Installing an LS in a 1959 GMC pickup

hey bud you and you're in here too eh some fireworks going on outside you're not happy with that so we got this one in for a motor swap surprise but i don't know anything about it well this anyways i think this is a 5.3 it's drive by wire 60e i believe this was a big block truck or the feller had a big block in it but he's had problems had a couple big blocks in it and now he just wants a driver turn key and go so that's what we're gonna do uh it's a really nice truck though nice and clean fancy all right well step one is gonna be weeding through the harness to see what i got what i don't need i think on this one i'm just gonna be super super uber simple normally i take the plug off i make my own fuse box this feather doesn't seem to mind or care that we just reuse this fuse box so we're just going to do that with the shell kind of simplifies all the fuses for the motor anyways so not a big deal so we're going to uh i'm going to weed through the harness just a few things i don't need like the rear twos and a few things like that and if i remember correctly there's like one wire in here i gotta feed power to or some here somewhere i gotta feed power to and then i have to the ignition is gonna be somewhere in here i'm gonna try to wire this one to run the fuel pump see if i can get it to work through this thing uh that would be nice because one of these is the fuel pump i got to find a cover i don't think i got the cover about to find it so i know what's what but again one of these is like your main power to feed everything so i'm gonna do that and uh yeah we'll get started from there interesting well another late night and a really crappy start so i guess tonight my plan uh whatever 10 o'clock and you know what honestly i'm not really feeling like doing a lot i guess what i'm gonna do tonight just so i get one thing done is i'm gonna pull this motor mount off and i'm going to build uh an adapter plate like the motor mount for the uh the ls to go from the ls to the regular gm mounts so with any hope she's gonna fit in the same place the plan is uh i'm gonna make a mount to run these clam shells and uh they're super easy to make i mean you can buy these but almost every one i've done this has worked so i've cut them on the plasma but i'm just going to do this one pretty simple i think it'll fit on the steel that i got let's see oh yeah it's going to be mint all right let me get a set of those mounts off and i'll basically show you what most of these body mounts you can buy are okay well so you can pretty much buy these motor mounts but they're honestly as simple as as uh hold on here make sure stuff's square all right it's usually about as simple as this you kind of well mind you that hole i never really use i put three bolts in i guess that could be bad so that's the ls one and then if you look at all the kits they're essentially this it's just this one sitting here squared up and uh because if you really wanted to you could uh punch this one out so that's kind of the whole motor mount usually i'll run the three this one shares the one stick two more bolts up there you're golden so i don't like this i'm gonna get this centered a little better and then uh i'll punch this out and i'll just show you what this looks like all together alrighty so it's pretty much that simple for a swap plate uh i only use the three bolts i guess that could be bad you could always put the third one in or the fourth one in i've never personally had a problem so i don't know just if you're using the clam shells you might find a way you can put a bolt in here or i think the way they're done with the kits is it's just countersunk with a flat me you can do as you need this has worked for me so we kind of have the lineup of these ones and then uh so if you're making this plate you just gotta this is a little bit wider i think you can get away with a four inch i think this is five and i can't find my tape measure but anyways all you gotta do is stick your one mount on like i did doodle all four holes makes it simple then you get this one line it up with the bottom hole and uh square it up drill the other two holes you're golden this usually is your r and r swap if you had a v8 and you want to put an ls in it usually bolts in the only thing you'll end up probably running into is gonna be the oil pan we're gonna see how this one goes but uh yeah anyways you're gonna need a bigger metric bolt for the bottom here and then these ones i just use a regular nut and bolt from behind you might hit the webbing it's kind of hit and miss because where it sits here you'll kind of see there's some webbing on either side so you kind of have to play that game you might have to shave a bit i don't think you got to take much but there you definitely will hit the webbing let's see here this one goes there and there so it's kind of close it's probably just the head of the bolt you just got to shave a little bit off i'll bolt up one on here and it'll show you what i mean okay so that pushes it forward where it needs to uh but as a heads up you're gonna lose your air conditioning down low so if that's important to you this is probably not the way you want to go um so i'm just gonna bolt the other side on and uh i think that's all i'm gonna do tonight uh tomorrow's plan is to uh get the bolted up and seeing how this is all good i'm going to i guess try to slip the motor in we don't