1999 Silverado Engine Blown

I have a 1999 5.3L silverado with a blown engine. I'm looking at getting a 2000 or 2001 5.3L Tahoe engine and swaping it. Does any know of any problems involved? The only I have heard was the top wiring harness and fuel rail/injectors might need to be changed.

I don't know about the Tahoe swap...but I'm curious....how many miles before the engine blew? I've got a 99 as well....thanks....

89,000 miles It had a head gasket leak at 75,000 and it has slowly lost oil pressure since then.

I have a 1999 5.3L silverado with a blown engine. I'm looking at getting a 2000 or 2001 5.3L Tahoe engine and swaping it. Does any know of any problems involved? The only I have heard was the top wiring harness and fuel rail/injectors might need to be changed.

Just use all of your accessories, intake setup off of your blown 99. Everything is the same off of both engines and it will all bolt up. Your old pcm will run the new motor. Why not upgrade to the 6.0L since you're in there?

Costs are keeping me from doing anything other than getting it running again. Thanks for the advice!

75K blown head gaskets, 95K spun 4 bearings. I used a engine out of a 01 tahoe worked fine.

Hmm....my 4.8 is at 56k miles. Looks like I've got something to look forward to! :disappoin

you must have done something to cause that problem. I'm at approx. 95k in mine and the only problem I've had is a leaky intake manifold. And that just got fixed. Looking forward to another 95k in it too.

Wow.. I guess I've been lucky so far. I have over 152,00 miles on my 97 checy silverado.
I now commute 136 miles per day in that truck. My engine light came on for the first time since I owned it. I hit this group to help diagnose the problem. So far it looks like
a minor emissions problem with a selonoid valve. My goal is to get at lease 200,000 miles out of this truck.

but im certain your 97 doesnt have a 5.3L engine. My 350is starting to show signs of decline but im not gonna complain much cuz its far from new.

No, I don't have the 5.3L, I've got a 5.0L 2wd extended cab.

From what i have heard anyway, 350's and 305's will last a lot longer w/o as many problems as the newer 5.3's and 4.8's. Mine is near 114K and at around 98K the head gaskets and radiator had to be replaced. I fully expect my engine to outlast most other parts of the truck cuz i think the 350 is hands down the best engine ever made....there's a good poll questions or discussion topic.

my 4.8 is at 75K. Im not lookin forward to havin to replace it any time soon..but if it ever goes, im definetly gonna upgrade to a 5.3 or 6.0 .

So you were to lazy to fix a head gasket but now you are super mech and you are going to put in a bigger engine.

Maybe you need to finish the 10th grade first and then take on bigger projects.

who mite you be directing that comment at?

Question for Slowprocess: Is it the same swap for 2000 4.8 to 6.0 ? Would the exhaust manifolds work too ? Thanks in advance...

who mite you be directing that comment at?
Person who started the thread but I guess I brothers you in some degress so I guess you too. :grinyes:

Just kidding.


Here is my point. He had a blown head gasket but did not fix it and kept driving it until it blew. Why not fix it and buy a new motor and when you got the new one in sell the old one. At least he could have made a little $$$ but no drive the thing in the ground and worry about it later.

yeh that is a good point but i didnt know if you were talkin about him or not. But with ur point, why not just fix the head gasket when you know its a problem and not have to worry around with a new engine.

yeh that is a good point but i didnt know if you were talkin about him or not. But with ur point, why not just fix the head gasket when you know its a problem and not have to worry around with a new engine.

Fix the old engine and sell it and take the cash from the eninge and put in a 6.0 and sup it up like slowprocess did.

Watching slowprocess videos impressed the h$ll out of me.

Yeh i really want to sell my engine and get a 6.0 how ever its just not that simple and cheap when going from a 350 to the...366? w/e a 6.0 is. But still for this guy the normal thing to do with a 5.3 which is a good engine with decent power, just fix the fairly minor problem and keep driving it.

I ran the engine code scanner at Autozone. I got a P1870 error which is a Transmission Mechanical Transfer case 4x4 switch short to battery.

One catch... my truck is 2WD!

Well I had to replace the intake manifold gasket at 90k. I did not use
a stock gasket since the original gasket actually cracked in the back.
The original gasket was made of some sort of plastic. I had a metal/cork
high performance gasket installed instead. So far it's fine, no more
coolant leaking.

I've got the stainless steel exhaust so I've never changed it. I have
played with the rpm limit and shift points. The stock tranny would
chirp when I step on the accelerator, form 1-2, and from 2-3., to 4 no
chirp. The 5.0 litre is pretty quick. I adjusted the shiftpoints again
for more MPG. I commute 138 miles per day, average mpg went from
14 to 17 mpg.

Yeh i really want to sell my engine and get a 6.0 how ever its just not that simple and cheap when going from a 350 to the...366? w/e a 6.0 is. But still for this guy the normal thing to do with a 5.3 which is a good engine with decent power, just fix the fairly minor problem and keep driving it.


You bring up a good point

Are all the bolt patterns the same for these 5.3,5.7,6.0 and so on?

Hmm got me thinking.

