Thanks, look at my list and let me know which one I missed. I'll edit the list

 

This is a great asset to help find the right engine. Thanks.

I do have a question. If I'm looking for a 5.3 aluminum engine, what should I ask for at the junkyard?

In other words, your list of a bunch of 5.3s doesn't say what vehicle they came in. Will the junk yard know if I ask for an L33? for example?

 

Phil I keep looking for some information but I can't seem to find what I am looking for. I have been told (and this very well could be wrong) that the Chevy Express vans (mines is a passenger van) are the new gen 4 motors but dont have AFM or d.o.d are they still considered a ly5 or does the lack of the afm and D.o.D make them some other engine code? Mine in particular is a 2008

 

My engine has 4.8 on gasket tag but the pistons are dished. From everything I've read all
4.8's have flat top piston. block is cast iron and is susposed to be an '06. Any ideas to what ive got?

 

5.3's do have dished pistons.

Could it have been opened up at some time.

 

The 08 Express Van should have the LY6 and 4L80e Trans. It is a Gen 4 engine.
Should not have AFM or DOD.

 

philntx, that was my thought but its low miles 46K. and is super clean under valve cover
etc. but you never know. What are you running in your '54? This engine/trans is going into my '50, also '84 vette ifs/irs, just getting started. thanks for your reply

 

Right now, it's bone stock restored. It was my Grandfather's truck.

 

I have the same question as before from another member on here Phil, the other motor I was asking about on the s10forum is from a 03 fullsize van. its a 6.0 motor. Now you did show how to tell from looking at the pistons which is a lq4/9 but another guy asked it and Id be in the same boat....if its a complete pulled engine everything mounted on it, how do you tell than? Id like to know b/c looking at the chart, its a matter of 300/350 for the lq4 and 345/380 for the lq9....big difference lol.

 

The only way I know is to either know what vehicle it came out of, run the VIN and/or pull a plug and see if has either dished or flat pistons.

 

If its from a van it will be DBC as they were DBC till 06 at least. As well it won't have a engine cover. All the vans had LQ4's. All the LQ9's were DBW as well.

Thinks wrong with the Significant Gen III Engineering Points
1) The L33 was an aluminum block 5.3L Gen III truck motor with 243 heads and flat tops. So all truck motors weren't iron.
10) Truck engines had DBW options on high end SUV's in 02 and by 2003 all truck motors were DBW save for the Vans.
11) The crank flange is basically the same depth as the bellhousing flange. The 99-2000 LQ4 and some LR4 4.8L used a longer crank flange for use with the 4l80 and NV3500/4500. In 2001 GM went to the common crank flange and used a spacer.

 

SO most likely its a lq4 and a dbc? dbc is Drive By Cable correct? Which is eaiser for a noob to work with?

 

I went and looked at an ls motor earlier tonight, I'm a newb so take it easy on me.

I can probably get this engine for about $100, its sitting outside on some wood covered with a tarp. Guy don't really know anything about it.

I haven't really looked close at it but I'm trying to identify what it is. It's an ls with iron heads. According to the first post, the 99 lq4 6.0 had iron heads. Were there any others that come with iron heads?

Thanks,
Eric

 

As long as it is an LS engine, then it should be a 6.0 with those iron heads. There should be a 317 cast onto the corner if you can take another look.

 

Thanks, that's the answer I was looking for. I wasn't too sure if any of the earlier 4.8 or 5.3's come with iron heads. I'm gonna go check it out again tonight and may pick it up.

 

How can I tell by looking the difference between a LQ4 and LY6? I'm going tomorrow to look at a 07' 6.0 which it appears was a cross over year and the truck could have had either. They don't remember if it was old or new body style truck it came out of.

TIA

 

after spending a couple hours at the junkyard trying to identify a motor 2007+ all have dished pistons, I broke down and called a local dealer. I gave them the number on the drivers side rear deck of the block and they told me everything I needed to know. 2007, 5.3, flex fuel, etc.... easy 30 second way to ID any LS based motor.

 

I hate to overstep my bounds as a newb here and with my luck someone will prove me wrong, but from the research I've done you can't stroke any of the 6.0 blocks, including the LQ4, to 4.25". I believe the max is 4.125 which, when combined with a .030 bore, would be either a 420 or 421 CID engine depending on how many digits out on pi you go and if you round up or down.

I do know of a guy who claims that he has a 434 but don't know how he got there. His engine is amazing though and appears to be very reliable after much abuse over time.

I know you got your info from Chevy High Performance Mag, it was back in the early days of Gen III, and facts were probably somewhat limited back then.

J. J.

 

this was def worth making a sticky... thank you

 

Hey guys, just my personal experience with identifying a 5.3 vs 4.8. I bought an engine off a guy on craigslist for a 240z project. It was listed as a 5.3. Being a bit of a noob to this generation of engines, I got it home and started reading a bit about the engines on the net. Came across a couple of enraged people saying they bought what they thought were 5.3s and they turned out to be 4.8s. I also came across a few posts saying you could identify the engine size by the tab that sticks out from the head gasket. It didn't make much sense to me that GM would ID engines this way, but I went out to the garage and checked the tab. It said 4.8!!!

As my blood pressure started to rise, I remembered seeing someone say the 4.8/5.3 cast into the back of the block might have one or the other highlighted with paint. No highlighting on this one. I decided to grab a spark plug socket and see if I could tell by looking at the piston tops, as the 4.8s came with flat tops and the 5.3s dished. No way, unless you happen to have a scope, which I don't. Besides, GM apparently had flat tops in the 5.3 H.O. and at some point, switched to flat tops in all 5.3s.

At this point I was ready to hunt down the guy that sold me this engine. Well after some thought (and words of wisdom from the wife), I decided to go ahead and pull the pan and check the crankshaft casting number...12552216. It is a 5.3!

The moral of the story...pull the pan and look at the crank. I've since read about a few people with gasket tabs that say 4.8, but they have 5.3 cranks. Oh and BTW, I'm 99.999999999% sure the heads have never been off of this engine....in fact I'm 99.99999999% sure NONE of the bolts have ever been off of this engine since it left the factory.

My 2 ¢
Good luck.