Why? Because I want to, and the usual mileage, power, reliability, parts available at every junkyard, autozone and GM dealer.

If you don't like it I'll give you a quarter and you can call someone that cares.

It all started one rainy day at an eastern Illanoy junkyard. I was there with my son/mechanic for I don't remember what, We were back in the section behind the office where you have to get granted access. This is where they keep the better stuff they don't sell at yard prices. My son says, he that Buick has a v8. We look at it and say cool and leave. A month or so later we were back and it was still there. It's a 2006 Rainier with the aluminum LH6 motor. Asked our buddy in the office about it and he says it "ran but made noise". I asked him what he wanted for it and he said $250 pulled since it was questionable. I bought it complete with all accessories except alternator. It had 243 heads, TBSS intake which I could sell for 3-400 and 275 if worst case. I got all the harness, the ecm, tcm, bcm, fuse bloc, rear fuse block. Pretty much everything I would need if it was OK.

We got it back to the shed and took the heads off and one lifter had come apart in the middle. We didn't see any other obvious issues at the time. The engine was pretty darn clean inside, from the heads to the bottom end. It was looking good. So I ordered seals, gaskets, etc. This was looking like it was going to be cheaper than I had expected.

A little about my plans. My initial plan was to try to find an affordable 6 liter or aluminum 5.3 if I couldn't score a 6 liter. I'd thought about looking for a T56, but as I mentioned in my restoration thread this is a budget build, so a 4L80 was the obvious choice. I didn't know what mounts I was going to be able to use to make everything work or what oil pan. There is a lot of information, with not a lot of detail. I found an f-body oil pan on Craigslist for 60 bucks, so I grabbed it. I was going to wait and try to research mounts more later. Also, my son gave me a turbo for Christmas last year, so that's kinda on the burner. He has since collected an intercooler and piping. Back to the info.

I had a buddy with a small home machine shop go through the heads. He cleaned them, checked the surface, did a valve job, replaced the seals. Wow, the looked great.

 

Another time we were at the junkyard I found an 04 Envoy with the 5.3, although this one was a known good running engine it was a gen 3 and not ideal for the possible future use it would see. I bought it for $300 anyway, just in case or to sell.

When we were getting set to put this together my son was turning it it over and it was making a very slight odd noise. After some investigation we discovered that it had a bit more side to side play in the piston than we were comfortable using. This was a big let down. No I have to decide, do I want to go with the 04 gen 3 motor, look for something else, or what. Fast forward a few weeks and I see a guy in Iowa looking for an aluminum 5.3 for a build he was doing for a customer. I message him that I have one. I tell him I was going to put it in the Cutlass, but really want a 6 liter. He says he has a 10k mile LY6 from a 2010 2500. We ended up trading and he came down to make the swap.






Not bad.

 

Fortunately all of the parts I bought, except the head gaskets work on the 6.0. I picked up some LS9 MLS gaskets and sold the 5.3 set to a friend. I have front and rear seals, front and rear cover seals, head gaskets, exhaust gaskets, water pump and oil pan gaskets and probably some others. I bought a LS6 oil pump because I wasn't sure if the pump that was in the LH6 with DOD was ideal or not. I bought this before I got the 6 liter, so it's going in. I also bought the Elgin Sloppy Stage Two cam, Pac 1218 springs and LS7 lifters and trays and some head bolts. I think that's about it.

I cleaned the block up for painting, which didn't require very much work as it was pretty clean with little rust. I painted the block cast iron and the accessories are aluminum. I painted one of the brackets with Duplicolor cast aluminum, but it was dull and boring looking and I didn't like it. I ended up using the regular aluminum. I'm planning on limiting paint colors in the engine bay to silver, cast iron and black for the most part. I want it to look clean and simple. Wiring will be kept as neat and visually minimal as well.

We looked over the 6 liter very carefully before we went further to look for any issues. We got everything put together and torqued to factory specs. Now we're getting somewhere. Still need to get the car ready for it and figure out mounts.

 

Meanwhile, my son has a guy that bought a truck with a 6 liter and a 4L80 that he bought for a derby car or dirt car or something. He wasn't going to use the trans so my son got it for me for.... $100. We'll have to look it over and replace seals and the electrical connector that leaks. Fluid looks good, but we haven't taken the pan off. It was getting close to cold weather so I quickly painted it. It came with dipstick tube, but no dipstick. I would grab one from the junkyard, but 4L80s are usually gone in any trucks that have them. A little research showed that the 4L60 and 4L80 dipstick tubes are different, but the dipsticks are the same. Junkyard has tons of those and we're good to go.

 

The engine and transmission were quite a find! Good luck in your build.

 

This past September we took my sons Fairmont to LS Fest in Bowling Green. While visiting the vendor area I went through the Holley display. Talked to a very helpful rep they had there. After finding out they had a 10% off show discount I reluctantly decided to buy their forward swap mounts and the 302-3 pan. I was going to buy the 302-2 pan, but the guy said the smart money is the 302-3 pan. It's the same price, but will let you run a stroker motor later if you ever want to.

I REALLY didn't want to spend $345 on an oil pan, really. The deciding factor for me was knowing it will work. Knowing that while the bosy is off the frame we could mount the engine and the body would go on and work and clear the heat/AC box. Also, the truck AC compressor I have will clear the frame. The LH6 power steering pump pulley is smaller than the standard truck pulley, so less likely to hit the steering box, we'll see.

