[06 h3]

I will repost this from another thread on a hummer forum you guys do the motor swaps so I know you guys have more info. I blew my motor at KOH, the offroad race this weekend.

Sorry I didnt get to meet up with you much this weekend. I will explain why, lol. First off you are dead on accurate on how the wheeling is a whole different level. It is some of the most unforgiving terrain.

I have been beating the piss outta squeaky for 5-6 years now. Luckily I have been **** free for the most part. Well this weekend **** hit the fan. In the past, replace a diff or two but **** free. This weekend I took out a rear diff cover, a rear driveshaft, a motor, a dent in the door, ripped my driver rear fender off, rear locker is done. If you are not ON YOUR GAME **** will get ruined out here.

On top of all that I was wrenching on other peoples rigs also, I didnt even watch the race.

So it all started with Thursday, we were driving along and before I left I had checked the oil all was well. As we were driving I started to hear knocking, I quickly pull over as I kill the motor the oil pressure light came on. I had oil ALL over the place. Kyle ran a mile down the road picked up a ton of oil. filled her back up. drove to an autozone then had it towed to hammers. I knew the damage was done so why not have some fun.

So I get back go to sleep, I lost a little bit of oil but not much. We went back to camp tried to track down the oil leak, non existent. WTF! Either way we call it a night. Friday morning everyone is up going to watch the race but when my buddy was egged on to a tug of war he blew his axle shafts. So I spent a few hours pulling the axle shafts, they didnt wanna come out, etc. it was a nightmare. Either way we got it done and driving in 2wd. Then my brothers bearings in the tire carrier failed. Had to fix and jerry rig his tire carrier. Before you know its late, we start the fire wait for 10pm when the trails open. We hit up clawhammer. I did that trail last year and it killed me, all bypasses and still got stuck 4-5 times. This year I took all the hardlines and winched once after my locker died. My driving was HORRIBLE Between the knocking motor, little sleep, wrenching all day, I wasnt on my game. I took horrible lines and killed a driveline, small dent, and rear fender which popped off. BEST OF ALL THE fender prevented more damage and pops right back in and doesnt even show the damage that could of been done to the body.

Overall it was an interesting weekend, I dont wanna say it was ****ty but it wasnt the best lol. I will have stories for a lifetime.

After everyone breaking we decided to leave early. Im driving down the road and keeping the load off the motor as best as I could. Next thing you know BANG, motor parts down the road white smoke. I killed the motor and got out with my fire extinguisher ready within seconds. Got a AAA tow, home my buddies dodge ram 2500 then lost voltage. In a small little town we pull over to think we were pulling out the tools and getting ready to change an alternator. Luckily the wire from the alternator to the battery ripped. Jerry rigged it back together chased down a dude for a jump and got home.

What can I take away from this weekend? From a positive point? How prepared I was. I felt this weekend could of gone EXTREMELY worse. From a tow standpoint between 2 tows I owed the the tow truck drivers less then 200 bucks total. It could of been over 2,000 bucks in tows if I was not a AAA member with the 1 200 mile tow and 3 100 mile tows. I only had one slip yoke between 2 driveshafts. I had to swap it on the trail in the dark. If I did not have a harbor freight ball joint removal tool it would have taken me HOURS to change the slip yoke. Instead it was under a 30 min repair. The spare fluids I had, without those it would have been bad. Really good sealant. As I poked a hole through the cover I lost some fluid but had someone hold there finger on it and within seconds I had DAP auto/marine sealant poured on there. It stopped the leak ASAP. If not I would have lost all my fluid. Lastly, the knowledge I have acquired. I am not tooting my horn, I still know nothing and want to learn more but without the knowledge I had acquired throughout the years and the tool to improvise under stressful ****ty situations I could still be out there with a lot more issues.

If I was not prepared I could of been screwed. For example, no rear driveline I would loose all fluid in the t case, fry that up, with no sealant I would have toasted my bearings, with no oil I could have blown a hole in the motor on a trail making it even worse. with no ball joint press I could of been changing a 30min swap into hours. It was the best outcome for the worst disaster.

Being SELF SUFFICIENT is KEY!!!!!

