5.7 vortec or 5.3LS?

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L31MaxExpress

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Somewhere a guy is mad because he's maintaining a constant speed and some yahoo keeps speeding up when he tries to pass.

While thats true, I didn't speed up, I just didn't slow down much on the grade 80 mph down to 76 when the grade hit. I had the cruise set at a steady speed for 20 miles. If he had the power to and wanted to he could have passed me. If he wasn't going to pass, he too should have moved to the right.

I have people do that to me often though, its wreckless and dangerous. They will be tooling along at 60mph in a 75mph and then speed up to 80 mph when a passing area frees up. Try to pass them and they speed up to 90+.
 

Brothajack93

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We get quite a few people coming on here (it seems) to tell us that our vortec motors are junk, and LS's are the best thing ever. You will notice this too, once you have actually been a member for a couple of months. Typically they start their swap, realize that they actually have to do some work, then give up and sell us all of their parts for pennies on the dollar. We don't care, we like good deals...

I have now owned 10+ LS powered trucks, and prefer the old vortec. I will own more LS powered trucks, as I think that that motor is the next best option after an older vortec.

I am not a purist - I modify everything to make it fit my needs better.

As far as you and your girlfriend trying to scare me away - Back when forums were a big deal I was known as the unibomber. There was one guy that really pissed me off back in 2007, and he still can't get a loan today... Bring it.
It has nothing to do with that. Jesus dude I thought my wires were a little short circuited. I ask for advice and get people who decide to be insulting. I’m not looking for an endless keyboard war here bud. I said I appreciate her cause she shows up out of the blue and scares the problem away by being a bit of a troll cause ultimately I DONT WANT TO DEAL WITH IT…. I have a problem with these trucks in the hands of senseless d bags too if you really want a common ground to stop treating me like I’m the enemy here. I have nothing against the original vortec or the tbi… I was actually asking about which one to swap to for a better and more efficient towing option and am utilizing resources and asking for advice from people who have done it to make my decision when the time comes. I’m not some d bag kid who’s buying a clean truck with daddies money here. I’m a guy who grew up on them. Had them for his first vehicles and wants to have one in the liberal land of salty roads and is learning to restore and build one cause he can’t afford the inflation of the truck thanks to the trends that the generation of square bodies before them suffered. I don’t care what you are or your tastes. Don’t try to insult me and act like your opinion is the only one there is…. You want a 305? You can have it because you’re one of the very few people who would. Im here trying to learn something myself because I’ve never had the opportunities to do it before and I still don’t. Im building my first one to suit my requirements when it’s completed and if that means a newer engine that has benefits for my purposes then so be it. I never knocked any engine but the 5L but yea go ahead and label me the problem cause you can’t help yourself but to put your 2 cents in on a post cause it says LS… get out of here man
 

L31MaxExpress

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To better answer your question we need to know what you will be towing. A 10 ft utility trailer with a mower? A flat deck car hauler? A travel trailer? Generally speaking you want the engine that makes the highest torque curve in the midrange towing with an automatic. Mid-range for a V8 being 1,500-5,000 rpm. That puts your torque peak ~3,250 rpm. Towing in 2nd gear at 4,000-5,000 rpm like a 5.3/4L60E/3.73 geared truck often does just to be able to pull 5,000 lbs uphill without being a menace to traffic gets old quick. A 4.8 even would make it up that grade, probably at 30-35 mph in 1st gear.

I had that same 305 you hate in my 99 Tahoe. Mine had a small cam, long tube headers, 2.5 " dual pipes to the muffler and a Volant intake. I pulled 5,000-6,000 lb trailers with it just fine near the speed limit and under 4,000 rpm. Running empty at 70 it would regularly get 22 mpg. The 4L60E did not like it much though and took a vacation. Prompting the 8.1L swap.
 
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letitsnow

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You have been given many, many answers by those of us that pull trailers all over the US with these trucks. You could also do a search and read for hours, due to the other 16 year olds that have asked these very same questions. Over and over...

And... Most people aren't even gonna read a sentence that runs on that long. FFS, paragraphs are your friend.
 

Brothajack93

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To better answer your question we need to know what you will be towing. A 10 ft utility trailer with a mower? A flat deck car hauler? A travel trailer? Generally speaking you want the engine that makes the highest torque curve in the midrange towing with an automatic. Mid-range for a V8 being 1,500-5,000 rpm. Towing at 4,000-5,000 rpm like a 5.3 often does just to be able to pull 5,000 lbs uphill without being a menace to traffic gets old quick.
It will be a city work truck that drives me to work and performs jobs on my days off. Will be driven without a trailer often but also would like it to be capable of pulling for instance a mid size dump trailer with a roof rip or some aggregates and various general construction purposes. An upgrade that makes it a little more capable but not extreme. A 6.0 sounds perfectly capable, reasonable and all around practical in work required and kits available for ease of install and it’s not over the top when it comes to building a truck for such a generalized purpose. Turbo was considered because it’s city driving therefore more acceleration if it were towing daily but it would not be that much to need to go that far it was just a thought that I had reconsidered. I don’t understand how this has to suddenly become a big topic again. I asked a question. I got answers and I’ve made a decision based on the information given me and somehow this thread has become a hot topic of people talking about their builds amongst each other in the time I haven’t even looked at it (probably a week) and people come in with attitudes and insult you for considering a drivetrain upgrade? You were one of the first people on this thread weren’t you? Is there something I don’t understand about how asking a question on these things work? Cause there seems to be a repeating pattern of making a post and somehow that post becoming a breeding ground for topics that become irrelevant and bs when people decide to chime in and treat you like a 16 year punk when your username contains your birth year. If I’m tearing a truck right down and building it because personally, I would rather see one saved and built for my requirements and leave a perfectly clean and mostly original truck alone then what’s got people so quick to hop in to tell me I’m an idiot and not even for the reason I would agree with them. Obviously there’s something I’m not getting. Is there an option to end the thread and I’m letting it go on too long leaving an open window for these guys or something? I may be young but I grew up working hard labour not scrolling through the internet so forums are a new thing to me and though very helpful and informative. They seem to be a problem if the conversation goes on too long
 

