Beretta.net Forum

https://youtu.be/2EbyinqJoKY

Getting rid of that 06 Burb did leave me with a couple situations (like buying a stove in the winter) that really would have been nice to have 8' enclosed cargo area. Like last year when I used it to get plywood and interior doors on a nasty winter day with salt flying everywhere - not the best time to use a 6.5' bed with the gate down.

So when this OBS Burb popped up for sale on marketplace I was intrigued. Super clean rust-wise (GMT400s are all rotten around here) and a smokin deal. Guy listed it for $2800 and I got it for 600 when he whined about all the reasons he had to get rid of it (thanks homeowners assoc!). Has a dead L31 Vortec 350 and the 4l60 is a 4l60. But I have a few 5.3s laying around, and LS swapping these is pretty easy. Fitment and wiring are both straightforward, and that NV4500 that I have and the floor shift 4x4 will go in a lot easier than the 06 would have.

Also scratches my GMT400 itch ever since selling my 94 Z71. So it's getting a black Chevy grille and maybe even a black/green 2tone job with some rattle cans. I like that it's not pristine cause I'll use it like a truck. And the wife isn't interested in driving it so I can build it exactly how I want. Works for me!

It's also an opportunity to sell more clutch pedal stuff. The S10 clutch pedals and pins I've been selling have taken off way better than expected. And the pedal bracket from these is no longer available from GM, so I designed my own improved design (fits early, late, and Wilwood/Tilton master cylinders) and maybe that will be my next cash cow. My buddy lasered some steel and it looks pretty good. We'll see how it goes.

Very nice! A friend of mine (well, he downgraded himself to 'acquaintance' with a neat little trick he pulled with me a couple of years ago, but it was his right to do what he did -a different non-story though) has a same-era P/U, and he is sick of the drivetrain (350 Vortec ~300k miles runs great, but he wants a carb on it). I'll look into your conversion parts for him when you green-light the setup. He want a five-speed in the truck too. Won't get rid of the rig, it was the first truck he bought new.
I'm gearing up to do my own pedal assembly for the my Seville STS, but I have no interest in fabbing one for someone else's truck.

I definitely like the two-tone black scheme. Good call, that should look about right!

I've confirmed it works for the 96+, and I have a buddy with a 94 I'm going to test it on.

Don't go carb. Wiring an LS into one of these is cake, and those are proper sequential port fuel injection...not the stupid poppet injectors like the 4.3/5.7. The LS going in this one was $300 and it doesn't need any of the "car" parts to fit like my Beretta did. The gen 3 99-06 engines literally drop in the 88-98 with a pair of $30 conversion mounts and the intake manifold, exhaust manifolds, accessories all fit. I was going to backburner this project, but it just looks too damn easy, and it'll be nice to have the closed cargo available again. Just picked up a couch yesterday. lol

woody90gtz wrote: ↑Fri Feb 06, 2026 11:03 pm Don't go carb. Wiring an LS into one of these is cake...

You can lead a horse to water... Carbs can run plenty of power, can be very economical, and extremely reliable. This guy's truck specifically is not my call either way. He is.. We will say, 'seasoned'. I don't think he wants anything to do with LS-Series engines (I've finally come around to being interested, but as yet I don't even have one). And he is fed-up with "all the electronic B***-S#!t". Can't say as I blame him, either. The electronics in his truck have been very unreliable for several years now, too much corrosion in the wiring, BCM faults, etc.

I don't have a problem with carbs, I still have them on a few of my own cars and all of my motorcycles, but have not retrofitted any to 'originally EFI' vehicles myself, it just seems wrong somehow... My '89 RS Camaro had been swapped to an older 350 with a carb, and I wanted none of it. The P/O kept the drivetrain, including the TH350 that he retrofit into it... but I got to keep the rear-disc Posi B/W 9-bolt rear-end and tubular-steel torque-beam (attaches to a linkage and plate that mounts to the transmission tunnel, instead of to the transmission itself). I swapped to a T-5 five-speed and dropped in a 5.7 EFI Police Special I got from a "Detective car" Caprice (unmarked, but with a plastic rear-seat and.. Interesting.. goodies, lower mileage and less hammered-on). Fast car, until I built my GTU and my Turbo LD9 Z-24 at least.

