Wrong.. you need to read and not skim for what you want... lol. 03 does not have equal length bolts and never has nor have I have ever said it did. 04 calendar year blocks are supposed to be equal and 03 prior not... and that's not model year either.. calendar year!.. I had 04 built in august of 03 and it's lq4 was press fit rods.... even arp knows that. I said an 03 LQ9 has unequal length bolts and full float rods... simple as that. The block has nothing to do with dictating the rotating assembly on an LQ9. Is this set in stone. ..no... but is an LQ9 an engine with dished pistons and press fit rods...no.. they built thousands of those called LQ4'S.

Like I said...genius gm says mine is a 4.8...

 

Thats what i get for trying to keep up with this while im doing 4 other things and feel like crap at work.... I misread.... My apologizes!!!

 

Your engine is not an LQ9 period.

 

I realize this, but the rpo codes on the truck it came from said otherwise...

 

Don't care what it said. It's not an lq9

All lq9 are flat top pistons with beefier rods.

 

I get that, not arguing the point...... Just saying that there are some vehicles that are supposed to have lq9s (by the rpo codes) that ended up with an lq4 instead

 

I'm with fastbrick, id put my money on a replacement motor /swap

 

And like I said... that 8 digit dot matrix stamped "vin" on the block is utterly meaningless. Mine should have pulled up a 2005 Escalade and instead is for a 2005 4.8 Tahoe... so you really have no idea where that engine came from.. probably a 3/4 or 1 ton truck or Denali... Unless you were right there and have the vin from the actual truck it came from... which you weren't. Nobody is stamping the block of a replacement engine either.

 

You will pay *at least* a $1000 premium for an LQ9 and it will limit your selection considerably if you're looking locally. A good LQ4 motor you can find all day for $1500-2500, an LQ9 expect to pay at least $2500-3500 depending on mileage and year. If you're staying n/a then the LQ9 may provide a benefit having 10:1 compression instead of 9.5:1, but you have to make a decision on whether or not that 1/2 point is worth it in terms of the additional expense of the LQ9. At the end of the day a full bolt on/ tuned LQ4 will probably run just as hard as a full bolt on/ tunes LQ9...we're talking a 1/2 point of compression here. Everyone gets such a hard on for LQ9's like they're some kind of magic motor. But if you do get fixated on being able to have LQ9 in your signature and tell your friends that it's an LQ9, make sure to grab an $80 bore scope from harbor freight to verify its a flat top piston motor. "6.0L" should be stamped into the block behind the alternator bracket. You'll have to pull the pan to see if it's a floating rod motor but that doesn't matter on an n/a build. Also from what I've read and researched they did not make any LQ9's whatsoever (even in 2002) with pressed pin rods. I recently bought an 02 LQ9 for dirt cheap with trans/ harness/ cats off craigslist and I was able to drive the truck and use a bore scope to verify it had flat tops. I don't even care if it has pressed pins or not as guys get wet over LQ9's and will pay a premium for something they don't even need most of the time...