Hey,

Ive lurked around here for a while, and finally ended up with a low km 5.3L from an 02 silverado. I was told it was a 6.0L when i picked it up, and found out it was a 5.3L after i started to strip it down. I was a little discouraged, but im going to try and make this work for now! Plans for the motor are going either into my 70 lemans, or 75 trans am. Im torn because i want a fun reliable motor for the lemans...family hauling resto mod. But on the other hand, my trans am would be fun to thrash that little motor in too...sfc's, 4:10's, maybe a little spray...or turbo...

Here's what ive got so far;
-motor stripped down to short block, prepped all the surfaces, ready for heads cam intake
-purchased a used 04 Z06 cam id # 5308 higher lift version/pushrods/valve springs locally. I had more cam in mind, but got it for retarded cheap
-f-body ls1 pan, truck pan, and gm retro fit pan (H3) windage trays, pickup tubes, and dipsticks
-truck accessories
-I hand ported and polished the 862 heads...its my first time doing head work, took my time i think they turned out ok. I cut down the rocker bolt bump on the intake port, did away with the swirl ramp (not sure if im going to regret that yet), blended the bowls, and short side radius, finished intake port down with 80 grit tootsie roll afterwords, exhaust was opened up, sort of mimic LS6 d port, comb chambers were shined up, spark plug boss smoothed down etc. Currently they are at the machine shop to be milled, and have 2.00" intake valve put in. The owner said he may run them on the flow bench them to see how it turns out which would be super cool!

I plan to run it carbureted with gmpp LS1/LS6 intake, or edlebrock dual plane, with a 750 holley, and msd ignition controller (cant remember but which ever one is 54x) and 1"3/4 long tubes (all things yet to purchase)

I have to slap behind it a 700r4, or th400...not sure where to go with that yet, overdrive would be nice as i plan to drive which ever car this ends up in all over the damn place. Im also not sure with the Z06 cam, what stall i may need. If anything i want to maybe go bigger in the future...maybe 3000 stall?

I also thought of down the road, a diy single turbo build, but it might be too late after milling the heads (will find out specs once i pick them back up from the shop)

The goal is to do this mainly on a budget, but hopefully end up with 400hp or better. Please chime in with thoughts, ideas, experiance. If you've done a 5.3 swap in similar platforms, it would be cool to hear how they turned out.

 

im doing a budget build also with a 5.3

stroked it to a 383 and going after a set of 799 heads for it

going in a 81 regal with a 700r4

good luck with the build and keep us posted



dave

 

700 r4 can be a really stout tranny if it's got rear planetary with a dam , high heat / friction clutches or bands as alot like to call them , hardened vein pump rings , 7 vein pump and a Gil Younger complete shift recalibration kit .

 

being you are debating on a trans

if you used a 700r4 what flex plate do you need and is their any other items you would need to make it work

have you been able to find any part numbers for these parts as i am not having anny luck finding them...........or im just not looking in the right places........lol



dave

 

From what i've read, you can just run a hughes hub spacer (press/tap into the tail of the crank, and it will make up the difference to the 700r4 converter. You could use a carbide and oblong the 5.3 flexplate converter bolt holes (I dont condone that technique, but its cheap, and if you take your time, it should work fine) or they also make a swap flexplate with the right bolt hole locations for th350/400/7004r etc. I have the part number hiding in my parts wishlist book somewhere, but search hughes on Jegs...should come up.