Where do I even start? Do I go new reman? Used? Do I swap over accessories? Get new ones? 3.5? 3.7? 5.3? This is all being realistic...it's a daily driver. Minimal down time with minimal cost. Obviously it's all cost benefit Analysis. 5.3s are so common they may be cheaper. Do I do it myself? Bring it somewhere?

Colorado guys do 5.3s all the time from 3.5/3.7s but idk about firewall mods.

Very overwhelming....I'm in my last semester of college. Woohoo! But I have a ton of work there with regular work 25-30 hours and may be picking up hours now lol Luckily my dad has drilled it into my head since I was young to save money for a rainy day. from the looks of it I can most definitely fund this myself no problem which is good but they will loan me money and pay them back in payments if I need it so that takes a ton of stress off atleast.

Just don't know where to start lol

where do you guys find motors? How much? Is the 3.7 worth it? Im in california whats legal? 5.3 tough?

 

[04colyZQ8]

This must be Chris truck? The guy I'm doing the harness for a 07 5.3L?

 

[olds88]

hey guy u do have a diesel option there is a guy over on 4btswaps that put a 4bt in his h3 and he makes the parts to do it

 

[gway]

I'll sell you a 3.7l bored .20 over lol.

 

[04colyZQ8]

hey guy u do have a diesel option there is a guy over on 4btswaps that put a 4bt in his h3 and he makes the parts to do it

I think I seen that, sick!! It was pretty cool! I want to see a 4x4 Colorado do one!

 

[06 h3]

Hey guys! I got a 5.3/4l60e from a wrecked 07 envoy with 36k miles on it.

I decided to go this route because I needed more power. Even with 5.13 gears pushing 37s loaded with spare parts tools and camping gear the 3.5 was barely cutting it. I also plan to go to a 14 bolt in the rear one day, hyrbid cage (partial exo partial internal) and the 3.5 would just continue to suffer with added weight to pull around. So now its out of its misery and is dead and the 5.3 goes in.

I love the 4bt idea. I really do but its a ton of weight and I would have to regear my axles again back to 4.56s and it would be more time and money. He is also still trying to figure out how to get rid of the reduced power mode which takes away traction control. CaseyS is a super cool dude and has a badass H3 with a 4bt but right now that wasnt in the books for me.

I know mileage will stay for the same for me at roughly 12mpg which sucks for a daily driver so I do wish I went to the 4bt for mileage, hes getting about 22 now.

Either way, who knows the 5.3 may blow up in 10 years or so and it may be time for a 4bt.

This H3 isnt going anywhere. I have to much time invested in it, too many hours under a vehicle in the driveway with sparks flying and weld spatter going down my shoes in 110 degree heat vs being at the beach with friends. So the rig will evolve and change as time goes by.

Either way here are some pics









harness is already at Jamie's

Rebuilding my busted e locker







Revalving my shocks while I have the motor out



swapped to an H3 alpha pan



and alpha headers on the driver side









motor is in but I have a few concerns, first of all the motor mounts are not positioned right... on the envoy motor it appears to have 3 sets of holes so I can put motor mounts further up or back, I need the motor to go further back for sure! The fan was hitting so I just cut it to get it in and theres enough room back there for me to literally fit my legs between the firewall and motor but putting it the other configuration makes it seem like its gonna hit really bad!

I also need to trim the motor mounts to clear the headers.

Im gonna get back on it thursday/friday busy with school and work.

Transmission will be done thursday, I had both 4l60e's so they are swapping the output shaft and tailhousing over to the envoy trans, keeping that one because it has input speed sensor I need for the harness. I am having the beast sun shell installed, upgraded clutches, corvette servos, better torque converter keeping the same stall though. Typical stuff being done.

The accumulator from the H3 needs to be transferred over to accommodate the H3 pan. Its clearanced for the driveshaft so and the envoy accumulator would hit the pan.

I need it done around April 3rd for moab so I can go do this....

 

[seffieldvillage]

Awesome h3, tons of credit for doing it yourself. Look forward to updates.

 

[t-bone]

That's a crazy pic

On another note do u have leather interior and wanna trade lol

 

[gway]

This guys jealous.

 

[Sarge]

Being in California, and this being your daily driver, how are you going to get around CARB?

