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New Avalanche Arrived, Time To Begin 6.0L Conv.!

J

Jason_@_TX_Speed

GUEST
Picked up my wife's new 02 Avalanche Sat. in San Antonio :) :) On the way home I stopped by & picked my boat up to begin recovering the seats for next year :( I had forgotten how bad the 5.3L is at towing :( Not to worry though, I will start the 6.0l conversion early next week :) :)

Mods Include:
UPD Intake
TX Speed Ported T.B.
6.0L
Escalade 10:1 Hyp. Pistons
Electric Cutout
DVD Overhead Monitor??

Jason
1999 Corvette
Heads & Cam
TNT 150 Shot
10.50@137.x
2002 Avalanche
6.0L Conversion
 
My 5.3 tows like a champ. My trailer weighs around 5000 lbs and the AV out-tows my 2001 Dodge Ram 5.9 All Day Long. Best upgrade I ever did was from Dodge to AV.

MOD ON

Wiki
 
My Av tows and hauls like a champ too. In one year I have helped 4 people move, built one back yard and a basement, helped tear out an entire sidewalk of concrete and haul it to the dump in one load. My favorite thing to use when I'm doing all of that is the Tow/Haul button. I have put a ton of concrete in the back more then once and hauled a trailer full of stuff. The one bad thing about the Av is that my family uses it more then me cause I'm the only one with a truck in the family :cautious: On my Av I also have not done any performance mods and it is also the Z-71 addition. But I love using it. I don't know if anyone has done this yet, the Av holds a 3 person couch perfectly, I know from experiance.

Adam
 
Jason How much TOTAL money will this cost and will it affect your warranty? ?Will the cost reflect using labor or are you doing this yourself. ?Sounds interesting! ?Like the 10 : to 1.
 
I was doing some internet surfing and found if you add a supercharger it would give you pretty much the same power as the 6.0L. I don't know if anyone has done that yet. That could be a little sheaper too. This is the site where I found the super charger, http://www.truckperformance.com/

Adam
 
gluggo said:
Jason How much TOTAL money will this cost and will it affect your warranty? ?Will the cost reflect using labor or are you doing this yourself. ?Sounds interesting! ?Like the 10 : to 1.

? From my own experience in the automotive field, it will cost no less than $6000 (without labor) and he will have no warranty whatsoever. ?Unless he has a complete donor vehicle with a running 6L I cant see how this would be a worth while swap, tons of cash and voiding a warranty for what?...an extra 60hp. ?I would guess when he starts to get into it it he'll decide no to do it.
 
Jason,

Perhaps a simple change of gears would give you the extra pulling power that you require.

Otherwise it seem as though you will have a lot of money tied up in the conversion.

Oh well....
 
Definitely a cheaper route would be the supercharger, new transmission, and new rear end. Think of the posibilities with those upgrades. Over time, you could build a BEAST!!!

MOD ON

Wiki
 
The supercharger would be the easiest and cheapest route, unless as has been mentioned, you happen to have a 6L taking up space in your garage. Butch has added a Whipple to his 5.3L with great results.
Changing to the BB would present a lot more problems. Besides the engine, the rest of the drivetrain is different, and would require replacement. The frame and suspension are different as well.
 
Warranty will be fine because nobody will be able to tell the 6.0l isnt a stock 5.3l ;) I know from experience the 6.0L works alot better than a whipple for what we do. I ran this 6.0L in my Silverado before buying the avalanche, and it turned 13.50s with my wife driving it :) I'm still thinking about if I'm going to move over my 3000 stall or not, its a hard decision.
Superchargers are cool, but for the low end torque I'll take the extra displacement.
I spent about 1500 building the 6.0l so its a much better purchase than a charger.

Brand new a Escalade 6.0l sells for about 3600+under 800 for install labor & your no more expensive than a whipple for great power & no stupid whine coming from under the hood everytime you get on it or tow with it.

Just my opinion though....


I bet the people that say its to expensive to do never tried it.
If you look on ebay you can find a used 6.0l for 750-1000 pretty easy. I built mine with Escalade pistons & all new stuff, but you could do it for under 1000 if you did the swap yourself. IMHO

Jason
 
Dont forget you need a aluminum head 6.0l. It will have the new crank that you can mount strait to your factory 4l60e :)

Whipple's are definately cool, but I've seen a few whipple charged trucks come through our shop & one already toasted a 5.3L in a Silverado :( Now for drag racing I think the Procharger would be super sweet, but there isn't alot of torque in a cent. charger.

To each his own, but 6.0L conversions really aren't that bad if you find a good doner motor.

On a side note you could bore a 5.3L block 120 thou & install factory ls1 pistons to boost displacement to 5.7L or if you want to get really crazy go 120 bore & order a Lunati 382 stroker kit for it :) 6.3L of towing power, now thats what I'm talking about :) :) :)

Jason
 
Or you could find something sweet in the PAW catolog!
 
You?re putting in the engine I, and others, feel Chevy should put in the AV to begin with. ?As you have the 6.0 already the SC debate is mute. Are you going to drop the AV's 5.3 into the Silverado? Please keep us posted on how the install goes.
 