I know my 5.7 intake also bolts up to a 5.3 so would it work on a 6.0.

Hmm... Get a short block and exchange parts. I see the wisdom.

Question for Slowprocess: Is it the same swap for 2000 4.8 to 6.0 ? Would the exhaust manifolds work too ? Thanks in advance...

When doing the swap, you'll want to find a 2001 and up 6.0L. This being because the 01 up 6.0L will bolt right up to the 4l60e transmission.The pre-01 6.0L only bolted up to the 4l80e tranny, and would need an adaptor to connect to the 4l60e. The 01 up also came with the aluminum heads. The exhaust manifolds will bolt right up from the 4.8L to the 6.0L. Everything will swap from one engine to the other. I bought the 02 6.0L with the heads to the oil pan. Every one of my accessories went off of the 4.8L to the 6.0L. I didn't use the exhaust manifolds because I went with the Long tube headers. I did upgrade to an 02 injector, because the 00+ injectors were rated a little bit higher than the 99s.
Guys, definately don't be scared of the swap! It's a super easy swap, and just requires taking out a motor and dropping this one back in with the accessories. I'll get some pics of the motor carriage tomorrow and I guarantee you won't be able to tell a difference in it from stock. I even left the 4.8L sticker under the hood for the money races. :evillol:

For what it's worth, my 4.8L and 4l60e tranny had 130,000 miles on it when I did the swap, and it was still running strong when I pulled it. It made a trip to the track at least 3 times a month since I had it, and it never so much as hiccuped once. I just had a plan for this sucker. :naughty:

I dunno about intake or other engine parts but i do know the engine mounts would have to be re-located to swap a 350 to a 6.0 and im sure all the wiring is different. however the same as are the newer LS1 series engines, the 350 can be changed into and LT1 or at least more easily swapped. so i'd say for more power out of a 350 it would be better to build it up than try to swap in a whole new engine, also a 383 stroker would be sweet and possibly cheaper than a full swap to 6.0L. If there we anyone with numbers on cost for selling and swapping a 350 to the newer 6.0L engine that would certainly make up my decision as to try to set that as a goal of mine.

I dunno about intake or other engine parts but i do know the engine mounts would have to be re-located to swap a 350 to a 6.0 and im sure all the wiring is different. however the same as are the newer LS1 series engines, the 350 can be changed into and LT1 or at least more easily swapped. so i'd say for more power out of a 350 it would be better to build it up than try to swap in a whole new engine, also a 383 stroker would be sweet and possibly cheaper than a full swap to 6.0L. If there we anyone with numbers on cost for selling and swapping a 350 to the newer 6.0L engine that would certainly make up my decision as to try to set that as a goal of mine.

On your particular setup, I would go with either a 383 stroker or an LT1, unless you came up on a sweet deal on a 6.0L or LS1, the tranny, the pcm, and the wiring harness. This would most likely be very hard to find, but I think I posted the link to my tuners 96 where he swapped out the 350 for an LS1. If not, let me know and I'll post it up.

So you were to lazy to fix a head gasket but now you are super mech and you are going to put in a bigger engine.

Maybe you need to finish the 10th grade first and then take on bigger projects.


I really get annoyed at post like this...

Well yeh that may be a lil harsh but if you know you have something wrong with you truck that could potentially result in losing the engine it is pretty stupid not to fix it. basically all he means is if someone is too dumb to get a fix for a fatal problem like that they shouldbt be talkin about new engines and all.

Well yeh that may be a lil harsh but if you know you have something wrong with you truck that could potentially result in losing the engine it is pretty stupid not to fix it. basically all he means is if someone is too dumb to get a fix for a fatal problem like that they shouldbt be talkin about new engines and all.

Guess your right... maybe he should have approached it another way... but enough of that... it would be nice to get a 6.0 engine setup and running.

Yeh, but all i really want is something thats solid and has over 300hp and when in my truck it would run 15.0-15.5. In all honesty i would rather keep my 350 and build it up or turn it into a 383 stroker but i need to do more research and find what will be possible to do with the amount of fundage im willing to put into it.

Well yeh that may be a lil harsh but if you know you have something wrong with you truck that could potentially result in losing the engine it is pretty stupid not to fix it. basically all he means is if someone is too dumb to get a fix for a fatal problem like that they shouldbt be talkin about new engines and all.

You see my point.

Thanks.

Hey thanks about the info that the 6.0 bolt pattern with 4LE80 tranmission.

Might be going to a 6.0 soon.

Oh..and btw..I didn't do anything to cause my engine's head gaskets to crack. Never overheated it, nada. It took me a month to find out where the coolant was going. During that month, some water got in the oil. (a rather large amount) and I think that's what made the bearings mess up a few thousand miles later. Now at the time of the bearings spinning, I was on a strip against a Dakota R/T...and I think I had myt shift points set wrong and over-revved it...oh well, who cares. It runs strong and Allen Nelson got all my shift/rev stuff set perfectly.

I think I just got a lemon from the factory.
It's not always the driver that tears stuff up.

And I woulda won the race if I hadn't heard a terrible knocking and let off :)