Lickeyman

iTrader: (1)

Cmon guys don't forget the 2nd gen fbody's gee whiz. Got a 79 fireturd running with a 400 2bbl and t350 for 200bucks. Glass is good and interior is above average. Needs paint obviously. The 10bolts in those bastards are much much stronger than 82+. Not to mention you can use differentials and gears out of trucks, grandma land yachts, etc....... And after market and resto parts????? No prob.

I could see a 6-8 Benjamin 5.3 running a 150 shot of goofy gas through a dirt cheap home rebuild th350. Or how bout instead of NO2 a junkyard turbo/s build. I bet you could do it for less than 2.5k if you were really really cheap. 400+ hp is enough for 11s.

Someone needs to do it and post up. Around here they are going for less than the old 5.7s

MalibuRacing

iTrader: (1)

I've decided to do a "budget" 4.8L swap in a 79 Malibu for my son. It will make PLENTY of power for a 16 year old kid. Plus, I got the 4.8/4L60E with all the accessories, ECM, harness, etc. for about $500 cheaper than even the 5.3. Like I said, I'm looking for three things; Relatively cheap, reliable, and enough HP to be fun. The 4.8L meets my requirements. We've just started, but here's a link to our project: http://www.maliburacing.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=34


Yeah, I know, it's got an 82'-83 nose on it....

V8Rumble

iTrader: (9)

Just got the April '08 issue of Car Craft, & guess what...? Yep, a 5.3 build on p. 46... (They just swapped cam & heads though.)

Tip of the hat to Rich @ WCCH, as his shop/heads are central to the article (although they referred to "WCRCH"...)

Lickeyman

iTrader: (1)

Man I would definitely rock that when I was 16. I was running the ugliest of all camaros "THE GIGANTIC ALUMINUM BUMPER 74-77 EDITION". Had it had od and a 4.8 with probably enough grunt to lay down the law on most stang bangers I probably would have kept it. It was a 74 so it at least had a cool back window. Oh and a very hungry 750 cfm holley feeding a rebuilt 350. I was lucky to get 14 mpg. LUCKY. 10-12 was the norm. Good luck on the progress!!!!

Be careful if you teach your son about spark fuel etc..... and let him play with a tuning suite you might end up having to lock the car in the garage

blackangel327

iTrader: (3)

what about a 4.8 manual harness? the 4.8's and the 5.3s were same EVERYTHING except stroke and stuff, but all the connections are the same.

venomhp

iTrader: (13)

Just do a basic h/c/i like you would any other motor with a ls7 clutch and t56 and thats a great drivetrain for any vehicle!

Johawk

iTrader: (2)

I would have loved this when I was 16! My cousin is looking into a caprice classic for a lsx swap. He wants to do a ls1 or a 6.0 but Im gonna try to convince him to do a 5.3 then turn the manifolds around and put turbos on them The 4.8s and 5.3s are still great motors even if they are the underdogs. Perish's truck went 10s on a 5.3 turbo

FBJR

Nice little project there. Just started to look over the site, does the motor clear OK before I read the whole thing? Starting a 87 elky right now.

FB

Anti-Vnm

iTrader: (14)

Please do anything other than a lsx swapped 1st gen. Every magazine out there has already done that, including PHR. Buy something less desirable that will be super cheap like your magazine preaches is the cool thing to do. I think a 4 door version of a muscle car would be sweet, something like a Chevelle. then you could have a fun ride you can cram a group of friends in to go to the races!

lsx10

iTrader: (3)

how good is pretty well? the same as a ls1 intake? better? you can pick up and ls1 intake for 50+shipping with injectors and rails. even on a buget build $50 for an intake and injectors isnt something to pass up. I have a 5.3 with the truck intake that I have in an s10 and am looking to see what it will cost to give it some nuts before finishing the truck.

I was planning on swaping an ls6 intake(or bbk or typhoon) I have an ls6 cam on the way but if I can spend the 300 that I would pay for the ls6 intake on other things then I'll wait to do that upgrade since I can do it after the engine is in.

G-Body

iTrader: (4)

The truck intake is better than the LS1 intake unless you plan on making your power over 6000RPM. If you plan on spinning over 6k a lot and want to maximize power up there then the LS1 intake is better.

The LS6 intake is slightly better than the truck intake but not by a bunch. Again, if you are spinning high RPM the LS6 intake will be better, but if you just plan on spinning 5k it probably won`t make a huge difference.

Check out performance trucks for a bunch more info, theres a few guys over there that swapped back and forth. Also google it, IIRC car-craft did a test with the LS1, LS6, LSX, Truck and a few other intakes and has the dyno charts posted. Everyone hates the way the truck intake looks, but for torque on the bottom end you can`t beat it, and it hangs with the LS1/LS6 intakes to 5k, then starts to taper off.

jfman

iTrader: (6)

The cheapest way to put a t56 and a 5.3 together is to buy a complete ls1/t56 swap and sell the ls1 longblock and install the 5.3 in there.

lsx10

iTrader: (3)

thanks g-body, I dont plan on spinning that high till I get a better rear end and rear suspention sutup so it looks like I'll be sticking with the truck intake till then.

Horsepwraddict

iTrader: (12)

For what its worth, this is my budget build.

-5.3 w/70k on it-$350
sold the intake, and throttle body for $150
-used carbed intake/controller -$500
-Used TR220 with springs-$250
sold the springs for $100
-Scoggin Dickey drop in springs-$125
-new converter for my th350-$450

For about $1200 running i have around 385 hp at the crank. obviously the swap itself took ALOT more money, but if you had alot of stuff ready to go it could certainly be done on the cheap. Just look at the Turbo fairmont Parish built, cheap and the thing boogies.

SICMARO

I'm in the process of doing a VERY budget build 5.3/4l60e into my 71 c10 short wide bed.

70Nova SS

I Finished the swap about a year ago and saved about $3k, complete pull out only cost $1,800 with wiring and everything else to wedge it in. Truck motor intake works well, it has great bottom end grunt even with the 2.73 gears. Hard to plant the power, car only weighs 3600 Lbs wet.

fast

iTrader: (24)

since 80s monte (presumed SS) were mentioned
why not a cutlass/regal/grand prix from that era?
75-79 novas just don't have big appeal (can you say ugly?)
68-74 novas are gaining popularity w/ lack of early f-bods, so prices are coming up
the 62-67 novas are light and look great

btw sicmaro - kewl truck (67-72 chevs in general)

all for the budget 5.3 build

Jimbo302

I realize this comment is old, but I had to comment, as this is exactly what I am looking into for my '62 F100. I was originally looking for a 4.8/5spd because this will be a driver/cruiser, but they seem hard to come by.

Andy1

An MT with a 4.8L may not be very common, however 4.8's and 5.3's with AT's are everywhere. A local yard has a 4.8L with 39K miles for $750 (motor only); add the trans and it should still be cheap.

Andy1

RedLsxS10

iTrader: (7)

The 5.3l/4l60e combo that I picked up from a local yard was only $1125 w/ a 6 month warranty (only 47k on engine & 22k on trans), they even let me give them a 2.2l (junk) from a 94 S10 as the engine core and an AWD tranny (junk) from my last eclipse as the transmission core. I used the 4l60e that I picked up as a core for my FLT and you can see the rest in my sig.

I have also seen the 5.3l's go for 300-400 bucks on ebay with relatively low milage... heck there is a 4.8l engine on there right now with only 14k on it going for 299.99. Can't get much more budget than that!