LS1 or 383?

[Country705]

Okay guys as far as it goes about our trucks what is going to be the better option to use a LS1 swap or a 383 swap? The truck in question is a 1997 Silverado with the vortec 350. I know that ls1 swaps are becoming the norm now but I am confused is does the 383 fail in comparision to the ls1? is it not so much easier to put a 383 in the our trucks? I have read plenty of threads but I was just wondering whats everyone's opinions on the LS1 vs 383 debate?

 

[tscherbi]

LS1 any day of the week. Ive been around a couple 383's in the past with a vortec setup and we couldn't get enough fuel to the engine to make it run top of its ability. Just my opinion.

 

[JonZ71]

LSx swap for sure. Do it once and be happy.

 

[Country705]

That's pretty much the universal answer I been getting from everyone. I have been looking into it. the 5.3 is cheaper than the 6.0 and it out puts a good amount of MPG which is would be great!

 

[slippy3002]

Imo ls is the way to go but its not even close to cheap. A 383 eould be good to with AFR and the edelbrock's efi system eith the little tuner. But then again you are talking 4grand in heads and efi set up. Or just a carb set up would be cheap. But the choice is yours. And a ls crate motor is 18grand from edelbrock so I would find a used one.

Sent from Robland

 

[BOTTLEDZ28]

5.3 engines are a dime a dozen in junkyards because they just dont fail. You can get them fairly cheap. If I were to go the 5.3 swap then I would look for a complete donor truck and use as much as I could for the swap. It saves you the hassle of having to constantly look for parts from forums, vendors, etc.

 

[Country705]

my truck as it sets runs pretty good however, the 350 vortec is tired and needs replaced. I am going to try to make do with it until tax time and then try to get a swap under way! thanks you guys for the help!

 

[SilveradoGuy85]

If it was me I might look into a 6.0. In my opinion it's worth the extra money and since you're swapping engines might as well go big. The only other way to go bigger is to put a Dmax in it and roll some coal lol. I personally prefer performance over fuel economy even in a daily driver. Hell I'm the guy that will get a V8 Camaro as a "gas saver". I will try to get what I can out of what I have, but I take performance over a couple mpg. My best friend has an 06 Sierra with the 5.3 and gets 17 mpg which ironically is the same as their 06 V6 Mustang, but he also has 3.23 gears so that helps a lot so that's not all the 5.3.

 

[TylerZ281500]

383 is gonna have a nice meaty performance sound and feel, loss of mpgs but maybe the same hp numbers or more depending on how its built of an ls motor and i use that loosely.

an ls motor is gonne drive smoother, get better mpgs and better or the same performance of the 383.

 

[LordFinesse]

Ive been debating this for almost a year, you think your 350 vortec is tired i have a 262 v6 (1993) with 194k on it, it runs great but since its soo lacking in performance the mpgs suck cause im always stomping on it just to get to highway speeds, personally im going to do a ls1 or ls2 swap, the 383 isnt going to give me the boost in mpgs i so dearly need although the ls1/2 aint no gas saver im hoping to be able to pull 20mpgs on the highway and be able to smoke my tires whenever i want, i just rebuilt my 4l60e so its time to swap of course when the funds come through