The best way to do it is to use your 4.8L pistons with a 5.3L rod and crank. This will give you a bad *** 5.3L with plenty of compression. The crank and rods should be readily available. Just be sure to have it balanced.

 

what a bunch of BS....
the 4.8/5.3 have the same bore at 3.79"/96mm
the 4.8 stroke is 3.267"/83mm
5.3 has the 3.662"/92mm bore as does the 6.0
the 6.0 has bore of 4"/101.6mm
the 5.3/6.0 have the same rods, i cannot find the 4.8 rod info other than different part numbers

this is all out of a book i have^
some of the older iron blocks are stamped 4.8/5.3/6.0

 

I believe your book is incorrect. The 5.3 and 6.0 do not share the same bore. I believe what you meant to type is stroke, as the following line you state the 6.0 has a 4.00" bore which is correct.

3.662 and 4.00 is not the same.

Sure thats just a typo. The 5.3 and 6.0 both have a 3.662" stroke.
Essentially I should be able to use the crank and rods from any LS1, 6.0 or 5.3 in the 4.8 and have a 5.3 with flat top pistons.
I dont understand what youre calling BS on

Also, Im not sure what youre calling "older" but Ive never seen, or even heard of a block being stamped 4.8/5.3/6.0
I know on my '99 and my '08 both have 4.8/5.3 stamped on them

The 4.00" bore would require a .21" overbore which would surely cause block distortion and cooling issues.

IMO your book is BS

 

Lol, per Wikipedia, who would have thought these guys know engines.

The Vortec 4800 LR4 is a Generation III small block V8 truck engine. Displacement is 4.8 L (~293 cu in) with a 96.01 mm bore and 83 mm stroke

AND

The Vortec 5300, or LM7/L59/LM4/L33, is a V8 truck engine. It is a stroked (by 9 mm) version of the Vortec 4800Displacement is 5.3 L (5,328 cc (325.1 cu in)) from 96.01 mm bore and 92.00 mm stroke.

 

Actually the 4.8/5.3/6.0 Block does exist But they are very rare and hard to find. I have never come across one But W2W and LPE have worked with them and documented there existance. There are a few pictures in the How to build LS1's Book. Page 115 and again on page 116 for example. You have to look close at the few pictures but it is there. W2W is long gone but you can contact LPE about them.

 

5.3, 5.7, 6.0 use a 6.098 Length Rod
4.8 uses a 6.125 Length Rod
Pin hieght is the same on the 4.8 and the 5.3 pistons.

5.3, 5.7, 6.0 use the same 12552216 Casting Crank. Only difference's would be: Balance for each displacement, the 5.7L crank also has a 1 inch hole gundrilled through all the mains, and the early 99-2000 6.0L cranks had a longer rear snout with a 12552215 casting number.

want to read up here is a fairly good artical online...

http://www.enginebuildermag.com/Arti...all_block.aspx

 

yeah i made a typo, haha
and when i did my 6.0 swap the first motor that came was an iron block 6.0 which had all three numbers on it, it came out of an 02 hd truck, so idk what happened there i sent it back for the proper motor

 

Hmmm. Learn something new every day. That's cool to know.

 

Ive got that book, I just looked it up and Ill be damned sure enough it is there. Wonder what those blocks came in

 

I Personally believe they are an early production block. At the The begining of the new Gen 3 Iron engines, I believe there was only 1 Foundry set up to cast these New blocks for GM. Its possible they were trying to speed up production by creating a universal block that they could cast over and over rather then 2 different Blocks which would take longer to cast. Hard to say since I have No proof. I have never seen one in person. Unfortunitally No one has taken the time to document what year, models, and location of build of trucks they came in... I spoke with LPE about this a while back and from what he could recal He believed some were small bore5.3L/4.8L and some were 6.0L. Unfortunitally there were no records Of who engine was built using what core block...

The pictures in that book only show the displacement designations I can not see a foundry mark or a casting number...