dead 
Best factory motor for boost
Iron 5.3, Gen 4. L33's are nice because of the aluminum block and nice heads.
People have absolutely raised the bar with both of these engines in stock form making tons of power as well as amazing reliability. A 4.8 is not out of the question either...
My completely and newly built Iron 408 is still sitting in the engine bay waiting to be tuned. I'm scared though. Kind of wish I bought an old used 5.3 for my TT combo rather than building up this LQ9 block. (I've had amazingly bad luck with Tuners/WOT pulls on Dyno's over the last several years.) I only have power goals of 650 on the street up to 800 for those rare occasions.
Good luck.
I'd try my hand at the less expensive, tried and trued method unless money's no issue.
People have absolutely raised the bar with both of these engines in stock form making tons of power as well as amazing reliability. A 4.8 is not out of the question either...
My completely and newly built Iron 408 is still sitting in the engine bay waiting to be tuned. I'm scared though. Kind of wish I bought an old used 5.3 for my TT combo rather than building up this LQ9 block. (I've had amazingly bad luck with Tuners/WOT pulls on Dyno's over the last several years.) I only have power goals of 650 on the street up to 800 for those rare occasions.
Good luck.
I'd try my hand at the less expensive, tried and trued method unless money's no issue.
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TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 557
Likes: 9
From: Bowling Green KY
I agree with stevie, stay away from an LS7. Very thin walls, lest sealing area for the head gasket, aluminum rather than steel, the larger the bore, the harder it is to keep the heads sealed on. This is why when GM developed the new boosted engines for the Z06 and ZR1 they stepped back in size to the LS3 as the base size for these new supercharged versions, and didn't continue with the LS7 in the Z06 line up. If you want an engine of that displacement, to be turbocharged, that is what aftermarket blocks like the LSX, or the dart LS next block are for.