5.7 vortec or 5.3LS?

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Brothajack93

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Ok so the debate that I’m currently having with myself is this. I bought a truck that I am going to be tearing down and doing a full restoration to fix the Canadian salt road damage. I’m building the truck as a work truck. C1500 ext cab. So towing/hauling once in a while and payload. Already have a 14 bolt 6 lug rear axle swap and beefier leafs in mind. But nobody wants a 5.0L…. They sucked as a TBI and they sucked as a vortec. All my trucks, my grandpas trucks and just about every Chevy that’s ever been close to me has had a 5.7L be it tbi or vortec and I’ve always loved them. But I’m curious about an LS swap. Haven’t done the most personal research on it myself but I’ve heard they are relatively painless for a swap and have many benefits. I already have the 4l60e transmission that most of these take but if a build requires a 4l80e I can probably acquire one as my transmission was re-built about 20,000 km ago so should sell at a reasonable price to help cover some of the cost (why anyone would rebuild a transmission on a truck that’s rotting apart is beyond me but hey at least one part underneath still has some shine to it) would it be better to go for the LS swap or just a simple swap of a period correct engine considering it shouldn’t have too many problems with the work it will be doing. Considering I’m fully restoring the frame and body I’m already dumping more in it than it’s worth so I plan to own the truck for some many years to make it worth it. But when you specifically want one of these trucks in Canada you know what you’re getting into and my I’ve for obs chevys makes it worth it to me. How would a 5.3 be in comparison? I don’t want to go 6.0 cause that’s just a little too excessive and thirsty for my needs. Fuel is too expensive. Might consider turbo later but that’s for another time. Appreciate any advice and will also do some more research of my own when I have time
 

stutaeng

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Please do a search. We've had really threads on the subject, and there's threads on guys doing the swap also. There's pros and cons to each engine, and hard to summarize it in a single post.
 

L31MaxExpress

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Ok so the debate that I’m currently having with myself is this. I bought a truck that I am going to be tearing down and doing a full restoration to fix the Canadian salt road damage. I’m building the truck as a work truck. C1500 ext cab. So towing/hauling once in a while and payload. Already have a 14 bolt 6 lug rear axle swap and beefier leafs in mind. But nobody wants a 5.0L…. They sucked as a TBI and they sucked as a vortec. All my trucks, my grandpas trucks and just about every Chevy that’s ever been close to me has had a 5.7L be it tbi or vortec and I’ve always loved them. But I’m curious about an LS swap. Haven’t done the most personal research on it myself but I’ve heard they are relatively painless for a swap and have many benefits. I already have the 4l60e transmission that most of these take but if a build requires a 4l80e I can probably acquire one as my transmission was re-built about 20,000 km ago so should sell at a reasonable price to help cover some of the cost (why anyone would rebuild a transmission on a truck that’s rotting apart is beyond me but hey at least one part underneath still has some shine to it) would it be better to go for the LS swap or just a simple swap of a period correct engine considering it shouldn’t have too many problems with the work it will be doing. Considering I’m fully restoring the frame and body I’m already dumping more in it than it’s worth so I plan to own the truck for some many years to make it worth it. But when you specifically want one of these trucks in Canada you know what you’re getting into and my I’ve for obs chevys makes it worth it to me. How would a 5.3 be in comparison? I don’t want to go 6.0 cause that’s just a little too excessive and thirsty for my needs. Fuel is too expensive. Might consider turbo later but that’s for another time. Appreciate any advice and will also do some more research of my own when I have time
In my experience the 5.3L has about as much get up and go as the L30 305 Vortec. The 305 Vortec is a smooth, punchy little engine and they are very durable. The 350 makes more torque than either the 5.0L or 5.3L. I have a 6.0L that runs decent and to be honest the 5.3L, 5.7L and 6.0L all use about the same amount of fuel. I went 383 in my heavy pig and should have gone with a Dart SHP 1-piece seal 400 block and a 3.875" stroke for 415 cubes.
Cubes=Torque and Torque = Pulling power and efficiency. With a 4L85E and 3.73s, towing my travel trailer, I have to use 3rd gear on long grades but on flat road the 383 will drag the van and trailer around in overdrive. Unloaded I went from 19 mpg highway to 18 mpg highway going from the 350 making 350 hp to a 383 making 500 hp. The 383 still needs some fine tuning and I may find it delivers the same mileage as the 350.

