5.3 in a 1500HD?

[flattop]

Hi Folks,

 

I have a friend with a 2002 Silverado 1500HD Crew cab. The truck has 200K on it and the 6.0 LQ4 is shot (ran out of oil when cooler line broke!). My question is could a 5.3 be swapped into this thing and run half way decent?

 

Its only a plow truck and here in NY anything over 9200GVW does not have to pass any type of emissions to be registered. They are asking a lot for decent used LQ4, where the 5.3's are 1/3 of the price.

 

Let me know your thoughts, thanks and Merry Christmas!!

 

Flattop

 

 

[robvas]

you can swap a 6.0 in for a 5.3, not sure why you couldn't go the other way around

[sahls01gmc]

It would work, but your plowing will suffer.

[KMGZ400]

I mean if it's just a plow truck who cares... It has a 4l80 in it... the weakest thing in a truck equipped with a 5.3 would be the 4L60

[Jsdirt]

If you don't have to pass emissions, you can throw whatever you want in there.

 

For a plow truck, I'd personally go with a carb/HEI or throttle-body injection for the simple fact that they're both as reliable as a stone ax, and if anything does break, you can fix it with pliers & a screwdriver. I want to be making money - not be dead on the side of the road with some electronics failure when it's 5°F outside .. but that's just me.

 

The simple & probably cheaper route would be to just throw in what it had, plug and play, and go.

[newdude]

GVWR of 1500hd and 2500ld is 8600lbs. New York inspection is anything over 8501lbs they don't plug in for emissions. I personally would not want to downgrade from 6.0 to 5.3.

[flattop]

Thanks for the reply's! I am trying to help a friend who has this truck just get it running. He only plows his own driveway and has a very limited budget. He could get a 5.3 and pay someone to install it for what they want for just a junkyard 6.0.

[crafferty]

Back in my day (early 2000's) we used a shovel!

 

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