LightningCamaroGuy
Silver Member
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2016
- Messages
- 185
- Tractor
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First off great choice thinking LS. Great series of motors. Maybe the best ever. I think the best way to decide on what LS you are wanting is ask yourself what do you want out of it. If you were to say I want high HP, low cost to build, and high reliability, I would tell you to pick 2 of those options.
If you want to build a powerful motor for not too much $ while keeping it very streetable and reliable I would recommend going boosted. Probably a smaller displacement, iron block truck motor like a 4.8L or 5.3L. If you're wanting to stick with a factory block these are the strongest by nature as they have the smallest bore diameter and the 4.8L being a little stronger than a 5.3 due to the shorter stroke. Still both motors are very strong and are great platforms to build a good budget boosted motor off of.
If you're like me on what you want from a LS motor, and money is no option then build you a large displacement, aluminum GEN4 motor. Any GEN4 block will work. LS2/LS3, LS7 is generally pretty pricey, any aluminum GEN4 truck block regardless of displacement is fine. Send the block off to get it re-sleeved to use some large diameter pistons. Maybe a 4.200" stroke with say a 4.25" stroke and that right there will give you a 471ci SBC that weighs less and is physically smaller than many of these modern V6's with under 4 liters. Combine that with some aftermarket LS7 based heads that flow 440+ CFM's, a good intake manifold/TB setup, large headers with 2"+ primaries, etc. Good stuff.
One of the beauties of the LS platform is it's versatility. There's so many different things in different applications that they excel at, and many different ways of going about modding big power out of them. Few if any motors can match their versatility.
Good luck with whatever route you go.
If you want to build a powerful motor for not too much $ while keeping it very streetable and reliable I would recommend going boosted. Probably a smaller displacement, iron block truck motor like a 4.8L or 5.3L. If you're wanting to stick with a factory block these are the strongest by nature as they have the smallest bore diameter and the 4.8L being a little stronger than a 5.3 due to the shorter stroke. Still both motors are very strong and are great platforms to build a good budget boosted motor off of.
If you're like me on what you want from a LS motor, and money is no option then build you a large displacement, aluminum GEN4 motor. Any GEN4 block will work. LS2/LS3, LS7 is generally pretty pricey, any aluminum GEN4 truck block regardless of displacement is fine. Send the block off to get it re-sleeved to use some large diameter pistons. Maybe a 4.200" stroke with say a 4.25" stroke and that right there will give you a 471ci SBC that weighs less and is physically smaller than many of these modern V6's with under 4 liters. Combine that with some aftermarket LS7 based heads that flow 440+ CFM's, a good intake manifold/TB setup, large headers with 2"+ primaries, etc. Good stuff.
One of the beauties of the LS platform is it's versatility. There's so many different things in different applications that they excel at, and many different ways of going about modding big power out of them. Few if any motors can match their versatility.
Good luck with whatever route you go.