My 86 el camino smog legal 5.3 attempt

[jiho]

Gaak, 9 years ago and the thread was just left hanging there. I've lost count of the dead-end threads I've found like that on other forums, doing searches on the Net. You're trying to find answers to things, and all you find is questions that stop in mid-sentence. The OP's profile shows his last posts were 8 years ago, and he last visited the site 4 years ago. I think we should assume the swap didn't work, and he just wandered off.

 

[ortega]

If it works, it works, if it doesnt I'm not too worried about it. I'm going into this without any expectations. It's not a money pit, I dont have a lot of money into anyway. If the 5.3 doesnt work I'll get a 5.7. If the smog legal stuff doesnt work then I'll get smogged a different way. This is just for fun but I hope it works.

 

[CaliWagon83]

If it works, it works, if it doesnt I'm not too worried about it. I'm going into this without any expectations. It's not a money pit, I dont have a lot of money into anyway. If the 5.3 doesnt work I'll get a 5.7. If the smog legal stuff doesnt work then I'll get smogged a different way. This is just for fun but I hope it works.

I think that’s a healthy attitude. If you’re improvising with spare parts lying around, no harm, no foul. It would suck if you were into it like $10k, and the ref said “denied.” Regardless, you’ll probably learn a lot about the process.

 

[Turbo Zach]

I am enjoying this so far. I have been taught, there is always a way! It may not be worth the effort or money, but there is a way. Pave the way my friend.

 

[CaliWagon83]

I would actually try to get in touch with a ref either through the “Ask a Ref” link, or go to a referee station sooner rather than later to get some guidance. Better to know whether you’re headed down the right or wrong path earlier on than after you’ve done all the hard work.

 

[CaliWagon83]

Curious. Any update on this?

 

[ssn696]

 

[CaliWagon83]

So I have some information that might prove helpful with your attempt, ortega. I went to the Radwood car show up in LA this past weekend, and came across this Olds Custom Cruiser with an LQ4 6.0L swap. The owner said the engine was originally out of a 2500 HD truck.

A few interesting notes: The engine still had the taller, truck-style manifold. I asked the owner what his experience was getting it ref’d, and he said they did give him a little grief for the truck manifold, but ultimately passed him, because he had all the correct hardware otherwise, and the correct cats for that engine.

From the sound of things, I think you’d have a good chance of getting your swap approved, especially if you put a car manifold on it. The main thing is that it doesn’t throw any codes while it’s at the ref station, and you have the cats and everything else off the donor engine.

 

[fleming442]

FWIW, if the above is true, my 02 6.0 truck has a dual inlet muffler (2-3"), but the cats are pretty big. The driver's side crosses to the passenger prior to the cats, between the oil pan and trans. That would get you on your way to a dual 3" exhaust. Somewhere along the line they went to a y-pipe configuration before the muffler, 2006 maybe?