Ls engines continue to blow me away....

[POORBOYK5]

So me and 63chevyII picked up this 5.3 core recently. Wasn't completely sure of what the issue was. Dude said he hardly maintained it. Came from a 2002 c1500. 218K

upon valve cover removal...


Thought wow... this ones gonna be wasted....


but upon head removal... The cylinders look amazing! still crosshatching all the way around the bore. NO ridge.

-ditching the 706 heads.
-having crank checked
-new bearings
-hone
-new rings
-cam swap?
-rework stock harness

Put it in something... GO FAST!

 

[1BEATK5]

That piston looks like its has seen some detonation. I'd replace them too

 

[63chevyll]

Its actually just build up. I cant believe this engine ran. Even.good engines aren't immune to dip sheet owners

 

[Blue85]

I saw a post on one with bad intake gaskets that had been dumping coolant in the oil. The owner had been adding 1/2-gallon a week. The oil/coolant mix was actually coming out of the throttle. Apparently it cleaned up OK and ran fine afterwards.

I saw another one where somebody left a rag under the intake manifold on a 3800. There is a balance shaft in there that had shredded the rag all up, but the engine still ran.

 

[sweetk30]

ls engines no longer have coolent in the intake = no bad intake gaskets leaking coolent .

the 96-00 truck suv and up to 03 on vans or 4.3 v6 vortec engines have the huge intake gasket problems.

ls engines do have a heated throttle body for cold weather warm up . it takes coolent from head ports and runs in it and out to the rad.

 

[POORBOYK5]

well we're up to 3 cores and 2 parts motors. The 3 will get reworked. Going to do a few harnesses as well and set these ones up on run stands!

Also picking up an LQ4 that I'll hybrid with the LS1 I have and then mate the T-56 to that...

 

[crashandburn]

5.3's have very thick cylinder walls. They stand up to all kinds of torture. There are guys with drag cars making 2000 hp on these blocks and they stay together. Twin turbo that bitch!
Depending on the year, the stock internals are reliable to 750 hp. Or you can spend $1000 on rods and pistons and have a bottom end that will stand up to over 1000 hp on the stock crank. Lots of guys on LS1tech are running cheapie $300 ebay turbos and putting down 4 digit hp numbers.

I'd be happy to contribute some ideas and wrenching.