I have a friend at work that's got a very nice '83 Cutlass. He's been working on it for awhile now but the drivetrain is stock and he's wanting to put a built engine in it, nothing wild, just fun. I think I have him sold on an LS motor vs an old 350. We were bench racing different combos and such and now I have a few questions.

We were talking about 4.8s, 5.3s, and 6.0s but 5.3s seem to be the most common. The motor would be converted to a carb and I figured just a Edelbrock RPM manifold, Holley 600, mild cam (maybe like a 224, mid 500s lift), milled stock heads, and whatever headers fit would make for a nice little street car.

Does this sound good? Probably ran through a mild stall 4l60. Any recommendations? What's the safe rpm limit of a stock bottom end 5.3 or 4.8? Finally, what's a reasonable price for a complete 4.8/5.3?

Thanks.

 

Car Craft has taken I believe 2 different 5.3L junk yard pull outs and built Them up ,,,,,,,,,,,,I know the details about 1 of Them ,,,,,,,,,,stock bottom end They put a carb manifold and a Holley 750 , then an MSD spark controller and some long tubes and Their baseline #'s were 335 hp and 350 tq , then They installed better than stock valve springs and a *****-Thumper cam and dyno-ed at 431 hp and 365lb./ft with stock heads , Then They put on 2 different sets of heads the latter of which were cnc'd and with the latter pair jumping up the #'s to 459hp and 398lb./ft. and raised the redline from 5600 to 6800rpm's . These are flywheel #'s so to the wheels would be roughly 380hp and 320 lb/ft You can search this article at Car Craft and search Chevy LM7 5.3L junkyard build You should be able to find a 5.3L complete with p/s water pump alt a/c compressor, intake and exhaust manifolds , wiring and computer for $500 or $600 . You can probably find just a long block 4 between $200 to 400 depending on if it's a junk yard or a private person ,,,,,,etc

 

Thanks man, I'll try to find that article. 400-450 crankHP would be plenty. It would take a pretty well built Gen 1 motor to make that.

 

So I found a complete 5.3 with 150,000 miles for 400 bucks. All front accessories, flywheel, throttle body, manifolds, coil packs, everything. Spins over freely. Is this reasonable?