Planning My Rebuild

[Patzfan4eva]

I've recently secured a 1985 K20 6.2 Diesel and am beginning to plan my rebuild. As a new member, would love to hear thoughts and opinions on engines, drive driveline upgrade and comi California concerns.

*Note I'm planning on this to be my daily driver and am leaning towards a mild 454 powerplant*

 

[eskimomann209]

You have a 6.2 diesel. That’s a smog exempt rig in CA.
You can put whatever you want in it and need not tell the DMV anything.
I’d LS swap it. Have done it in the past and will continue to do it in the future.
Now build a wicked engine in it and get pulled over by the wrong cop. He could say something about it.

 

[Bextreme04]

Well, it all depends on your level of comfort in skirting smog. Technically with your truck being a diesel, you can probably get away with putting whatever you want in there. But if they ever figure out you have swapped in a gas powerplant, they will end up making you meet CARB standards. My recommendation, if you want to go with a 454, would be to buy a complete 96-99 K2500 with the 454/4L80E and swap the whole thing over and get the CARB signoff. You can gain good power and mileage upgrades over the stock setup with a cam grind and injectors and then you will be future proofed and legal. The stock L29 454 with a cam, injectors, and 0411 swap is going to be in the 350-400hp range and stupid amounts of torque. The 4L80 is going to be bulletproof too.

 

[eskimomann209]

Again, you’d have to seriously piss off CHP in order for that to happen. It’s not like it’s a hot rod.
I have LS swapped at least 10 diesels and no one has ever had an issue.
But keep playing Russian roulette and the possibility is always there.

 

[Bextreme04]

I had heard something about CARB starting to crack down and issue "vehicle checks" on some of the pre-smog diesels. You basically had to bring in your vehicle to a smog check station for them to make sure it was still a diesel. I haven't lived there in quite a while, so I'm not sure how prevalent that actually is or how true that rumor might be......

 

[Raider L]

I don't see how ya'll put up with it. It's all such a scam and a rip off. That's like inspection stickers. Are you telling me a brand new car needs an inspection right out of the dealership? Or after the first year to make sure it's doing...what? Still running? Yeah, yeah, I know if you're going to live in CA then you learn to get away with what you can get away with. But with Biden and the leftists wanting to get rid of all gasoline cars by 2030, unless we have a civil war before then I say liberals first. They want all that clean air then I want them on foot first. Then I'll give them a week and they'll be begging for their air conditioned gasoline drinking cars back. After one of those liberal bia'ch'es has to walk to every meeting they have all over Washington D.C. in the Summer maybe they'll give up on all this stupid global warming crap and leave the rest of us alone. Liberals first on everything!!

 

[hpio7375]

Again, you’d have to seriously piss off CHP in order for that to happen. It’s not like it’s a hot rod.
I have LS swapped at least 10 diesels and no one has ever had an issue.
But keep playing Russian roulette and the possibility is always there.

Any info or threads on this swap? I’m leaning twords 6.0 or 5.3 on a diesel suburban.

 

[Mark Jones]

Again, you’d have to seriously piss off CHP in order for that to happen. It’s not like it’s a hot rod.
I have LS swapped at least 10 diesels and no one has ever had an issue.
But keep playing Russian roulette and the possibility is always there.

We tend to live in a society of ******* now, I say do what you want.....................

 

[eskimomann209]

Any info or threads on this swap? I’m leaning twords 6.0 or 5.3 on a diesel suburban.

Honestly on these trucks it’s all pretty similar whether it started as a diesel or a gasser.

Gotta find an FI tank so the 87+ tanks, I run braided lines from the tank to the intake manifold.
Stand alone harness, I swap to the 90/91 suburban cluster because they support the vss output from the LS pcm.

Only thing that could be a hurdle is if you’re in Ca. Then you need to add the evap canister and lines plus the bcm and the pressure valve to the gas tank.

 

[shiftpro]

A 4x4 daily driver for California..? Ok I guess I'm not needed here haha.