LS engine swap almost completed!

I've been thinking about a 5.3 or even 6.0 LS for my '91 Suburban but I'm probably going to just build one of the TBI 350s I have into a vortec 383.  I'm always up for a challenge but maybe not THAT much of a challenge

Dave, I will have it on the dyno this spring. We ran out of time this past fall to get the final tuning done. I did sell the old crate engine. Got $1700 for it. It now lives in a '68 Biscayne wagon. Doing a LS swap into a "Square body" GM truck is much simpler. I would do it if I were you. 

Mark, we set the rev limiter to 6500 rpm's. It's amazing how quick it revs. This actually created a problem with shifting the Tremec TKO 5 spd. TKO500's don't like high rpm's. Knowing what I know now, I would have used a T56 or Tremec 6060 6 speed instead. I had to yank the TKO out and have carbon fiber syncro's and brass shift fork pads installed to help with the high rpm shifts. 

TKO's are a hodgepodge of truck and car parts I guess. Joel would know more about these than me. 

Cindy, now's the time to do it with the body off. It is a big undertaking but not impossible. Time, patience and research is the key. It will cost you around $6k to do. The other alternative to modernizing your car is to go with a throttle body injection unit from FAST, Edelbrock, MSD, or one of the other companies. These bolt right in place of the carburetor and most have a self learning computer so they tune themselves. It about half the cost. Right around $3k to do. Much more reliable and responsive than a carb. 

Thanks!

Ben Smith

Sarge,

Great job with the transplant and tweaking. If it sounds as good as you say, we are all envious.