Brothajack93

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You have been given many, many answers by those of us that pull trailers all over the US with these trucks. You could also do a search and read for hours, due to the other 16 year olds that have asked these very same questions. Over and over...

And... Most people aren't even gonna read a sentence that runs on that long. FFS, paragraphs are your friend.
That’s the point I literally just made. Somehow a question gets answered, other guys go on about their builds and guys come in and make a first time comment and treat you like a punk kid? What’s your problem dude? You think I’m not capable because I haven’t done it. Is it your investment going down the drain if I can’t or is it like you said. Your benefit but I don’t know why you seem to care so much about a truck that I intend to build from the ground up myself aside from the help of a mechanic for the power train. You know that part of it you seem to be so concerned about my abilities in. Keep your opinions to yourself and you wouldn’t have to read rants. It goes both ways and guess who was the person who decided to start the war of insults. Not the guy who asked a question and got lots of advice that helped him make a decision while other people littered the thread. I hadn’t even logged in for like a week and the first thing I see is your crap on top of conversations that didn’t involve me or the initial topic anymore. I’m just trying to salvage, restore and build a slightly upgraded truck. You’re acting like I’m ruining something that was already ruined in case you missed that part
 

0xDEADBEEF

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To better answer your question we need to know what you will be towing. A 10 ft utility trailer with a mower? A flat deck car hauler? A travel trailer? Generally speaking you want the engine that makes the highest torque curve in the midrange towing with an automatic. Mid-range for a V8 being 1,500-5,000 rpm. That puts your torque peak ~3,250 rpm. Towing in 2nd gear at 4,000-5,000 rpm like a 5.3/4L60E/3.73 geared truck often does just to be able to pull 5,000 lbs uphill without being a menace to traffic gets old quick. A 4.8 even would make it up that grade, probably at 30-35 mph in 1st gear.

I had that same 305 you hate in my 99 Tahoe. Mine had a small cam, long tube headers, 2.5 " dual pipes to the muffler and a Volant intake. I pulled 5,000-6,000 lb trailers with it just fine near the speed limit and under 4,000 rpm. Running empty at 70 it would regularly get 22 mpg. The 4L60E did not like it much though and took a vacation. Prompting the 8.1L swap.

Torque means nothing. Torque output over time on the other hand ...
 

letitsnow

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That’s the point I literally just made. Somehow a question gets answered, other guys go on about their builds and guys come in and make a first time comment and treat you like a punk kid? What’s your problem dude? You think I’m not capable because I haven’t done it. Is it your investment going down the drain if I can’t or is it like you said. Your benefit but I don’t know why you seem to care so much about a truck that I intend to build from the ground up myself aside from the help of a mechanic for the power train. You know that part of it you seem to be so concerned about my abilities in. Keep your opinions to yourself and you wouldn’t have to read rants. It goes both ways and guess who was the person who decided to start the war of insults. Not the guy who asked a question and got lots of advice that helped him make a decision while other people littered the thread. I hadn’t even logged in for like a week and the first thing I see is your crap on top of conversations that didn’t involve me or the initial topic anymore. I’m just trying to salvage, restore and build a slightly upgraded truck. You’re acting like I’m ruining something that was already ruined in case you missed that part

Each time that you get an answer that you don't like, you think that you are being insulted. You need to grow up, or you will not get this truck working.

The 6.0 should do a good job in the truck that you are hoping to put together.

Please start a build thread and show us pics as you go.
 

Brothajack93

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The conclusion here is I’ve come to that decision already. Before I disappeared for a week. If you think your backhanded assumption of my personal taste in truck bodies is at all an “answer” then maybe you need to look at what relevance an answer should have to the question asked. If it were only about the engine I would have definitely got a gmt800 and restored that cause they’re in just as bad of shape here anyway. But I found the unfollow option that I need to start utilizing after I get what I’m looking for so I don’t have to see the thread after it’s run it’s course as to be sure to not give the actual child in this scenario the attention he was desperately seeking or he wouldn’t have come back declaring war cause a female made fun of him. Grow up man
 

Spareparts

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I had a boat for a while that had an engine that had a Chevy bellhousing but was half of a 460 Ford with a 429 CobraJet head and a Q-Jet. That little 3.7 I4 was a smooth, strong engine.
I have had a couple of them. I would not say they were exactly smooth at idle. Under way they all are smooth.
It was a Mercury marine/Ford partnership. It was called a few different names in its life span but in the end they are all a 470. Mercury designed the Aluminum block to fit a Ford 460 iron head. As delivered in stock form it had a 460 cast iron head, Pistons and rods and was 180HP
They have bad water cooled charging system, Was known for blowing head gaskets, Eating the inner water pump seals allowing water into the oil and wrecking the cam.
All this could be overcome as people figured out how to deal with it and the later years were marginally improved. Sorry could not help myself:33:.
 
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