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K5 Daily driver engine, $5000 budget

T

t556

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I am looking to get a K5 in the near future and want to build a daily driver out of it. High reliability the goal. I was planning on getting a truck and immediately swapping out the engine and rebuilding the transmission. I've been looking at some crate engines available and am looking for some more guidance. Reliability is key, Additional horsepower is a plus. I'm looking at a total of $5000 budget for the engine. What would you suggest? I'm having a hard time knowing what to look for. I was initially interested in some of the GM performance engines like a 350 hp ZZ4 turnkey engines, however I've read that the high compression ratio is not good for trucks. Why is that? I've learned that I don't know near enough about these engines to make a good decision. Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Thanks!
Clay
 
Gen III or IV motor.


If you think thats out of your range of skill than build a 9:1 vortec headed 383 with a small roller cam. Should only cost about $3500 which would leave you $1500 to get your trans beefed up.
 
ramjet 350.

or buy an old military surplus blazer w/ a diesel and put a banks kit on it. 20+ mpg + power of a nice small block.
 
Just a question...why immediately swap the engine?

If you're willing to pull the engine, you can build a reliable engine with some aftermarket parts for WAY under your budget if the long block is still good.

The TBI engines are reliable but are restricted on HP by the TBI itself. However I have a the factory TBI setup with a comp cam, MSD 6A box and headers and I have zero reliability issues.

If you are dead set on a swap, no matter what gen engine you get, you need to look more at torque numbers than HP. K5's are big and heavy so torque is your friend over horsepower. 383s are good options for torque. It does no good to have an engine that makes 500HP at 5500rpm with a lopey idle if your truck never sees over 3000rpm (mine doesn't).

No matter what, you should be in good shape with a 5K budget. There's a lot to be had at that price, but if you're swapping in an engine from a different generation, I would put aside a portion of your budget for the little tidbits that always seem to pop up during swaps.
 
rebelgregory said:
Just a question...why immediately swap the engine?

If you're willing to pull the engine, you can build a reliable engine with some aftermarket parts for WAY under your budget if the long block is still good.

The TBI engines are reliable but are restricted on HP by the TBI itself. However I have a the factory TBI setup with a comp cam, MSD 6A box and headers and I have zero reliability issues.

If you are dead set on a swap, no matter what gen engine you get, you need to look more at torque numbers than HP. K5's are big and heavy so torque is your friend over horsepower. 383s are good options for torque. It does no good to have an engine that makes 500HP at 5500rpm with a lopey idle if your truck never sees over 3000rpm (mine doesn't).

No matter what, you should be in good shape with a 5K budget. There's a lot to be had at that price, but if you're swapping in an engine from a different generation, I would put aside a portion of your budget for the little tidbits that always seem to pop up during swaps.
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Its not the TBI thats restrictive in our trucks its the intake and heads, mainly the heads.

Plenty of guys on thirdgen.org have successfully retained TBI up to 500hp. You just need to know how to tune it and how to squeeze extra CFMs from the throttle body itself.
 
rebelgregory said:
Just a question...why immediately swap the engine?

If you're willing to pull the engine, you can build a reliable engine with some aftermarket parts for WAY under your budget if the long block is still good.

The TBI engines are reliable but are restricted on HP by the TBI itself. However I have a the factory TBI setup with a comp cam, MSD 6A box and headers and I have zero reliability issues.

If you are dead set on a swap, no matter what gen engine you get, you need to look more at torque numbers than HP. K5's are big and heavy so torque is your friend over horsepower. 383s are good options for torque. It does no good to have an engine that makes 500HP at 5500rpm with a lopey idle if your truck never sees over 3000rpm (mine doesn't).

No matter what, you should be in good shape with a 5K budget. There's a lot to be had at that price, but if you're swapping in an engine from a different generation, I would put aside a portion of your budget for the little tidbits that always seem to pop up during swaps.
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Well, I was thinking swapping the engine would be the way to guarantee reliability. However truth be told I'm not very educated on the subject and haven't given a whole lot of thought to a rebuild. Additionally, I really don't need a huge amount of power compared to stock. I'm not doing anything extreme, just looking for a reliable 4x4 (so maybe a rebuild is just the thing). How much would it cost to do a rebuild on the engine? I would prefer to keep the price down. It would be sweet if I could meet my needs for a fraction of the budget.

