Engine and transmission swaps

[hmath10]

Newer to the forum but been reading advice on here and the “other” forum for a little long time. Swapping engines in a 2003 Trailblazer EXT. Long story of how I got to this engine swap so here it goes..........

About 3 years ago our 2003 Envoy’s transmission went out after my son got water in the transmission. He first turned his F-250 into a submarine and the backed my Envoy down into the flooded creek to recover his truck before it got swept downstream. I guess the water flowing in the doors was not a good enough indication that he was in a little too deep. At some point during this “rescue mission” the transmission injested a significant amount of water. When I got home 2 days later maybe I should of questioned the freshly shampooed carpets and air fresheners. About a month later while doing routine maintenance I noticed the strawberry milkshake present in the transmission and then got the rest of the story! So I drained the transmission and modified the pan at work with service ports and connected a small oil vacuum dehydrator that we build to it and dried it out. The damage was already done but I got 6 more months out of it before it failed. I parked it and actually though about parting it out until one Saturday morning I find a 2003 Envoy on a Facebook swap and shop for $300. It had been rolled but had still ran and drove.

As it turns out the remanufacted transmission in it only had about 3000 miles on it. The engine had about 105,000 on it. So I swapped the transmission into my Envoy.

I pulled the rest of the rolled Envoy apart, pack ratted away as many good parts as I could in my shop, including the engine. I filled it with scrap from around the farm and pull it across the scale and get $260 of my $300 back. So net I am $40 into a new transmission.

About 6 months later I again am on Facebook and find a 2003 Trailblazer EXT for $500 with a rod knock. Life happens and this project gets shoved to the back of my farm shop and basically forgotten about until 2 weeks ago when my daughter wrapped the Envoy around a tree. So now the Trailblazer engine swap got shuffled to the top of the list again.

More on this swap to come...........

 

[Traz]

Man you have some luck, looking forward to reading more though! Good Luck o7

 

[hmath10]

Day 1 - My younger son (G) and I rolled the mud truck project (95 Chevy 2500 with 12 inches of lift on 40’s getting a built 6.0 LS swap) out of the shop and rolled the Trailblazer in to start exctracting the knocking engine. Thankfully he is a great helper and at 14 can swing a wrench better than a lot of adults I know. About 45 minutes later we have it sitting up on the tall jack stands and the front suspension completely out. This is where things start to get interesting. The front strut on the passengers side is leaking oil. Add new struts to the shopping list. We then start removing the radiator, condenser grill, headlight support, and other stuff in the way. About 4 hours in we decided to call it a day.

Day 2 - We moved the enough of my daughters 9n tractor restoration project to get the donor engine unchained from the wall and on the engine stand. Spent an hour looking for the gasket sets and seals I had purchased for this project about 18 months ago. While I was doing this G was pulling the intake and valve cover off. Both of those went in for a soak while we pulled a few more items off. Installed new front main seal, new tty balancer bolt, new belt tensioner, idler pulley, new thermostat and water pump. Somewhere along the way the 4wd actuator and front differential got separated from the engine. We decided that we would just reuse the ones in the Trailblazer. Installed the valve cover and called it a day.

Day 3 - After work we crawled under and started pulling the exhaust, driveshafts and crossmember out. Lowered the transmission enough to remove the top bolts and at some point we decided to just drop the transmission and transfer case out. So on to the transmission jack and roll it all out of the way.

Day 4 - Wife’s Accord breaks down about an hour away from home, get the truck and trailer hitched up and go pull it home in an ice storm. Pull the TB off the jack stands and on to the skates, slide it aside and pull her car in.

Day 5 - Accord has bad alternator. @#$& just put a new one in October, might have something to do with the oil the was leaking out of the valve cover on to it before I repaired it in November.

 

[JayArr]

What I really want to see right now are some pictures of your shop. It sounds like you've got lots of room!

 

[hmath10]

It’s a 40 x 60 pole building. Just gotten good at cramming a lot of stuff in. Just wish it taller sidewalls so I could put a lift in.

 

[JayArr]

40 X 60 is nothing to sneeze at, I'm crammed into a 20 X 20 double garage and some of my buddies (with single garages) think I've got a lot of space.

Good luck getting the Honda Alt rebuilt and back to the TB.

 

[northcreek]

WHAT! ....a Honda broke down ?

 

[hmath10]

Yep.. 3.5L with variable cylinder management- not one of their best designs.

The trailblazer has been kicking my butt the last week. Had enough for today but will update the rest of the story soon.

 

[hmath10]

Well I finally got it on the road. Daughter drove it to school this morning. This turned into a larger project than I expected!

I lost track of the day by info but we I think have rebuilt most everything we have taken off. I have also made myself several new tools. I run a metal fabrication and machine shop at my full time job so I have access to a mill and lathe. I made a new heavy duty lower ball joint press receiver adapter, the OTC one i had bent last time I used on the old Envoy. I machined one out a 2" forged pipe coupling I had laying around at work. I works better than the OTC tool ever thought of. I made a lifting bracket for the engine that has just a little more angle to the rear than the factory one. I also made a set of tools for checking the back lash on a front differential.

We went to unbolt the front differential from the old engine and bolt them onto the new one and noticed a heavy cluck noise when I turned it on its side. The ring and pinion were shot and somehow the inner seal and bearing adjuster had backed out allowing the ring gear and carrier to move almost 1/2". I had to dig through my storage and see if I could find the other differential assembly I had removed from the Envoy I had scrapped a couple of years ago. We found it and it actually had the correct gear ratio, but had been sitting open collecting dust and dirt in my hay shed for a couple of years. We tore it down and found three worn bearings in it. We rebuilt it and made some new tools along the way.

The axle disconnect actually still worked but we decided to put new bearings in it as well.

I will update more later.

 

[Mooseman]

This turned into a larger project than I expected!

It always does. Glad you got it done! 👍

 

[northcreek]

I have also made myself several new tools. I run a metal fabrication and machine shop at my full time job so I have access to a mill and lathe. I made a new heavy duty lower ball joint press receiver adapter, the OTC one i had bent last time I used on the old Envoy. I machined one out a 2" forged pipe coupling I had laying around at work. I works better than the OTC tool ever thought of.

Yeah, that lower BJ is a bugger, when replacing mine I broke the press that I borrowed from Advance. If only GM would have provided a decent perch for the press, so hard to press straight. I actually ended up dissecting the BJs and piecing them out, you are wise to have made a better tool because nobody else does. 👍

 

[hmath10]

I am thinking about making a hydraulic ball joint press. I have a 12”x 16”x 2.5” thick piece of 7075 aluminum left over from a prototype project at work. Thinking I might make a billet press c-frame and then put either a 5 or 10 ton x 10” stroke ram in it.

I kind of enjoy making new tools. Last year I made a set of bushing installers for my daily driver Subaru rear control arms so I could “pull” new bushings in without having to remove the arm from the car. I used a 10 ton x 3” stoke hollow hole hydraulic cylinder with a tapered sleeve I made out 1.5” DOM tube to “squeeze” the bushing as it pulled through.

 

[hmath10]

My wife drove it to go shopping tonight and I had a P014 code. Looks like I will be pulling the camshaft position actutator solenoid tomorrow night and cleaning and/or replacing it.

 

[Mooseman]

For the trouble, I'd just replace it. ACDelco or Delphi only.