I work at a gm dealership and I might buy a L96 long block to build for my 2000, wanna get rid of the stock heads and get some better ones, but long story short is this a good motor to build for street truck with about 100 shot on it? Don't know much about these I have only heard of lq4 and lq9's so I'm kinda lost on it, any info on the this motor is appreciated

 

Yes, it's a great motor with stronger parts than the older Lq4's and better flowing cylinder heads.

The downsides are that the knock sensors are in totally different locations, the cam sensor is in a different spot too. The L96 runs a 58x compared to a 24x crank trigger on the LQ4/9 engines, so you'd either have to swap reluctor wheels or buy a converter box to make it work with your computer.

It's less of a hassle and less hoops to jump through if you already had a LQ4/LQ9 engine.

 

Technically could swap crank for a 24x reluctor crank out of an lq4/9, but still have to modify harness for knock sensors and cam sensor, if you go this route, pull the cam and see if it has the updated cam bearings with the black teflon looking coating or not and if not swap them out, assuming you would be swapping cans anyway, you would need to eliminate the vvt from the engine.... Your best bet is to find a used block in decent shape or find an lq4/9 and build it... If you had an 07up with 58x and newer style knock and cams sensors then, yeah go l96, but you have a truck with a gen 3 so youre better off staying gen 3.... if you want a 6.0 with better heads on it already and want to go gen 4 pick up an lfa from a hybrid, aluminum 6.0 with 243/799 heads....

 

I thinking it might be a better idea to get a lq4 or lq9, don't want to go through all that noise, I'm sure it's not bad to do but if a older motor would be easier might as well make it easier on myself lol

 

A lq4 would work alot better then this for my budget

 

Find a newer LQ4...... Like just stop buying old ones built 2003 calendar year and prior lol. 04 calendar and not model year engines and then all 05 to 07 LQ4's have the full floating pin rods in them... I have watched these rods change names twice now. Used to be called LS2 rods..... now they are Gen 4 rods..... when both are incorrect because LQ9's have had them from day one ( probably some odd exceptions in 2002 but otherwise) and half the run of Gen 3 engines have them as well.

If you grab a newer LQ4 just plop L92 heads on it.... voila... a Gen 3 L96 without the VVT you would delete anyhow lol.

 

.....with a 24x crank and proper cam and knock sensor position to be a bolt in.. Ask me how i know!!!