Well it's about time to swap engines. I have a 2001 GMC 4.7 and it runs great except when pulling (gets a little hot) and the knocking is getting louder in cold mornings!
I was wondering if anyone knows if there is any complications on swapping out the 01' 4.7 with a say 04', 05', 06' - 5.0 or preferebly 5.7. I am looking for a used one maybe with about 20 to 50,000 miles on it. I have some local dismantlers in the area but they will tell you anything to make a sale so thought I would ask pros. that have done it or know about it.
thanks

 

cybredon, its great to hear you are getting so many miles out of the small V8, the upgrade to a bigger motor will be a noticable improvement. Most yards will have a good selection of 5.3s available, they dont go bad often so most of thier sales are to people looking to upgrade or for street rods, this is the motor that repaced the 5.7. You can make this work with the computer out of the doner vehicle, it wont be completely right but it will work, your best option would be to have your vehicles computer programed for the new motor. This way you make everything right and get better than stock performace, you might need the VINs for both motors and ask what tranny was behind it if you are using the doner comp, this can cause problems if it is different from yours. Like I said it is best to have your computer reprogamed, I might be a little biased because this is what I do, but there are others that do the same thing. Hope I helped a little, if you have any questions feel free to ask, I will help if I can.

 

Thanks Jason, this is more info than I thought i would find here, I will look for a 5.3. What year is should I be looking for a 5.3 out of? Also should I use the tranny to or will it bolt up to the tranny i have? You stated to reprogram the comp. Is this something the dealer would do after it is installed or the shop doing the swap can do. Would it be better to take the comp. out of the truck the 5.3 came out of.
thanks for the help.

 

Find out if your 4.8 has a throttle cable or fly by wire, the cheapest and easiest would be to get the same as what you have. I think the fly by wire started in 03, so if you want to go with the cable look for earlier models, you can make the wire work it will just take a little more to do it and if you are having it done talk to the shop that will be doing it. The good thing about GM is your tranny will bolt right up to the 5.3, so you can use the one you have. What I like to do with the computer is the get the one from the motor you get and get it reprogramed while the motor is being put in, that way you get it back by the time its ready for it and they usuall only charge about $40 for the computer. As far as the programing you can ask the shop that does the the work but more than likely you will have to find someplace else to do it, do a search on westers garage, Lyndon or any of his dealers can do the programing for you, I am a dealer for him and am curently running a dicount for the members of truckforms $75 off and free shipping. There are other programers out there but not many spend the time on the dyno and actually putting miles on the test vehicles to get the tune right, this is why I went with him on my truck and am now a dealer for him.