My LQ4/T56 build thread

[ChuckLee]

Well, I picked up my first C10 last year, and it had a perfect running built roller 355 with about 2k miles on it along with a nice smooth shifting T5 in it. Who would want to touch such a perfect truck............well..............me I guess.
As soon as I got the truck I started getting the bug to do a swap. I have been researching tons of stuff on this forum (amazing resource we have here) and lurking all over this site and now It's time to return the favor in a small small way.
Though I'm not great at recording stuff step by step, I wanted to at least post up pictures and info here and there in hopes that in some ways people may be helped by it.

When I got it....
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Then I bought this low mileage LQ4 along with Dirty Dingo slider mounts and the big 73-87 motor mount perches (was kind of a pain trying to locate those perches, let me tell ya!)
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Finally after over 6 months of staring at the LQ4 in the garage, I realized that I will NEVER start this swap until I cross over into the "point of no return"................so I put my running 355 with T5 up for sale on craigslist and it sold quickly (sold the motor for 1800 and still have the trans, at least at the time i wrote this). Now my truck is worth nothing till I get her transplant started! If you are wondering.......YES, this did light a fire under my tail!
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If you are wondering why the fender looks like that........don't ask, lol.
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and now.....drum roll...........the beginning of my swap. first mock up. Went just as expected. With my 73-87 perches and DD slider mounts the stock manifold on passenger side just barely sits over the frame rail. I'm not notching anything yet, as I'm going to get different headers. Not sure if I'm going to go ugly but cheap and proven and get the TBSS manifolds or go cheap and pretty and get the Speed Engineering SS Long Tubes for double that....hmmmmmmmmm. Anyone have input on these long tubes, please give a shout and let me know. From what I've read they should be ok. Surprisingly I don't see much in the way of pictures of these mounted though on the forum.
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As you can see I wasn't real pleased with stock low mount AC position with these sliders so I'm going to get a NOVAK high-mount kit. Notice the sliders don't have full mobility because they hit the AC mount bracket (who knows how much more I would lose after mounting the compressor)
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Very surprised to say that my T56 and bellhousing is not touching the cab floor, firewall, or trans tunnel anywhere. I did pursuade the firewall/cab crease that runs along the front of the trans tunnel and I'm glad I did because it's sitting very close to that. I'm using a modified factory trans brace for the t56 and just praying I'll be able to figure out a way to route the exhaust up and over that!

Now that I know it all fits correctly, I guess I can get TOTALLY sidetracked and rip the whole truck apart and start goofing around with the frame and suspension.

TRANSFORMERS!
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And my patient and loving wife........such a good sport
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The frame is in excellent shape, but I'm going to strip it down and protect it again. Anyone have any idea on what I should use? I have used POR 15 in the past on a Tacoma, but honestly wasn't overwhelmingly pleased with it. I wonder if the Eastwood stuff is better?
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I'm going with a fuel cell under the bed and utilizing the return style rails as well. As for fuel pump, i'll research all that a bit more, but probably some semi-quiet 255 in-line pump will do, with a decent filter aft that.

[NC_John]

Cool build. I'm doing the same thing to my 70. Mild build LQ4 (400-450 RWHP) with a Tick Performance Stage 2 T-56 6 spd. Just got my Monster Clutch setup today.

[ChuckLee]

Originally Posted by NC_John

Cool build. I'm doing the same thing to my 70. Mild build LQ4 (400-450 RWHP) with a Tick Performance Stage 2 T-56 6 spd. Just got my Monster Clutch setup today.

Great choice....did the same as far as clutch goes! Great minds think alike
What are you doing to the motor? Stock heads?
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Power washed frame today, going to take the wire wheel and grinder to her next. Anyone have any recommendations on POR-15 or Eastwood or something? Powder coating isn't really an option for me.

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[NC_John]

Originally Posted by ChuckLee

Great choice....did the same as far as clutch goes! Great minds think alike
What are you doing to the motor? Stock heads?

Power washed frame today, going to take the wire wheel and grinder to her next. Anyone have any recommendations on POR-15 or Eastwood or something?

