Need help. 5.3 lifters or Ls1?
Need help. 5.3 lifters or Ls1? I have a huge problem. I am building a stroker with a .646's lift cam. I found some 5.3 lifters out of a tahoe that had low miles and wanted to use them. But I lost one so I went to autozone to get another and found out that the 5.3 lifters and the LS1 lifter are different. Does it matter which one I use. I was concerned that with that much big of a lobe that the lobe would hit the lifter. Is there anything I should be concerned about using the 5.3 lifters. They look more heavy duty than the replacement Ls1's. Also I read that all replacement lifters are LS7 lifters. Is that correct. Can anyone help.
To my knowledge all of the stock lifters in gen 3 engines are the same. They are actually the same as the old small block roller motors. I have used lifters out of a 5.3 in an LS1 before, and it works fine. And yes, the LS7 lifters are the stock replacement for LS1 now.
I have never directly compared the LS7's to the older stock lifters, so I'm not sure how different they are. My guess would be that if the LS7 lifters appear less "heavy duty" that it was done to lighten them up. The lifter being lighter would help to maintain high RPM stability. Lots of people use them without problems so I wouldn't be concerned with the strength.