got much to do in here the feather already took the motor everything all like he had to remove the other motor so i'll probably just take the lines off the power steering i fling that out of the way now the transmission lines i think i'll just pull out because i'm not going to use those this one has them on hopefully they're not broken hopefully they're usable and i might put up in the hoist and just cut the exhaust off blindly because well it's not going to line up with what's going on on here other than that fuel system we'll have to deal with because this will have to come on the other side this is a single this is drive by wire so this one is a single like it needs a we call it like a regulator i don't folks use the corvette style fuel filter they're pretty expensive uh if you actually go with a four cylinder s10 they're actually like a fraction of the price and it's got the regulator built into it so um but i'll find a part number and all that stuff i'll show that to you i ordered a fuel pump but it's uh i didn't order the regulator because i got i didn't know the motor was this style anyways i'm just gonna throw the other motorboat on and call her a night till tomorrow okay okay fresh new day laziness all aside let's get some stuff happening here uh plan today is get the motor in and uh yeah go from there for now i'm gonna clean up this stuff get everything out of the way uh probably blindly i'll get this thing on the hoist and then i can blindly just chop the exhaust because they're not going to line up with anything anyways and see we go from there all right uh still gotta pull the lines i'll probably just sling them up over the top for now fuel line will have to get reworked it'll probably work on this side it just has to get flunked around to the driver's side of the motor and yeah the clip is done in nicely so this is a nova front clip so it's a rear steer um not that they take the power steering pump out yet and so i just bob the exhaust crudely i have also loosened off this mount because i really don't know if it's gonna be right or not i guess we'll see i don't have a clue at this point uh but anyways i'm gonna drop it down clean this stuff up and then start on getting that bolted to that should be enough room yeah get that bolted on there and then uh pull out my engine stand no it's right there and then we'll start getting this motor in here so so well that is kind of a bummer i guess i don't know much about big blocks the amounts i do not quite line up maybe they would if it dropped lower but i the exhaust is hitting the steering box there so i don't think it'd be the end of the world to raise the motor up you know half inch an inch try to get this lined up get a little bit of breathing clearance there is like you can fit a sliver of paper through here wow a little more nut so the clearance is like i know i did this on my wife's truck but i guess just being that it was a dodge or something there's something totally different about it uh the oil pan is not terrible but i don't like it that low so we'll raise it up an inch um if it's usable for them good if not we can always cut the pan or order a pan one or the other but for now i guess what i got to do is i gotta unbolt these mounts i'm gonna try to shim it up this looks a little flimsy i think i'm going to uh make a gusset on there after because they kind of hang off i mean whatever they held a big block so must be okay but anyways i'm going to jack the motor up a hair bit i'm going to loosen all these off i'm actually going to get the motor mount in place and where she should be and then we can figure out i just broke that yep go me dang it all right so those are not important anywhere uh yeah so i guess we're gonna get started on that as much fun as that is boo for the drop in she's not a direct to bolton okeydoke so i have pushed the motor back so now full lock we got a bunch of spare room between the pan and this doesn't look like it but there is quite a bit now i have to bring the motor up an inch uh it doesn't look like it but there's actually i can almost fit my hand between there i just have to take that shield uh we'll have to get smooth and smothered out of the way a wee little bit but it'll be good the motor's sitting a little crooked so once i do this side this will come down and we should be close to on the money so they had a spacer in there already so what i'm going to do is i'm going to build this up i'm going to have the mounts off the side i'm going to build i take some one by one up down the middle and then i'm going to have a gusset on either side and basically i'm going to burn that thing in and weld the nuts onto the back of here so when that mount comes on if he ever has to replace it he can take it back off so basically i'll build the subframe like the structure for this and i'll show it because then i can bolt this on get the motor squared and then i can burn that sucker in so my mouse are bolted up now um now i'm basically going to put them in the truck so i got my one inch riser there i'm going to put these in set the motor down make sure it's square front the well side to side and burn these suckers in and then if you've got to replace the mounts they come off because we've buzzed up the nuts onto there and yeah pretty simple anyways i'm going to get these in and uh these and i'll buzz them in and i'll show you what she looks like after i guess okie doke so the mounts are