Higher mile lq4, rebuild it or run it?

wap13 · May 9, 2014

I have an LQ4 a buddy gave me that I have been saving and am getting closer to putting it in. It has a little over 200,000 miles on it and came from a 2500 with a small van body on it delivering who knows what. Of course I would love to rebuild it but thats more time and $ postponing a project that has already taking much, much, much longer than I had hoped. I am all for doing it right the first time but I know these motors are pretty durable and that could be money spent elsewhere. The truck was wrecked and running fine when wrecked so no reason to think there is anything wrong with it. I actually have the entire truck.

What would you do?
Run it til it blows?
Pull the heads and pan check it out?
Go ahead and plan on a full rebuild and throw a cam in there while I'm at it?

Any info is appreciated.

85toyo · May 9, 2014

Run it till it blows! My old 5.3 had 260k when I totaled it last year and it still ran like a champ.

Jeff69 · May 9, 2014

I would run it til it blows too. I got a 2000 silverado with 256,000 miles and still runs great and I got a 99 silverado the computer is fried in and it's got 327,008 miles on it and it still ran great didn't smoke or use oil both are 5.3

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muddinmetal · May 9, 2014

99% of the time rebuilding a running ls is a waste of $. If it isn't knocking, it doesn't need anything

Bumpers · May 9, 2014

Re: Re: Higher mile lq4, rebuild it or run it?

If it was runnin when wrecked run it like it is

rpf500 · May 10, 2014

253K ON MY DD 2005 TAHOE. NO ISSUES AT ALL.
RUN WHAT YOU HAVE!

wap13 · May 10, 2014

Guess its settled then, run it :woot:

Thanks for the input.

infamous1 · May 10, 2014

Re:

Another vote for run it, my dad in law wrecked his '02 with a 5.3 last month with 260,??? On it and it ran perfect, my BIL traded in an '05 with a 5.3 in it with 340,000 on it and it smoked on cold start but other wise ran perfect too!!

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alehandro3 · May 12, 2014

X100

My 5.3 daily developed either a wrist pin slap or a super pissed off lifter at about 180K and I said I was gonna run it till it blows, mainly because a whole new motor is 500-1000 bucks. 40K miles later it's still ticking right along. There damn tough motors!

DirtRoads · May 12, 2014

Mom just replaced her Suburban with a 5.3 at 280K. Only problems are that it makes some lifter noise when it's cold. She still has it and drives it a few times a week, I'd drive that truck to Alaska today if I had to.

RCBTrucking · May 12, 2014

We have six chevys, 5 with 6.0 one with 5.3. two have about 250,000 on them, 3 have about 300,000, one with 5.3 has 400,000. they all run great and have never turned a bolt under the hood except the norm, alternators, radiators, etc. they don't even use oil. all have original motors. they work hard to, they haul our machinery and concrete blocks to set up mobile homes. hands down, run it, but sorry to say, it will never blow, so you will never get to modify it, lol.

417chevy · May 12, 2014

I would pull the pan and heads off to check everything out I bought a 5.3 out of a wrecked truck on the out side looked good but I pulled the head off and when it got wrecked the manifold had cracked the heads from the impact better safe then sorry and what's a $150 worth of gaskets and bolts to determine bad from good......The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory do things right the first time

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wap13 · May 14, 2014

I'll probably end up swapping to a lower profile pan anyway so may as well check the mains while I'm there. I wan to pull the heads just to take a look but at some point will have to stop myself or I'll have it torn down spending money I could have spent on ORI's.