I agree the CPFI systems on the Vortec 5.7s and 4.3s suck. I've had to replace spiders on the older S-10s/S-15s because of the plastic lines cracking, the mid-90's rigs were absolutely notorious for it. Just not a great idea. Have you seen or used the MPFI conversion kits offered on those? I haven't looked at them for the 5.0 or 5.7 V-8s, but was eye-balling one for a customer's '01 S-10. Pretty nifty, comparable price-range as replacing the spider, too.

Understood. And the early LS engines are right on the cusp of the "too much electronic BS" cliff. The 99-02 trucks are the sweet spot, less BCM crap and still cable throttle and more commonly floor shift 4x4. (Except the introduction of the 8.1 and Dmax in 01 brought DBW before the 03 changeover for the LS trucks...and my 8.1 just started giving me electronic throttle body problems - time to convert it to DBC). That 2006 Burb had elec throttle, pusbutton 4x4 (that didn't engage 4lo usually) and sometimes putting the column shifter in D didn't actually engage drive...you had to put it back in P and back to D. Adios pendejo!

I had a carb on my Camaro and eventually ran into the issue where they are really difficult to tune for a high hp/ci ratio. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't get my 600cfm to MPH anywhere near a 750 in the 1/4, but I couldn't get the 750 to snap your neck on the street like the 600. Like ~420hp from a 355ci just couldn't do both. That's where EFI helps...it's not dependent on air velocity for fueling.

Yeah the CPFI is junk. I'm sure that was why my junk Blazer started running horrible. But if that happens in the 4.3, I'll just 4.8/5.3 it for about the same price.

Doesn't look like a whole weekend of work, but I got the small block/auto/pushbutton 4x4 out. My helper demanded to be there, which was nice. This is the second 4l60 she's taken out of a Chevy SUV now...only 1 behind me. I did pull out a 350/4l60 from my 94 Z71 exactly 15 years ago now. That was my very first auto to 5spd swap.

Got all my powertrain stuff corralled in the corner to get the Burb on the lift. Bolted up an old SBC clutch to use on the LS. My LS1 Camaro flywheel had 12mm bolts, but the LR4/LQ4 Silverado flywheel had 3/8-16 like a small block. Nice.
PS don't forget to unhook the PS. haha

Here's a general LS swap info post. Converted a 2003-06 harness to 99-02 by switching from P59 to P01 computer wiring. The earlier PCMs were simpler in their use of o2 sensors, they flash twice as fast, every single one of them can run DBC, and I can run the same 2156 OS as all my other cars. Gm used 2156 on 4.3/4.8/5.3/5.7/6.0/8.1, and I have a 6.0/5spd tune that will be easy to convert to 5.3 for the Burb. Most P59 PCMs can't run DBC, and I can't stand the feel of DBW. So that was also part of this rewiring. Repurposing 8 wires from the DBW plug on the throttle body to TPS and IAC, and repinning the PCM connector.

https://youtu.be/xbsgIdUyrvU

Been slammed with other projects but I have made a lot of progress. The harness rewiring is completely done aside from the final splices of the PCM circuits that feed back into the main harness (like VSS, tach, etc). Those I'm just waiting until the engine is in so I can splice them at an appropriate length with the 411 mounted in the original location.
Got the 5.3 all cleaned up and ready to drop in. Rewired its harness in the video above to the 99-02 style. Got the original PCM mount modified for the 411, works perfect.
Fought (and lost) to the reupholster the leather captains seats and finally found the cloth bench I wanted anyway. Had to drill the inner 2 holes.
Also snagged a set of aluminum wheels like the old steelies I put on my 94. 16x8 with some brand new 265/70 ATs. Modified some OEM steelie centers to fit and made my own 4x4 emblems. Looks pretty good. Made an NV4500 emblem for the door that came out pretty cool. Part of my GMC to Chevy conversion. I tinted some LED corners for the Chevy grille.
Got the floor shift 4WD hole done, the GMT800 4wd floor shifter in, and I robbed the good front actuator and wiring from a parts 03 Tahoe to upgrade from the 2wire thermal. Gonna wire it straight to the the tcase switch and bypass all the push button wiring. I always put a rocker switch inline so I can unlock the front axle for 2wd low.
Got the Tahoe all parted so I have what I need to finish Burb finally. Maybe now it'll go together pretty quick
Got the update video done and oing through the footage I also found out the kiddo was recording my butt crack taking the crossmember out! haha
https://youtu.be/kRSmQ2O4dyc?si=z4g_e8AvnZ63jL5A

Got the Burb looking proper. Right on the cusp of running, but I sprained my wrist yesterday and now I gotta rest it a week and hope this BS doesn't last multiple weeks.

