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Bought this 5.3L for $250. Lady said it had a bad lifter which it did but the eternals are pretty brown. What else should I look for giving this is my first engine rebuild.
Are u doing a rebuild or only replacing what’s bad? Might be worth hot tanking it since a bad lifter might of gone through it
I was thinking of just keeping it like this and building it back up. The bearings look good but since its open like this you think i should just go ahead and replace them?
The lifter wasnt bad at all it just at a really rough roll on one of them.
Yea, that engine is clean compared to what mine looked like. A few short interval (maybe 500 mile) hot engine oil changes will go a long way towards cleaning up what little of that varnish that you have.
I'd change out the knock sensors plus that harness, cam position sensor and crank position sensor now while its out. Its much easier now rather than later mounted in the vehicle.
That brown is normal. Usually from cheaper oil or oil ran longer than it should. How many miles? What's the goal for the motor?
They told me only 47k miles. Its going in a 93 C1500 which im going for the complete "stock" look. I want a NA motor hoping for 500HP that's streetable and I know there's a lot of variables here but the more power I can get the better. I would consider a turbo though.
Last edited by mr spree; Mar 28, 2021 at 10:16 AM.
Yea, that engine is clean compared to what mine looked like. A few short interval (maybe 500 mile) hot engine oil changes will go a long way towards cleaning up what little of that varnish that you have.
I'd change out the knock sensors plus that harness, cam position sensor and crank position sensor now while its out. Its much easier now rather than later mounted in the vehicle.
Rick
Its got the VVT so im in the process of buying everthing to remove that. Planned on just replacing all the sensors.
Bought this 5.3L for $250. Lady said it had a bad lifter which it did but the eternals are pretty brown. What else should I look for giving this is my first engine rebuild.
Insides were pretty dry. No Sludge or anything.
Here are a couple pics from the bottom end.
Looks fine to me. I had about the same on my motor and it had 13,000 miles on it. Wax and grease remover works well if you want to remove it, but I wouldn’t bother.
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Bought Used 5.3 Insides are brown 
