what is it, you ask?
it's an all aluminum 5.3 out of a 2010 Suburban that was replaced because it had a "lifter tick" when cold that went away when it warmed up. i got it for the core price- $100.. thinking it will look nice between the fenders of either my Camaro or my T Type...
back story: a friend of mine works for a company that drives train crews for BNSF railroad all over the upper midwest. this particular engine was in a Suburban that he drove on an almost daily basis for about 3 months with the "lifter tick" that didn't affect how the engine ran at all. but management decided to "fix" the truck, and my friend asked the mechanic at the shop how much he could buy the engine for.. the guy said the core charge was $100.. friend messages me on facebook last night asking me if that's a good deal... 10 hours later i was 130 miles from home taking the engine apart far enough to get it into the trunk of my Grand Prix...
so it needs a gasket set, i'm gonna ditch all the cylinder deactivation mumbo jumbo, and it's getting a carb intake and MSD ignition controller...
Sweet deal! Breaking down a v8 engine to fit in a car for transport is a great idea I will use in the future.
Why is it when those deals come along I'm always in the wrong place and hear about them after the deal is done. 
Nice score for sure, you lucky bas...never mind. 
good job!
It is great to hear when people get good deals...
I am prepared to offer you double your purchase price and pay for shipping to my shop.
midniteson wrote:
Sweet deal! Breaking down a v8 engine to fit in a car for transport is a great idea I will use in the future.
are you saying that you've never done it before? i thought it was just one of those things that every car guy has done at one point or another..
Except it's likely not a lifter tick but piston slap. Very very common on LS engines. Google "LS piston slap" for many enjoyable hours of reading. Still a good buy, and the piston slap is more of an annoyance than it is anything to really worry about.
bravenrace wrote:
Except it's likely not a lifter tick but piston slap. Very very common on LS engines. Google "LS piston slap" for many enjoyable hours of reading. Still a good buy, and the piston slap is more of an annoyance than it is anything to really worry about.
my friend is a mechanic that's familiar with the typical LS piston slap noise.. says this wasn't that... sounded like a collapsed lifter until the temps got up a bit. a little google searching tells me that the special lifters in the cylinder deactivation stuff can cause problems if you use a cheap oil filter and cause a lifter tick when the miles get piled up- it has a generic no name oil filter on it.
In reply to novaderrik:
Could be, but the piston slap in my sierra sounds exactly like a collapsed lifter. My buddy that is a tech at a GMC dealers claims it's very hard to determine which it is without doing diagnostics on them. And piston slap is far more common than lifter noise, at least on engines that don't have cylinder deactivation. I'm not as familiar with the later engines, so you may be correct. Either way, I don't think it's anything to worry too much about. I've put 50k on my Sierra (143k total). It had piston slap when I bought it and it's the same now, but it does burn a significant amount of oil.
heads are 243 castings- originally designed for the LS6 Corvettes, then used on the LS2, and then on bland and boring generic truck engines like this...
flat top pistons with no valve reliefs, stated compression ratio is 9.9:1.
should have a strong crank and rods and pistons that are good for upwards of 1000hp if i should decide to go crazy with turbos or something and keep it out of detonation. i don't want to play with turbos, so i'll just swap in a cam and live with a near 500hp naturally aspirated engine that idles and knocks down mpg numbers like a boring 200hp small block...
but now i've got a conundrum: the original plan was to just jam it in the Camaro and have a fun beater, but it's so very tempting to rip the turbo 6 out of the T Type and put it in there and live with the wrath of the Buick purists...
decisions, decisions..
In reply to novaderrik:
For the love of all that is holy do not put it in the t-type. If you have to put it in a g-body find an olds or grand prix tostick it in. Pa pa pa leeease!
nicksta43 wrote:
In reply to novaderrik:
For the love of all that is holy do not put it in the t-type. If you have to put it in a g-body find an olds or grand prix tostick it in. Pa pa pa leeease!
if it makes you feel any better, the original engine in the T Type was replaced with a completely incorrect generic parts store reman that has a '79 block with Dog knows what cam in it that is topped with '81 heads in about 1992 or so.. yeah, it's got all the turbo stuff on it, but the long block is completely and utterly "wrong" already so i wouldn't really be "wrecking" anything by doing it.. besides, unlike most generic G bodies, the T Type was built with a rear end and suspension to cope with the kind of power that this engine is easily capable of..
if anyone was curious, this is what a 5.3 looks like when you strip it down to the point where 2 guys can gently set it in the spare tire well of an '01 Grand Prix GTP:
had we had access to a cherry picker that wasn't buried in a snow drift when we loaded it, i'm pretty confident that the whole thing would have sat in there completely intact. but i wanted to tear it down and inspect it, anyways, so taking it apart didn't really bother me.
Just cleaned out the trunk of my '02 GP a couple days ago. Yea, it's kinda roomy... but I never figured 5.3 roomy.
Well done.
M030
HalfDork
4/7/13 7:24 a.m.
In reply to midniteson:
I've done it, too. The rear suspension of my 91 VW Jetta never forgave me for the Pontiac 350 I had in the trunk. It was over a year ago & the rear suspension still sags.
fasted58 wrote:
Just cleaned out the trunk of my '02 GP a couple days ago. Yea, it's kinda roomy... but I never figured 5.3 roomy.
Well done.
also keep in mind that i put the spare tire and jack in the back seat so that the engine could nestle down in the spare tire well.. when i was unloading it, i actually had the block sitting upright on the bellhousing, and the balancer was about 2" under the top of the trunk...
In reply to novaderrik:
Nah, I'm not too concerned about numbers matching or correct. I just think a T-Type should be a turbo V6. But I kinda see your point about it having the right rear end already in it. In the end it's your car and you can do with it what you want but I would highly recommend you selling that engine to me so I can put it in the E21.
nicksta43 wrote:
In reply to novaderrik:
Nah, I'm not too concerned about numbers matching or correct. I just think a T-Type should be a turbo V6. But I kinda see your point about it having the right rear end already in it. In the end it's your car and you can do with it what you want but I would highly recommend you selling that engine to me so I can put it in the E21.
actually, the "T" stands for "Touring", not "Turbo".. it's actually a suspension package.. the turbo motor was only available with that package, and the motor was the only one that was available with the package thru 86.. in 87, you could get a "T" with a carbureted 307 Olds..
nicksta43 wrote:
In reply to novaderrik:
For the love of all that is holy do not put it in the t-type. If you have to put it in a g-body find an olds or grand prix tostick it in. Pa pa pa leeease!
I have an extra Olds G body. Send the engine over here
Heck I even have a 12 bolt rear from a GTO in my shop what should handle the power nicely.
I say put it in the Ttype if you turbo the 5.3. Sounds like a good idea.