I love the three pedals, gear-shifter, AND column gear-selector... I have a Fiero GT fastback with three pedals and the console-mounted automatic gear-selector, a Third-Gen Z-28 'Vert sporting the same combo, and a Nissan 300ZX (Z31) in a similar situation, though that one is still waiting for the 'some day' when I fab a manual transmission adapter for the VH45DE I already crammed under its' hood... Yours just looks a lot closer to running than mine do (typical, typical ).
I am jealous though, we picked up a clean one-owner Durango over the Summer, and I am itching to swap-in a 5-speed NV3500 from a Dakota... It is all out there, simple drop-in, and Chrysler's use of a separate Transmission Control Module (TCM) means no wiring work-around. Maybe I should get those other three cars finished first though...
Though to be fair, my Seville STS 6-speed project is moving along well, most of the hard stuff is done. Just once again, you are definitely going to cross the finish-line first!

I have the same problem with a million projects...the years-in-the-making solid axle 5.3 4spd 03 Blazer is still barely started and the LS nv3500 "85 Freebyrd" hasn't been touched. Let's not even talk about the Camaro.

This should be cool though. Gotta pull the column lever and I'm gonna get my multimeter and see if I can wire in my front axle disconnect switch right where the pushbutton 4x4 was.

I put a how-to video together for wiring a donor gen3 truck harness directly into the 96+ OBS fuse block...really clean solution. I added 3 keyed hot circuits and there's no external fuses...don't even need to use the aux studs.
There's a place in Texas that sells these for $1400 and you still have to supply the OBS harness. I spent about $30. haha
https://youtu.be/6utiKtQhOD8

That is awesome. I love matching wiring in, it is like the ultimate jigsaw puzzle. The amount of time I spent on the Quad-Cam Z-26's wiring to make everything plugged-in 'correctly' and splice-less (except for the temp-gauge wire) was a bit over-the-top, but it was still worth it to me. The newer harnesses are nicer to work with too, since they don't have that black tar-like goo GM was sealing their firewall connectors with back in the '90s. If I was more into the trucks, this info would be gold to me, and I would be building clones of your work.

Got the gold and chrome deleted. Put a roll pan on the back and horribly fitting smooth front bumper. Took care of one little rust hole on the passenger side with a perfect patch panel from Blazer fender. I used 2k epoxy in a can on the bare metal and this Rustoleum as the top coat. I used it on the wheels and I was impressed. Not bad stuff, looking pretty good!
But the 5spd has gotta come out. I used a 94 clutch that I had laying around which would have been fine with the LS if the trans was the 88-95 fork style. Since mine is internal slave, the stack thickness is different 96+ and the fingers are taking clamping load off the disc with the pedal at rest. I should have thought of that. It drives around the yard no problem, but give it hell on the street or even moderate throttle in higher gears and it slips. So...my 99-06 6.0 clutch will be here this week.

That is looking great. I admit, this time I checked out the pictures first, and thought, "Wait, when did I miss the rear-bumper delete!?" That is really clean. Looking forward to hearing how the "2k" paint keeps rust at bay...

I hear you on the clutch. When I put the F40 6-speed into the 3800 GTU (what, 13 or 14 years ago, I think?), I blew-out the concentric slave because my stack-height was off by ~1/4". The slave was not available for any kind of reasonable price back then, and I lost weeks trying to figure out an alternative. Those damn seals are double-faced, I.D. and O.D., so nothing conventional replaces them. I finally found something from another GM application -I don't remember what- and bought two (I still have the spare)... Only the internal seal and TOB part itself swap, so even that wasn't really plug-and-play, the original still had to be 'rebuilt'. The F40 uses the slave cylinder as the TOB, of course, but it also houses the input-shaft seal, serving triple-duty. I ended up fabricating an aluminum spacer that houses a stand-alone input-shaft seal (conventional oil-seal was cheap and easy to source) and also places the slave at the right position -all because the correct 'dual-mass' flywheel was/is not available and would never bolt to a 3800 anyway...
On the F40 swap into the '99 Seville I am working on now I have been over the stack-height measurements again and again, each new Frankenstein component sending me back to square-one making sure the measurements are still good... Adding complexity is the BMW clutch pressure-plate itself, which uses the LUK-type self-adjusting feature, so I have to 'actuate' the clutch a few times to see where the diaphragm actually sits, and anticipate where it will end-up once the friction-disc starts wearing... PITA. I am using a dual-mass flywheel on this one, so everything has to be re-engineered on this Build...