1987 22RTE to 5.3L LM7 ("iron block ls1") Swap
 

Well I have begun my build. Sold the 22RTE motor, still trying to sell transmission and transfercase.

My IFS 4Runner is getting an Iron 5.3l Gen III Chevy motor. When I inevitably kill it, or I happen to stumble on an L33 (same motor but all aluminum) will be going in it.

I currently have a twin sticked Dana 300. I will be putting a 4l60 between the tcase and the motor. I just installed my 3 inch body lift which is required for room. I also ordered and installed an F-body oil pan which shaved 3 inches off the overall motor height. Last to come in will be an LS1 intake which will shave another 3 inches off the motor allowing it to properly fit. My front locker also came in today which will be installed on down the line. This is a budget swap with fuel economy in mind. Ultimately I hope to stumble on a 4.8l and swap the internals into an aluminum motor. That with a tune should see some impressive MPG's while still having about 280hp. IThe chevy trucks with the gen III get surprising gas mileage, and with the smaller aero foot print, slightly larger tires to help gearing, and almost half the weight I feel it should be more fuel efficient than a 22re with more than twice the power.

PHOTOS SOON TO COME

can you take pics of your motor mounts

I just ordered them, I got the adjustable ls1 to gen 1 mounts and an energy suspension gen 1 poly mount. From there making a base plate to mount to the factory toyota location should be very straight forward and simple and allow me to be able to use bolt on parts should i ever screw the 4runner up enough to have to trade drivelines

I helped a buddy do a similar swap on his 4runner using same mounts, they work great. no worries.

Keep us updated on how this goes. I'm considering doing this to mine in the near future, so Id like to see and issues you might run into that aren't obvious at the start.

What the ratios on the 4l60? Im debatibg on running my th350 or trading it for a 5hat speed manual

Also, why is the body lift "required"? Fbody oil pan and ls1/6 intake not give enough clearance, or is it the tranny tunnel?

Body lift is gor the distributor to clear the fire wall

Gen III 5.3 doesn't have a distributor.

Then i have no idea lol my bad!

I scrapped the mounts, easier to cut out the superman shape and get plates bolted to LS1 then spend 30 dollars on universal bushings. I wanted more control over exactly where the motor was.

I've got a price list going and some other things I'll get posted once it is mounted. I wish I could find a batwing oil pan, I could shove the driveline back in there further. If I beat the body I could too but I haven't had to do that yet. The batwing is better under g's in turns and gives another 3.4's of an inch. The body lift is absolutely required.

It will be interesting come wiring time, the guy that bought the turbo motor took my harness... Also figuring out how to adapt the tach will be fun. I love the turbo digital gauge otherwise I'd just do a custom dash. I promise photos soon.

I am doing a 350 swap, and I like you had to fab up my own mounts because the kit just didn't bolt up quite right.

I did not do a body lift, but did an SAS to help on clearance. Just search, you'll need to pay for it but the "Batwing" oil pan is from any early LS1/LS6 vette, until 03' IIRC. The nice thing about it is that you have options, there are ton's of OE vehicles that left the factory with a variant of the LS.

The harness shouldn't be that big of a deal because you should be getting a completely different harness to run your LS. You will just need some sort of any idea when your wiring it because even coming sense will only get you so far. About the tach, I'm sure it's possible but since your old engine was a 4-cylinder, and your new one is an 8-cylinder, you might get lucky, but I'm sure some wiring knowledge will be required.

As far as the tach goes a 10k ohm pointameter ( i think thats what it is ill get with my dad) is what were going to use to tune the tach

Yeah I have a line on a batwing but would like to stay away from it for now as they arent as common and I already dropped a lot of money on a new camaro pan. I have the LS1 harness, it's just trying to figure out where the oil and water sensor wires ran off to. I'll worry about that when I get to it though. Is the 350 any shallower of a motor than the LS1?

But thats on a pre vortec motor 80sand model more specifically

Yeh I love the old 350, swaps were more simple, but aluminum heads, block, and nylon intake are awesome. Can't go wrong with light weight and fuel economy! What are you seeing with a 350?

Your right on the money, if I could have gotten any LS motor for under $350, I would've done it in a heartbeat. Hot Rod mag just did a thing on the top 20 V8's, and of course the SBC was #1, the BBC was #2, and the LS was #12, which I'd disagree with. It should be higher than that, but they also didn't grow up w/ EFI. Pound for pound the LS is better in everyway simply because the SBC, and all the other engines existed before it.

I don't like hi-jacking threads, but since you personally asked here is my engine swap, my SAS is in the appropriate thread if your interested.
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f163...e-vf1a-229966/

Cant tell u on milage gave yet to get the motor in! Cant u buy ls style heads to fit a ls intake on a old 350?

The 5.3 computer gives a 4 cyl signal so you shouldn't have to adapt the signal. depending on the year of the 5.3 computer, you may have to add a 680 ohm 1/4 watt resistor that one end is connected to the tach wire and the other end is connected to a keyed 12 volt + source to give a little more juice and the tach will actually see it.

http://www.lt1swap.com/lsx_tach.htm

I gotta see this!