Lc9 replacement

[Hank63]

Hi all. I am new to the group. I have a 2010 Suburban with a blown head gasket. I have found a very low mileage motor (lc9) and am going to do a complete engine swap. My question is what do I need to plan for, or watch out for when doing this? The motor comes with the ECM so do I use it or will the existing one work? How much teardown is necessary to pull the motor? My lc9 has 207k on it. The replacement lc9 has 15k on the block and heads, 120k on the rest of it. If I hadn't just put a transmission in it, I would walk away but am stuck with it now. Appreciate any help or advice!

 

[swathdiver]

Hi all. I am new to the group. I have a 2010 Suburban with a blown head gasket. I have found a very low mileage motor (lc9) and am going to do a complete engine swap. My question is what do I need to plan for, or watch out for when doing this? The motor comes with the ECM so do I use it or will the existing one work? How much teardown is necessary to pull the motor? My lc9 has 207k on it. The replacement lc9 has 15k on the block and heads, 120k on the rest of it. If I hadn't just put a transmission in it, I would walk away but am stuck with it now. Appreciate any help or advice!

Welcome to the forum. What year is the donor engine? Yours has VVT and a different camshaft, pistons and programming compared with the 2007-2009 LC9s. You'll want to use your ECM so you will not have to have it programmed to your VIN.

Now with regards to AFM, are you going to keep it? Well, before I go any further any potentially muddy the waters let's find out what year the new engine is.

 

[wjburken]

Welcome to the forum. You will get some good guidance from the guys here.

 

[Hank63]

Welcome to the forum. What year is the donor engine? Yours has VVT and a different camshaft, pistons and programming compared with the 2007-2009 LC9s. You'll want to use your ECM so you will not have to have it programmed to your VIN.

Now with regards to AFM, are you going to keep it? Well, before I go any further any potentially muddy the waters let's find out what year the new engine is.

It was a replacement engine in a 2012 Silverado. Installed in March of 2019 and then the truck was wrecked a few months later. As for AFM, I would like to delete it or deactivate it.

 

[swathdiver]

It was a replacement engine in a 2012 Silverado. Installed in March of 2019 and then the truck was wrecked a few months later. As for AFM, I would like to delete it or deactivate it.

Excellent! That engine will have the improved lifters, VLOM and valve cover compared with yours, as well as a difuser in the oil pan. Yours might have had some of these items but not all as they were being introduced in 2010-2011.

Keep your ECM, install with the intake off and consider taking down the front end for ease of access and more clearance. Change out those old oil cooler and transmission cooler lines and motor mounts while the motor is out (if you have all those features).

You can have AFM turned off through the tune later on or physically remove it now. You'll still need the tune exercising either option.

 

[Hank63]

Excellent! That engine will have the improved lifters, VLOM and valve cover compared with yours, as well as a difuser in the oil pan. Yours might have had some of these items but not all as they were being introduced in 2010-2011.

Keep your ECM, install with the intake off and consider taking down the front end for ease of access and more clearance. Change out those old oil cooler and transmission cooler lines and motor mounts while the motor is out (if you have all those features).

You can have AFM turned off through the tune later on or physically remove it now. You'll still need the tune exercising either option.

Will I need to flash the computer for the install? Or will it pretty much be a plug and play type deal? I will look into the motor mounts and cooler lines. Thanks for the info!

 

[swathdiver]

Will I need to flash the computer for the install? Or will it pretty much be a plug and play type deal? I will look into the motor mounts and cooler lines. Thanks for the info!

You will keep your existing ECM and not have to flash it for the swap. If you used the donor ECM you would need to flash it to your VIN. If you wish to disable AFM through the tune, either computer would have to be reprogrammed to turn it off.