Time To Rebuild

[stagrlee]

When my leaky Castech heads ruined my 5.3L (about 140K miles) and I started shopping around for what to do. The original block needed so much work that I ended up getting a 6.7L stroker block from Texas Speed in Georgetown Texas, mild cam upgrade and new stock heads. Its an impressive upgrade.

https://www.texas-speed.com/p-588-tsp-408-cid-lq9-short-block.aspx

I've got about 60k miles on this setup. Oil analysis showed it shed a lot of metal in the first 15k miles but settled down after that. The piston comes further out of the block with this crankshaft. If I did oil analysis on the original block I would have caught the coolant problem...

 

[Dantheman1540]

It will also tell us if the motor is original or rebuilt. Since it was owned by a fleet its likely the original motor died and was replaced with a reman or possibly a GM crate motor.

Either way the truck lasting that long is impressive I'm excited for mine to roll over 250k.

 

[The_Burban]

LQ9 v Q4

http://bdturnkeyengines.com/60l-lq9-vs-lq4

Has photos.

 

[DN08Tahoe]

If you dont mind sharing.. Which machine shop in KC area are
you going to use.. I can always use a good one. And they are hard
to find

It is called Liberty Auto Machine shop. It is in Liberty, MO on Mill St.

 

[DN08Tahoe]

It will also tell us if the motor is original or rebuilt. Since it was owned by a fleet its likely the original motor died and was replaced with a reman or possibly a GM crate motor.

Either way the truck lasting that long is impressive I'm excited for mine to roll over 250k.

Actually, it is the original engine, just got a little lucky with it. I know the owner of the company that I bought it from, he gave me all of the service records. The body and interior are still in excellent condition. Figured, why not do a rebuild, ya know?

 

[OR VietVet]

It is called Liberty Auto Machine shop. It is in Liberty, MO on Mill St.

Since I graduated at Excelsior Springs High School, I am very familiar with Liberty, Mo. I am not familiar with that machine shop though. I left Gladstone, nearer I-29 instead of I-35 where Liberty is, and I dealt with shops near there. My brother lives in Parkville and works at the FOMOCO assembly plant in Claycomo. You are talking about my old stomping grounds for close to 40 years. Small town shops like that are less rushed and can do a better job sometimes.

 

[iamdub]

What would it take to swap a 6.0 in? Just tuning? Do all the accessories bolt up? I know it needs to be the same year(s) for the ecu to work.

That is a VERY good question. Does anyone have the answer to this?

Any Gen4 non-hybrid engine will bolt in and all accessories bolt up. Don't bother trying to make an LQ4 or LQ9 work as those are Gen3 engines and present difficulties not worth getting involved with.

For a 6.0, I'm not a fan of AFM so I'd recommend an LY6 or L96. The LY6 is non-FlexFuel, but you can bolt on your existing intake manifold and keep the FF system. The L96 IS FlexFuel, so it'd be a direct swap with it's intake manifold. Both engines have VVT, so you can either replace the cam and phaser with a non-VVT cam and sprocket or install a phaser lockout kit or add the VVT harness to your existing engine harness and have the VVT enabled when you have the 6.0 tune loaded.

 

[Dantheman1540]

Actually, it is the original engine, just got a little lucky with it. I know the owner of the company that I bought it from, he gave me all of the service records. The body and interior are still in excellent condition. Figured, why not do a rebuild, ya know?

That's really impressive!

 

[swathdiver]

I have owned this Tahoe for 6 years, was originally a fleet vehicle from the south east US. It has been maintained quite well, had every tune up and replacement as its listed in the owners manual. It has been very good to me, and is still in excellent shape.

Folks here would appreciate, myself included, if you could post your repair and maintenance records someday. This helps give others an idea of how long they can expect a part or component to last.

Last fall a fellow named Trevor posted his nine years of service and maintenance records for his 2008 Denali but he was "only" at 184K miles.

For many the transmissions run to 160K. the ball joints 150K, the o-ring in the oil pump pick up tube, 165K, etc.

 

[JeffL]

Sounds like me. If I knew I was swapping an engine and I was not selling my old one, I would tear it down to inspect because I am just nosey as hell. Plus it helps in the future for info when I may run across other problems on mine or other people's rigs. I ran shops for years and when a tech came up after diagnosing a customer's rig and said "here is the problem", my next thought and question was always, "what caused the problem or why is it bad". I hear stories here at this forum, mostly about a trans problem, where the rig is taken in for diagnosis and the tech says, "needs a new trans" and the member here doesn't ask, "WHY"?

Ya im keeping my motor. Its getting rebuilt back to stock for now. I plan on keeping my truck forever, so a fresh stock 5.3 and 4L60E in the garage will be nice when it comes time to smog it.