98 2500 6.5

[Staufferjake]

Yea that's a great idea. I'm sure that I'll be confused for sure

 

[WarWagon]

See if a reman engine is available from your favorite builder. Even a crate engine.

 

[Staufferjake]

No remand and crate motor is 2500 $ before the aluminum covers or anything else from my local parts store

 

[MrMarty51]

No remand and crate motor is 2500 $ before the aluminum covers or anything else from my local parts store

Last crate enjun I bought was a 4.3 and I ordered it through the local GM dealer.
I imagine price be about the same but be worth a check.

 

[Husker6.5]

Sounds like he's on a rock bottom budget.

 

[Staufferjake]

@Husker6.5
yes Rock bottom budget at that have been searching for a motor for a year now

 

[jrsavoie]

@Husker6.5
yes Rock bottom budget at that have been searching for a motor for a year now

Sometimes it's easier to find a donor vehicle than an engine.

Maybe a good runner with a bad trans, rust or that needs a front end. Some you can even drive home.

Parting out after the swap can get a little money back.

And there are always things you didn't account for that a donor will sometimes provide

I've seen motors on wheels go for as cheap as $500

 

[Staufferjake]

With the price of used vehicles everyone wants way to much for their trucks or they aren't willing to part with them yet. Around me at least

 

[jrsavoie]

And others send them for scrap. You just have to be in the right place at the right time. You're looking for the vehicle about to be scrapped.

 

[dbrannon79]

@Staufferjake the 90 motor should work But... since you don't have an engine in your 98 rig now, you might run into some snags. one example is needing the 98 intake and possibly the timing cover. iirc the 98 has a crank sensor in on the timing cover with a ring on the crank. idk if the 90 has this. you might need to venture out to the pick a part junk yards and look for these, also if you find one with a 454 in it. if not buying it at core price for all the accessories, brackets, intake and such. take plenty of detailed photos of the engine to compare differences in the 90 block.

look on car-part.com for a motor with the same year as yours. you might score big on a decent low mileage engine. plus that site will tell you what years and chassis trucks / vans are the same too

 

[Staufferjake]

I knew swapping the intake and what-not. Is that crank sensor what the salvage yard says cause issues? They say it's a "knock sensor" which 90 doesn't have. But 98 needs ?

 

[dbrannon79]

the crank sensor is needed for the ecm to fire the spark plugs, read rpm and set timing advance same as the earlier years used a distributor pickup sensor (under the cap and rotor). the knock sensor the ecm uses to retard timing and "listen" for knocks like if it suddenly wants to throw a rod the ecm is or supposed to be quick to respond to go into a limp mode to hopefully make it home or to a safe stopping place. that part usually doesn't work though, throwing false positives to the ecm making trouble for owners and mechanics lol

 

[dbrannon79]

your 98 will have to have the knock sensor installed or it won't run right and throw lights and codes at you. only way to "delete" it is to have someone do a custom tune on the ecm

 

[Staufferjake]

Ok that's wherever been hesitant to buy the older motor. What's a custom tune on the ecm cost I wonder

 

[dbrannon79]

looking a car-part.com a 96 - 2000 should drop in without any modification or swapping things. best thing to do is a trip to the pick a part yard to find an older one and one within those years to look at for various differences. the block and heads should be the same though.

 

[MrMarty51]

Ok that's wherever been hesitant to buy the older motor. What's a custom tune on the ecm cost I wonder

Knock sensor can screw into a drain plug hole above the oil pan level. I think they work okay in that position.

 

[dbrannon79]

very true, I think GM had the issues they did with that model and the location the knock sensor was in. moving it somewhere so it picks up less "knock" might help it.