6.2L L94 & 6L80 into my 1992 Blazer

[Nak]

Yep, the L94 is DBW, and you have to keep that to retain DOD. And I already told your Mom...

Anyways, you'll want to get a factory shop manual--NOT chilton or Haines--and study up on the systems for your vehicle. You need to know what you're keeping and what you need to keep it. You'll need the wiring diagrams in the manual to help figure that out and to figure out how to strip your wiring harness of what you don't need. Hell, it'll take a while to just to figure out what you need to keep. I spent more time on wiring & figuring out wiring than everything else put together...

Be ABSOLUTELY sure you don't need a circuit before you cut it out. Keep in mind you may be able to use a circuit for something else. Write down any changes you make immediately. You'll be making so many changes there's no way you'll remember them all down the road. Write down part numbers you use as you use them. That'll make life WAY easier down the road.

 

[Steveman2000]

So I'm assuming this is the manual I actually want http://www.diyrepairmanuals.com/proddetail.asp?prod=95ChvTaS&gclid=CJCe0t6068YCFQYvaQodUY0MIg

And yeah wiring is gonna be a pain... even with an electrician for a father. (He REALLY doesn't want me changing "his" truck haha) Where did you get that special marine wire from by the way? Minnesota winters are brutal on vehicles... especially mine since it's parked outside 24/7. My parents get the garage and I'm on the street lol

Also, since I've never been to Oregon, maybe I'll just borrow my dad's Yukon and trailer my Tahoe out to you sometime instead that way you have all your tools too hahahaha...

 

[Nak]

That looks like part of the manual. I looked on ebay and found a couple of auctions. I'm not sure how many of the four manuals you need. Here's an auction with all four manuals: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1995-Chevy-...oks-/161600057826?hash=item25a01d31e2&vxp=mtr You can also get the manuals online through www.alldatadiy.com It's also extremely helpful to have the manuals for the vehicle the new motor & trans are out of.

I get my wiring supplies both from West Marine and Amazon. I like the Ancor brand wire & terminals. Along with that I use adhesive backed heat shrink. The wire is tinned and of much higher quality than you can find in auto parts stores or Radio Shack. All the connections I do are waterproof. That keeps the corrosion down to an extremely low level. It might be overkill if you won't keep the car for longer than six or seven years though. You could use regular wire with the marine grade terminals & adhesive heat shrink. That would cut your costs by a bunch and still be pretty durable. Marine grade wire ain't cheap, but I plan on keeping my rig another 25 years. I spent $700+ on wiring, but I'll never have a wiring problem regardless of what I put the truck through.

 

[Steveman2000]

I'm keeping this truck until I die (hopefully not soon) It's my first vehicle ever and so it has extra sentimental value. Did you keep your stock ECU for anything? Or did you manage to get the LS brain box to work everything you needed?

Also out of curiosity how much of the front end did you take off the truck, like the grille and radiator and such...which leads to my next question. Are you keeping and reusing the old radiator or upgrading to something else? I know you've got efans, controlled by the ECU as well? I'm sorry to keep bombarding you with questions lol.

 

[Nak]

No worries on the questions.

The '92 ECU only controls the engine, and maybe the clutch on the torque converter--I don't remember for sure about the latter. Anyways there's nothing left in the truck it controlled. Stuff like AC etc was still all manual in '92. That made for an easy swap. Even the ABS is completely separate from the ECU.

I just realized I posted no pics of the actual engine install! I'll get those in along with pics of the sub-systems I haven't posted yet. The grill and radiator both came out, The AC condenser stayed in. I dropped the engine in separate from the trans. The 6L80 torque converter has to be rotated a few times while pushing it in to place. The first time it feels like it's in place is misleading. It actually seats in deeper two separate times.

