96 chevy k1500 lq4/4l80e swap

[hokeplaya05]

pulled the trigger on a 2001 lq4 over the weekend to swap into my 96 chevy k1500. i am still on the hunt for a 4l80e and manual T-Case to put behind it. i do not think my 4l60e will last long behind the 6.0 and also my truck has the push button 4wd now, which i hate. so figured i would kill two birds with one stone and find a 4l80e with manual tcase out of a junkyard or wrecked truck or something. shouldnt be too hard to find around here.

motor is complete with harness, ECM, and fuse box and other misc parts. my plan for the motor is heads/cam, headstuds, trunion upgrade, springs, ls3 timing chain and oil pump, longtubes, and a tune. i would like a bump in compression so i was thinking of looking for a set of 243's (has 317's now), but if anyone has any other suggestions i am all ears! not really sure what cam i want to go with yet, not sure if i should look for an off the shell cam or get something custom speced for my setup. for the harness i am thinking of using my black box PCM as a BCM and then using the 411 with a stand alone harness to control the lq4/4l80e. since my truck is a 96, i shouldnt have to upgrade the fuel pump, but will need to run new AN lines from the fuel filter to the rails. also planning on using 4th gen f-body fans as well.

i dont really care about a/c. the a/c on my truck has been broken since i bought it (had it for almost 4 years) and could probably count on two hands the amount of times i have wanted it. could never justify spending the money on a new compressor and condensor to get it working so i am not really worried about that. i will probably go with the dirty dingo motor plaes since it will allow me to position the motor where i want (hopefully can reuse the stock DS) and they will bolt up to the factory chassis mounts. longtubes are my biggest roadblock so far, i think pacesetter makes something but have to check on that. was really hoping for stainless since this will be driven in the winter (its my daily) so that would be optimal. going to have to do some research for that.

the truck already has a 6 lug 14 bolt rear end that i swapped into it earlier this year and i have a trutrac with new 373 gears waiting to go in the axle as well. so i am not worried about blowing up the stock 10 bolt (already did that with the factory motor lol)

here is the truck that i will be swapping...



here is the motor when i got it home...



this is my daily driver, but the weather is finally getting nice so i will be able to drive my camaro while i do the swap.

if anyone has any suggestions or comments feel free to post em, im sure i will have a lot of questions once this starts going. i am going to keep track of progress in this thread and one on ls1tech forum as well.

also, in the last picture, there is no threaded bellhousing hole to the right of the top hole, is that normal??? seems to me that there should be one there.

[SierraVortec]

cool! starting my lq9/4l80e swap in my 96 k1500 one of these next weekends

[kewljay223]

Yes there is not supposed to be a hole there. and Good luck. Looks like you already did most of the research which is half the battle.

[hokeplaya05]

weird, i wonder why there isnt a hole there, good to know thanks

[Blasphemy]

The hole wasn't drilled because the block casting is thin and there is an oil passage behind I believe. The older gen blocks obviously had a lot more meat to drill in to than the new gens. I read your "to buy" list of parts and wanted to toss in my thoughts. When I was shopping around for a 6.0 package I ended up going with the LQ9 because I wanted something with power already available that I could just bolt in and go. I'm not unhappy at all with my setup because it's a night and day difference from the 5.7 that was in there. However, after learning all I have now, I would've gone with the LQ4 and built a stroker out of it with the money I'd saved from not buying the LQ9. I found a complete LQ4 later on for $1k and I would've loved to have dumped that extra money in my engine. I still plan on doing the stroker build but it's going to be a shame to throw away the only thing that sets my 6.0 from yours, the flat top pistons. My goal is to go with a forged stroker rotating assembly by Eagle or K1, CNC'd L92 heads, custom grind Comp or Lunati cam, and hand picked valve train parts with a FAST intake to top it all off. Good luck on your swap though, I thought mine was kinda fun actually

[hokeplaya05]

yea i was looking for both an lq9 and lq4, i had found a guy on cl with an lq9 block bare and he was asking the same as what i got the complete lq4 for lol glad i held out

[Blasphemy]

yea i was looking for both an lq9 and lq4, i had found a guy on cl with an lq9 block bare and he was asking the same as what i got the complete lq4 for lol glad i held out

That's ridiculous because the lq9 and lq4 block is the exact same block (casting number and all), the only difference between the two engines is the flat top coated pistons that boost compression in the lq9. That guy was sorely mis informed

[kewljay223]

Not that this makes a huge difference but just want to input that I think after 03, the lq9 changed to stronger ls2 rods w/floating pins. Also, the gm gave the computer a slight performance tune taking advantage of the extra compression. Like I said, not a big deal. Just wanted to note the flat ls2 Pistons were not literally the ONLY difference....

Anyway, carry on. Btw, have you thought about milling the heads In combination with a thinner gasket to bump commission? Idk if this can be done for cheaper/at all... Just throwing the idea out there as I believe the 317's flow decent for stock to mild builds....

[hokeplaya05]

i had thought of milling the 317's, but i wanted to keep them the way they are because i want to go turbo down the road, so i could slap these back on then to bring compression back down

[Mickeymotormount]

As for reusing your original driveshaft, I don't think that will be possible with the 4L80E. The 80E is a longer transmission, and all else being equal, will require a shorter driveshaft. The front driveshaft you will have to grab from the donor because of how it mounts to the transfer case. I think there is a difference between the 2 so you may have to check on that.

Also, the hole is deleted on the bell housing because the water jacket is directly behind it. GM felt it wasn't necessary to drill it. With all their engineering expertise, I'll trust them on the issue.