Hey guys. Going to be doing a build thread on this soon, but i need some help identifying which engine i have. A friend of mine at work asked me to 'ls swap' his 86 c10. He bought an 'ls engine and trans off ebay' (yikes), but the only details he could give me were that the ad said 2010 5.3 w 799 heads and ecm. supposedly came out of a running vehicle, and got a 6l80e along with it. When they arrived at my shop, there was more oil in the heads than in the oil pan. nothing on the exterior screamed 'broken' to me except for severe oil buildup on the front of the engine and all over the oil pan. No ECM. Called the supplier and they are sending one out. I got it cleaned up with some purple power and the ol' water hose. Then got it on the stand and proceeded to dismantle everything. Here is what i know so far: 4.8/5.3 iron block. Gen 4 58x grey crankshaft sensor. 799 heads with 4 broken exhaust studs (with broken fill neck on valve cover, and a couple smashed "round" ignition coils). TBSS/NNBS intake with DBW truck throttle body. pulled the intake, valley cover, and heads off. valvetrain was very clean, no discoloration or burnt smell. This engine has the towers for DOD/AFM, but valley cover had the seals on the towers and the lifters are standard (no springs), with no signs of damage on lifters, pushrods, rockers, or what i can see on the cam. the timing cover is standard 58x w cam sensor bolted on, but no bulge for a VVT engine. i cant pull the harmonic balance off til i pick up a new puller. will know more this evening.
Basically, i want to know what engine code these details designate this engine to be. What ECM should i be looking for, that will also run the 6l80e trans? This is going to be a cam only 'clean and sheen' build for a man looking to enjoy his retirement. trying to help him out so can anyone help me out? thanks!

 

of note, the trans tag says 0CAA, so i know it is a 6l80e out of a 2010 model. i have read conflicting information regarding which ecm will work with different year 6l80s. any thoughts?

 

I kinda think that's likely to be a LC9 engine. 5.3 w DOD.

If the trans is 2010, then I'd just get the ECM & wiring from a 2010 w 6L080E and LC9. Fairly common setup, shouldn't be hard to find.

The broken exh bolts is extremely common. If you can't get em out yourself, a machine shop can do it easily. I'd strongly recommend Heli-Coils in all of them, and anti-seize on the bolts you put in.

 

thats the thing though: it has the towers for DOD but the valley plate is the one with the seals, no hydraulics, and the lifters are all standard lifters. What engine could this be? I suspect an e38 ecm will work, and some ppl have even recommended an e67 for its additional outputs.

the machine shop will be going over the heads. hopefully wont need a resurface. theyll put the new valvesprings and seals in. and yea i always anti-seize manifold bolts and o2 sensors!

 

Probably a DOD motor that somebody already swapped all that stuff over to normal stuff.

 

LC9 is an aluminum block, my guess it's that it's a 4.8, not a 5.3. Pull the pan and check the crank and rod numbers.

 

what crank and rod numbers should i be looking for?

 

did some digging and found out that it is indeed a 4.8. crankshaft numbers confirmed it. gona see about getting a partial refund for false advertising, but its fully capable of doing what he wants it to do, so we're gona roll with it. Build thread coming soon.

 

All Gen IV engines have the towers for DOD. Some just don't use them....

 

according to what i've read and seen so far, gen IV 5.3s either used DOD or VVT, or even both, but only 4.8s could be equipped with neither of them. This is referring to iron blocks only. No idea about the aluminum variants. Those are as rare as unicorns in my area.

 

Speaking of the DOD towers, the valley cover plate lost some o-rings when i removed it. i will be installing plugs to cap off the towers. Does anyone recommend any certain way of achieving this? I regret even taking the cover off but i wanted a full view of the internals.

 

Tap holes and install Allen plugs with sealant.

 

Is the A37 tapered bearing trick inadequate? never used a set, just what someone mentioned to me today. i was looking to get the plugs from texas speed.