Kawabuggy

iTrader: (1)

By buddy bought a wrecked 2017 Silverado from the auction because he needed a complete frame. This particular truck had something large land on top of it that crushed the roof of the cab almost down to the tops of the seat backs. The rest of the truck is in perfect shape, and even better, if you could sit in the drivers seat-it still runs and drives. So, he offered me the engine FOR FREE if I would be willing to pull the engine and trans out of the vehicle for him, and remove gas tank, cross-member, exhaust, basically get as much stuff off the underside of the vehicle as possible to facilitate him removing the frame. My question being... Is the engine worth anything? Is it a swap candidate into an older vehicle? Is there any inherent value in the engine as it sits? Truck has 66K miles on it. I was only interested in the engine as a possibility to swap into an older vehicle... From what I'm reading... That might not be possible as it is a direct injection engine... Can I use the block, crank, heads, and use traditional fuel injection on it? Will the block/crank/heads/any other parts work with the OLDER engines? I read that it has RECTANGULAR port heads on it..... is it worth messing with, or should I just sell it as is to someone who needs a complete engine? Would you guys bother with trying to run it in an older vehicle? I'm always doing these swaps but typically stick to engines that are '08 or older, as I know they can easily be installed... Your thoughts are much appreciated.

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

If you are going to swap into an older vehicle, then you can use the whole engine as is...

Holley just release the terminator X v2 that has support for Gen V engines.


Andrew

Jimbo1367

I'd jump all over that if I was you. Even if you didn't have a chassis to put it in.

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

Yes they are valuable and bad ***. The transmissions are also phenomenal, that year may have an 8 speed trans, but even the 6 speed is far better than any 4L60 every. They aren't worth their weight in gold though by any means. I see them sell with transmissions and harnesses and computers anywhere from around 1500 - 5000+ depending where you look.

I just had a 70 C10 in the shop with a L83 swap and big cam. Sweet truck.

You can do what we used to do and swap in a LS with the wiring harness and pcm. Do the same with the L83

The direct injection system just needs basically what an LS did, around 60 psi of fuel pressure fed to the high pressure pump that's on the engine

LT swaps > LS swaps

No need to try to swap the direct injection to some other form as you mentioned, it's not that complex. And it's a major reason the LT motors make so much more power than an LS.

Mart00SS

iTrader: (19)

Sorry to bump this further but could you take an L83 short block and mount up gen III or IV heads/cam/oilpan to it? I know you'd have to block off the hole for the High pressure pump some how. It seems to be easier to find these engines than an aluminum 5.3 gen3/4 or even an ls1 these days. Im not concerned about the electronics at all as it would be a crab'd retrofit into an old Nova.

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

In short, no. And there is nothing to be scared about. A stock L83 makes awesome power. Add the new Holley TerminatorX Max V2 and retain the EFI and direct injection.

Andrew

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

The gen 5 heads intake etc is all better than gen 3 or 4 so no reason to try to retrofit heads etc.

But basically no, it isn't going to work.

64post

iTrader: (5)

The blocks would be ideal for boost while saving weight. They have 12mm head bolts vs 11 on an LS, they have better maincaps, piston oil squirters. On the other hand couldn’t give one of those blocks away.

JROC

Agreed.

To switch from DI to port injection on a GEN5 would likely require you to run race gas or E85 to maintain/support the factory compression ratio.

One cool thing you can do if you plan on making really big power is to go the LT5 route and run both DI and port injection. It gives you the best of both worlds, and each system offsets the negatives of the other. But it's not a cheap system to get into. It will support pretty much any HP you can produce with that motor though.

JROC

Also the area around cylinders are noticeably beefier on the GEN5 blocks as their water jackets are reinforced.


https://www.enginelabs.com/news/vide...nes-so-strong/

Mart00SS

iTrader: (19)

The point to retrofit the heads would be to dump the Direct injection to go carb'd. However this is the answer I was looking for, if the headbolts are different size/pattern than the gen3/4 LS than it seems like its not do-able.
Thanks for the input.

64post

iTrader: (5)

I believe you could make 12mm head bolts work on the earlier heads, that wouldn’t be the problem, it’s the block dowels are in a different location, they’re on the upper row of head bolts on gen5. This could be fixed by a decent machinist counter boring either the block or the heads you will use. I’ve looked at this some. Gen 5 pistons are really designed for D.I. So stock short block is a no, new pistons too. I wouldn’t lift a finger to do any of this for a carburetor, that’s a controlled fuel leak IMO and 100+ year old technology.

G Atsma

^^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^
I'm glad you had the ***** to say this! It bugs me when people take the most up-to-date American engine and saddle it with antique fuel tech!
Way to go 64post!

JROC

It may not matter with flattop pistons, but the valves between the GEN3/GEN4 LS and GEN5 LT motors are opposite of one another. The GEN5 intake valves are where the LS exhaust valves are and GEN5 exhaust valves are where the LS intake valves are. IDK how much of a direct swap a LS cam would be into a GEN5 block to use LS heads on it. You would probably need to delete any VVT components.

Edit: Also I think the oil pumps are totally different. You have to drop the oil pan to do a cam swap on a GEN5 motor.

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

Technically you should pull the pan on either one, but you can work around pulling the pan on either one.

But that is correct on the valves, they are opposite.

I personally would do whatever I could to keep gen 5 heads if I have them, they have a much better angle on the valve and are also canted valve heads. They also flow a **** ton out of the box, 5.3 heads do 280 cfm and 6.2 heads do 330

kinglt-1

iTrader: (26)

The L83 is proving to be fairly capable. Parish transplanted a 100% stock unit into his 6th gen Camaro after dropping a valve on his LT1. With 13.5psi it runs 6.3 @ 108 in the 1/8th mile.

Mart00SS

iTrader: (19)

I didnt want this to turn into a "you should not use a crab thread". I'm well aware of the differences in DFI/FI/Carbs. I have been all over LS's for a long time, and have a genV in my truck (but never cracked it open). I'm also familiar with tuning these in FI form. That being said, im building a 70 Nova, and wanted to keep some period correct look/function under the hood but also wanted to use the benefits of the newer LS or LT blocks/etc.... Carbs dont scare me, im not building a car that needs to be fuel efficient and I can tune a carb to start/run just as good as a Fuel injected engine.

To summarize: My questions have been answered, im not going to machine heads or block to attempt to put LS heads on a gen V block. The only reason for this topic is that it seems these motors are easier to come by than a gen3/gen4 aluminum block/short block.

I'll keep looking for a gen3 gen4 alum short/longblock for my build. Thanks for the responses.

thehpw

Do a quick ebay search, its worth a few grand. But also a LT swap is much harder than a LS swap so read up on that before you try it.

17outs

These are 4k all day on car-parts.com so I am not sure I would jump into one of these yet. Awesome that Terminator X supports them though. Will be cool when the prices come down to use these for stock builds. Are there cams for these yet?

00pooterSS

iTrader: (40)

I've seen them from around 1800-2k with transmissions wiring and computers on offer up to sky high prices on ebay.

If you want one for a good deal, facebook, craigslist or offer up. Looks like on ebay etc they sell for 2-3x the amount you can find them on your local market places.