just picked up a 1996 chevy c1500 short box 2wd v6 and my neighbor came over and offered me two 2012 5.3 for $400!! one of the motors had 170,000km with a head gasket leak and the other motor was a strong running 90,000km.

what kind of issues am i going to have doing the swap? or should i sell these and buy a older motor and use the money to put some goodies on
thank you in advance

 

Don't think you will get a better deal than that.

 

The 5.3 liter truck motors often have a very deep oil pan that could hang quite low beneath the vehicle. This might not be a problem on your 96 truck but it usually is when dropped into a car.

I'm not sure if the 2012 5.3 liter engines are Active Fuel Management / Displacement On Demand engines. If yes, I'd strongly consider changing the cam / deleting AFM / DOD before dropping the engine into your truck.

Think about preemptively changing any engine sensor that will be hard to reach later on. Most of these are not expensive and changing them now prevents agony later.

Rick