There is a fellow on facebook I know that makes a crossmember for 2wd trucks that has the notching for duals if you want. Look up Tejas Steelworks on facebook. If you want to talk to him live you can call him at 512-470-0153 and he is located a little North of Austin, Tx. His crossmember is specifically for clearance on large diameter dual exhaust setups, and it's adjustable for most whatever you have in your truck and I am not sure there is a cheaper one to be found overall. (about 120 USD).
His website is here
https://squareup.com/market/tejassteelworks/ and he will sell you all the parts and ship them to you. Scotty Bacus is the owner, also does most of the welding and he designs a few good parts for LS swaps in C10, 20 and 30 trucks as well. If you have questions pick up the phone and give him a call. He's an awesome fellow and its worth spending the money on his products. He ships them in raw steel (with a rust protecant on it) and you can clean and then paint or powder to your preference.
He also makes a swap motor mount and if you go with electric fans he makes a good fan shroud that is out of aluminum and uses third gen Fbody fans (GM parts all the way!!!). I have not purchased the shroud yet but I did get the PCM bracket for mounting on the drivers fender and he's a great fellow to know. He's also done full swaps and offers a lot of support to the squarebody community in general. If you are have more questions join this facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/267895843406925/
There is a plethora of knowledge there (also a bunch of people that or full of it too so don't assume too many of those idiots are telling you anything other than their opinion.
When it comes to LS swaps there are a lot of different ways to approach it. Not sure how far you are along with your prep work, but some are hacks and full of their own opinons to a point where it could be detrimental. Some people will address what you want in multiple ways and tell you they can do it for 500 dollars. They are pretty much full of crap when they say that stuff, because if it was that cheap everyone would be doing it over a weekend. In the end there are a lot of dumb things people will suggest that are time wasters (I found out first hand).
If you want the least problems here is what I would recomend to start with (as far as buying parts and spending money):
- Tejas Steelworks Swap motor mounts.
- " " Trans crossmember
- " " PCM mount
- " " Electric Fan Shroud
- LSX specialties for Harness Cleanup and PCM programming (under no circumstances deal with a guy named Kenny Cash, in case his name ever comes up) - The money on a good harness is well spent, and the tune is required to remove the antitheft garbage. Also plan on once you get it running having a dyno tune done because the tune they leave on the PCM is usually a safe tune that is made to get the truck running reliably but it might not produce the most power or the best efficiency. Plan on asking the harness builder to add the OBD port to the harness if you don't get your motor and harness with one
- Hooker LS Truck Swap headers for simple exhaust- There are other brands but I have seen many problems with them - Schoenfield is known to be a a good brand also if you really want long tube headers but make sure and get their second gen version
- If you are sticking with a Auto try to get your trans and motor together with the same PCM and harness.... It's just less issue down the road. If you have a 700R4 you think you want to stick with you'll need to get a DBC motor and this will also give you the best performance and street manners without having to open up the transmission.
- You can still have cruise and AC if your AC was working, but you just might need to adapt a cruise module from a later 90's silverado or other similar vehicle and have some custom hoses made to attach to the AC compressor on the LS motor.
- Plan on getting a custom balanced aluminum drive shaft (and here is why). The LS motor will easily put down 220 to 230 to the street in stock form if you are using a 4l60E and the smaller tires and wheels that usually go on the c10's, so the custom driveshaft will just help keep things from kerploding. It's why most trucks now days have them. You can usually get a good one out of a late model z71 and then it's just a matter of finding a driveline shop to take or ship it to for length adjustment and balancing. It'll have the yoke you need on both ends, and depending on the truck it might actually be the right length to start with (but I highly doubt it unless you find a regular cab truck with a bed that matches whatever yours is.
That's all I can throw in the pot for the moment but if you have any other LS swap related questions please feel free to give me a shout. I'm no expert but I have done enough wrong or bought the wrong parts once or twice enroute to getting the right parts and I always hate it when that happens due to bad advice or bad service from others that were hacks.
And FWIW here is what my LS swapped Jimmy is looking like right now. I just have the motor and primary drivetrain mocked in place to make sure everything fits, and once my house is finished being built I'll have a bigger garage to work so I just have the whole project on hold for now but once I get moved in I'm going to take it all apart, do some welding on a couple rust floorboard spots, make my own custom 4 x 4 trans crossmember, swap in my 3/4 ton axles, and then clean, paint, and install a new wiring harness for the whole chassis. What you can't tell thanks to me adding the engine cover, is that the wiring harness is ugly as sin but that is why I made a bracket to bolt that larger engine cover on the older style intake. The problem with it is it's too short in some areas or too long in others, but that is why I mentioned to not use that person.
You must be registered for see images attach