Thanks!

Clay
 
I'd just get the 290hp 350 crate engine, going to be the easiest swap, will last 200k miles. Not to mention cheapest, LS is nice but isn't going to the end all be all for what you wanna do. Not to mention the 5k budget will probably be met with a used engine, it would be more if you want a new engine.

We had one of these in a work truck and when we retired it I beat on in the field next door and had a blast, made plenty of power.

Not to mention a 50k warranty
 
A few GM Engines

Would the stock TBI system work with the 290 HP GM performance crate engine?
 
What it would cost is all dependent on the condition of the engine in question and the extent of machine work, type of replacement parts/upgrades etc.

Rather than suggesting a rebuild, I'm really suggesting just a thorough assessment of what you get. If the engine runs smoothly, no funny sounds, clean fluids, no smoke out of the tailpipe, etc...why rebuild/replace it? If it was me, even with a good-running new blazer, I would go through all the fluids, give her a tuneup, and just pocket the money for upgrades or for when I identify a legitimate weakness (because it may not be the engine).

My experience - I've owned my 88 for over 10 years (daily driver for about 4 of those) with the original engine. I am an engineer and a former ASE certified mechanic so I get tweaky about maintenance on all my vehicles, but in 10 years it has broken down 3 times - fuel pump, coolant temp sensor, and a u-joint. If I had swapped the engine when I bought it, I would have wasted my money.

If a fresh engine is what you want, then you should get it. But if you're after reliability, I would take the whole vehicle into consideration (suspension, engine, trans, gauges, brakes, etc) and put your money toward improving the overall reliability of the truck. Or maybe take your 5K and spend a little extra initially for a blazer that is well maintained.

At any rate, good luck with your purchase and welcome to the cult (prematurely).
 
rebelgregory said:
What it would cost is all dependent on the condition of the engine in question and the extent of machine work, type of replacement parts/upgrades etc.

Rather than suggesting a rebuild, I'm really suggesting just a thorough assessment of what you get. If the engine runs smoothly, no funny sounds, clean fluids, no smoke out of the tailpipe, etc...why rebuild/replace it? If it was me, even with a good-running new blazer, I would go through all the fluids, give her a tuneup, and just pocket the money for upgrades or for when I identify a legitimate weakness (because it may not be the engine).

My experience - I've owned my 88 for over 10 years (daily driver for about 4 of those) with the original engine. I am an engineer and a former ASE certified mechanic so I get tweaky about maintenance on all my vehicles, but in 10 years it has broken down 3 times - fuel pump, coolant temp sensor, and a u-joint. If I had swapped the engine when I bought it, I would have wasted my money.

If a fresh engine is what you want, then you should get it. But if you're after reliability, I would take the whole vehicle into consideration (suspension, engine, trans, gauges, brakes, etc) and put your money toward improving the overall reliability of the truck. Or maybe take your 5K and spend a little extra initially for a blazer that is well maintained.

At any rate, good luck with your purchase and welcome to the cult (prematurely).
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This is a good point. If you can buy a better nicer blazer by putting "engine rebuild funds" towards the initial purchase price you could come out way ahead.

That being said a fast burn GM crate is basically and aluminum headed vortec small block. I would just order that as a long block and replace the cam with something more tame.

And yes the TBI will run any streetable small block you throw at it but it has to be tuned.
 
rebelgregory said:
What it would cost is all dependent on the condition of the engine in question and the extent of machine work, type of replacement parts/upgrades etc.

Rather than suggesting a rebuild, I'm really suggesting just a thorough assessment of what you get. If the engine runs smoothly, no funny sounds, clean fluids, no smoke out of the tailpipe, etc...why rebuild/replace it? If it was me, even with a good-running new blazer, I would go through all the fluids, give her a tuneup, and just pocket the money for upgrades or for when I identify a legitimate weakness (because it may not be the engine).

