PY Online Forums - Bringing the Pontiac Hobby Together - Fun summer driver, first LS/Vortec platform

While I will NEVER put a LS in my traditional Pontiac, my LeMans continues to evolve into more and more of a track car, and between the not so driver friendly features and the limiting wear and tear, I picked up a 98 S-10 that had already head the LS conversion done. I think at one time, it was done pretty nicely, but has since changed hands several times, and has slowly been run down, and neglected. I think I bought it right, it was having intermittent starting issues that seem to be fixed with some better grounds, and removal of the aftermarket remote start system.

What I know..
The motor is out of a 2002 Silverado, and appears to be a bone stock 5.3 from that parts yard. The performance was very disapointing, I took it to the local track and it ran a best of 9.71 in the 1/8 with stock street tires and steel wheels. I ordered some heavy aftermarket 5 spoke wheels for it and put skinnies and 255 drag radials on it and it slowed down about 0.15-0.20.
I ordered a 3500 stall converter from Freakshow Performance and come to find out that the 4L60E trans is not the matching one for the 02 5.3 motor, it had an older style 4L60E with the different snout length. So after swapping them out, we have a converter for it, the transmission appears to be rebuilt, or a reman, not sure, but it had a reman stock type converter in it previously, so hopefully this new Freakshow will wake it up.

What I think..
I think this was a fun little truck at first, the axle code shows it as being an original 4 cyl truck with the 4.11 gear.
That being said, the truck has a throttle body plate kit installed from Nitrous Outlet, so someone has had fun, which also might explain the incorrect rebuilt trans and reman converter, Also when trying to correct the speedometer with the scan tool, we determined that it has a 3.73 gear, not the 4.11, so I would say the trans and original rear end have been blown out of it and replaced at some point.

The truck weighs 3550 with me in it, a full tank of gas, and the heavy wheels and tires, and a full sized spare. It still has all the AC stuff minus the compressor, which I plan on getting working this summer. It has 3 way 90/10 shocks on the front and either aftermarket springs or torch special springs, the rear suspension is bone stock right down to the shocks with the exception of a block flip on the rear springs.

I am looking forward to playing with this thing on test and tune nights and for just cruising after work to blow off some steam from time. I would like to do a cam in the future, but I think the motor would have to come all the way out to do it on the pickup, so its down the road a a little bit. I just threw some new ebay injectors in it and we are going to get the nitrous plate set up with 100 shot and see what it does! I will try to keep this thread posted with changes and results for anyone who is interested.