New Guy With Ls Swapped 94 Z71

beertestr · July 11, 2010

I went to register and found out that I had done so 3 years ago!! I guess it's time to post.

I'm from SE Michigan aka Motown, and am on my third GM truck ( a Tahoe, Sierra, and a Silverado).

First one was a 93 Sierra 1500 W/T with a screamin 4.3L TBI. I used it as a guinea pig for seeing what's involved in doing an LS swap. I did the swap in a few weeks of evenings, and promptly put it into towing/hauling duty as a weekend part hauler/junk mover/mulch getter/firewood mover.... It's all rusted out, so I stripped it and junked it in favor of my "new" ride.

New ride is a 94 SCLB Z71 Silverado. Body is completely rust free, but dinged up a bit. It now is running a 4.8L LS motor. I finished the swap 1.5 weeks ago, and proceeded to put 800 miles on it with a road trip to Upstate NY and back. It did the trip with a few minor issues related to a bad front axle bearing, and an underfilled rear axle. I bought the truck as a roller, so I have had a few surprises with the chassis/driveline.

Currently, I am upgrading the 3.42's in the back (which were worn, but not as bad as I thought) to 8.6" 3.73's and an Eaton Gov-Lock. I'm in the hunt for a 3.73 front axle that I can do a bench refresh and bolt in.

I am hoping the rear gears take care of the howling sound.... hopefully it's not something in the trans or t-case. I'll find out this afternoon once I finish setting up the pinion depth and backlash.. It's my first un-supervised gear/diff swap, so it's taking a little time.

All this 4WD stuff is new to me, I have not had to service anything in the past, so that's where the most of my questions will be coming from. I build engines on the side (engineer by day), have rebuilt a few trannies, and have some decent fabrication capabilities.... does anybody have a way to create more time??

More later!