the first attempt

One of my main goals in life is/was to engine swap a vehicle. I finally got the chance to do it with a 87 B2200. I found this truck in California, it was really cheap, blowen engine, and had plenty of dings but zero rust. I knew there was a chance I wasnt going to be able to finish this project so I didnt want to buy a super pristine truck and ruin that.  With that said I wanted a fun reliable daily that could take me mountain biking across the us but also get ok fuel eco. So i decided to put a LC9, a gen 4 5.3l v8 from gmt900 trucks mated with a 6l80 automatic transmission to make driving easy as ive never touched a manual. 

I knew going in that I was jumping straight into the deep end without knowing how to swim and I would happily do it again. This was a very ambitious project, full drivetrain swap, steering column swap, seat swap, and a full wiring job. All done in my current employers parking lot, what could go wrong? 

I first was going to put a 4.3l 4l60e in the truck just to get it driving but after finding out the truck itself had a bunch of wires cut I decided it wasnt worth it. Plus a v8 would be more fun. However my biggest issue with the project was when I cut the hole in the firewall to fit the lc9 and 6l80. I wanted to keep VVT but that adds about 1-2in on the legth of the engine and the 6l80 is pretty big all around so I figured my best course was to notch the firewall. I managed to get the firewall cut and the engine and transmission to be happy but I just couldnt find a good way to I guess loft the upper and lower parts of the tunnel. This was before I had a 3d scanner but im not sure that would of helped anyway. Fitting the engine wasnt the only reason I notched the firewall, by pushing the combo back as far as I did it allowed me to use the factory cross member to bolt the transmission up. It also allowed me to run a larger front radiator. Truly though, that wasnt the final straw, really it came down to airbags. I wanted to be able to go on road trips with people I care about and the thought of getting in a wreck and possible killing somebody I love just to have a older truck wasnt worth it. Thats why im focusing on the 98-2000 ford ranger. 

I was successful in a few things though, I did engine swap the truck. For the first 3 months the engine sat in the engine bay with 3d printed petg mounts. They somehow held up but allowed me to test my mounts before having send cut send cut and bend them for me. Same with the transmission mount, this was my first taste of 3D scanning fabrication. I love it, I was able to scan the area and design the entire mount in cad, 3d print it, test it, then send it out for manufacturing.  It was a very rewarding thing and I do regret not starting with buying a scanner. Still not saying the swap would have been successful but I would have realised quick that this setup doesnt fit. I did produce drawing and documentation like I wanted, with how custom the fuel system, drivetrain, and brakes were I wanted to make sure that when something needed to be repaired it would be as simple as looking at a manual. Check out the downloads to see how thoes turned out. With that said the sorta successful thing was the 8.8 rebuild and swap. I was warned not to rebuild the 8.8 but I did anyway, and learned that it sucks. I did manage to shorten it, even if I now think I shouldnt of. (Another thing that could have been scanned) I did produce bolt in mounts that would hold the 8.8 in and have spots to bolt the oem shocks. Another success was the steering column swap, with me putting the 6l80 in, I wanted to use an oem shifter and since the b2200 doesnt come with a column shifter anyway I figured id get 2 birds at once by swapping in a 2010 suburban steering column.  I stripped it of its original mount and welded in a few brackets to allow this to bolt in. 

Overall, i learned so much on this project and as much as it seems like a failure it doesn't feel like one to me. My main goal was to have fun during the summer and work on a truck. Engine swap something cool and just have fun hitting things with a hammer, I am bummed that im not driving around in this but the knowledge I gained from this is invaluable. Its easily given me the confidence to do the TDI swap in the ford ranger, its taught me about the next generation of fab work with the 3D scanner, and I understand alot more of what im great at and not great at. Im hopefully going to come back and do some ridiculous swap that will have zero traction but that will have to wait untill I have money to throw away and a dedicated shop with all the tools I could ask for.