so picked up a LQ9 (including full harness & computer) for $200 and got the heads off and for a truck that had ~200K miles the crank & pistons/piston walls look amazing. no scouring & no gouging i was shocked.....only bad thing was that the channels on the block look to be clogged with coolant which says there was probably a blown head gasket on that side

i'm just debating wether to do a complete tear down & have the block machined/bored to a 407 or just leave the stock bottom end and build the upper...either way i can gaurantee you the top is getting built i just don't know whether or not i feel like pullin everything out & paying to have a shop work it...

anybody know if the lq9 will bolt to the nvg3500...i don't believe it will but just curious...thanks

oh yeah pics will be up later

 

I think id save up for a different trans.. 3500 prolly aint gonna like all that power.

 

i assumed as much...i wasn't planing to use the 3500 i will have my t56 i was just curious if it woruld work for a lil while

 

Yes it'll fit, I run my 6.0L with my 3500 WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS. Nothing wrong with the 3500, it seems to hold up better than most people's 4l60's around here. Just shifting between 2nd and 3rd is a little slow under WOT

 

The 5 speeds are pretty stout, TurboGibbs put down 500/500 through his totally stock 3500, but as hirdlej said, the 2-3 shift is SLOOOWWW at WOT but other than that I wouldnt worry about it.

 

alright sweet i didn't think it bolted up...well beyond that...would you say rebuild the bottom end? i mean i plan on puttin in new rings...but what would ya'll do?

 

Personally I would never mess with rebuild a stock shortblock, if I was going to go to all that effort Id throw in forged goodies if you plan on really making some power later on unless youre on a budget. With the coolant issues youre talking about Id want to vat the block to make sure all the coolant passages are nice and clean otherwise you run the risk of gaulding a piston.

If you do decide to go the forged route talk to Richard at WCCH he can hook you up with everything you need for a damn good price.

Ill buy the pistons/rods off of you if you decide to replace them with forged stuff, Ive got a set of 7 LQ9 pistons

 

OOO Do a 408, that would be a freaking BEAST and would make me jealous as **** lol.

Good luck with the motor.

 

haha i like to run my builds on 7 pistons as well and i was lookin at the 408 rotating assembly over at texas speed i definately plan on shopping around a lil bit...i've got time tho i'm lookin to have it finished around tax time of nxt year lol just a matter of $$$ i'm not worried about the budget as long as i end up where i want with it

 

Just make sure when you race people do like I do, either get them from light to light using the 1-2 shift or don't start racing until 60MPH or so in 3rd