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To run a Carb or not?

@ZooMad75
Great post. And yes. Most of the LS I could do if I had room. But there is no way I can swap an engine in my garage. Plus as you said the harness,pcm flash I do not want to hassle with. Doing the harness and other such electrical doo hickey’s I’d rather spend the $ and have someone do the entire install.

I’m saving the $ now. And I’ll either BroFlo it or LS I have time to figure it out.
 
Anytime you are buying an engine out of the vehicle that can't be heard running it's a risk. There is zero way to validate mileage, compression, maintenance or hear it run. About all you can do is look it over as best you can, make sure there are no glaring issues, see what the oil looks like and get a general feeling based on questions you ask.

This doesn't matter what type of engine it is, the same ideas apply. You just have to use your best judgment.

Pricing really varies on these engines. 6.0's are going to have a higher price normally because it's the more popular choice over the 4.8 and 5.3. One positive is that you can see the size of the engine is by looking at the casting on the end of the block as it will say 6.0L or 4.8/5.3L . Don't get tricked buying what you think is a 6.0 and it's actually a smaller version. Mileage is a good gauge, but the higher the mileage the more maintenance plays into what it could be. LS engines have great longevity when taken care of. I got mine with 200k on it and have put close to another 25k on it. I knew the history on it and heard it run before we pulled it. I knew I wasn't risking anything taking it home. Popping off a valve cover will give you a gauge of how it was taken care of. If it's clean and sludge free it's probably legit, if you see sludge and build up it's questionable.

Part of what you are buying with the engine is all the accessories. Intake, fuel rail, harness, serpentine drive with alternator, p/s pump, coils and all the brackets one will need to put it in another truck. So the more complete it is, the more it's going to be worth. I used an engine we took out of a customer's truck and since we had to use all that stuff on the new engine, I didn't get anything other than a bare long block. So the engine was free but I still ended up spending a bunch of money finding all the stuff needed to complete the engine.
 
One thing that I thought about is hooking up the kick down cable from the TH350 to an LS, especially if you get one with a drive by wire throttle body.
I don't know if an aftermarket cable will reach a cable style throttle body even.
@ZooMad75 did a 700R4, so he may know.
 
I have seen the kickdown question arise, I forget what the answer is/was... glad you brought that up I had forgotten about that.
 
lets assume for this threads sake, the 6.0 is in good running order. That price seems fair and is more ideal than the 5.3. Both will work with what I have behind my present small block.

$1800 with 140k miles could be a deal, again assuming it’s a solid engine.
 
6872xtc said:
One thing that I thought about is hooking up the kick down cable from the TH350 to an LS, especially if you get one with a drive by wire throttle body.
I don't know if an aftermarket cable will reach a cable style throttle body even.
@ZooMad75 did a 700R4, so he may know.
Click to expand...

I caught that mention of using a TH350 with the third offer up listing. While I haven't really looked for TH350 kickdown cable for an LS application, I'm sure Lokar probably makes a universal setup with longer length that could be made to work. But you will have to run a cable throttle in order to have something for the kickdown cable to hookup too. Bowtie Overdrives is the only one I know that sells a TV Cable kit for a 700r4 and LS truck intake setup. It's what I'm using on mine.
 
Hypothetically, I could either extend the kickdown, or get lucky and it’s long enough or delete it and do it manually?

Google didn’t give me much.
I’m more concerned at least for now if that 6.0 is ideal for that price?
 
From Lokar products on Speedways website. Seems they have the necessary products for th350 kickdown with an LS

61318448-98E8-4D9C-924D-BBF8D3ED5189.jpeg
 
I have a edelbrock carb with spring needle and seats. I’ve had it off road at many bad angles and it still chugs around and doesn’t stall very easily. If I’m in 1st gear and low on the transfer case I do not even have to touch the gas. I do however only get around 8 mpg. With efi I’m sure I’d pickup a couple mpg and a bit of better running. But if you have the carb and timing setup correctly you can get a carb to run pretty good. I don’t drive mine enough to spend the money on efi for it. It does suck when it sits fit more than a couple weeks when the fuel bowl dries out. Takes a minute if cranking to get enough fuel to start. But overall I’ve not had a bad time with mine.
 
Many of the racers at local tracks that use LS engines in their cars run carbs with an aftermarket intake..much simpler and no hassles with electronics..don't know what they do about spark advance,maybe they use a MSD box or something..I'm not very well versed in LS engines or the mods they do to them..all I know is the cars FLY..:D
 
He wants it injected, for all those fun modern conveniences

@TJ1978 $1800 isn't a bad price if it comes with all parts and accessories. Hopefully in that scenario you can hear it run, confirm oil pressure, et al
 
Bent77 said:
He wants it injected, for all those fun modern conveniences

@TJ1978 $1800 isn't a bad price if it comes with all parts and accessories. Hopefully in that scenario you can hear it run, confirm oil pressure, et al
Click to expand...

I’ll ask for running video etc. but just like any engine, if it’s out of the car, it’s a roll of the dice. Seeing as this guy sells engines and has a lot of good reviews, that could provide some solace in buying from him, maybe not.

I may just start a new thread and link engines so they don’t get buried on page 24 of this one...

F67E5304-EE2C-42B8-8D09-67E08C28060C.jpeg
 
TJ1978 said:
I’ll ask for running video etc. but just like any engine, if it’s out of the car, it’s a roll of the dice. Seeing as this guy sells engines and has a lot of good reviews, that could provide some solace in buying from him, maybe not.

I may just start a new thread and link engines so they don’t get buried on page 24 of this one...

View attachment 336032
Click to expand...
Come on now, you are our new creator of Epic threads!
 
@Bent77
Thanks. Sure wish I had the space in my garage. I’d just tackle it myself.

Messaged that dude about 6.0 we’ll see. I figure I have the behind of the engine done. Just need engine, fuel delivery, having it wired up. That should in theory, bring the price down for the shop.... have the fans and digital gauges already so...

We’ll see.
 
I had to roll my truck half out of the garage to pull the engine, rolled it back in once it was set in the frame
 
TJ1978 said:
@Bent77
Thanks. Sure wish I had the space in my garage. I’d just tackle it myself.

Messaged that dude about 6.0 we’ll see. I figure I have the behind of the engine done. Just need engine, fuel delivery, having it wired up. That should in theory, bring the price down for the shop.... have the fans and digital gauges already so...

We’ll see.
Click to expand...
You know that we are going to push you to do it yourself, I mean you already told me that you had a spare hour and a half last week, so that would have been a good start on an engine swap, right?
:D
 
In order for me to do it. The entire front will have to come off. With the lift, the standard engine hoist just won’t go high enough, no biggie.

The harness, pcm and all that hoo haw is far more intimidating than, pulling a 203. Computers, electrical, just thinking about it gives me enough anxiety to keep the carb. Hahahahahaha
 
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