I recently came into 2 5.3's both of which need to be rebuilt/freshened up I think. They both had cylinder head concerns. They had porous casting issues and leaked coolant into the oil. I think they're both in good condition, one is still assembled and one is disassembled. The torn apart one has good looking crank bearings from what I can tell. I'd like to replace the bearings and maybe the rings, throw on a set of used stock ported/polished heads and put it in my '86 C-10.

The other 5.3 I was thinking of making it a cast iron LS1. I'd go with Fully forged internals and set it up for nitrous or boost.

Does anyone have any other options that I could/should/might do with one or both of these engines?