is thera a way to figure out if the 6.0 engine is a lq4 or lq9 just by looking at it or you have to look at the pistons. when i got mine they told me the engine came of a 2003 escalade any help will be appriciated

 

If it came out of a caddy looks like your gonna have the LQ9 which is more sought after of the 2 engines......i think the LQ9 has stronger internals.....

 

For that year the only way to tell is either look at the pistons or look at the rod ends. Pistons will be flat top and rods will be beefier but obviously you'll need to know what a LQ4 rod looks like for comparison.

 

Find the block casting number and google it to cross-reference the number.

 

where can i find the casting number? so the lq9 has flat pistons? wensday i will takit to work and im going to take a sparkplug out and borescope the pistons and see what i have thanks for the info

 

You can't cross reference the block numbers because both LQ4 and LQ9's use the same block. It's only the internals that are different.
LQ9's are flat top and LQ4's have a slight dish in the center.

 

I toke a spark plug out and look in there whit a borescope and i have flat pistons i guess i have a lq9

 

saweet!!!!