Best donor vehicle for an LS swap?

In reply to Hasbro (Forum Supporter) :

Don't sweat it. I doubt I'll do it. 

Indy - Guy said:

In reply to SV reX :

4.8L < 6.0L

just sayin'

That's true. 
 

But Gen 4> earlier generations.  And it IS a complete running 400 hp swap. 
 

I still prefer the torque of the 6.0L for a car this size. 

In reply to Indy - Guy :

PMed you

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

SV reX said:

Please don't get my thread locked down with bad attitudes. I'm trying to learn something here. 

There really are no bad starting points unless you are specifically looking to make big crazy turbo power.  The main benefit to choosing a starting point, as I see it, is to get something that is most swap-friendly.

'03 Raniers had the early heads and rods and a weird oil pan, so people overlook them, but they are still an easy 300hp from an aluminum block 5.3 and swap friendly oil pan setups are cheap enough.  Last time I looked you could get a complete dropout engine with harness and PCM for like $800.  Just sayin'.

4L60s are not the end of the world.  The 4L80 is a lot heavier, has a lot more parasitic drag, and has closer ratios, which is fine and good, but the 4L60 has a 3.0something 1st gear that it inherited from the 700-R4 which means you can get by with rearend gears in the low 3s or even high 2s and still have decent acceleration.  Combine that with the overdrive and you have a fine cruiser.

Are these Buick engines a standard 5.3 just aluminum block? There's a few local to meet cheap and I want to look before I leap since I hadn't heard anything about them ever until your post

The aluminum 5.3 is known as the LM4, only produced for 3 or 4 years. It's your base 5.3 but lighter. It's what I've got for my Corolla project. 290 hp . It's going to have a larger cam and a Corvette oil pan to lower it. I picked it up for $300.

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

SO GOOD to see you posting again!!

SV reX said:

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

SO GOOD to see you posting again!!

TRUTH. 

seeing you post again is answered prayers 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Pretty much.  Note that the '04- up is different than '03 and is priced accordingly.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Car-part.com didn't even offer an 03 that I can find, so i was looking at 04. What is the difference?

The LM4 would have got the same upgrades as the iron block truck motor. Aside from the block material they were the same specs. Just find out what specs a LM7 was for a given year and the LM4 will match it.

In reply to SV reX :

Replied.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

The LM4 is also what I harvested from Humpie for my TR4 LS swap. Found in GMC Envoy too. link to Humpie thread with some pics

Is the LM4 cable throttle body?  From the photos I've seen it appears drive by wire.  I'd love to find an LM4 4L60 for Ruby.

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

Is the LM4 cable throttle body?  From the photos I've seen it appears drive by wire.  I'd love to find an LM4 4L60 for Ruby.

My '03 is drive by wire from the factory.

So is the lm4 gen 3 or 4? Im setup for a gen 3 drive by cable. Id be reusing the junkyard longblock

Turns out my truck didn't need an engine. Timing chains (and everything related), guides, water pump, misc gaskets, seals, etc in the way in and out, and she's purring like a kitten again. 
 

No sludging,  no metal in the pan. Mechanic was surprised to see everything looking so pretty inside. Guess my frequent oil changes with synthetic paid off!

So, the Elky will have to wait a little while for a new heart. It will happen, but not for a while. 
 

Thanks for all your help!

In reply to SV reX :

I'm sure you posted this already but how many miles were on your truck and how often do you do oil changes? 

In reply to yupididit :

240,000 on a 3.5L Ecoboost. 
 

I use full synthetic and change every 3-5000 miles. 
 

The mileage is why the mechanic was hesitant to recommend the job. He didn't think it was a good idea to spend a lot of money on a high mileage engine. 
 

Until he saw the inside...

In reply to SV reX :

Oh okay. My 3.5 has 105k with changes every 5k but I do not use synthetic. That's a good amount of miles original turbos too?

In reply to yupididit :

Yes. Original turbos. 
 

I think oil changes are the single best thing you can do for these engines. 
 

I bought it with 100K on it. I didn't know the history, and the oil filler neck had some residue on it, so the first thing I did was back to back to back rapid oil changes.  I think I did 4 or 5 in a row at 1000 mile intervals. Then I switched to synthetic, and kept up on the changes. 
 

It's been a good truck. 

In reply to yupididit :

Do you know the history of your truck?

Here's my thinking...

I drive a lot of miles. About 1000 per week. 
 

No matter what I do, I will ALWAYS be on the loosing end of the depreciation scale. I will always get crap offers when I go to trade my truck, solely because of the mileage. 
 

Right now, a comparable truck would be about $40K. Maybe more. $4000 worth of work t keep me rolling hopefully for the next 100,000 miles is a bargain. 
 

I like my truck. Don't care about the odometer. Might as well keep it rolling. 

(It's helps that the exterior and interior  are both gorgeous. Platinum trim level.  No one would ever guess it's a high mileage vehicle)

In reply to SV reX :

Yeah, my Expedition was owned by a Miami Dolphins coach who did maintenance at the suggested intervals by Ford. I bought it at 65k miles and it was still under Ford ext warranty. Mine is a Platinum as well. It's actually too nice for me and I have to street park it in the DC area so I always worry about it getting messed up. I've been looking at getting a higher mileage 3.5 f150 and letting this go to someone who actually needs all 8 seats. I find myself driving it solo more than anything these days. 

In reply to SV reX :

Oil changes are important on all turbo engines.  It probably factors into all the Subaru WRX failures as well.