hjohnson32

Hello, just as the title says I am very new to the LS trend. Right now I have a 2001 5.3L LM7 that I plan on rebuilding as a high revving engine (around 7K) with (hopefully) around 450HP/400TQ. Some back ground of this engine is that it has a rod knock, I plan on buying a rotating assembly, cam, valve springs, throttle body, rocker arms, injectors, porting and polishing the heads, and most likely boring the cylinders 0.030 over. I would just love some advice on what parts to get to achieve my goal without completely emptying my wallet. Thank you ahead of time for all your help.

JoeNova

A mostly stock gen 3 5.3 with a tune will make ~330-340 horsepower at the flywheel. Long tubes and a cam can inch you over 400 horsepower.
That's before you start on heads, intake, etc. 450 is pretty reasonable. I would start small.

Forged rotating assembly isn't really necessary with N/A LS builds unless you need pistons for compression.
If you have a rod knock, grab some cheap gen 3 rods with 4.8 pistons. Can probably get them all for $150.

hjohnson32

Thanks for the advice, the only thing is I dont think i will have enough clearance for some long tubes. Im running mids on a 383sbc in a 69 firebird now with barely enough room.

JoeNova

I'm pretty sure there are thousands and thousands of long tubes that have been installed on 1st gen F-bodies throughout the years...

Austin Phil

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...+1+Camaro+swap

Long tube headers for LS swap into a Gen 1 F body is gonna be pricey. Click on above to get an idea of price. Shortys with dumps closer to firewall would work a lot cheaper with a little HP loss, which you'll hardly notice on the street. Get yourself a book like 'How to Build High-Performance Chevy LS1/LS6 V-8's" by Will Handzel. Read it completely. Lots of good info. Summit Racing, Jeg's etc have some good books also. Aluminum LS engines have cast in cylinder sleeves that won't allow a .030" overbore. A bone stock 5.7L from a late model wrecked F body will make 400 RWHP all day long with headers, no cats, 2.5" dual exhaust with H or X pipe, decent flowing mufflers. You'll need an LS from an F body for the shallow oil pan for ground clearance and the low intake manifold for hood clearance. Get the whole package from a wrecked late model F body with wiring harness, accessories, ECU, etc. A lot cheaper in the long run.

JoeNova

Speed Engineering long tube headers are available for less than $300. Not that expensive.

Truck intake will clear the hood with a little work, and F body intake manifolds are $200 if you shop around.

F body oil pans are $150 new, but they don't clear the rear steer setup on a camaro anyway so it doesn't matter. The Holley 302-2 was designed for the first camaro. The F body and truck pans both fit if you can weld aluminum.

hjohnson32

I really want to learn more about LS engine, specifically what parts fit what. I guess in an simple question I am asking is any part from an LS based engine going to bolt right up to, or fit in, any other type of LS engine? Also is my 5.3L LM7 the "same" block as other LS engines?

bammax

The 4.8 and 5.3 used the same block and should be stamped with both sizes on the drivers front. The only sticking point is if it's 24x or 58x which is only a concern when dealing with the electronics.

The external dimensions of all the engines are the same except for the aftermarket tall blocks which are usually labeled lsx.

Accessories are interchangeable across all the blocks, but the spacing on the crank are different from the truck to the car so you need to run accessory brackets that space things out the same distance as your crank. It's basically truck spacing or f-body spacing. Also the newer Impala SS had the fwd setup so that engine used a different intake setup to accommodate the sidewaysness.

There's essentially 2 types of heads, cathedral port which make low end torque and rectangular port which makes top end power. You can run either one, but an honest to god LS1 doesn't have big enough bores to run rectangular unless they're high dollar aftermarket. You also need to run the same style intake or you'll have a horrible port mismatch.

The biggest thing to remember is that many of the people who post on here are building trailer queen dragsters so you may want to research and get more information before you blindly follow anyone's advice.