Stock shortblock for now (408 stroker later). 243 heads, LC9 intake (bigger throttlebody and flex fuel injectors). Tick cam....valvesprings, trunnion upgrade, oil pump upgrade, some other parts getting freshened up.

I used John Deere blitz black paint on my frame and suspension. Looks factory and is very durable. I'll put a couple pics up tomorrow if I get a couple minutes.....

[ChuckLee]

1: Stock 2-piece driveshaft is about 2.25" too long when I have the motor/trans slid all the way forward on the dirty dingo sliders. Going to put all new ujoints on and have DS cut back to fit. I used the Denny's driveshaft measuring page ("example B") to get info as well as mocked up the old DS out of curiosity.

2: T56 seems to fit with my factory low hump. I do not have a bolt-in high hump currently and I guess I'll scratch that off my "purchase list" unless I can't get the pinion angle correct because of the trans tunnel being too low. Won't be checking fornpinion angle for s while, truck is now in a million pieces.


3: ordered lots of goodies from Eastwood for the chassis and other parts along with firewall and under the cab and under the bed and wheel wells. Rust encapsulator and chassis black in gloss.
The Frame has been getting a lot of love, along with ton of other pieces. Sanding everything down.

4: Saginaw power steering box pulled, leaking out the top so I just ordered a rebuild kit. That looks like an easy job, in meantime I spent awhile cleaning it up with some gas and Gunk.

5: dropped cab on frame for measuring lots of stuff. Still need to find the right headers. I think I'm going to go ahead and get all stainless headers, mufflers, & exhaust tubing with the natural finish and avoid the pitting that I get every time I fall for "the shiny stuff"

6: going to have to re-evaluate the clutch master and pedal as my current pedal pushrod travel is more than 1.4" and my current master is just plain ugly and outdated. Maybe it is time to order some stuff from captainfab.

[jadedbird]

Originally Posted by ChuckLee

Great choice....did the same as far as clutch goes! Great minds think alike
What are you doing to the motor? Stock heads?
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Power washed frame today, going to take the wire wheel and grinder to her next. Anyone have any recommendations on POR-15 or Eastwood or something? Powder coating isn't really an option for me.

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get rid of that monster clutch asap. I had a stage 3 in my ws6. it sqweeked sqwalled and shuddered. I called monster about a new flex plate and pilot bearing, they said that I would have to send it in for testing to determine if it was a defect. After days of back and forth of fighting they finally said I caused the pressure plate to glaze and warp and ruined the bearing because i must have drove too many city miles during break in.. That was false because my daily commute was 95% highway. then they tried to claim that i drove it too hard. Also false because i was breaking in a motor at the same time so that wasnt the issue. They then tried to flip stances and say I wasnt driving it hard enough and i needed to beat and bang on it to break it in. So i did some research,. long story short, they have bad reputation. i sold the car months later and the next owner took care of it. moral of story.. mcleods or spec....

[Advanced Design]

Nice truck and great swap project. In to tag along for the build.

[sangell]

Great looking truck, and cool swap.

With the DD mounts, 73-87 frame mounts, the modded stock trans cross member, and trans fitting under a low hump tunnel how much does the trans hang below the frame and what angle is the engine siting at?

On my sons truck we made our own engine mounts and trans cross member for his 5.3/t56 swap and moved the motor as far back as we could while keeping the F-body pan above the cross member as well as the trans above the bottom of the frame. The engine is a 1* down at the back and the trans did not fit under the high hump tunnel. The t56 we used was from a CTSV so it has the remote mount shifter.

[ChuckLee]

Just from looking at your first picture, it's clear that you are sitting very high, but that sounds like it was a goal for you to keep everything above crossmember and frame. My stock truck oil pan is Probably 1/2" below the crossmember. I cannot and probably will not be measuring pinion angle till all the weight is back on the truck so I don't have any measurement to share on that yet. I will post some pictures very soon.
Which headers did you go with there? What clutch master and bracket and clutch pedal and pushrod linkage did you use?