 

[06 h3]

Thanks guys!!

Yea I have leather but I need those heated seats when snow wheeling lol

Seeing it's a daily driver I have a rental car, costco travel literally cuts prices in half.

I will keep it legal by following the steps to do legal ca engine swaps

1) motor must be from same year or newer. I'm an 06 motor is 07...good there
2) motor must be from a vehicle in same vehicle class. Which an envoy and h3 are.
3) retain emission equipment. Which I am. All emission crap is staying along with cats

Then bring it down to the a referee at the dmv and get it smogged

 

[Sarge]

Ah, cool. Didn't know the Envoy was considered in the same class.

 

[TurboAl]

we have the same CARB rules here if you want to stay legal

 

[06 h3]

have any of you guys have issues with your current performance motor mounts not lining up

Motor and trans are in but the motor mounts dont want to line up its that they are hole is further outward. Almost like you would have to redrill a new hole.

 

[06 h3]

Ok so today was a great day! Getting the motor, trans, t case in was tough at first, for some reason the motor mounts seem that it was too close together at the frame rail causing the bolts to not line up. That was where I had left off but going in with a fresh mind it dawned on me that when I had put on my bumper it seemed as if I had to actually bring my framerails in together a tad by ratchet strapping and eventually adding in a crossmember, It added a good amount of rigidity to the frame I guess because once I removed the bumper and crossmember it allowed the frame rails to spread enough to get the motor to drop right in to the mounts. BIZARRE! Either way with all the off roading and side winching I have done my frame rails may not be as straight as others but I do not have legit proof on that via a body shop. Its just an assumption. Either way I got the motor mounts in. It was a sigh of relief, so yes Current performance Motor mounts do work! then put my crossmember and bumper back on


The mounts are slotted so when it was time line up the trans/t case mount I could move it to make it line up. I had the motor as far forward as possible, they did fit but ideally the motor should have been up just ever so slightly to make it fit perfectly. My crossmember is not stock, when I did the SAS I made a new one to allow the use of longer control arms and when I built it it fit PERFECTLY with the OEM setup so I dont believe its the custom crossmember I made but the placement is ever so slightly off. Either way I can modify the crossmember a tad to move the mount back literally less then a 1/4 of an inch but like CaseyS said if its within a half of inch I should be fine.

After that it was time to get the flex plate bolted up to the torque converter and when I started to bolt the starter up I noticed 2 things, with the new oil pan and a bellhousing from an envoy there were 2 bolts that were longer to accomdate the other oil pan that sat much further down and the 2 bolts interfered with the oil filter and the other starter. Simple fix though, get the same bolts but a half an inch shorter. I think the starter one, because its connected to the block it should have a shorter bolt but I couldnt find it, either way a shorter bolt will do it.





The big question was the intake manifold. The rest of the swap has gone in without major firewall modification but I heard the intake manifold would be the worst. I spent no more then 5 min hammering the pinch seam back and the intake manifold fit. This was awesome! For years when we had heard that the H3 alpha had firewall modifications I thought they were major but in reality its nothing crazy.





The A/C compressor was also reinstalled, I had to take it out because it was in the way of installing the frame motor mount bolt from earlier so I put that back on. I also put away the coolant tank and windshield washer tank too.

I took the envoy fan and fan clutch off as they stick out very far. I am going to get an alpha fan and clutch, they will sit closer to the block and will hopefully fit with the OEM radiator where as the envoy one would not.

no more fan for now



I also had to cap off the vaccum line for the brake booster, H3s dont need it so it was capped off.

old line and the new cap



Tomorrow is my longest day of the week and wont get to work on much but thursday I would like to get the A/C condenser, radiator, and intake box installed. Zach has my MAF sensor, o2 sensors and rad hoses on order so they should be here soon. Harness is here soon also. I also can reuse my return line for the PS lines so I will hook that up but I need to go get a new pressure line made for the power steering. These lines are MUCH shorter then the lines for the I5 on a SAS. The box and the pump are literally right next to each other where with the I5 they are on opposite sides of the truck.

I still need to figure out fuel lines, A/C lines will be custom made, I could order the H3 alpha ones but for the price I can probably have them made cheaper.

Its slowly getting there