Full Size Jeep Network

Now that I'm coming in on the home stretch for my truck, I'm thinking ahead to a next project. And as always, I like to patiently surf craigslist to see if I can spot a good deal.

I'm looking for a good donor vehicle for a 5.3/4L60 to swap into my next project. My plan is to buy a cheap early to mid 2000's running vehicle, grab everything I need and sell the rest to a salvage yard. And yes, I plan on rebuilding the engine and trans because they're all high mileage. I see plenty of pickup trucks, Tahoes and Suburbans but one scrolled across my screen and it made me wonder.

It's a Chevy Trailblazer. They were offered with the 5.3 at least for a few years.

Would there be any problems associated with getting a 5.3 with a Trailblazer? I mean, assuming I grab the entire wiring harness, computer, and all that other good stuff would there be a problem making it work?

As long as it's newer than your current vehicle and same weight class, emissions won't care. As long as it's the right motor you want, I don't see why the vehicle specifics would matter. <shrug>

What are you worried about?

I know about the newer engine and emissions.

I'm just wondering if there's anything technically different about something like a Trailblazer that would make that donor less desirable. Things like wiring harness length, or any kind of parts that are very specific to the Trailblazer that would pose an issue.

I'm guessing there isn't, but you never know.

It would be nice to have more options to choose from. Being able to pick from a wider variety of donor vehicles is always a good thing.

I just learned the hard way that if you want to have 4wd and you want to use the VSS on the transfer case you will need to get an ECM from a 4wd vehicle. A 2wd ECM will not shift the tranny properly in 4WD low.

If you buy the $300 kit from AA that relocates the VSS to the tranny tailshaft then it doesn't matter, you will be fine with any ECM.

http://www.advanceadapters.com/products ... put-shaft/

srobertsfsj wrote:I just learned the hard way that if you want to have 4wd and you want to use the VSS on the transfer case you will need to get an ECM from a 4wd vehicle. A 2wd ECM will not shift the tranny properly in 4WD low.

If you buy the $300 kit from AA that relocates the VSS to the tranny tailshaft then it doesn't matter, you will be fine with any ECM.

http://www.advanceadapters.com/products ... put-shaft/

I was wondering if that was the cause of your issues at Ouray.

I'll be running a Novak adapter to hook up an NV242 to the transmission so I can have both part time and full time high range. That adapter already puts the VSS on the tail shaft of the transmission so you can run any t-case you want and it won't upset the computer in any way.

My sister has an early 2000's Trailblazer. The engine and drive train harness' are the only thing she has not had problems with. The rest of the vehicles electrical is crap. Any emissions issues she has had have all been caused by physical failure of connectors. Fuel tank and fittings. She has driven the snot out of it. It was definitely designed for engine and drive train to stand alone from rest of vehicle.

Modern car manufacturers emphasize "vertical integration" in their products to lower costs. So the engine and drivetrain of all vehicles from the same year and specs are going to be identical across platforms. Engines and drivetrains are manufactured on a separate line, and I would expect there to be minimum specialization by model at that plant. I would not hesitate to buy the TBlazer as a donor if it had the drivetrain I wanted. You are going to discard everything that distinguishes the TBlazer frm the rest of the Chevy line, so why not? Just don't pay a premium because it's a TBlazer ... I would expect more beat-up pickups, but maybe beat-up pickups hod their value better than beat-up TBlazers.

Oh yeah, I'm looking at very low dollar vehicles that have maybe some body damage or a worn out interior or things like that. They're not terribly hard to find.

derf wrote:Oh yeah, I'm looking at very low dollar vehicles that have maybe some body damage or a worn out interior or things like that. They're not terribly hard to find.

Really??? The only Vortec equipped vehicles I could find on CL are $3,500 and up. :- /

Not that I have the $$ to do that right now, anyway.....

If you scrape the bottom of the barrel for a high mileage vehicle with a fair amount of cosmetic and body damage (but still drive able), you can get under $3K here.

This is the listing that sparked the question: http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/5180143362.html

It has some damage on the fenders and what not, along with 242K miles on it. So I'd buy it, grab the engine/trans/wiring/etc. and scrap the rest of it. There's a good chance I wouldn't get anything over $500 for what remains but for a weekend's labor I would end up with a rebuildable engine and trans along with wiring for $1500 or so.

non DoD/AFM motor would be a little cheaper if you are not wanting to do a cam swap. Some motors are Displacement on Demand (DoD) only, then it becomes DoD and Active Fuel Management (AFM). You can disable the DoD and drive it like an 8 cylinder by inserting set screws into the oil towers.

Xplitive wrote:non DoD/AFM motor would be a little cheaper if you are not wanting to do a cam swap. Some motors are Displacement on Demand (DoD) only, then it becomes DoD and Active Fuel Management (AFM). You can disable the DoD and drive it like an 8 cylinder by inserting set screws into the oil towers.

Mine is a DoD engine that I run as an 8 cylinder without any modification (20K miles since the swap, no issues). What is this modification you are talking about?

RE: The OP

There is an issue converting a 2WD transmission for 4WD service (you have to completely disassemble the transmission to replace the tail-shaft). But I dropped a LY5/4L60E into my '89 and I love it. I am still running the NP229 transfer case, so I had to do the tail-shaft swap, but it was well worth it in my opinion.

you risk collapsing the lifters. Are you on ls1tech or nastyz28? I've seen your screen name before but don't recall where.

Xplitive wrote:you risk collapsing the lifters. Are you on ls1tech or nastyz28? I've seen your screen name before but don't recall where.

I was on LS1.com long before that board tanked. I'm somewhat active on LS2.com now. I've surfed LS1tech once in a while. I may still have an account there.

My vague plan is to get an early 2000's 5.3/6.0 (or even a 5.7 if I find a good deal) in a vehicle with high mileage, intending from the outset to rebuild both the engine and transmission anyway. I'd prefer to not get a throttle by wire system so that holds me at around 2004/2005-ish.

You can buy a engine from a dismantler cheaper than a 3000 donor vehicle and get a warranty.

I paid 1000 for my 5.3 with EVERYTHING it was from a 2005 with 78k miles. And I mean everything, fan to flexplate and top to bottom with wire harness computer and after we got started on the swap they got me the other stuff my guy needed from the donor vehicle, some trans stuff, over drive stuff etc.

I got my 4l65 fully rebuilt from a trans shop I found on ebay, with no core for 995 shipped with converter and a two year warranty. The trans would have been a little cheaper but I added some of their upgrades.

car-part.com

This is a dismantler search engine, same thing they use if you call your local place and ask for a engine.

I just looked quickly for a 05 there are a bunch around 70-80k miles for 1200.. shipping is usually 150-250 total coast to coast. You can probably get a trans from the same vehicle from the same place.