We have 3 cars we eventually want to ls swap , but starting with a budget Monte since it wont pass inspection due to smoke from worn piston/rings ect. I see three options , spend the money and buy one from a supplier where you can see or watch a video of it running ( expensive) Pull one from a junkyard , (sketchy ) Buy a wrecked truck and pull the motor and sell the other parts ( seems best ) Who has done any of these 3 options and can give some pros and cons ?

 

Cheap and quick is a junkyard motor with 100k miles. Do the gaskets and any upgrades you want while it's on the stand. If you shop around you can get a 6.0 with all the wiring and computer for a grand or less. The 5.3 is easier to find and costs a little less in most cases. The accessories you probably won't use, but it depends on the install kit you get.

If you part out a truck you can get the job done even cheaper, but it's a long process and there's a lot of hassle with pulling and selling random parts. This way you'll have the matching trans and the full wiring so it'll be closer to plug and play, but do you want a junk truck sitting in your yard for the next year hoping someone wants a piece of plastic from it.

If you go with a new build motor figure out the end goal and go straight for it. No point buying a factory replacement motor when you're going to strip it and build it for boost or increase cubes in a year. This is 5k territory so make sure it's exactly what you want.

 

Thanks for the tips, the other option I was talking about was going with Just Chevy Trucks in pa since hot rod or someone got a motor from them with a video of it running and it seemed to work out well but with the highest cost of all three options .

 

I've done ebay auctions from reputable sellers (good reviews, lots of history, warrantee, etc). Lowballed offers after "buy it now" expired.
Only a few, but worked well.

 

When I did my cutlass , I bought a low mile ly6 (50k)
For 1800 . I wish I had just bought a long block since that's all I used . Ended up buying an ls3 intake , aftermarket harness, ecm, Holley fead
Etc. I would use the Holley mounts , crossmember etc . Everything will fit under the hood . I would also go gen 4. A lot stronger . I put a whipple on mine , still fits under stock hood with the Holley mounts . The route I took was more $$ but it was plug and play