Dunno who built it!'s 01 silverado short bed 2wd ls2 swap

[Dunno who built it!]

Figured I would start a build thread on this truck I've been swapping hoping it will help someone down the road that's looking to take this task on...

 

before I start if anyone can advise me as to the best way to post pictures? as I've tried and it says file to large, I've been trying to upload them from my cell phone...thanks in advance... now let's get to the good stuff...

 

01 silverado short bed pickup ls2 6spd swap from 05 gto..

 

Let's start with the heart of the build...the gto engine was a fly by wire application and the silverado is cable driven.. that intern requires a 6.0 throttle body that is cable driven...we chose the fast big mouth 92mm...to compliment the t-body we chose to go stand alone efi with the fast ez efi 2.0 ez ls...the cost of the system and t-body was roughly 2k but was very appealing as it is self learn and supports up to 1200 hp with simple tuning changes....that being said I had a couple customer service issues with fast but we will get to that later...

 

The 5.3 oil pan, pickup,dip stick and windage tray had to be swapped over to the gto 6.0... (if anyone goes this route pay close attention to the o-ring on the pickup...the 5.3 truck rear sump pickup has a much larger o-ring and must remain with the 5.3 pickup).... the gto 6.0 block has the provision in the block for the truck 5.3 dipstick but has a steel freeze plug in the hole from the factory..this must be removed prior to installing the oil pan...(don't forget or you will be having one of those grrrrr moments)..this should be punched out from the bottom and out the top of the hole...once you have all this sorted button it up...

 

Oil pressure sensor from the 5.3 must be used as the gto 6.0 uses a 3 wire o.p.s...easier while engine is sitting on the ground so take care of it while it's out...

 

We had kooks make our headers for us...roughly 1400 dollars worth of stainless steel long tube 1 7/8" beauty's... which required a slight roll to the driver side floor pinch weld....driver side header is very close to the steering shaft which required some improvising on the column bolt....easier said with pictures which will come very soon...

 

I used the gto electric fans which required a new circuit to control them...the fast ecm controls the relay activation through a negative activation...both fan 1 and fan 2 call on seperate circuits so to relays and pig tails were required as well as some in line water proof fuse holders....

 

The whole front of the engine is all to be swapped out for all of the 5.3 accessories to make ease of installation as far as ac,alt.,power steering,tensioner, water pump... the outlet on the water pump has to be collapsed toward the throttle body side carefully but aggressively to clear the 92mm throttle body....if it cracks because it most likely will you will need to continue till it clears and weld the Crack after..this becomes less of an issue with smaller throttle bodies... the bracket that holds the alt. And p.s must be cut and modified to also clear the throttle body..the portion of the bracket to be removed is the portion that holds the belt idler pulley...that pulley must be relocated to one of the bracket mounting holes...correct spacing will need to be addressed... I have a lathe so made my own spacer...if you don't have access to a lathe start digging for spacers....lol...

 

This truck was a factory 5 spd truck so the 6spd mounting location lines right up with the 5spd cross member but must obviously use the 5spd transmission mount... 5.3 factory drive shaft works but you will need a th350 output yoke...also you will need to buy 3 different up joints to make one that works...you need the body of one,2 caps from another,and 2 more caps from another...will try to find part numbers in the paperwork for you guys with inquiring minds...

 

Exhaust I had done 3inch front to back dauls...2 spun cats...also need single chamber flow masters...exiting centered but on each side of the license plate...that whole show ran about 1000 bucks....

 

The entire silverado wire harness was labeled and deconstructed...everything engine management wise was removed straight from the ecm pins...( be sure to leave the following as they are part of the bcm as well...

 

(Circuits saved)

Low engine oil

Tps (for change engine oil soon light)

Low coolant

Ac pressure switches

Ac clutch switch

Alt. Regulator/field

Evap selenoid

Oil pressure

All transmission sensors

Starter selenoid

Coolant temp sensor

 

Everything else will be removed...and de-pinned from the ecm/bcm.... there will also be a 12 volt reference wire to the bcm that will need to be kept to keep the digital information Center from telling you the system is not charging...will find details on which pin soon as I'm working on that now...

 

The 5.3 engine mounts are used on the 6.0 and will bolt up no problem...

 

A hole will need to be cut in the floor for the 6spd top loader to stick up through...we opted for a Hurst 02 camaro shifter and a basic boot....

 

Rear end we used a grizzly mechanical locker, usa axles, and a B&M girdled diff. Cover....complimenting the locker is a Richmond 4.11 gear package...

 

The fast ecm's are mounted in the truck far forward of the center hump,half under heater box..the wiring was run through the tranny Tunnel and up through the factory 5spd shifter hole...a steel plate was cut and slotted for the wires to pass through rubber grommets...now you guys with auto tranny trucks will have to decide what will work best for your routing and installation...but I highly recommend the ecm's be inside the truck...they are not anywhere close to waterproof...even though they say it's ok to be under the hood it's not ok...take it from me..I know...and will explain at a later date....

 

The fast handheld is mounted in the dash where the passenger airbag switch was...it's super trick looking done this way..and you won't have a wire and ecm connector on your dash this way as they recommend it be stuck to the windshield with a suction cup....can you say UGLY!..lol....