[ChuckLee]

Trans tunnel fitment clearance. I have another .5" or so to go up if i have too. obviously if I need to go with a high hump, I'll just have to do that.
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Here is setup on frame with a level on the frame level. I actually do not have the drivetrain all the way forward on the DD sliders. I can go another 1/2" or more froward, but where it is now, the trans brace bolts into factory frame holes so I'm sticking to that. The shifter will work also, i'll just make some type of shifter linkage to get it more forward as it comes up through the floor so it doesn't hit my bench seat. That extra 1/2" of mobility on the sliders may also be helpful after the Driveshaft is cut, who knows.
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Here is the oil pan clearance in reference to the front suspension crossmember. It's about an inch lower with truck pan.
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T56 is about 1" lower than the trans crossmember and 2" lower than truck frame rails. I'm not trying to drag frame or go off-roading so i don't see there being any issues with clearance right now.
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[NC_John]

My t56 is entirely above the frame rails but I had to do some sheetmetal work at the back of the high hump to make some additional clearance.

[ChuckLee]

Just from looking at your first picture, it's clear that you are sitting very high, but that sounds like it was a goal for you to keep everything above crossmember and frame. My stock truck oil pan is Probably 1/2" below the crossmember. I cannot and probably will not be measuring pinion angle till all the weight is back on the truck so I don't have any measurement to share on that yet. I will post some pictures very soon.
Which headers did you go with there? What clutch master and bracket and clutch pedal and pushrod linkage did you use?

[ChuckLee]

pictures added to post #10 to show fitment on a number of fronts.

MODERATOR(S): WOULD YOU PLEASE DO ME THE FAVOR OF FORGIVING ME FOR NOT REALIZING THIS TILL NOW, BUT COULD YOU KINDLY MOVE MY THREAD IN THE SAME LOCATION AS THE MAJORITY OF OTHER 67-72 BUILD THREADS? THANKS AND SORRY AGAIN.

[sangell]

I'll have to go look for more info on the headers but what I remember they are just rear dump shorty stainless ones from ebay. For the money I was pretty happy with them, I have a set of Hooker center bump block huggeers for my off road buggy that were over $100 more and are not as nice.

The clutch master cylinder is a Tilton 75 series master cylinder, the push rod is one a made from a heim joint and a threaded link made by a local company called Rod End Supply. I just drilled a hole in a stock clutch pedal to mount the rod and then made an adjustable stop that contacts the stock clutch pedal arm.

As for the motor height I'm running a GM F Body pan that is 2.7" shorter than a truck pan and mine (it's actually my son's truck) is about 1/2" about the cross member so I'd bet our motors are about the same height for the looks of things. My crank pulley is 1" above the stock sway bar. The bottom of the trans is 1" above the bottom of the frame rails. The heater hose outlets are 1" above the frame rail. I wanted things to sit where I wanted things to sit and it was easier for me to put the drive train together with headers on the motor and set it where it all fit and then make the mounts. Hind sight being 20/20 it would have been much faster and I think easier to buy mostly bolt on parts that someone else figured out already but this is a project with my teenage son so we were trying to keep costs down and for him to learn for fabrication skills. Also his truck sits pretty low and him being a teenage driver I wanted the vital parts somewhat protected. I'll get some pics added tomorrow when I get to my PC with all the pics on it.

My build thread http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=675835

[sangell]

The truck sits low so that was a reason to keep things above the frame, the exhaust runs through the frame and I modified the factory trailer arm cross member to be flat on the bottom too.

These are the headers we used.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181883024179...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[ChuckLee]

ordering lots of stuff today (black friday) even though I'm not getting black friday prices anywhere.

[solidaxel]

Originally Posted by ChuckLee

ordering lots of stuff today (black friday) even though I'm not getting black friday prices anywhere.

Brothers has a sale this week

[ChuckLee]

spent a lot time sitting around during Thanksgiving at in-laws so I started ordering needed parts primarily for exhaust & fuel.
Most of the items i just bought are here in this post pictured with part #'s to help out the forum.
I haven't seen these headers (the natural stainless ones in my fleabay cart picture) used anywhere so I'm going to try them out. I like the natural stainless look, and I'm tired of paying good money for polished stuff that looks nasty after 5 years.

