5.3 bored out reliability?
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Staging Lane
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 52
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5.3 bored out reliability? Hey guys I just picked up a 5.3 for a project car and it needs to be rebuilt so I was going to bore and stroke it to a 383, but was wondering about reliability of boring it out for a motor that is going to see a lot of street time. And hopefully some boost....
I've had a couple places charge for two hones when going to 3.90x on a 5.3. Other than that there shouldn't be any issues at all. Do a search and you'll find a lot of people running 3.90x 5.3 blocks.
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 52
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Thanks and yes as stated it's a 5.3 block so it's cast iron. If there's an aluminum one that's news to me. Not worried about the boost, I was worried about cylinder wall thinkness with stressing the block and over heating.
Yes in 05 they went to aluminum blocks. As far as reliability I have a 5.3 cast block with a decent cam heads and ls6 intake, been bored to 3.905 with all ls1 rotating assembly and mahle pistons. Beent driving about 500 miles woth no problems.
On The Tree
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 129
Likes: 1
From: Texas
Actually the 04 Chevy ssr came with a LM4 5.3 aluminum block. In 05 you could get an L33 or HO 5.3 aluminum block in trucks, but they still had iron 5.3s.
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Well I think the difference between the guys going 5.3->5.7 and not just buying a 6.0 block is cost of if they already have the 5.3l. 5.3l's tend to be cheap as heck at the boneyards so sometimes it's a good locost option. Now if you have to pay for two bore jobs to get it to a 3.9XX bore then it kind of hurts.
Have never heard of having to pay for two bore jobs but machine shop technique and prices vary around the country.
I always tell people boring a 5.3 to 3.90 to take advantage of the opportunity to use deck plates. It's often difficult for LS1/LS6 folks to use deck plates for the max 3.905 bore. Those aluminum blocks move around enough to where some of them can't use deck plate honing. Just something to think about.
I always tell people boring a 5.3 to 3.90 to take advantage of the opportunity to use deck plates. It's often difficult for LS1/LS6 folks to use deck plates for the max 3.905 bore. Those aluminum blocks move around enough to where some of them can't use deck plate honing. Just something to think about.
Staging Lane
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 92
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From: Souther Minnesota
I would like some more info on the torque plate theory and how and where it would distort the bores since the bolts are below the deck surface as always I'm sure it is way better than without.
I was thinking of puching out my 5.3 to a ls1 standard bore but by the time I bought a set of pistons, rings, and the machine shop wanted double what they normally charge to bore a block. It was way too much so i bought a 6.0 for quite a bit less than it would take to make an iron block 5.7.
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 52
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I am going to be running forged internals for higher levels of boost. I was going to use the 5.3 that will need to be rebuilt because I payed $100 for the motor instead of spending who knows how much to get my hands on a 6.0 that's going to need to be rebuilt for the boost anyways. Honestly I'm assuming at this point it will need to be bored due to what I believe is a bent rod. (hydro locked the motor) but did run again just very poorly
Hell the guys running the 5.3's and 4.8's for boost could just consider it the last block you will need (depending on power, etc). Just keep boring it over and over and over and over 
If I was building an engine I wouldn't use a 5.3 block. They're nice for ready to run budget short blocks, but if you shop around there are tons of deals out there. There's a guy in the Florida section that just sold his 6L block for $200 and I've seen quite a few of those and LS1 blocks on craigslist for $150ish.
Just an fyi ,,,,,,they've made all the truck blocks in aluminum as long as they've had the truck blocks ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,if You're interested in a decent info source for the different LS based engines or any just Google any of the engines and click on the wikipedia ,,it's got the whole line up of newer GM engines
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2019
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If I was building an engine I wouldn't use a 5.3 block. They're nice for ready to run budget short blocks, but if you shop around there are tons of deals out there. There's a guy in the Florida section that just sold his 6L block for $200 and I've seen quite a few of those and LS1 blocks
on craigslist for $150ish.
on craigslist for $150ish.
Teching In
Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 29
Likes: 0
5.3 to 5.7 bore on ls1 block iirc, the ls1 is barely reborable and can only take .020 hone before you run out of sleeve. My local machine shop usually won't do it.