A big thing for me is that I don't want to hack the car by cutting the frame to put this engine in it. I'm keeping and storing everything we take off and do not reuse. If someone some day wants to put it back with the original engine and transmission it will all be there. Likewise, a lot of people use a wagon efi tank, but that requires cutting the frame, which I don't want to do. We have some trick we are going to use to modify an original near NOS tank to make it work.

 

Thanks, you'll see here and in my build thread that either I'm pretty good at finding deals or very lucky. I'll share them.

 

Some of the other items I've picked up for the swap.

• 2000s Grand Caravan transmission cooler, off memory its about 8"x18-2". Got it from a nice looking van with a good trans for $5.
• 90s Ford Windstar electric fans for $15. It's hard to beat these for the amount of air they move. They are about the size of the Olds radiator so fitment should be good.
• 90s Volvo dual fan relay for next to nothing. These are underneath the radiator/fan top plate and should work perfectly.
• I don't know that I will use it, but a 90s BMW dual temperature sensor. They are in the passenger side of the radiator on some or all 90s common BMWs.
• Battery cable from 2004ish BMW 7 series. It's a massive approximately 12' foot long dual cable. I got it for $5 and the time to pull it. I don't mess with these if the front seats are still in the car. BMWs has about 2 inches of foam attached to the bottom side of the carpet and these are not fun to pull. This will be handy to mount the battery in the trunk.
• Grabbed a terminal that was in the BMW engine bay that you can use to jump the car and a little fuse block as well.

Not a bad cable for five bucks.

 

We were at the junkyard one day, and I was looking for a decent alternator when my son found one sitting on the seat of a pickup. It's a Carquest reman, but looks brand new. Nice as it is, going to have to take it apart and paint it I think.

Yeah we seem to go to the junkyard a lot, either for stuff he's looking for or me buying stuff to sell of ebay.

 

This is my engine and trans cost at this point. The Holley pan distorts the deal to look worse than it is.

 

Look forward to following your build.

 

WOW, those prices are unreal man, around here 4l80e core is around $4-500, in running condition (they claim) at least $8-900. 5.3 can be found for around $500 -$600. I wish I could find parts cheap like that.
Where did you get the rest of your parts from? When I search your listed prices are a lot lower than what's on the net.
What are you doing for fuel supply?

I'm currently in process of swapping my 70, getting rid of 463 and going with 6.0L/4l80E combo.

I like that BMW cable, I have to look for that next time I hit the junkyard.

I'll be following this thread.

 

The trans price was a very lucky fluke. "Our" yard usually charges around 400 for a known good running on with a warranty. Thewe can get ones that came in running if we pull them for 200-250 if we pull and a little more if they pull them. My son has 1 aluminum 5.3 and 3 iron 6.0s, all 07 and newer pulled from running trucks with about 180k for sale, but local pick-up.

Some of those I bought a couple years ago like the lifters that are out of stock now. I got the gears, posi, C6 brakes off craigslist. I had to drive 90 miles to get them. Some parts I got on ebay, some on Rockauto, some on amazon. The cam I got on ebay when Jegs had them on sale and ebay had a 20% off coupon. A lot of people say get the LS6 valley cover or whatever, but the gen IV 4.8 cover is the same and cheap, needed if you have DOD. Also, this is apparently a life long build, so I buy stuff when it's cheap, not when I need it. If you want to know where I got specific parts let me know and I'll look it up.

The BMW cable is a royal pain to pull, but the longest I've gotten was an early 2000s 7 series. Take a sharp knife or carpet knife, some basic tools and a large screw driver or pry bar. The battery is in the passenger side of the trunk. There is a short cable going to a distribution point if I remember correctly. It goes under some plastic just to the passenger side of center then down behind the rear seat. the rear seat is easy to get out, you only need the bottom. The fronts are more of a pain and you may need a jump pack to move them, but the car I was in they were gone so I can't confirm. The cable goes up to the front under the carpet and some plastic ducts (pry bar). Around the center of the passenger foot well there is a terminal that goes through the firewall the it bolts to.I don't know that you can get that out with the engine in unless maybe the front is jacked up. I start at the back and cut the 2" carpet/padding following it to the front. This is really going to suck if it's been raining in the car. We found an SUV with a long cable, I think Audi or Nissan maybe. Some of the Dodges have rear mount batteries. Ignore BMW wagons, the battery is under the rear seat and not as long. 5 Series are decent length, but the 7 series is the best I have found. It is heavy wire made up of tiny strands, so is very flexible.

I'll post more on the fuel later, but the gist is get a Civic tank and cut a square out of the top with the hanger and weld that into the Cutlass tank and leave the Cutlass sender. Possible a Walbro 450. At the same time, build a baffled/box to keep it from all sloshing to the back or side. If you do this make sure to investigate a safe welding method and don't blow yourself up!! My tank came out of a 70 or 71 W car when nearly new so fumes aren't an issue.

Never pay retail.

 

Nice start... You might want to consider a trunion upgrade if you haven't already...

 

Nice Build!!

I am just buttoning up my LS build in my 69 442.I've had my 69 for 8 yrs and had a newly built 455 in it with a TH400 couple years ago, but I always wanted to do an LS swap.

I agree with what you said, there are alot of purists out there that would call us names and turn there back to this, but I believe "If my name is on the title, I should be able to do what I want to do for my family and I to enjoy my car".

Following this thread!