I think it's just gotten a lot more difficult with the way the OEM's run a fancy canbus network and integrate all the control units for the body, engine and trans now. You will have to pay a lot of money for a custom harness and specific ecm with tune from a place like Speartech to get even a Gen IV LS (LS3) to mate with the 8 speed since GM never offered that pair from the factory, to get everything to play together nicely. The mechanical swap is the easy part frankly.

For the older S-series and 1G Col/Can, at least you could go to a yard and pull out a junked Gen III or IV LS with the harness and ecm, and with HP Tuners make it all work just fine with a 4L60 or manual, and it didn't take much effot to get a cable TB and gauges to work. The fact the 1st gens could be had with a 5.3 make it a lot easier too. S-trucks now pushing 20-25 years old mean you don't really have to worry about making OBD2 emissions happy either in those states where it's required for inspection.

 

I'm sure someone, someday, will spend the money to do it. Mechanically it shouldn't be all that difficult, a V8 isn't really any longer than a 4 cylinder after all, just wider, and there is plenty of room in the engine bay for a V6. The problem will be on the electrical side. It was much more common in the 1st gens as they could be purchased new with a 5.3L in them (I had a '12 CCSB Z71 5.3L for a few years, great truck), so all the hard work was pretty much already done.

 

Already done, there is a company that makes the wiring harnesses to plug into our trucks.
Along with mounts and other parts needed.


Part of the reason alot don't is cost, the value of the trucks is still high, once the milage goes up and the value goes down, then more swaps will be done.

 

I saw a video the other day of an engineer on the 2021 f150 project at a press event talking about ford going to over the air calibrations which will start making custom tunes more challenging. He also mentioned the new f150 had 50 different electronic modules that were controlling various functions on the new f150. I suspect this will be a trend in the industry which will add another layer of complexity on top of canbus.

 

Simple example on here, I recall skimming the thread on adding in the factory trailer brake to a truck not equipped, and because they use different BCM's it's basically not easily installed anywhere after the factory assembly line.

That's just a brake controller, now think about a completely different engine.

 

Generally speaking, keeping the engine and chassis model years the same or around the same reduces the amount of conversion needed. You are more likely to have compatible systems vs mixing generations. So in the case of the 2nd gen, you'd want the Gen V LT engine, not an LS.

Like he said ^^^, cost is the main factor preventing more swaps. The plug and play wiring harness and motor mounts costs more than some folks junkyard LS/trans combos. Also, our engines are becoming more reliable, so swaps arent as appealing like before. You'd be pulling a perfectly fine engine out that makes a fair amount of power to begin with. It used to be, blown engine, swap it instead.

 

depending on what you want to pay, for $5k-10K you can add a blower and full exhaust on a Saturday afternoon and get 400+hp

there is that one guy(forget name) who has a LS motor and tranny in his ZR2, the only thing he kept stock was the doors, maybe. there are videos of him in Michigan where G2Skier and some of the other guys runs their truck..

 

there is that one guy(forget name) who has a LS motor and tranny in his ZR2, the only thing he kept stock was the doors, maybe. there are videos of him in Michigan where G2Skier and some of the other guys runs their truck..

I spent a day at Silver Lake with that guy last year, awesome truck, not much stock left on it. Whenever he would park he would get a crowd of people drooling over his truck!

 

I think full harness and mounts was 1,200 ish, or maybe that is harness only.
For the amount of options and competitors, I didn't think was to bad.
600 would be better

 

Here is a picture of it.

 

Isn't that the 589fab guy? I remember he did a swap a year or two back.

 

It may be a old pic from before they put the bumpers and stuff in it. But they've since sold the truck and then it ended up at a dealership a bit after.

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@CPWire would be your point of contact. they've done many v8 swaps in the Colorado platform, and off a wealth of parts and knowledge in getting the job done.

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Be good if they did a how to thread with price listing.
Or someone who has done in a 2nd gen, so others planning can have less down time on their trucks.

 

No one has done a 2nd gen how to thread yet because so few have done it, at least no one currently active on the forum has... When I eventually get around to mine (2022-2023), I'll most likely do a parts list. It's a huge topic and I'll need someplace to store my part list and frustrations. 😂

 

Here you go. BTW seems to me everything in the drivetrain would need to be upgraded to handle the power, but I guess that is common sense. Certainly the transmission is obvious, but also differentials, axles, driveshafts, etc

Lingenfelter powered LT4 SWAPPED Colorado - YouTube

 

Any ballpark guesses what a 2nd Gen V8 swap would cost?

I’ve always wanted to swap my 5.3 for a 6.2 but cost was an obstacle.Can’t imagine what a full custom Gen 2 swap would end up costing.

Edited for clarification

 

Any ballpark guesses what a swap would cost?

I’ve always wanted to swap my 5.3 for a 6.2 but cost was an obstacle.

Can’t imagine what a full custom swap would end up costing.

Your swap would be much easier to accomplish in a gen 1.

And a complete swap for a gen 2, costs are all subjective to what king of deals you get, and what you buy new or used. Only a few things like the swap harness and mounts are going to be a consistent price for everyone.

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And this..........2019 Holden Colorado review: Harrop Superado | CarAdvice

 

Have to agree with those saying the 3.6L especially with the relatively easy upgrade of a supercharger is strong enough that it is hard to argue for a LS V8. The old 2.8l and then 4.3L S10 was not so easy to get decent and reliable power out of (those who successfully built 4.3l turbo motors are free to disagree). The 4.3L S10's I owned were reliable though, I will give them that, and many mail trucks made it to very high miles on those engines.

 

Many tests out there say 5‐7 psi boost can have a engine live longer, due to the engine does not have to work to suck in air, but most want to push as much as they can.