So I think I’ve made enough progress to start a build thread. I’m starting with a 98 SE model I bought several years ago at a government auction for way too much money. It had low miles though so whatever. I’m going to give a bit of backstory so skip this if you are bored easily.
I did the standard lift/wheels/tires/rack/bumper treatment about 8 years ago and it has been a great rig and has taken me everywhere I wanted to go. In the last couple years though the mileage seemed to get worse and worse and the power seemed to be dropping too. About a year and a half ago I started researching the 5.3 as an option. Frank Z had his thread and there were a few others that had somewhat documented the swap and it seemed doable but the price always put me off of it. LS/Vortec motors in my area are rather expensive compared to what other people have reported. I decided I was going to do a 5.3, I just needed to find a motor that was reasonably priced. Fast forward to last December and I came across an 05 Yukon for sale on craigslist listed as parts with only 140k on the clock. I emailed and asked how much he wanted for just the motor/trans and he said $2k for the motor/trans or $2k for everything. He was a repo guy and just wanted rid of the whole thing. We settled on $1800 for the rig and he even delivered it to my house. I pulled everything off that I wanted and sold a bunch of parts off of it to try and recoup some of the cost. I made back about half of what I spent on the rig.
Instead of going the Novak route on everything and chopping a hole in the hood I’m building my own bracketry and mounts and using an LS1 intake so as not to disrupt the attractive lines of the stock XJ hood. I personally think the Novak stuff is overpriced and have read more than a couple peoples comments that the motor mounts are a pain to deal with anyway. Plus I’m not rich and the Novak radiator, motor mounts, xfer case adapter and headers total well over $1600.
I’ll also be posting cost information and part numbers for everything I have purchased so it is available to future swappers.
Here are the threads I referenced a lot during my research phase
FrankZ:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1007477
PhotoJared:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1122178
blistovmhz Poverty Method:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1119575
xjbubba
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=945920
Huge shout out to the guys who have answered my questions over the last year. Especially JohnD. I have bugged him a lot via PM and he has answered all of my questions. Thanks John-
Blah blah… shut up and show some pics already
05 Yukon donor:
Motor pulled
Stripped and ready for cleaning
The heads were super gunked up with oil/crap
Piston cleaning
Valve seats were pitted
So I hand lapped them
...continued...
I did the standard lift/wheels/tires/rack/bumper treatment about 8 years ago and it has been a great rig and has taken me everywhere I wanted to go. In the last couple years though the mileage seemed to get worse and worse and the power seemed to be dropping too. About a year and a half ago I started researching the 5.3 as an option. Frank Z had his thread and there were a few others that had somewhat documented the swap and it seemed doable but the price always put me off of it. LS/Vortec motors in my area are rather expensive compared to what other people have reported. I decided I was going to do a 5.3, I just needed to find a motor that was reasonably priced. Fast forward to last December and I came across an 05 Yukon for sale on craigslist listed as parts with only 140k on the clock. I emailed and asked how much he wanted for just the motor/trans and he said $2k for the motor/trans or $2k for everything. He was a repo guy and just wanted rid of the whole thing. We settled on $1800 for the rig and he even delivered it to my house. I pulled everything off that I wanted and sold a bunch of parts off of it to try and recoup some of the cost. I made back about half of what I spent on the rig.
Instead of going the Novak route on everything and chopping a hole in the hood I’m building my own bracketry and mounts and using an LS1 intake so as not to disrupt the attractive lines of the stock XJ hood. I personally think the Novak stuff is overpriced and have read more than a couple peoples comments that the motor mounts are a pain to deal with anyway. Plus I’m not rich and the Novak radiator, motor mounts, xfer case adapter and headers total well over $1600.
I’ll also be posting cost information and part numbers for everything I have purchased so it is available to future swappers.
Here are the threads I referenced a lot during my research phase
FrankZ:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1007477
PhotoJared:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1122178
blistovmhz Poverty Method:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1119575
xjbubba
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=945920
Huge shout out to the guys who have answered my questions over the last year. Especially JohnD. I have bugged him a lot via PM and he has answered all of my questions. Thanks John-
Blah blah… shut up and show some pics already
05 Yukon donor:

Motor pulled

Stripped and ready for cleaning

The heads were super gunked up with oil/crap

Piston cleaning

Valve seats were pitted

So I hand lapped them

...continued...