First Time Swapper

[Billett]

Thanks to my other recent thread I've convinced myself I should definitely swap over to an LS if I want to continue DDing this truck. That said, I have a fair amount of experience, (for a young'n) with manual labor and I'm familiar with the way engines work, but truth be told I've never had one completely torn apart. Never had the chance to, my previous truck was my only form of transportation and thankfully it never broke down. The swap my brother and I did with his El Camino was just a 350 sbc to a 400 sbc that had already had a rebuild done by some friends so there was no need to take that apart either, and it was obviously very straightforward.

What can I say, I like to dive in headfirst.

Right now I'm aiming for a budget build with a good all-around setup in mind. I'm fully aware that you can't have your cake and eat it to so tell me what you guys think of this. I've read through several build threads and looked through a lot of the lsx swap index page, but for me most of it doesn't make sense yet because I don't actually have an engine yet. That's where you guys come in. I've been a part of quite a few forums and I've never seen so many people happy to help one another, but I figured I'd test your patience again anyway

The goals are: better fuel economy, decent power, more reliable, budget. Fuel economy is actually the easy part of this. I get 11mpg now so any ls engine will be a boost. I thought about doing a 5.3 which might get me a few more mpgs, but since this is on a budget and I'd like a little more power to go with it I think a bone stock 6.0 will be better for me. As long as the engine is solid I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be more reliable than my currant 350. As far as cost, like I said, I'm probably going to keep it stock at this point. From what I've read the thing that costs most people money is go-fast parts. I've already scoped out plenty of future changes I'd like to do, but I have a bit of a problem.

I'm getting married next June.

Wedding is going to be a country style, backyard BBQ type get together. The future Mrs. and I don't want anything expensive or fancy, we just want everyone to have a good time, so it shouldn't be expensive, but I still need to have the money for it.

I've seen on the swap cost thread where a few people have done 5.3 or 4.8 swaps for under $3k. I currently have an 87 350 sbc with an np435 in a 68 lwb fleetside, power steering, 4 corner drums, no AC, tank still behind the seat, dropped 2".

Is it possible to swap a stock 6.0L and a 4L80E into my truck for thereabouts of $3000, ($4k max), or should I quit while I'm just dreaming.