LS6 Swap 2nd Gen Build + New Tundra

Theme of my truck lol

 

It’s all good, not your fault. Don’t worry about contacting him, I dropped the engine off today at a new builder.

 

Sorry but that’s Bull Shit! I’m not going to recommend him if he’s doing this shit! It kind of pisses me off too…
I hope the new builder treats you better!

Edit.
Apparently Van got offered a Mac Tool truck & route. He told me he was SORRY but he’s putting in looonnng hours at his new position being he’s just started and learning the ropes. He said everyone in town is busy now with engine builds.
Again my apologies I had no idea.

 

Yeah I was pretty pissed off the other day lol.

the new engine builder is a really famous name in the automotive world. He said about a month and a half to finish it

 

What was that?

Anyway, OP, I would have swapped in another used motor for the season and rebuilt the one you have yourself. That’s what I do with vintage motorcycles. It’s actually pretty fun and rewarding to see an engine come to life that you’ve built. LS are still pretty simple, and sometimes there’s truth to “if you want it done right…” Hope the rebuild turns out well tho! What cam are you going with?

 

I don’t know what cam yet, kinda just waiting to see the recommendation from the builder on what to do. And it’s not worth the extra work
And time needed to put in an interim engine.

 

Got the radiator mounts all done today, everything’s installed. Forgot to take photos. Two things interfered, one being the radiator upper hose bung, we’re gonna pie cut it and angle it down, no biggie there. The other one is the fan for transmission cooler. I wasn’t super thrilled with the mishimoto, don’t think it’s big enough. Ordered a big derale cooler, and I’m going to use the mishimoto up front for the power steering.

one thing I got lazy and didn’t do when I installed the engine was run breather lines, so I finally ordered the right 1/8” BSP fittings for the ARB breather and correct barbs to allow me to run an elevated breather for the front and rear diff, transfercase, and transmission.

Theoretically when the engine is fixed, this thing should be dialed. All that will be left is the center console for the interior.

don’t know if I mentioned it, but I’m super unhappy with the current coolant hard lines, 454 is going to redo them for me. But throwing the 1400$ I paid Royal Welding to make them doesn’t sit right with me. I don’t even know what to say to those guys over there.

EDIT^ I just re-read that and it makes it sound like 454 built the coolant lines that sucked. That is not the case, Royal welding build them. 454 is going to make a completely new set for me.

 

how did they do them?

 

It was all Nilly Willy. I sent them pics of yours, and there are random bends and zig zags and nothing is mounted up, it’s resting on the diff tube and cross members. It’s horrible. Didn’t see it until after I picked the truck up.

 

oh yeah that’s no bueno…what a bummer.

 

I want to get my money back but I don’t even know what to say and it’s probably too late at this point

 

I'm a construction superintendent and a lesson I learned in this business 30 years ago is to always take the time to address expectations up front, we call it a pre installation meeting and we go so far as to record them and distribute the meeting notes. IE: when you drop your truck off at a shop ask them to spend 15 minutes to walk through the installation with you and if they won't or you find that you don't like what you are hearing then just politely say " hey well i'm sorry but this is not what i had in mind so I'm going to take the truck home and re think it ". I agree it is probably too late now...also why you should inspect work before you leave a shop and address concerns which is always awkward after the work is done...that's why the " pre install " talks are so important. Last but not least never assume anyone is going to do work that is cosmetically appealing, it blows me away how many fabricators do ugly work and have the attitude that " well it works it doesn't matter what it looks like "

 

They did amazing work making my engine and trans mounts. But this sucked.

I gave him pics of @tacotunner06 ’s cooling system and it was nothing similar. Frustrating.

 

dang that’s super frustrating if you gave them a photo :/

i had a similar prob with the guy i built my 3 link with i sketched everything out with stylish designs and dimple die holes etc and everything he did when i wasn’t around was super plain “ blocky “

 

Solid advice.

 

Derale trans cooler. This thing should keep the temps under control. It’s pretty beefy. Ordered a nice inline thermostat to control power to these fans. The thermostat can run up to 15 amps continuous, these fans pull 7.5 amps combined, so I won’t even need to run a relay. Makes life easy, and makes this thing run the way it should.

Amazon keeps delaying my packages, but I have the necessary adapters for the ARB breather to get my breather lines setup for the front diff, tcase, and transmission.

 

Interesting.


I’m gonna call the engine builder tomorrow and see where he’s at. I messaged the guy on fb.

 

Well the engines trashed. Thrust bearing put metal all throughout the engine. My guess is the previous owner of the engine trashed it and sold it. When I got the motor the pan had some sludgy shit in it but I just assumed it was an LS moment.

Block and heads are okay, but I need an entire rotating assembly, set of bearings, timing kit, camshaft, pushrods, roller rockers, etc etc. going forged everything. Will be about 9k for parts, labor, and machine work, but I’ll have a 550HP NA motor that I know is for sure good.

Oh, and once parts are ordered, I’ll have a complete sealed long block back to me in 3 weeks. Kinda sucks I’m out this much for an engine again, but it’s what it is I guess. I’ve got a really cool STI costa carry comp I’m going to sell to put towards this thing. I don’t wanna just set 9k on fire lol.

 

Shitty man. Why even bother spending that much to rebuild that motor when you can just order an already built motor for less?

I kinda wish that I had just gone that route myself, but when I bought used I pulled mine all apart to check everything before installing it, just incase there was something like what you found inside. Luckily it looked in pretty good shape.