v6 to 454 swap

barnella · February 5, 2014

I have a 2000 silverado v6 short bed single cab 2wd. I just bought a 1990 3+3 one ton was going to convert to a dually but now I am thinking about pulling out that engine and putting it in my 1500. Any advise would be great, also anyone interested in doing the work? Live in the Phoenix Arizona area. Thank you.

Rogue Leader · February 6, 2014

The answer to this depends how custom you want to go. The short answer is its very likely the frame mounts for the engine are different so thats your first hurdle, modifying your frame to carry the larger engine. Once you've done that and gotten the 454 into the truck, you will need the transmission as well, while the bellhousing bolt pattern is probably the same, the v6 trans will not handle the torque of the 454 at all. You will also need a custom drive shaft probably, although the one from the old truck may fit. The rear axle should work fine if you're not towing heavy, but again, theres a reason 1 tons came with bigger rears.

That was the easy part, the hard part is how you want it to run. That 454 is carbed or maybe has TBI, the v6 is a Vortec EFI system and they are very different, and it will not work on the 454, so you can either carb it, or buy an efi system that will work. There might be a way to wire it up, but you will need an electrical engineering degree to figure it all out. Ohh and getting the gauge cluster and sensors/computer/ignition to work as well.

To pay someone to do this you could honestly buy 2 used trucks that will pull better and have less bugs. To do it yourself is a monster project unless you have some really good fab skills and a degree in EE.

Riverjet502 · February 7, 2014

Easiest way would be to use the tranny and wireing harness that came with the rat motor. If you don't want to wrangle with the wiring harness. Carb it, MSD ignition, send the tranny to a tranny shop and have convereted into a stand alone tranny like they used to be, before computers controled them.. Many many 1/2 tons have been swaped over to big blocks over the yrs... Go for it.. Becarefull with the rear that 10 bolt will ok if if you don't beat it too hard. Have fun with your project.