Not Your Average Escalade Swap...

CertainDriver · January 19, 2019

Hello everyone,

I recently bought this clean title, high mileage 2000 Silverado LS Z71 from my coworker. It was right before Christmas and I really wanted to help the guy out knowing full well I could do something with it. Heck, I needed a truck after all. I get home and attempt to drain the oil but nothing comes out. After some poking around with a screwdriver, I get it to drain. Chunks are flowing along with the oil and it turns out there was so much sludge build up in the bottom of the pan, it sucked some up, suffered a momentary loss of oil pressure and spun the bearing. I know the transmission had a hard shift from first to second. Could it be low fluid? Maybe, but why do the swap just to find out the transmission is bad?
My coworker friend was a smoker and it appears he preferred his coffee without a lid so the interior is....interesting. Also truck only has oxidation on the hood and fenders so the only reasonable choice was to find a salvaged donor vehicle to source parts from!!
I have a buddy with a dealers license and I'm debating picking up this rear ended 2006 Escalade for a FULL front end/interior/dash/drivetrain swap. Can it be done? Plug and play? Anything someone doing something like this should know?
I've done some pretty crazy engine swaps and garage rebuilds, 2 stroke porting early on, etc.

I have the ability but hopefully you folks can chime in and confirm whether or not it is possible or if there is a better option. I was also looking at a 2004 Duramax/6speed which was t-boned pretty good as a potential candidate but there's something about that plush Escalade interior....

Edited January 19, 2019 by CertainDriver

Darksky · January 20, 2019

I can’t wait to see this progression. In his own way, Frankenstein’s Monster was a thing of beauty. Good Luck, Dr. Funkentruck.

SierraHD17 · January 20, 2019

You can. Its more work than it's worth as you need everything from the Escalade including the harnesses, bcm and so on. Depends how much effort you want to put into the 2000.

No such thing as plug and play either. Well it is in a way becasue you gut the cab of the 2000 down to the steel and start over swapping in the Caddy interior, harnesses, hvac, dash etc.

Edited January 20, 2019 by SierraHD17