Johnny_D said:
You?re putting in the engine I, and others, feel Chevy should put in the AV to begin with. ?As you have the 6.0 already the SC debate is mute. Are you going to drop the AV's 5.3 into the Silverado? Please keep us posted on how the install goes.

We have often wondered why not. The Silverado 6.0L we built will pull uphill with a full trailer and car at 75+mph and not downshift out of overdrive, the 5.3L would downshift into 2nd gear for the same hill to run just 50mph. Since we used the LQ9 Escalade pistons (hypereutectic) its a fairly easy buildup. I did open the ring gaps a little since Jason has been known to run nitrous on the Silverado quite often. ;) The 13.5 was a all motor pass though! :)

I would favor building a 408cid stroker for the Avalanche if Jason was up to it! :D
 
And I would be up for running the 408 if Joseph would pay for it :p
 
Jason_@_TX_Speed said:
Warranty will be fine because nobody will be able to tell the 6.0l isnt a stock 5.3l ;)
I don't get this--you don't think GM knows the difference? :) Happy modding, though.

Brendan
 
Jason_@_TX_Speed said:
Warranty will be fine because nobody will be able to tell the 6.0l isnt a stock 5.3l ;) ?I know from experience the 6.0L works alot better than a whipple for what we do. I ran this 6.0L in my Silverado before buying the avalanche, and it turned 13.50s with my wife driving it :) ?I'm still thinking about if I'm going to move over my 3000 stall or not, its a hard decision.
Superchargers are cool, but for the low end torque I'll take the extra displacement.
I spent about 1500 building the 6.0l so its a much better purchase than a charger.

Brand new a Escalade 6.0l sells for about 3600+under 800 for install labor & your no more expensive than a whipple for great power & no stupid whine coming from under the hood everytime you get on it or tow with it. ?

Just my opinion though....


I bet the people that say its to expensive to do never tried it.
If you look on ebay you can find a used 6.0l for 750-1000 pretty easy. ?I built mine with Escalade pistons & all new stuff, but you could do it for under 1000 if you did the swap yourself. IMHO

Jason

What are you going to do with the computer VCI flash? You wont be able to run the 6L with the 5.3 flash,
and Chevy sure will know the difference, the 6L is different animal. Where can you get a complete 6L for 3600? That cant be with the much needed injection unit right? Id like to check it out. As far as using a used engine in my brand new Av, I would pass on that.
 
Some of you need to make friends at the dealer! ;)

If you swap engines the only thing that wouldn't be covered by the factory warranty would be the engine assembly that you buy. Your power windows, water pump, seat heaters, etc... are not affected, why would they be?

If you buy the new GM replacement 6.0L LQ9 (10-1 compression) long block you do get a 3yr 50K mile warranty. The 6.0L bolts in just the same as a regular 4.8L/5.3L/5.7L whatever, the outside dimensions are exactly the same on all GEN III small blocks. The computer is easily programmed by anyone with LS1edit, or you can send it off to www.fastchips.com if your scared to mess with fuel maps and spark timing. :) The factory fuel injectors will keep up with the bigger displacement, you can even crank up the fuel pressure via the fuel pressure regulator and a tamperproof torx bit. :cool:

Jason didn't mean putting in a $750 engine in a Avalanche, he meant buying a core engine to base an engine build if thats what you desired. Anyone trained in GENIII engines should be very qualified to do that and have better quality control than GM, that is if every clearance is measured. Do you think GM checks every ring end gap clearance or bearing clearances on all engines? No they rely on production variance which really means "what can we really get by with?" Look at all the piston slap engines for example...
 
Hey guys,

I just don't understand buying a truck and then making a mod like this. I feel if you just want the 6.0L they you should by the Caddy EXT. I just think it is a waste of money. But that is my opinion.

Adam
 
I guess its to each his own on this kind of deal. You have to remember your talking to guys that would swap cams 10 times if it ultimately gained 10rwhp. Buying the EXT is alot more expensive than doing a motor swap, its one of those things that if your crazy enough go for it. The 6.0l will run all the stock 5.3l injectors, and tuning.

Adam,

Your opinion that its a waste of money is a little off to me, the way I look at it is why spend 600 for a exhaust or 4600 for a supercharger when you can assemble a 6.0L that will look identical to a stock motor & tow worlds better.

My opinion is the Caddy EXT is a waste of money, if I was buying a Caddy it wouldnt be the EXT version :) :)

Jason
 
HOLD ON.....this is going to be a real stupid question. Im sure you thought of it already.

Why did you not just buy the 8.1L AV if you were concerned about towing. Wouldn't it have been cheaper and built stronger (suspension....ect)?

Just a question.

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Wiki
 
Jason, keep us up to speed on your swap! Many of us wished the small block Av had come with the 6L. I'll be interested to hear what kind of mileage, and hopefully track times, you get with your swap.
 
No need to hold on, the 6.0L 3200 stall combo with 4.10s should be able to run some decent ET's & maybe surprise a few sports cars. Thats what it amounts to, a 8.1L will never be very fast, but the potential is there for a spray 6.0L to run some good times. I could care less about the heavy duty suspension, I want the light weight Avy option :) :)

I'm very surprised at how few performance enthusiasts there are on the forum! I just thought I would tell everyone about the plans :)

Jason
Project
"AvaLAUNCH"
In Progress
 
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