Whats up guys!!
Have awesome news! I ended up picking up a bare 6.0 block gen 3 for 100 bucks!! In AZ now cant find one less than 250. Everyone wants one! Not in bad shape! My brother owns a machine shop so I can get some killer deals by just doing all the labor. Just parts at this point.

So on this 6.0, it would be my first full on build. I know over a 5.3 my current mods done to 5.3 do it to a 6.0 and its 60+ horsepower over it all. But I am not sure on what to start with.
My goals is to be a dependable 400+rwhp na id possible? (Not even thinkable with a 5.3 unless its forced inductions or nitrous.) What kind of bottom end am i looking at? Forged or just good quality parts?
Also seen people doing 408 strokers or a 370. What are everyones experience on these??

 

For 400 naturally aspirated horsepower, stock internals are fine. The motor's are good for near double that. Nice find btw!

 

Article going now in Car Craft on a 6.0 build.

 

Thanks man! Brother called me up and told me he had found it and I jumped on it right away!

 

Have a link for that??


So far my plan with it is find a stock OEM crank, gen 4 rods since they are upgraded and my brother is a vender for Diamond Pistons and can get me a set on the low side and same with King bearings and ARP. So it will be full King bearings and ARP bottom and top end. Just wanna decide if I can keep my stock ported 706 heads or spend the money on a set of 243s and re port them. Don't plan on doing any nitrous or FI in this motor yet. Maybe do a Torquer v2 or similar cam to keep my 3200 stall and not completely destroy my 4l60e but they do say I can run good power through it when I had it built.

Also found out that the 5.3, 5.7, 6.0 and 6.2 uses the same crank and rods, only difference is the bore size. Looking up my connections at work, I found that the same part number for any gen 4 5.3 and 6.0 crank and 6.2 crank but the price was lower if I got the one for the 5.3 through GM which makes no since...

 

The cranks use the same "casting" part #.

However, they are all balanced differently though for there application.

 

Ahh makes sense. But if I'm getting the assy. rotated after I get rods and pistons and have it balanced to that, would I be okay with getting any crank? reason I ask is because through GM I can get a lq9 crank 380 plus tax and I can get a lm7 crank for 320 plus tax, so saving money would be nice. Is there any company of cranks you recommend?

 

You can If you had to, but I forget if the 5.3L crank would need weight added since the original piston and rod combo is lighter in a 5.3 Vs. a 6.0
That could cost more than the price difference.

You can drill to lighten but you have to add mallorey for weight and mallory isn't cheap...

 

400+rwhp should be very easy with the right parts working together

we swapped my sons 94 shorty to a lq4/4l80e every thing is stock 317 heads, exhaust manifolds, truck intake with just a 02 z06 cam and put down 347/370 rear wheel

if you go with the 6.2 top end, nice cam bolt'ons you should be well into 400's with out a probelm, even if you go worked 243's cam & bolts'ons you can make 380 to 400 to the ground and be a daily driver

 

So the plan I have going is going to be somewhat of a budget build. I needed up getting a crank that just needed to be polished, and a set of gen 4 rods to upgrade the wrist pin in the piston. Now my other step would be tossing a set of forged flat top pistons into it to help save some weight of the rotating assy. and add some durability to the top end if i do go onto Fi or nitrous or use a small 100 shot or so. My question is my brother has a set of 317 heads that he will probably hook me up with. But I was reading that those had to be milled if i was using those heads to go to an 10.1 compression ratio. But since im doing flat tops wouldnt that make it a LQ9 at that point? And those came stock with 10-1 ratio right? with those heads. Been reading that the 317s will flow just as good as 243s or better if I port them, which i plan on doing anyways. We only have 91 here in AZ so going further than 10.5-1 would cause issues with the Daily side of it right?