 

The fast ecms must be direct to the battery for both constant + and -... the switched 12 volt wires must be run through the firewall to the ignition switch itself as well as the fuel pump relay circuit +

 

The fast ecm will also have to see a 12 volt reference from your ac clutch to up the idle...this wire from the ecm will be piggy backed to the 12 volt signal wire to the ac clutch...

 

There are several wires in the fast harness that will need to be cleaned up as it is the most universal harness I've ever seen..I will explain more on this later with pics..

 

You will need many many feet of wire loom for this job...from 1" to 1/4"

 

I think I've covered pretty much everything that was needed and done... so now once I figure this out I will be posting pictures and step by step what was done in those moments...

 

I hope I havnt bored you to death with all this...and I hope one day it will help someone down the road...

 

Thanks for reading...

Alden/ Dunno who built it!

[Dunno who built it!]

 

I think I've figured this out...I hope..let's give this a whirl...

 

Here is the gto getting her heart ripped out to start off the build of the truck...

[Dunno who built it!]

 

Pulling the front sump oil pan setup off the 6.0 to swap out for the 5.3 pan,pickup,and windage tray....remember pay very close attention the the 5.3 pickup o-ring it must remain with the 5.3 pickup...they are way different...if the incorrect o-ring is used the pump will not pull oil...

 

 

 

Next we had to proceed to punch the steel freeze plug where the Dipstick provision is in the block...you can see it here in this picture...passenger side of black right next to knock sensor...keep in mind this is an aluminum block so use caution when pounding the plug out with a punch...it again should be punched from the bottom out of the top of the provision...

 

 

 

 

After you have the steel plug out fit your 5.3 tube to be sure the hole will except it ok...got the windage,pickup installed it was time to mount the pan...

[Dunno who built it!]

 

Pan on with new gasket and a pic of the 5.3 tube in the block seated all the way

 

 

With that buttoned up I proceeded to pull all the gto accessories off the engine...as well as all the engine management harness.... once I got all that torn down I mocked up my injector harness that fast supplied with the stand alone ez efi kit....

[Dunno who built it!]

 

 

[Dunno who built it!]

 

Next the 5.3 out of the truck.....pretty straight forward stuff there...couple busted knuckles and she was out....

[Dunno who built it!]

At this point I mounted the 5.3 mounts and proceeded to drop get the engine in her new home...

[Dunno who built it!]

 

Next I installed the new 92mm fast cable driven throttle body...I also proceeded to install the ignition control part of the main harness supplied with the fast kit...

[Dunno who built it!]

Then it was time for the serious fun...deconstructing the engine management part of the original silverado harness...as a side note I labeled every connector on the silverado harness...anything that had a plug was marked by the name of the sensor or switch...

[Dunno who built it!]

This is the pile of wires I cut from the original harness and de-pinned the ecm and fuse panel....

 

That's all for tonight it's late...more to come tomorrow....

[Dunno who built it!]

So everything bcm wise was kept...ac pressure switches, ac clutch input, low engine oil circuit, evap circuit, oil pressure, temp sensor, all tranny circuits... as well as a couple ecm circuits, tps circuit and 12 volt reference.... the tps circuit is saved for the simple reason it will be piggy backed to the fast tps for resetting the change engine oil light on the digital information center.... the 12 volt reference circuit is to tell the bcm the alt is charging and keep the battery light off of the digital information Center as well....once all of that was sorted it was time to start reassembling the harness...

[Dunno who built it!]

 

 

At this point the tranny was mated to the block and raised up to see where the hole in the floor was to be cut for the top loader... unfortunately no pics of this process but it was very straight foward...once the hole was cut in the floor the cross member was installed...

[Dunno who built it!]

The headers were installed before the wiring to be sure to route harnesses away from any possible hot spots....kooks made the headers for me...they were not cheap by any means but this is a quality stainless header....

 

I then went to install the drive shaft...I had to use a th350 output yoke and 3 different u-joints to get what I needed...had to use the center section of one, 2 caps off of another, and 2 more caps off another...once that was sorted the shaft was installed...

 

I then proceeded to start cleaning up the fast main ecu harness..this harness is as universal as it comes...so many circuits were cleaned up to make the harness less messy....after that I installed the harness and the ecm's in Thier first location....

[Dunno who built it!]

 

 

[Dunno who built it!]

 

This was to the T how the instructions stated the system could be installed...which proved to be a huge issue... after about a week I started to have some serious ecm faults while trying to setup the parameters in the ecm... after many hours on the phone with fast the told me to send in the unit...keep in mind this system was brand new 2 months prior to this day it was sent.... roughly a week after the ecm was sent in I received a call from fast saying warranty was not an option.... I was blown away, how could this be, it's brand new.... well he then proceeds to tell me the ecm was full of water and short of me putting it in a bucket of water he didn't know how it got in there....this raised major red flags for me as the truck had never left my shop and was outside for maybe one night when it was raining...the hood was on the truck so I never was concerned, it's a sealed ecm after all right? Wrong! Long story short he wanted 800 for a new ecm...of course I put up a fight on this as everything was mounted per instructions under the hood leading me to believe the ecm was faulty... after 2 months of going back and forth I still had to pay 250 for a refurbished ecm... the customer service at fast is far from exceptional...here is a picture the tech sent me when he got the original ecm torn down....