Hey guys! Fairly new to the site, but have been SCCA Road Racing for years, and now my 2003 4X4 Suburban with the L59 is showing a little milkiness around the oil fill cap and filler neck. Reading about the Casttek 5.3 issues, and knowing how much it slowed down pulling my 26' trailer with the racecar inside, I have bought a really nice LQ4 long block core. Zero wear in the cylinders, crank looks good, and I am getting ready to start collecting parts. I know the head gaskets and exhaust gaskets need to be replaced, but I see some folks talking about the others being reuseable. Really? I don't want issues, don't want leaks, hate working on a greasy car. Got new headbolts coming. Thinking about milling the heads 0.030" to bump up the compression, and a mild torque cam. New valve springs, with a nice valve job. New timing set and oil pump. Water pump. What else should I do for 100,000 mile peace of mind?

Thanks for the info on the site and any advice you can give. This will be my first LS but I've build two sbc's and a ton of import race engines.

Mike

 

247 views and no one responds to my questions? Come on guys, they aren't rocket science, what else should I do to give it good reliability and good towing power/torque?

 

Sounds like you have most of it covered. I would do all the gaskets for piece of mind.

Intake, front and rear covers, crank seal front and rear, Oil pan gasket, valley gasket, exhaust gaaskets, so on...

I would also replace the lifters and the plastic trays since your putting in a new cam.

 

I finally got around to pulling the lifter trays and lifters last night. I read about people changing the lifters with a new cam, and I wondered why since they are rollers, and I mean on newer engines, not old rebuilds like this. I rolled it round by hand a few revs, so the lifters would be held in the trays for removal. 15 of 16 stayed in the block, ok, new lifters and trays it is!
BTW, I got a great deal on a popular for sale site, Melling Oil pump, Crane pro series timing set with the gears rem treated and the chain teflon coated, Crane cam rem treated, Crane springs with Ti retainers and seals, two sets of Cometic head gaskets, a conversion set, and ARP cam gear bolts and retainer bolts for $350.