long, but good day. First thing started with the donor column disaster. The key would not turn ( and steering wheel was not locked? ) and no matter what I tried, wd40, graphite, tapping the end of the key, no luck. I couldn't pull the lock cylinder out since it was stuck in the off position. I started to get a little rammy, and ruined the lock cylinder, and possibly the housing. I gave up on that column, and just switched the multi function switch, and shifter onto my column. I just had to drill and remove the lower bracket for the shift position sensor, and weld it onto the trucks original column. Voila, all was good there. I stuck the vans ecm in it first (since its got the 4l80 tune anyways) and did the 30 min security re-learn procedure. While I had my head down under the hood, I noticed the drivers side header was hitting the bell housing tab on the 4l80, so I had to loosen off the header, and trim roughly and inch off the corner.

Then I did a quick last check on everything, hit the key, and got to hear it fire up for the first time. All seemed good. It hunted for the first 10-15 seconds, then found itself and idled nice. It threw a random missfire code, plus no activity for the rear 02 sensors. I don't have exhaust yet, so the rear 02 sensors are not hooked up yet. Not sure if that was related to the miss fire or not.

A few weird issues I noticed during its short run; the oil pressure seemed to fluctuate between 1/4 to 1/2 gauge. At one point it hit 1/8 gauge which scared me a little. Not sure if it just had to pump the lifters up, oil galleries, etc. Its also so loud, that I cant hear any abnormal engine noise. Also the cluster kept displaying battery not charging? Voltage seemed good. To squash any gauge/sensor problems, i'm going to drill the oil cooler bypass plate for a direct reading gauge, and check things out before going too much further. Also really have to build some exhaust! I also noticed a coolant leak from the lower rad hose, at the rad itself, so I have to take things apart there and see whats up. All in all, pretty happy to hear it come to life after a couple months of being apart. Here's a couple pics taken during the action today.


Here's a pic of the aforementioned bell ear trim. If you look down between the tubes, you can see the new flat spot to clear the 4rth tube.





I still need to get a cold air intake for it. Its funny how it looks pretty much stock even with the headers...until the little bit of orange paint punches you in the face. I also want to get it tuned, and make sure the e-fans work with the van ecm.

 

Looks good man. Keep at it!

Of and what can did you part out? What else did you keep from it? Thanks

 

Thanks! I'm guessing that's supposed to say what van? It was a 2007 3/4 ton Chevy Express. I kept the eng/trans, driveshaft, harness, ecm, bcm, tac module, gas pedal, radiator, exhaust, diff, wheels/tires, and center caps. After everything got sorted out, I pretty much sold off the left overs. I did keep the hydro boost encase the truck has vacuum issues down the road.....