4.8 to 6.0 Engine Swap

[agreif]

Engine swap in a 2001 Silverado
'01 4.8L to '07(classic) 6.0L

This is a step-by-step removal and replacement of the 4.8, 5.3 and 6.0L trucks. This is intended to be a guide and you should double check your manual when you do this (I sure did). One of the things that I did was write down every thing that I unbolted on a pad of paper, that way, when I went back to install everything, I had a 2nd list to double check (in addition to this).

Step 0. Take a lot of pictures of your engine, this will come in handy with the little things like routing that you seem to overlook when you are looking at the engine everyday.

Step 1. Unbolt the exhaust, preferably all the way past the trans cross member. the exhaust collector has 3-15mm bolts holding it. Long extension needed or recommended. When you do this remember to unbolt the EGR and any O2 sensors.

Step 2. Remove the crossbars. This gives you some free space.

Step 3. Next is the engine cover, 10mm nuts hold this on. Then the radiator shroud comes out when you take the 2 10mm bolts from the top of the shroud and the four pull-pins where the upper and lower part of the shroud connects.

Step 4. Now put nuts/bolt in a tray/ziplock bag/muffin pan whatever you prefer but mark then accordingly.

Step 5. Remove the intake tube

Step 6. Now the fan belt, use a 36mm wrench to twist the nut against the cranking rotation of the belt. Do not remove the belt before doing this. The belt will hold the water pump shaft in place while you loosen the fan nut. The fan but may be stuck so I pipe wrench on the nut and whacking it with a rubber mallet has always worked for me. If you have electric fans, it may be easier to pull them after #11.

Step 7. Now drain the coolant.

Step 8. Loosen the hose clamps on both ends of the air tube assy and the hose clip on the passenger side of the radiator.

Step 9. Pull the upper radiator hose on the engine off. The clamps will not slide on the hoses, just so you know.

Step 10. Lower radiator hose and 2 heater hoses, Radiator hook may be needed here.

Step 11. Throttle body heater line at the TB.

Step 12. After this I would put a piece of wood between the engine and radiator, because it makes removal that much easier because you don't have to worry about any of the pulleys dinging the radiator. Saved me more than once.

Step 13. Remove the throttle cable, hold at WOT & unhook the cable. Remove the anchor as well, push the 2 tangs on the anchor and pull it out.

Step 14. Now starting on the Harness, TPS plug and alternator plug and a second alternator wire go next. You can also remove the two bolts holding the bracket that secures red battery junction.

Step 15. Now take the EVAP solenoid wire connectors and air temp senders. These are located right behind the TB.

Step 16. Upper cover bracket for the intake man, 3 10mm bolts hold it on. This is the bracket that holds the two throttle cable and provides the back mounting points for the intake cover. You can see it in the top of the picture in step 15.

Step 17. Pull brake booster hose from the housing. It's a good idea to pump the brakes until the "power" wears out to make sure you don't have any pressure when you take that air hose off.

Step 18. The main wire harness clip needs to be unhooked. Screwdriver works to pop those clips open.

Step 19. Disconnect the clip that plugs into the coil pack, there is one on each side of the engine.

Step 20. Remove the coil plugs on both sides of the engines, you will have 8 total. (I didn't do this, but you can if you feel like it)

Step 21. Remove the Intake Manifold to get to the Knock sensor jumper wires unless you have it tagged or know it. (I didn't do this, but it may make those top two trans bolts easier. I just disconnected the knock sensor harness on the top back of the intake.)

Step 22. Fuel injector wiring harness. Just take your time and play with it a minute. You have to pull the blue outside piece up (and preferably off the plug portion) and then depress the tab to release the plug.

Step 23. Fuel lines, disconnect the to and from or feed and return lines. You should release the pressure first, open the gas cap and open the pressure relief valve on the passenger side of the crossover tube. Do not lose the clips. You'll need the special fuel line tool for this. be sure you have it. Have a rag to catch the extra gas that comes out when you release the pressure.

Step 24. Now pull the water temp sensor wire on the driver's side of the block. Towards the front BTW. You can see it just to the left of the first exhaust port below.

Step 25. Remove the MAP connector. It's on top of the intake towards the back.

Step 26. You can now remove the oil sending unit sensor, and cam position sensor as well, they are behind the intake on the top of the block. You can see these in the step 25 picture, on the drivers side of the block, one looks similar to the MAP connector(cam pos) and the other has a piece of tape on it and it is a little further outboard. Check to make sure your new and old engine had the same oil sending connector. Mine didn't and I had to swap out the sensor.

Step 27. Now we can take off the belt. Use the tensioner with a 15mm wrench.

Step 28. Power steering pump and alternator. You don't need to take the pulley off, you can just take the bracket that hold the PS pump and alternator and lay it off to the side. Take the 4 15mm Hex headed bolts out, 3 on the pump and 1 on the bracket. Keep up with bolts again.

Step 29. Now zip-tie the PS pump & alt to the inner fender well out of the way. It will stay there until we reinstall the engine.

Step 30. AC, do the same with the AC compressor. 2 15mm Hex bolts on the side of the pump, and 2 on the bottom. Zip-tie it out of the way on the pass side.

Step 31. Starter, 2 -13mm bolts and a 10mm bolt holding the flex plate access cover. You may have to play with it to get the starter out, time and patience my friend. There are also 2 wires bolted to the motor, remove those and place the nuts back on the starter.

Step 32. Now, while you're still under there, take the oil level connector off the oil pan and remove the 10mm bolt holding the harness in the middle of the passenger side. You can also remove the crank sensor at this time. There are also a harness on the front of the oil pan and a bracket on the passenger side you can detach.

