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I bought a 5.3 from a junk yard in town and everything on the engine tells me its a Gen 3, (cam sensor location, knock senor location, reluctor color, etc...) But after doing some research on the forum and the Sloppy Mechanics website in regards to connecting rods, in my opinion it looks like I have Gen 4 connecting rods. Pics are below. After looking at the pics can I get all of your opinions on whether or not these are Gen 3 or Gen 4 connecting rods. Thanks.
Based on Sloppy's photos, that does look similar. Perhaps someone rebuilt it at some point and wisely used the better rods. Win for you if so. How does the rest of the hardware look on the bottom end? Cherry OEM? Any indication of socket marks? ARP anything? Do the heads look like they've been removed before?
The junk yard I got the engine from said it came off of a 2005 Chevy Tahoe with 58K miles. But I am not too sure of that
The engine block number is 12567392
Some of the rods have these numbers: 094 245, 154 236, 144 236
The engine and heads look like they were never mess with at all. They are 706 heads and I checked and they are not the ones that were prone to cracking.
If they are the Gen 4 rods then I should be good to go to build this thing for boost, correct? Or am I missing something.
Thanks everyone for the help in identifying these rods. It's just crazy that the engine externally is a Gen 3 but internally it's a Gen 4. Besides cleaning up the engine is there anything else I should do before I add the cam, timing chain/gear, oil pump, new lifters, push rods, and head gaskets. It's going to be a boosted engine so I want to make sure everything is good to go before I bolt it back up and add the turbo. Power goals are 600-700rwhp.Thanks.
Thanks everyone for the help in identifying these rods. It's just crazy that the engine externally is a Gen 3 but internally it's a Gen 4. Besides cleaning up the engine is there anything else I should do before I add the cam, timing chain/gear, oil pump, new lifters, push rods, and head gaskets. It's going to be a boosted engine so I want to make sure everything is good to go before I bolt it back up and add the turbo. Power goals are 600-700rwhp.Thanks.
Dont look at the cam bearings. I believe the saying goes "if you look at em theyll be bad"
Head studs would add durability and peace of mind also.
All kidding aside, if you want all those parts or upgraded parts, we can help you out. Esp if using turbos. The saccity vette billet barbell works great for keeping any larger foreign particles from bypassing the filter and possibly ruining the turbos.
Rpmspeedtech@gmail.com
They started using the Gen 4 style floating pin rods as early as 2003 on certain LS Motors. By 2005 all the LS motors used them.
This.
When Gen 4 engines started being placed in 05 models, all remaining gen 3 engines had their pistons and rods upgraded. This started in 04, and a lot of the later 04 engines have them as well.
Thanks everyone for all the help and sorry I am just now replying. I have been on travel for work. Since I really don't know the history of the engine would it be wise to change out the rings since I already have the engine apart and would it be wise to which on my dish pistons for some flat top pistons? Again, thanks for all the help.
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Plus any other "freshening up" you may be able to do without too much financial outlay. Any questionable gaskets, seals, etc. should be addressed. At 58K miles, the oil pump should still be good.
When Gen 4 engines started being placed in 05 models, all remaining gen 3 engines had their pistons and rods upgraded. This started in 04, and a lot of the later 04 engines have them as well.
They first started popping up in LQ9s I believe.
my question is this can I use the rods out of a 2004 In the 2008 both are 5.3 its going to be a dialy driver so no boost only a stage 2 cam everything else std
10-30-2017, 03:05 PM
5.3 Gen 4 Connecting Rods 