My experience - I've owned my 88 for over 10 years (daily driver for about 4 of those) with the original engine. I am an engineer and a former ASE certified mechanic so I get tweaky about maintenance on all my vehicles, but in 10 years it has broken down 3 times - fuel pump, coolant temp sensor, and a u-joint. If I had swapped the engine when I bought it, I would have wasted my money.

If a fresh engine is what you want, then you should get it. But if you're after reliability, I would take the whole vehicle into consideration (suspension, engine, trans, gauges, brakes, etc) and put your money toward improving the overall reliability of the truck. Or maybe take your 5K and spend a little extra initially for a blazer that is well maintained.

At any rate, good luck with your purchase and welcome to the cult (prematurely).
Click to expand...

I agree 100%.

I remember talking to someone about swapping in a mechanical diesel (for ultimate reliability and performance) and they were leaning towards buying a rebuilt 6.2 GM diesel ($2K+?) and buying the Banks Turbo kit (~$2400) rather than swapping in a 12V Cummins which is more expensive to rebuild (it is more expensive to rebuild, but an easy swap).

My problem with starting a project with "I want new everything" is that there is a percentage of those new parts that will fail, out of the box. Sometimes replacing a good, used, working component with a "rebuilt" one actually makes failure more likely. The used one works for sure, condition has to be in your best judgment. The "rebuilt" one doesn't work yet (I've even seen "dyno tested" trannies from big name companies arrive dead in the box), you don't know until you try it.

I built my tow rig last year ('84 K30 with 12V Cummins) and didn't even consider rebuilding the motor (~200K). IMO, it works great, I know if works great, rebuilding it only opens windows for stuff to go wrong. Even good shops aren't 100%.

FWIW, in line with the guys suggesting LS (5.3L or 6.0L) swaps, I'd do that in a heartbeat. It's far from my only experience, but the 383 in my Blazer broke several valve springs in it's first few thousand miles (brand name manufactureres, WELL within lift specs), seems like I got unlucky in bad batches of springs. It's been all good for a long time now but my brand new, ~$4K motor (with lots of my own time/labor) had issues out of the gate. Far from the first time I've run against it.

Seriously: good, working, and used is often better than "rebuilt"
 
I will chime in with the buy something nice to start. Then drive it stock for a while, you may find problems that you can fix and the engine and trans are fine.

Hard to beat a vortec headed small block for dead simple and super easy to swap in.

While the 6.0 is a great swap its not for everyone.

Just get your blazer first and buy a nice example you may end up driving it for a very long time before major drivetrain parts start to fail
 
Torque, my friend is what you need. I prefer already run engines to newly built ones. Rebuilt ones are even better some times than new engines. If an engine were to have a catastrophic failure with out any warning, chances are that it would do it in the break in period. Any other time, it usually give some type of warning. I like diesels for any type of work involving reliability and the amount of torque available to get the job done.

Even a good fairly low mileage 6.2l or 6.5l diesel is better than most gas engines as far as reliability is concerned (in my opinion). Properly maintained diesels can be extremely reliable.

$5000 on an engine is pretty much a very cheap compromise for all new parts. Most of your better engines are running in the $10k-20k range. A good used Cummins diesel with low mileage is probably your best bet for you budget. Instead of looking for more horsepower or torque from an engine, it sometimes is more fitting to try to find the proper axle gearing and transmission ratios that will make your engine perform its best at the speed and conditions that you want to operate it in. Getting the power to the ground at the most efficient rate is top priority. And that can be achieved many ways.
 
for 5g, the biggest bang for your buck is swapping in a 5.3 ls engine. There is tons of information on how to make these engines 1 wire hook up. Granted, you will be pushing the 5k limit, after fuel system, exhaust, mounts, and framerail modification. However you gain it's 300 or so hp, and fuel sipping behavior. Don't bother with a 5.7 or 6.0, while these engines boast more factory hp and torque, the 5.3 gives you the best building block for future gains with a forged bottom end, heads that will support 500hp, exhaust manifolds that will support 600 hp and are the perfect length to flip backwards to mount a turbo in an ideal location forward and toward the fenderwell.

There is also inexpensive conversion kits to convert the ls series engine to a carbed engine if you so desire.
 
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