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Brothajack93

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Please do a search. We've had really threads on the subject, and there's threads on guys doing the swap also. There's pros and cons to each engine, and hard to summarize it in a single post.
I did look around threads on this forum before posting and didn’t see anything that was relevant to my particular needs. Could just be cause I’m not very good at navigating the web for a millennial. Apologies… didn’t mean to cramp things up
 

Brothajack93

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In my experience the 5.3L has about as much get up and go as the L30 305 Vortec. The 305 Vortec is a smooth, punchy little engine and they are very durable. The 350 makes more torque than either the 5.0L or 5.3L. I have a 6.0L that runs decent and to be honest the 5.3L, 5.7L and 6.0L all use about the same amount of fuel. I went 383 in my heavy pig and should have gone with a Dart SHP 1-piece seal 400 block and a 3.875" stroke for 415 cubes.
Cubes=Torque and Torque = Pulling power and efficiency. With a 4L85E and 3.73s, towing my travel trailer, I have to use 3rd gear on long grades but on flat road the 383 will drag the van and trailer around in overdrive. Unloaded I went from 19 mpg highway to 18 mpg highway going from the 350 making 350 hp to a 383 making 500 hp. The 383 still needs some fine tuning and I may find it delivers the same mileage as the 350.

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Thank you this is very useful to make my decision… is the 383 the 6.0L? I live in Canada and only old school guys use cubic inches here so when browsing marketplace I have to search the litre measurement
 

stutaeng

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Ok, no worries. You seem to be a newbie, which is fine. I'm no gear head myself, but I'm learning as I go.

First, you need to understand the basics. What is a SBC? What is BBC? What is a so-called "LS?" What's same between them? What's different? Where does "TBI" and "Vortec" fall under?

What are you using your truck for? Are you going to daily drive it? Will you sacrifice performance over reliability? Things like that are important. Write them down. What do you want your engine to do? Things change as you go along. Very importantly, what is your budget? Are you doing the swap yourself?
 

Brothajack93

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Ok, no worries. You seem to be a newbie, which is fine. I'm no gear head myself, but I'm learning as I go.

First, you need to understand the basics. What is a SBC? What is BBC? What is a so-called "LS?" What's same between them? What's different? Where does "TBI" and "Vortec" fall under?

What are you using your truck for? Are you going to daily drive it? Will you sacrifice performance over reliability? Things like that are important. Write them down. What do you want your engine to do? Things change as you go along. Very importantly, what is your budget? Are you doing the swap yourself?
I will be doing the work myself under the supervision of a journeyman mechanic that works with me. Long as I do the labour he’s more than happy to lend me his brain in the process. Any chance you could link a guy to some info on the basics?
 

BeXtreme

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The simplest thing for you to do would be to find a 6.0L/4L80e combo and swap the entire thing in with the ECM and harness for that setup. 6.0L is the LS equivalent of a 383.

You could also take your current 305, bore it out to 4.0" and you would have a 350. Bore it out to 4.0" and put a stroker crank in it that runs a 3.75" stroke and you have a 383. Do any of those things and put some decent heads and a nice torque cam in it, and you would have about the same power output as the 6.0L LS.
 

Brothajack93

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The simplest thing for you to do would be to find a 6.0L/4L80e combo and swap the entire thing in with the ECM and harness for that setup. 6.0L is the LS equivalent of a 383.

You could also take your current 305, bore it out to 4.0" and you would have a 350. Bore it out to 4.0" and put a stroker crank in it that runs a 3.75" stroke and you have a 383. Do any of those things and put some decent heads and a nice torque cam in it, and you would have about the same power output as the 6.0L LS.
Wow, you really know your stuff. Thanks, I would definitely go with the simple swap for the truck. But having a pulled engine that ain’t worth too much to tinker with doesn’t sound too bad either. I have a bit of machining experience and could probably get a good idea of what to do on YouTube. Worst case scenario I ruin an engine that I could at best get 200 bucks for up here. No one wants a 305 so if I could bore it, test it and possibly have an “improved To 350” engine for someone on a budget it helps someone else out and I develop another skill in relevance to these trucks
 

b454rat

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The simplest thing for you to do would be to find a 6.0L/4L80e combo and swap the entire thing in with the ECM and harness for that setup. 6.0L is the LS equivalent of a 383.

You could also take your current 305, bore it out to 4.0" and you would have a 350. Bore it out to 4.0" and put a stroker crank in it that runs a 3.75" stroke and you have a 383. Do any of those things and put some decent heads and a nice torque cam in it, and you would have about the same power output as the 6.0L LS.
Um, no you can't bore a a 305 to a 350. Take a 350, bore it .030 over and put in a 3.75" crank, then you have a 383. Can do that to a 305 too, makes a 335 IIRC.
 
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