53 Chevy - Engine Swap

Engine Swap

I wasn't really planning on getting an engine at this point. Since I already had the 305 that the truck came with, I figured I might as well rebuild it and upgrade to something else later. Well, a co-worker at Advanced Micro Devices found a great deal on an engine that I couldn't pass up. A '98 Z-28 with an LS1 engine. I honestly didn't know much about this engine. After some research I decided if it was good enough for the Corvette, it would be perfect for my truck. I even found lots of articles detailing swapping the LS1 into just about anything. So, I borrowed my brother's Chevrolet HD2500, drove 180 miles to Houston to check it out. The car had 75,000 miles on it. It started right up, ran great, and sounded even better. Sold!

My wife was a little surprised to see that I brought home the whole car. She thought I was just picking up the engine.

All the damage was up front but the engine and even the radiator were fine.

Again with the help of my neighbor's hoist, I found it would be a lot easier to lift the car off of the engine. Oops, didn't drain the tranny all the way first.

After removing the enginer and transmission, I pulled just about everything else off the Camaro that I thought I might be able to use on my truck. This included the rear end (disc brakes and posi-traction), brake booster, and tilt steering column. A friend then came over and took most of what was left to use on his son's car. The balance of the car went to a salvage yard.

Initial placement of the engine on the truck frame to see if I was going to have any clearance issues. I also put the cab back on the frame to check firewall clearance. Oil pan, exhaust, starter, and everything else fits great. The only exception is the A/C compressor. It is mounted on the lower right side of the engine and hits the front crossmember. From the articles I read, this is a common issue when doing an LS1 swap. My choices were to either buy a new compressor and brackets to mount it up high or to notch the crossmember. Because of cost and the fact I was becoming an expert welder, I opted for the crossmember notching.

First step was to mark the crossmember.

After the initial cut, a test fit of the engine with the A/C compressor attached revealed that I needed some additional trimming.

After making sure the notch provided sufficient clearance, I boxed the opening. Here it is with the bottom plate welded in.

And the final result after a quick coat of POR15. Not too bad if I say so myself.

The engine mounts that you see in the above pictures are modifed factory Z-28 LS1 mounts. They were too tall as-is so I simply cut off the top half and used just that.

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