I need help on where to get parts places to look for problems others have ran into doing this… I’m new to swaps but I have got to make this work lol… any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

I have no advice to share but I am interested in hearing the stories along the way. A 5.3L in place of the 2.2 sounds like a hell of an upgrade if it fits.

 

So far I’m happy with step 1 of fitment!!!

Slightly off center here… would help line up if I had Tranny tho…

Hopefully I get answers and figure it out before 2027 🤣🤣🤣

Water pump may have to go electric or may have to work some magic…engine hoist bolt is holding it 3” from firewall as well…

Intake and throttle body gotta be downsized…

Headers may be a problem…

Started trying to fit it…

 

wow, that's going to be a cool *** truck when done!

 

Thanks… I need some input on motor mounts, intake, radiator, fan, water pump, relocation brackets, trans coolers, rear end, driveshaft… if anyone has any ideas I’m up for possibilities lol…

 

I take too tall as well as throttle body…

Water pump maybe a issue

Headers going to be tricky…

 

not sure how good you are with a welder.... but if you have any basic fabrication skills i think you could potentially solve almost any of your above issues. start with some type of base motor mount and cut it apart and make whatever attatchments you may need along the way. headers you could probably buy a universal kit and make your own. or start with a s10 kit or something like that and just cut and piece whatever pipes need moved around. i think some of the car intakes are lower like the ls2 intake. water pump issue may be solved with goin to an electric one maybe. not sure. i havent seen an ls in a little mazda truck yet...i just bought my 92 rust bucket which i plan on restoring the bdoy and cleaning the motor and maybe a small rebuild on it. it runs very well just dirty and nasty looking under the hood. need a good cleaning. and probably go thru and just replace all the gaskets and anythign else i find a long the way. im trying to build a static drop every day driver that gets decent fuel milage. maybe perhaps one day go with a fuel injected 4cyl out of a miata or 929. not sure yet.

 

Has anyone used these style swap mount plates on any of their builds? Just curious if they adapt to stock engine mounts from the original 4cylinder engine…

 

I did the same thing with a 5.3L, but I used a 4L60E. It all fits like it should have been there from the factory. Some things fit exceptionally well. There was a little 'massaging' of the transmission tunnel but no major cutting or welding.
I made a bunch of custom bracketry on a CNC plasma cutter when I did mine, I have since started to sell it. If you shoot me an email I can send you the info.
You'll need a lower intake manifold, I used an LS6 one. Any LS1 or LS6 intake is $$$, LS4 is $ but less air flow.
I'd splurge for a shallower oil pan, mines quite low and will have to be fixed eventually.
Headers aren't bad. I got a set of S10 or S15 ss headers off ebay for $140 CAD, the only thing I had to mess with was the steering shaft. I cut out that thick hollow tube and put in a skinnier solid rod.
I used the truck crank pulley and accessories, except I got a 2010 Camaro SS water pump. The water pump return on the truck pumps hits the DBW throttle body once you put a lower intake manifold on. But your pics look like you already have an LS1 pump.
One really cool thing we found out is if you used the corvette fuel filter / regulator combo it fits in exactly the same place as the B2200 fuel filter on the firewall. Looks factory and lets you reuse the Mazda fuel lines (mostly)!
I'm trying to use the stock rad, it's cold in Canada so we'll see how it goes. I lowered it and moved it forward, put 2 big fans on it. This required some minor cutting of the rad support.
Wiring wasn't hard, I just followed lt1swap.com videos.
I made my own motor mounts but mounted them to the same points on the frame as the 2.2 sat.
I put in a ford 8.8 rear end from a 1997 explorer, LSD with 3.73 gears. Front brakes and master cylinder are off an 01 (?) Explorer
Relocated the battery to the box.
All in all, it hasn't been that bad!
Good luck!

 

Thanks for all the info I’ll have to look some of that up… I found a 92 NV3500 that I had to drive 3 hours to pick up and it was covered in grease but now I’ve got it cleaned up for the most part… going to rebuild it and change the gear ratio in it… I had to replace the throw out bearing and fork so far and I’ve gotta get a short throw shifter for it… I also had to buy a 2002 clutch flywheel as well as a clutch kit for a 4.8L to fit the splines on the transmission and the diameter of the bell housing… still having trouble finding engine mounts and wiring harness and ecm… I appreciate all the info… I’ll post pics when I get tranny mounted to engine this weekend…