'06 C1500 Hybrid truck questions

Mattt · January 7, 2019

A hybrid '06 Silverado X-cab 1500 4wd recently showed up in my local pick a part yard. I went to check it out because when I saw 06 X-Cab 1500 4wd, that is the right vehicle that could possibly have an L33, 5.3 HO engine. Once I got there, I found it was a hybrid truck and didn't have the L33 engine. Anyway, there were some interesting things on this truck that I have questions about. First was the gi-normous "trans" cooler on the core support. It was factory and is like 3-4 times the size of a typical 1500 trans cooler. After further investigation, I see this cooler was not going to the trans, but was actually going to the power pack(for lack of a better term), which was some part of the hybrid system. Anyone ever seen one of these big coolers....can they be converted/adapted for trans cooler usage? I tow a lot, which drives my interest in it.

A few other things I noticed on this truck, it had an LM7 engine, which had an electric power steering pump and no alternator. From what I heard, hybrids don't use an alternator because the electric motor is the "alternator/generator." This truck also had a push button switch on the dash that had a picture of a typical 120V house outlet. Was the factory installing inverters in these trucks, and is that a sub system that can be adapted to another GMT800 vehicle?

Anything else interesting that I missed on or about this truck? I had never seen a Hybrid Silverado prior to this one, only seen Hybrid Tahoe from the GMT900 generation though. I'm always looking for cool sh*t to adapt or add to my DD '04 Tahoe. As this truck didn't have the elusive L33 Alum 5.3HO, my hunt for a replacement engine goes on.....anyone have something interesting? With my L59 5.3 at 287k, it's probably a little tired, but keeps on ticking....and dripping oil, still gotta fix that, Yikes!