After me and Zzebes were having trouble with my cam swap, we decided to call it quits. My engine has 112,000 miles on it, and the cam bearings are shot, at least 2 cylinders have really bad leak down, the lifters are worn out (based on cam wear pattern), and the timing chain had about an inch of slack.


My plan

1. Buy a low mileage 5.7/6.0 short block (PM me if you have one)
2. Get stock 5.3 heads milled for higher compression
3. Either use the cam I have (216/220 .525 .532 114lsa) or trade for a larger cam
4. Reuse intake manifold
5. Buy 8.1 marine injectors (PM me if you have one)
6. LS7 lifters
7. 7.4 push rods (will they still work with milled heads?)
8. New timing chain
9. Head gaskets and ARP head bolts


As far as tranny, it's already on its way out, so I will probly just leave it stock and let it die.

Let me know what you think.

 

dont think you'll need to mill the 5.3 heads to up the compression, more then likely it will already be there 11:1 or more, i had stage 2 patriots on my 5.3 then when i went to a 6.0 lq9 it upped the compression to like 11:5:1 using the same harden push rods 7.4, if anything go with 243 heads and have them milled and ported, i have a set if interested 317 castings.then again i dont know what the compression would be for the dished pistons from just a lq4

p.s. i also know where a ls2 long block is for 2k if interested

 

I don't have the money for that man. This swap is more of an emergency swap for a lower mileage motor. I figure I can pick up a low mileage LQ4 for practically the same as a 5.3 short block. This is NOT a performance swap, but I'll be happy with whatever I can get.

I am on a $1500 budget, doing labor myself.
I'm reusing all the parts I can, and getting all the help I can.

 

wheres that ls2?

 

5.3 heads on a 6.0 would not be a good idea. smaller valves would choke it up. and i can tell you where to get a pullout lq4 for ~800

 

It will be very tight on a $1500 budget

 

Heres my delema.

I think I might be able to drop the oil pan enough to fish around in it with a pen magnet to grab that lifter, BUT! I don't want to pull the head to put it back in because of how expensive the gasket and bolts are. And I don't want to risk dropping another lifter in the engine.

From what Zzebes said, my cam bearings look worn (I'm hoping he'll chime in on this tonight, or soon) which if I've heard correctly means I will have to pull my engine, and completely disassemble it and send it to a machine shop to get redone. That means another set of bolts and a head gasket = 120 bucks.

Also, he said my engine has alot of blow through, which means bad compression in one of the cylinders. I really wish I had done a compression check before the cam swap to comfirm this first, because yet again. If I get out that lifter, and put it back in there, and get everything assembled enough for a compression test, and one is bad, there goes all the money I wasted on the gasket and bolts, + me having to buy 2 more sets of gaskets and bolts for $240. I can't justify spending $360 on bolts and gaskets.

So basically, I have no idea what I'm going to do. If I try to salvage this motor, it could take forever because of it needing machining (maybe not), needing to be assembled to do a compression test, and wind up wasting alot of money on gaskets and bolts.
If I go 6.0, I have to spend 600-700+ on a block, and from what you say I'd need new heads to go with it.

Would I be better off trying to find either a complete or short block 5.3 and putting it on a stand and attemping a cam swap while I have the motor out? Or even saying **** the cam, and just try to even get my truck driveable again. Because right now its a paper weight.

 

If it's gonna be out anyways, just go with the 6.0 IMO

 

I really need more information about the cam bearing portion of this equation.

If my cam bearings are in fact bad, but would happen if I were to throw that cam in there and button it all up and run this thing for awhile? Is it gonna eat that cam up? am I gonna blow the motor with all the new added stress of the cam. This really seems to be the deciding factor here. I know I can't exactly explain to you how bad they are based on my simple knowledge on the subject, which I'm hoping Zzebes will be on here shortly to help out.

 

Well what you could do is so you don't have to spend any money is:

drop the pan and get the lifter out, take off the head and replace the lifter, reused the stock head gasket and bolts, tighten everything up with the stock cam and timing chain.... Do a compression check then!!! Don't start or run the motor. This way you have not wasted any money, just some time.... If the compression test is good, then pull and replace the head gasket and bolts...

As far as the cam bearing go, kinda hard to tell how bad they are without seeing them, perhaps after the compression test, take out the stock cam and take some pictures and post them up...

Just idea, it would require sometime, but the motor may savalagable....