TzS

Hey guys I recently swapped a BTR stage 3 canmed 5.3 iron block LS into my former 6.0 Goat after blowing it at roughly 103k.

Question is... how can I make this 5.3 as rock solid reliable as I can so it doesn't blow on me as well. I want to drive the car hard and plan on drag and mildly street racing it against my friends. Love my car but currently can't fully enjoy it with the constant thought of another motor nagging at me. Currently not in the position to do anything TOO expensive like forging the internals. Thanks for the thoughts!

ULTIMATEORANGESS

iTrader: (4)

arp rod bolts will make you able to rev it higher and be ok.

MuhThugga

You have given hardly any information on the engine. How high are you trying to rev the engine? Are you holding it at high RPMs for long periods of time or just spinning and shifting at redline? What valvetrain is in the engine? A 231/242 camshaft in a 5.3? Seriously?

And I'm also going to say that if you can't afford to fix **** when it breaks, then don't hammer on the car.

ACLR8R

iTrader: (2)

Also, what year 5.3?

TzS

Th motor is a stock 5.3 iron block except for that cam. Sorry for not being clear on my original post. I intend on spinning the motor to its current 6200ish redline when I feel like racing it. I roll race mainly so I will hold it at higher RPMs for maybe 20 secs then launch into the race. No current plans for holding it up there much longer as I only straightline race at the moment. Not looking to raise the redline at all, just trying to make the motor as reliable as possible up there because I can't afford dropping the cash for a whole new set up. I can afford it if something breaks, I just couldn't justify it all over again for a while.

Also, I'm just a guy who loves his car! Do some cosmetic and minor stuff here and there but not overly familiar with the internals and cam specs etc. I was concerned when my shop told me to put a larger cam like that in a 5.3, but he claimed that he had done it before and it was fine. Car drives, idles, and pulls great so what am I missing with the cam and the 5.3?

Thanks and sorry for the long reply.

TzS

Couldn't tell you for sure. Bought it off a buddy who pulled it out of a last-gen silverado. Miles are unknown but my guy pulled it apart and found it to be in great shape with minimal wear. Said something about the cylinder walls still being grooved.

Dyno Junkie

If you are only revving to 6,200rpm I'm very surprised that the LS2 died.

I cammed a friends HSV GTO LS2 with a CompCam 235 243 .621" .624" 113 and rev this out to 7,400rpm on a stock bottom end.

TzS

Damn, that's badass man. Thinking my LS2 lived a hard 100k before I got to it. Took the best care of it that I could.

gtfoxy

Im in the same boat as yourself.

I had the preknowledge my goat was undoubtedly beaten on, but it has low miles and I have a few LS motors laying around, so no big.

Big issue is it has a lifter or two going down. Driving me nuts.

If you want to stay hydraulic Morel lifters is a good place to start. I'm personally considering going LLSR...

As far as RPM goes, mine is running an LS9 cam & it's not done breathing at 6500.

You never mentioned what happened to the old engine. What kind of failure did it have?

What kind of tuning did you have with the cam?

svede1212

iTrader: (3)

Stock RPM limit occasionally should be fine if the components like lifters are good and the ramp rate of the cam isn't wild. It comes down to ramp rate and lift, spring pressures, rock solid push rods, lifters and mass (weight) of the parts of the valve train that move the fastest. I set my red line to 7,000 but I have a decent cam lobe, PAC springs, Ti retainers, hollow valves, Morel "race" anti-pump up lifters, Yella Terra rockers and 11/32", .120" wall push rods. After experiencing valve float and engine failure at lower RPM I threw everything at it. It pulls smoothly and quickly all the way to red line now.