all burned in i added the gusset uh the cross member well the is sitting wherever the stud was on there looks like it went back a little bit like it doesn't quite line up with any of the holes they had going on here oops maybe maybe maybe oh look at that stuff well that's pretty good okay cool so that lines up which might be a good news because i think the driveshaft's going to fit and i won't have to cut it because it was a turbo 400 in here originally i just got to change the yoke on it but that's cool he's got a drive shaft in the box i could steal bits from fuel tank i probably have to drop because i need the to see if it has a return line in there i don't think it does so we'll deal with that although it does look like it has a vent if it has a vent that could be cool because i can always put a simple vent in there yet anyways i am going to get the transmission crossmember bolted in i still have to do the torque converter bolts those weren't done but uh no biggie we'll get to it gotta pull the starter off to get those so gotta do that then i'll drop her down and start figuring out we gotta do for wiring but uh and see if he has some proper bolts for the the uh what do you wanna call it motor mounts but it's in we got lots of clearance everywhere so here we got nowhere doesn't hit that's cool this one you can even see the room there that's awesome it's kind of yeah we got lots of room original manifolds it's a lot of winds here a lot of winds all we had to do was raise the motor here and then i pushed it back as far as i can so i have like even more room for the steering again so i'm going to drop this thing down and i don't know i'm gonna bolt transmission first then i'm gonna that'll do some stuff in the the engine bay have a better look at what's going on in there so i'm quickly trying to do the power steering swap and i guess being the older camaro like the newer gm box i'm pretty sure this is how the fitting on the line is like that style and i guess being a 60s front clip it's actually just a double flared end so what i'm going to do is basically just cut this off cut this off steal this flare stick it on this line double flare it and then i can smash it in reuse the pressure line that came off the ls pump and the other line which is just the whatever the non-pressure line i'll probably just get a new piece of hose and i'm just going to loop it around onto this pump although this might just be long enough if i take it off that pump anyways i'm going to cut this cut this switch these two around flare it hopefully there's enough meat to flare that's what i'm just going to check now if my flaring tool can reach it or not and then uh yeah then that's done it should be that simple do you alrighty so i switched out this big turbo 400 yoke i had one well the first one i had was in right and then i had a i guess a spicer unit but anyways the original u-joints and it had the inner clips so yeah it all worked the other one i had i would have needed a conversion joint so this will work i it's kind of close so i'm just going to put it in the truck and set it on the ground because when it's in it's it's pretty tight i'm hoping it comes out when there's weight on the truck i didn't look otherwise i'm gonna have to shorten this but we'll uh we'll put it in and then we'll know oh and you were watching me use something there i usually just use a ball joint press that's how i kind of do my u-joint it uh works pretty good for most because you got the one side that's open so when you stick it over you can pop your cap through and then the same to put back in so i don't know works pretty good for what i need all right let's see if this fits well the drive shaft is perfect that is such a change actually doing a swap and not having to cut a drive shaft that is great everything's actually fitting pretty good in here uh there's going to be some issues with the lower water neck because this one goes here and it's like way down there we'll figure that out actually could run a mechanical fan which is actually super cool uh power steering is in i have to make some brackets for the pcm and then this doodad and then figure out how to wire it properly but there's so much room under here that this is probably going to get mounted up in the front low this one will probably get like a nice mount right here i'll just define a cover for that uh the radiator this is working okay but just because of the fan and the uh uh where i gotta try routing like the air filter i might take the snout off and i'm gonna stick it over here and then i gotta weld on uh what they call a steam port so this thing and for some reason there's some aluminum line here so that's cool so i'm just gonna weld this into the red being that it's aluminum red that is great and then well once that's in i have to get some nubs for the transmission because i broke the cooler lines so um i could make these fittings but they seem to always leak so i'm just going to get some thread in fittings that i can just uh put some barbed edges on so i'm going to get that for the transmission and yeah the battery box in yeah we're pretty close this tack module i'll have to figure out where it's going then i got to hook up the the gas pedal so yeah i don't know overall this is going really well i'm pretty happy with it lots of room a little tight in a few places but i don't have to figure out the fuel system yet the exhaust the one manifold