I had upgraded the radiator about a year ago, so i left it. It's pretty easy to plumb everything in to the stock '92 radiator. You use upper and lower hoses from a 2012 Yukon. The heater return port by the radiator cap I plumbed to the top of the 2012 coolant surge tank. you need a 1/2" to 5/8" adapter to do this. The coolant bleed port at the front of the motor gets plumbed to this line as well. I used the 2012 Heater return hose that also has a tee off to the bottom of the coolant surge tank. The hot heater hose needs an adapter as the '92 hot side of the heater is different from the 2012 port out to the heater. All of this ends up with the coolant system being exactly as designed in the 2012 set up. That's superior to plumbing the bleed to the water pump--as is commonly done in swaps--as air is more efficiently removed from the coolant which in turn increases cooling efficiency.

 

[Steveman2000]

Hey Nak, I'm just kinda curious how your swap and everything is going! It's been almost 2 months so I'm assuming that everything is working well, and that you might be ready to post some photos? Maybe even a video? haha if nothing else, how has your custom gauge idea been working out? Let us know!

 

[Nak]

Hey Steveman!

Yeah, It's been a hectic summer! The Blazer is running phenomenally well. So much better than the 350. Quiet, except loud at full throttle, smooth, gobs and gobs of power, great gas mileage. I'll post up again in the next few weeks with video & photos. I've learned quite a bit as I worked out the details of getting her running perfect and I'll post all of that up.

I'm going to start a new thread on the electronic dash. I'm using it as my main cluster right now, but it's just mounted on a bracket. I'll fab up a permanent mount this winter. There's a lot I've learned about how to go about setting one of these up as a primary dash. Most people use them as a secondary display, so I've had to do a bit to get it right. The software developers have heeded a few of my suggestions, and the next version should be much better as a primary display. Meanwhile, the cost is much less than Dakota Digital and the display is gorgeous. (I've improved it from what I posted.) If you have the fabrication skills I think this is a great alternative to mechanical/stock gauges.

 

[Nak]

Well it's been a couple of months... The truck is running outstanding. I switched mufflers to a different Dynomax VT; simply outstanding sound now. Very quiet until you get on it and then a very nice roar. I'll post part numbers soon; suffice it to say that the Dynomax application chart is wrong. Even their tech support says so. Anyways, I switched to the mufflers specified for single exhaust for a 6.2L. The sound is just perfect with my dual exhaust.

I've got a lot to post; there's a lot I've learned and I want to put it up here for the next guy to use. It's been a hectic summer, but the rains are coming and I'll have time to post again soon.


Here's the video of starting her up for the first time. It took a bit of time and she ran pretty rough for a few minutes. After that though, she ran just great! I'll get a 0 - 60 video up soon along with some pics of my fan control setup and cooling plumbing.

https://youtu.be/sULYU3LII5E

 

[Nak]

Here's the latest version of my dash. Needle positions and numbers are random and nonsensical in these screen shots. The upper four gauges turn red individually when out of safe operating limits. The crosshatch pattern over the speedo and the red push button top center appear if the connection is lost to the ECM. Pushing the button initiates a connection attempt immediately, or one will be made automatically in 30 seconds. The low fuel warning appears at and below 3 gallons fuel remaining. 0 Gallons displayed is when the engine dies due to fuel starvation, no reserve, no guessing exactly how much fuel is left. Touching the upper half of the speedo switches to Metric. Touching the A MPG window resets average MPG. DTE (Distance To Empty) is based off fuel remaining and Average MPG displayed. Touching the Trip Odometer resets that to 0. The large digit on the left of the tach is the commanded gear. I removed Engine Oil Temp because there is no sensor--it's calculated by the ECM. Inaccurate because I have a large oil cooler the ECM doesn't know about. "V4 Mode Active" appears above the clock--along with a blue light right below the "I MPG" window--when DOD kicks in.

It's running off of a Bluetooth connection now, but will be hard wired off of a USB connection when I mount the cluster permanently. The USB connection is faster--smoother needle movement and faster connections--and more reliable. The Samsung Tab S 10.5 is easily visible under all lighting conditions including direct sunlight with these colors. It is especially attractive under moderate and lower light levels.

Anyways, that's it so far! I'll include a video later.

 

[SunlitComet]

need more gauges and data output.