Goals for fuel system: 1)AN fittings ONLY so I am safe and most importantly FEEL I, my passengers, and truck is safe 2)hopefully semi-quiet walbro 255 pump 3)no fuel smell seepage through a 20' run of SS fuel hose, which leaves me with hard line option 4)cheap filters to save somewhere and primary filter i can stock up on in case i ever needed to do a replacement and can't get a special speed part items quick enough. Cannot believe it takes this many fittings to run a feed and return line from tank to rail! Anyhow, it does if you want to go AN rail to tank. I realize it would have been easier to simply run SS braided lines front to back, but I wanted to keep use of hardlines as it is safer and hardline will never smell my garage full of gas like flex lines can and do. I am running -10an fitting reducer from tank to 3/8" hardlines. Feed line basically will be as follows: tank>>>-10 elbow>>>-10 hose to frame>>>-6 reducer>>100 micron pre filter with push fittings>>255 walbro in line pump>>>10 micron post filter>>3/8" hard line to firewall>>>-6 SS braided lines to rail>>3/8" quick disconnet threaded rail fitting.
I'm not a fan of trusting plastic clips and hose clamps in the engine bay around hot exhaust as a guy i know locally just lost his $40k investment only 50 miles into the completed build while tuning due to fire!

Goals for exhaust: all natural stainless, most likely dump behind cab with turn downs OR run exhust to side exit in front of rear wheel wells. i'll need to get some 308l welding wire and maybe i'll go all out and get the right tank of triple gas for SS mig welding.

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[ChuckLee]

Anyone want to recommend their budget-minded power add-on recipe for my LQ4? I may end up going turbo after I get bored with NA setup, but for now what do you think?
I was thinking going with a BTR stage 2 truck cam (212/218 .553/.553 113+2) for low end torque and some LS6 .560 beehive springs.
Are there any important reliability mods that the LQ4 needs while I'm in there?

The engine is out.......this is the time to do this stuff.

[NC_John]

Originally Posted by ChuckLee

Anyone want to recommend their budget-minded power add-on recipe for my LQ4? I may end up going turbo after I get bored with NA setup, but for now what do you think?
I was thinking going with a BTR stage 2 truck cam (212/218 .553/.553 113+2) for low end torque and some LS6 .560 beehive springs.
Are there any important reliability mods that the LQ4 needs while I'm in there?

The engine is out.......this is the time to do this stuff.

I'm in the same stage as you are and bear in mind, my build is starting to spiral rapidly to a completely different level than what I was starting with....

Keeping my bottom end (short block) stock and left alone (for the moment). Changing the oil pump and timing chain. Replacing all seals and gaskets throughout engine. Will get the double bolt clamp on the oil pickup tube.

I have a set of 243 heads that are freshened up but are probably now getting cnc ported and polished with oversize valves. I just got my tick cam kit with a 227/235 .618/.605 cam and BTR springs, valve retainers etc (will probably upgrade some of that to titanium before the heads are assembled). Replacing the lifters with a set of morel lifters and a set of new trays. New pushrods of course...

I'm going to upgrade the rocker arm trunnions with the Straub kit.

I bought an '11 LC9 intake for the bigger runners, bigger tb and bigger dual fuel injectors.

That should cover most of the standard upgrades (at least up top). I think there were a few more things on the list but can't recall offhand.

It'll be ready for a 408 kit later and should be plenty of fun for now.

[ChuckLee]

Brown truck dropped off a nice load at my garage door yesterday

Got the Racing Innovation & Supply natural SS headers in a few days ago, and they fit perfectly (no notching required and no interference with 73-87 clam shell mounts on dirty dingo sliders)

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[ChuckLee]

Got this in the mail for future AC install
High mount Novak kit, real nice.
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got my first welder. its a Blue Point 135. I have to learn how to use it still, but i played around with making a trans crossmember that allows exhaust routing to be easier. Just used some spare metal lying around.
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[NC_John]

I'm going to check out that Novak kit. That looks pretty good.

I got about $700 worth of stuff for mine this week - all engine parts.

[Overdriven]

I forget the specifics on bore size vs travel, had it in my head but lost it. Probably easier to just lookup the bore size for your current master and compare to other applications that use your slave cylinder. If they're different then maybe you should measure pushrod travel and do some math to find a size that'll work.

[ChuckLee]

Very good advice. I may just do all that. Wish I had not committed and bought all the fuel stuff already. Oh well.