Keywords: 4.8 5.3 6.0 Swap Engine Ground Straps Oil Sending Unit Accessory Plugs Won't Start Fuel Pressure Regulator Tranny Transmission Bolts

Full Size Pictures: 4.8 to 6.0 Engine Swap

[agreif]

Step 33. Remove 3 15mm bolts holding the flex plate and torque converter together. Use the hole you made with removing the starter.

Step 34. Remove all of the Tranny bolts you can. Here is where it gets fun. Trans should have 8 (see pic below with the blue tape next to the holes). The bottom 5 aren't a problem. I didn't really want to take the intake off, so here is what I did, probably more effort than it was worth, but another option if you don't want to pop the intake off.

Step 35. Loosen all the tranny bolts you can. On the trans there is a bracket on the driver's side that hold some trans lines. Unhook that so the lines have a little give. Drop the back of the trans by dropping the trans cross member. Taking out the passenger fender well allows you to the top three bolts. They have 13mm nuts on top holding various brackets. If you get the one holding the trans dip stick first (2 o'clock), you can pop the trans dipstick out of the way and get the very top one. Ratcheting wrenches work wonders in this case. The left top one can be had with a long extension.

Step 36. Once you get the bolts loose (remember, you still have the bottom five threaded in partially) I would take those top three PITA's out. Then bring the trans back up and secure the cross member.

Step 37. Now the motor mount bolts. 3-15mm bolts on each side, don't try to remove the engine until you take those loose.

Step 38. Now I would secure the front of the trans for when you pull the engine.

Step 39. Now for the grounds. I had a total of three ground connection points, with 5 total wires.
a. There are two wires at one point on the lower driver's side, just above the oil pan.
b. There are two more wires (one from the main ground near the booster housing and one from the wiring harness) that are connected right below the intake at 11 o'clock on the same face the trans mounts to. This is to the left of my hand in the 2nd picture. This is from my donor engine, so one of the wires are cut.
c. And one wire from the harness connected to a ground bolt right next to the passenger head on the same plane as the intake. This is also shown in the 2nd picture. It's the top right bolt with the skinny wire coming off of it.

Step 40. Now you can either take the hood off or move it to its service position. There are two sets of bolt holes where the springs attach to the hood. The ones closest to the front of the hood are where the springs normally attach, and the set further back is called the "service position". If you remove the bolts and reattach the springs to the rear holes, the hood will stand almost vertically, and will be out of the way.

Step 41. I would try and bunjee the harness out of the way before you start pulling.

Step 42. Start pulling, slowly and watching for anything you or me either one forgot. I'm sure I missed something so take your time and post up if know a different way/shortcut.

Step 43. Pull the engine out and enjoy. Easier to swap stuff over here than with the one engine in the truck. Start drinking your beer now. I wouldn't advise doing it until now though. lol. May tear something up.

Always perform safe worker practices.

Some installation tips that I ran into/have been told:

- Dropping your engine and lining it up with the bell housing
Since the flex plate is mounted onto the back of the motor and it can be kind of difficult to get the flex plate in the bell housing while getting the motor mounts lined up with the frame the easiest way to get everything lined up is to put a floor jack under the transmission, and jack it up as high as it will go without crushing the pan. Then, drop the motor down into the truck and it should be much easier to get the flex plate in and the motor mounts where they need to be at the same time. Also, if you have the engine so it is slightly lower in the back than in the front, this will help. Again, probably only an issue if you leave the intake on.

- Returnless vs return style fuel rail
The return style will have a vaccuum line into the intake, but the 03+ intakes didn't have the return fuel rail. You'll just need to get a small hose, and snip off one of the nippes that GM left on the intake side. You can see it on the left side of the intake, just above the fuel line pressure relief valve that is on the crossover line.

- Plug in the crank position sensor before bolting the starter back up. Much easier to plug in before hand

- Make sure to put the trans cover bracket over the starter and then bolt the starter up. If you bolt the starter up first, you're going to be taking it down to put that bracket on.

- When reinstalling the flywheel onto the torque converter, up to 1/4" of gap seems to be acceptable before you bolt it up.

And here is the finished product

That's all I have, install in reverse. Hopefully that helps. Enjoy!
If you have any questions feel free to ask. You can find me on Pacific-Audio and Performancetrucks.net as agreif. Plus there are way more people with way more knowledge there as well, so you won't be short on help
Here is a link to another quick little tech article on an Eaton install and LS1fan install.
Eaton Install
LS1 Fan Install

[Tolliwacker]

Nice write up, I just went through the R&R of the stock engine in the wife's truck, but I plan to get rid of the Dirtymax, and get me a 05-06 EX-cab/Crewcab 5.3L 2WD and and make me a go getter out of it. I may be loking at a 6.0 swap or a front mouint turbo, but first thigs first, I gotta get shed of the Diesel, then it is on!

Again, Very nice write up!

[Hammer Head]

Another good write up. This is quite helpful

[Southwest Chief]

You didn't have to alter the computer in any way to get this to run properly?
(I was considering putting a 6.0 where my 5.3 sits now, but I think I'm going to go with a Nelson tune on the 5.3 first. Alot less bolts and wires to deal with doing that!)

[ChevyBeast05']

Very nice right up im doin this swap in 2 weeks cant wait, thx agreif

[mnc2fan]

Will the pcm from the lr4 with with the lq9/lq4 without many issues. Or is a re-tune absolutely necessary?

Probably no difference.. but pcm is from 99 sierra lr4

[RedHeartbeat]

needs a retune to adjust for the larger engine.

[Dirtrunner21]

Just finished my swap and is awsome!!

[Red03SilSS]

Going to be doing this tomorrow in an 06 GMC