I posted some info up in the Newbies section of the GM forums, but figured I'd start a build thread for my 1994 GMC Sierra SLE K1500. My wife and I just went and trailered the truck home a week ago. When we bought it the side of the truck (windows included) was spray painted black. I took a razor blade to the windows to clear off the windows, which made an absolute beautiful difference. Anyway, the truck was purchased with no engine, and it seems the folks who took out the motor didn't care one bit about anything else. The 4L60E transmission is still in the truck minus the Torque Converter. There are a few holes in the engine bay that I'm not sure what fills them. I'll post a few various images with questions and hope to hear from some of you GM enthusiasts.


This empty slot is located beneath the A/C (condensor)?? and is on the passenger side firewall. Any ideas as to what is normally located in this location?

 

19 views and nobody seems to know what this opening is usually plugged with? Would it be better if I got an image taken from further out, to better show exactly where this location is? This thread will be my build thread for the 94, so any help that people can give would be appreciated. I know i"m just the new guy, but look forward to hearing from you folks.

 

That is where a wiring harness goes from the engine bay into the cab.

 

Thats what I thought too Shamrock...but with it being on the passengers side it didnt make sense....its been quite a while since ive had my hands on an early 90s model

 

Thanks for the replies guys. It seemed like an odd shape/configuration for a wiring harness. What confused me was being located where it is. I'll have to see if I can't find a donor truck to take a look at. Thanks again for the replies, will post more info on my progress soon.

BTW I dropped the old Exhaust out...well what was left of it anyway.



I'll be searching for a suitable replacement once I locate an engine...

 

What motor was originally in it? Take a look in a few pick and pull your parts salvage yards. You will find all sorts of answers to your questions and possibly a few goodies along the way. Good Luck! Keep us posted.

 

Originally the truck had the 5.7 350. I'm pretty keen on going back with that engine. I was thinking about beefing it up with the 454, but decided to be conservative and go 350. I've got a few salvage yards around that we've been calling. Seems these trucks are hard to find. I guess they're built so well people just hold on to them.

I'll definitely keep you guys posted on how the truck gets along. Appreciate your feedback! Another question some of you may be able to help me with is the best way to remove spray paint from the side of a truck.

 

Okay so I've had some time to look over the information in the truck. Pulled out the glovebox, and found that there was no ECM. The previous people just cut it right out of the truck. I've located a 92-94 GMC sierra 2500 SLE and am wondering if anyone could tell me if the ECM out of this truck would work properly in my 1500?

 

Been a while since I had any news to post about the Purple Beast, but I've got some amazing news! I just went down and paid a mechanic friend of mine 225 for a 350 TBI and all the wiring/computer/guages needed from a suburban, we're going to retrofit everything in to the Sierra. We'll be taking the engine out of the suburban on october 5th of this year, and are still searching for a transmission. The burban tranny is going to go into a derby car. I'm trying to decide between the 700r4 of the TH350, but will have to do some more reading on the differences.

Hope to get started on the build soon enough, and have it done before General Rifle Season here in Montana.

 

Well we went to rip the engine out of the suburban today. Got up to the mechanics house and decided to just buy the entire suburban. He still needs to take the transmission for his derby car, but we bought the rest of the burban for a mere 250 more. Total into this vehicle of 475. I figure this way I can take the time to carefully remove all wiring needed to fit everything into the Sierra. This is a 1988 Chevy suburban 3/4 ton with the THM400 trans. I think I'm going to go to a 700r4 for the sierra, but have to locate a decently priced one and rebuild with better components. He was informed by the previous owners of the suburban that the engine was replaced with a newer one. I'll have to wait until I can get to the rear to check the numbers for information. Hope to have an update for everyone soon enough.