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Engine Dilemna - rebuilt 5.3 or 190k/6.0?

Jumppr

Jumppr

1/2 ton status
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I bought a completely rebuilt 5.3 to use in my swap complete with harness for $2500. Still haven't put any miles on the motor.

However, I may have a chance to pick up a complete 03 Escalade with 190k on the motor for $1000.

I could probably sell most of the leftover Escalade and get most of that $1000 back. And I can also unload the 5.3 pretty quick for close to if not as much as I paid for it.

Decisions decisions!
 
aluminum or cast 5.3? Was the 5.3 built up or stock rebuild? How close are you to swapping/do you have time to rebuild the 6.0? But I guess either way if you can make all your money back and still have the 6.0 that wouldn't be a bad deal...then you could dump that $2500 into building a killer motor.
 
Is the "rebuild" worth a darn with a warranty or by Joe Blow in his garage? If it's the latter I'd take my chances with a shot 6.0. I wouldn't bother with a worn out 6.0L if I had a reputable rebuilt 5.3 ready to go. By all means, at 190K an LS engine has reached the end of it's expected service life span, after 200K it's kinda borrowed time above and beyond.
 
It's an iron 5.3 and the shop that did the rebuild knows what they're doing. It's only a stock rebuild though.
In fact, when it's time I'd have them do the 6.0 too.
 
Then I'd just forget the shot 6.0L and use what you've already purchased.
 
"Just my opinion and you will get many different ones". If you want to get it done like yesterday with no down time use the 5.3. That should be reliable and run really good. But...If your going to end up doing a 6.0 anyway why not do it the 1st time. Can you hear the escalade run..? Look at the oil pressure and does it smoke, you can go over that 6.0 for the money you can sell the 5.3 for. Remember the 6.0 probably won't have crazy oil pressure. Stock at idle were 32-38 at most. You can mod the top end pretty easily and make alot more power if that's what you after. Many many guys run 6.0's with turbo's well after that mileage. If it was me i would tear the 6.0 down to a short block and do a cam,pushrods,lifters,valvesprings,timing set, lifters, head gaskets, oil pump etc for less that 1k. You could also have that shop just go over the bottom end, i'd ask a price.

For example, my 140k 6.0 has a camotion cam, ls7 lifter,s btr pushrods,valvesprings, gm timing set, oil pump, pickup, ls9 head gaskets and a magnuson supercharger. It runs great with good oil pressure and no smoke. That's tho with 13psi..lol.
 
Wouldnt be scared of a 190k 6.0 at all!! Buddy has a ls1 with 330k on it, had nitrous since 70k and a cam since 200k. Ls motors dont tend to simple wear out like the old school small blocks did. When we did the cam swap on his at 200k you could still see the crosshatch. I'm also very interested to know why they charged you 2500 for a rebuilt 5.3, kinda high in my book... I had my 6.0 in my blazer freshened up with all new king bearings and new rings for 600.
 
The LS motors in this area are apparently lined with gold. :) Most of the time they're charging $2500 just for the motor, but since I've been friends with them for a long time I got the harness included in that price. A 6.0 in this hood would go for $3000 with no work done to it.
 
I've been reading that the LS platform is good well beyond 100k into 300k before needing rebuilt. That being said, the donor truck is driveable so I can get an idea of how bad the motor may be. I'm going to go out there this weekend and get a better look at it. I need to run the VIN and see if it's an LQ4 or LQ9 and I'd also like to find out if it's got a 4L80 in it. I would think it is just because it's the Escalade XL, but I haven't done any research on them yet.

I'm also fantasizing about cutting the dash to fit my 75.....Actually, I've always wanted to do it, but once again, the donor vehicles out here have gold in them and everyone wants a pretty penny for it. I'd like to see about using the center console and incorporating the transfer case shifters into it somehow. I'm planning to use cable shifters so in my head it should be possible to figure something out.
 
Thats crazy, didn't realize they where that expensive on the left coast. I can call lkq and get a 6.0 for 1100-1200 with a 90 day warranty any day of the week. 03 should have a lq9, but sadly no 80e. To my knowledge they never put a 80e in any 1/2 ton from the factory. My 6.0 came out of a yukon denali and had a 4l65e behind it.
 
Blue85 said:
Data to back this up?
Click to expand...
200K is a lot of miles. Yeah LS engines have been known to go well into the 300K mark and beyond, it doesn't mean that a 6.0L is exactly still fresh and worth spending money on at 200K. I'm sure if you asked a GM engineer if the expected service life of their engine was consumed by 200K, they'd tell you yes. It's what, double and even triple the miles that GM normally warranties?

To clarify... is 200K totally shot? Probably not. Worth pulling out of a running and driving vehicle? Of course not, keep driving it until it eventually blows. Worth to pull out of a vehicle and go to the expense of adapting it to another vehicle as a repower? Not in my opinion. That's throwing good money at bad. I would just spend some more money and rebuild it before going to the work of a repower, because the engine could just have to come right back out 5 miles to 100K later anyway. No one knows at that point and at that mileage, it's borrowed time.
 
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