Blackwater
Engineering Geinus
I may be able to help you on this. I have yeas researching everything before I started. Im in the process of doing a swap as we type. First of all, what are your goals for this truck? HP goal? torque goal? From what I am reading you want a parts getter and daily driver. Using a 5.3L is a good start. it will make a good daily driver. In my swap I just put my junkyard engine on the engine stand but currently having to wait till I get the lawn mower running since mowing season is coming up. I'm looking at 550 to 600 hp with 500 to 550 lb-ft of toque. When looking at these numbers it is a compromise between hp and torque or top end vs bottom end power. If your racing you want top end vs towing and hauling where you need bottom end. What I mean by compromise is I want something to tow with and track on occasion or red light to red light ***** baggery. For my build I picked the LQ4. Yes, some say "why don't you use the LQ9 HO?" First of all what is the difference? The only difference between the two is the compression ratio by using flat top pistons in the LQ9 vs the dished pistons in the LQ4. Now this brings a whole another question to concider when picking a cam heads pistons. Are you going forced Induction? I plan on going Naturally Aspirated. Therefore, higher compression is the way to go. Which brings up another question, what type of fuel do you plan on using? Pump gas? premium? race gas? Im looking for pump gas which puts my compression between 9.8 to 11.3 to one. If your planning to do FI then you need 8.5 to 10.1. If you want towing grunt then you can think of stroking the motor. 5.3 (3.780 in bore), 6.0 ( 4 in bore) and 6.2 (4.065 in bore) have the same stroke (3.6 inch) but different bore size. the 7.0 (4.1250 in bore) has a 4 inch crank. now the 4.8L and the 5.3L share the same bore(3.780 in) but different stroke (3.3 in vs 3.6 in respectively). Now that brings another question do I want to stroke my power plant? Well when it come to power and torque the golden rule is there is no replacement for displacement. When you stroke a engine you increase the displacement. For example, Taking my LQ4 and you can stoke it to 370, 402, 408, 416 (iron block only), 427 (iron block only). Note: the smaller the stroke the more reliable and higher reves you can go and the larger the stroke the less reliable, less revs and gobs of power and torque. Which brings me to my build. I choose to put in a 4 in crank which make it a 402 ci or 6.6L. that makes it a square engine with the 4 in bore and 4 in crank. Any bigger crank and it will be over square. unless you bore it 30 over to 4.030 with a 4 in crank will be 408 ci.
Hope this gets you to thinking of what you want. I believe you can achieve your goal cheaper by forced Induction (super charger) with a mild cam and bump up to 42 lbs-hr injectors.. Power adders are great depending on the setup. You can get big power or fuel econ or a little bit of both and have that thrust your @$$ to your seat, go. You need to think of these things. I will help you every step of the way including sharing my shopping list which I have toughly researched. I also have several books on the ls swap and modifications. also on the computer portions on it. step to picking the right computer and setup.
My truck is a 1993 GMC C1500 with a 2004 NV4500 MW3 w/ gearvendos under/overdrive auxiliary transmission (that's 10 gears!), 1992 K2500 14 bolt 9.5 w/ 3.73:1 with Detroit locker and G2 diff cover. signal mirrors 1993 5.7L stock engine (LQ4 is on engine stand ready for tear down and build up).
Give me a shout if I can be of help.
Hope this gets you to thinking of what you want. I believe you can achieve your goal cheaper by forced Induction (super charger) with a mild cam and bump up to 42 lbs-hr injectors.. Power adders are great depending on the setup. You can get big power or fuel econ or a little bit of both and have that thrust your @$$ to your seat, go. You need to think of these things. I will help you every step of the way including sharing my shopping list which I have toughly researched. I also have several books on the ls swap and modifications. also on the computer portions on it. step to picking the right computer and setup.
My truck is a 1993 GMC C1500 with a 2004 NV4500 MW3 w/ gearvendos under/overdrive auxiliary transmission (that's 10 gears!), 1992 K2500 14 bolt 9.5 w/ 3.73:1 with Detroit locker and G2 diff cover. signal mirrors 1993 5.7L stock engine (LQ4 is on engine stand ready for tear down and build up).
Give me a shout if I can be of help.
