I am about to undergo my first LS swap. I picked up a Very Very clean 96 3/4 ton 2 wheel drive Suburban for $900. It has a blown head gasket but a new 4l80e transmission. I am calling it project Lead Sled.... L.S. ...L ead S led.... See what I did there? I am picking the truck up tomorrow. So far I have the mounts ordered have part numbers to order the sending unit adapters and have my eyes on a 6.0 under 100k miles. I think I can get the whole project done for around $3000.
I have a few questions though and I am sure that more will arise as I start into the build. So far here is what I am unsure about: 1) what do I need to do to make the 6.0 bolt to the 96 4l80e 2)Will all the gauges from the 96 work or do I need to get one of the new style clusters and fit it into the dash 3) Do I need a different torque converter... the truck has 3.73 limited slip gears. Thats all I can think of at the moment.
Any wisdom anyone can add to my build is GREATLY appreciated. I am in no way new to doing swaps of this nature but haven't done this particular swap yet. I own a 04 GTO currently so I am familiar with the LS family motors. I recently also converted a 88 Camaro to a LT1 and then sold it. I am doing this swap to create a dependable fuel efficient work truck for my contracting business. I just happen to LOVE the LS motors and this truck was too cheap to pass up. I will see about posting up some pics of the truck tomorrow.
I plan to delete the rear side and rear door glass and install tool boxes flush where the side windows are currently. It will look like the old style panel trucks only with a couple tool boxes on each side that can be accessed from outside the truck for convenience. I have photoshop so I will edit up some pics to illustrate this at some point so its a lil easier to see what I am going to do.