worked perfect or the uh you know the dump with the o2 on it this side's a little close i did a v cut i'll have to do a little more just to pull it away from the frame and then we'll be able to scab into the original exhaust that he had on here wherever that is right there so yeah i don't know should be good cleaned up some of the wiring we got to figure out where he has his gauges because there's a few was it been like the temp sender and stuff like that i think he had an electric speedo because that's what this looks like so that won't be too bad that'll tie into the pcm or whatever's in this plug i'll figure that out anyways i think this was as far as we're gonna get tonight uh yeah till tomorrow okeydoke so we are going for round two or whatever do something i've got to solve all this spout off hole saw that sucker in buzz it in quick i have made this is going to be my little steam port so i'll figure out where i want to put it after just simple gotta drill a hole burn it in no big deal maybe over there here what else and then i can install the rad permanently and done so do um uh um so i've been struggling here this aluminum i guess has got some super contaminants or something in it so i've kind of cleaned everything off i'm starting from scratch and hopefully it works it's turning into a bigger project than it should have been so i'm going to cut a new plate i'm just going to go over this my filler did not work so i'm just going to shave this down a little more and played it buzzer up get the filler on this side maybe i'll start with the filler just for a win but uh yeah anyways that's what you're watching me struggle with there uh um do um all right so pressure tested it's good so after much frustration turns out i think somebody used my wire brush to uh my stainless brush to do something that wasn't aluminum and contaminated so every time i tried cleaning it i was contaminating my aluminum i mean they're still not pretty well just don't get me wrong but i was having a lot of problems with some impurities and stuff in there i happen to have a spare brush so i tried it and then it was like a night and day difference so mental note if you're welding aluminum although i'm pretty sure you don't need a note on that you'd know better than i do anyways this is done i'm gonna slam her into the truck and uh start fitting some hoses and stuff so here's the other dilemma i usually have with these is the outlets are normally pointing out this way but because the older style cars and reds you gotta point them down so i've done this multiple ways uh for my own stuff let me grab a bolt i've done this and not had any problems where i've literally just like this one i took this tab off i don't really need to but i took it off because it was hitting just my hose clamp and i don't know what this is for so but anyways what i've done in the past is literally i've gotten a washer and i've just bolted this thing down as you see off to the side because it's got a rubber gasket in there and i've never had a problem with that it's worked fine but being this is somebody else's i'm going to just build it up with some weld and then redrill these holes i can't go really much more down because then you start running into problems with this trying to bolt so this thing would be better if it was pointing straight down but me we're gonna do with what we got here uh i'm just gonna build this up with some weld like i said and then re-drill two holes so this thing sits nice because these are a little bit taller so then that's a little too long right now so anyways this should just work let's fill it with some weld and uh drill it so i'll just show you the finished product i did take everything apart in here just so i don't cook it so that's all sitting here okay so i've basically made my new tabs and mounts and uh buzz them in just gonna put the o-ring back on and uh bolt the sucker in this new angle is gonna be semi pointing down so it's as close as i can get and still be able to get a bolt in there so do the rad is in now upper lower hose we have the steam blind that is in it's all bolted up nice yeah so even the fan fits i have to build a shroud i guess but for now he does have the electric fan but i might not need it now maybe he doesn't want that i don't know uh i'll need some elbows to do this i need some fittings for the fuel line yet i got to figure out the wiring on this bit pretty sure this will work fine the only problem is the transmission controls and a few things there they don't work with this so i'll have to piggyback out of this thing figure a way to pin into one of the fuses on here i'm going to see if i can grab a mount off of one of the vehicles here so i can pin this thing up nicely and get a pcm mount see how there's a lot of room in here try to mount those two in here properly and uh i have to get some fittings for the transmission yet so i might do that so i think that's where i'm gonna leave this one i have to get some parts tomorrow so uh kind of at a standstill at this point but anyways as always guys thanks for watching and we'll catch you on the next one later you

Channel: Halfass Kustoms

Views: 175,676

Keywords: ls swap, engine swap, how to, chevy truck, classic cars, hot rod, rat rod, engine mount, ls engine, chevy truck month, rat rod bob builds, rat rod build

Id: tf3dohxYAsI

Length: 44min 53sec (2693 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 28 2021