The more I work with the Gen III, the more impressed I am with them. Below are some pictures of an LQ4 that I just picked up to rebuild. I got it from a salvage yard and it's got 180K on it. I popped off the heads and here's what I found.







If you're not totally impressed by this, you're crazy. The pictures are bad, but if you look close, you still see the hatching from the factory on the cylinder walls. Unbelievable. If I didn't intend to rebuild it, I could have probably got another 100K out of it.

 

sweet

 

Yup when we tore the 5.3 out of a buddies truck for his 6.0 build with 212k on it you could still see cross hatch. Then again I'm rebuilding a C12 CAT at work with 1.1mil on it and it still has cross hatching lol.

 

Looks exactly like mine, with 156k miles on it. These motors are really something else.

What is that? 5.3? 6.0L?

 

It's a 6.0L. I've torn down countless engines and I've NEVER seen that little carbon on piston tops in my life. I'm pretty sure it's never had a rebuild - if you saw the outside of it, you'd know what I'm talking about.

I pulled the DS head off and I'm like..."WTF!"

I'm dying to inspect the rod/main/cam bearings to see if they're in similar condition.

 

Good to know. Thanks for the pics to go with the post.

 

I just had a 23k mile LQ4 put into mine... it's an ANIMAL!

Glad to know they last so long, and I've also been curious to see what the dished pistons look like... thanks for the pics!

 

Pistons were that clean without any work?...

 

I wouldn't roll your eyes mine were the same way in two of three motors now, both over 100k miles.

 

damn, that's great! The general's done good!

 

this is what mine looked like @ 135k...apparently the previous owner did not know what the pedal on the right does.

 

ws that pulled out of an E85 truck? if so thats why. the ethonal cleans the snot out of the internals of an engine as it runs through. if gas only, Im amazed too.

 

Nope. No E85. I pulled it from a 2000 Silverado 2500 that had been sandwiched between another truck and a tree. I got it for a song, too. $400 from LKQ in Orlando. The odometer read 181,237 miles (on my receipt) - according to the LKQ guy "Nobody wants high-mileage junk."

Ahem, I beg to differ.

 

thin, low tension rings will do that for cylinder walls.....the question is, if the walls aint wearin then what is....

 

The true test will be when I put the bore gauge to it and see how many thousandths of wear I've got.

I really don't get all hot-and-bothered over looks. Looks really don't mean anything. It's the clearances and taper that make the engine. I just thought it was interesting to see such little carbon after all of those miles.

Anyways, I'll post some bore figures when I get some time this week.

Vince

 

the stock pistons are probably egg shaped.

 

Thats impressive. I too have been into a few well cared for LS motors, and none of them were that clean. If it specs out as well as it looks, you are in great shape.