I have a trusty 2000 Silverado but at almost 300k miles it is time to rebuild the Engine. I know the head gaskets are shot because it is burning oil and coolant. I’ve got a couple of exhaust manifold bolts busted off which is leading to a small exhaust leak. Other than that it runs great and shouldn’t need much. I’m sure other people are interested in learning how to rebuild a motor and I’d love to learn as well. Any mechanics want to turn this into a 6-10 week class? Of course I’ll fund the parts. The only thing out of the ordinary is that it is currently a 4.8L V8 and I’d like to make it a 5.3L. Same block. Longer stroke. It does have a new transmission.
TL;DR: Anyone interested in learning how to rebuild an engine and are any mechanics willing to teach it?
Best thing I done is take the block to City motor, then take the heads to Cylinder heads international in Grand Prarie. I have done this a few times then assembled the motor & throw it in. You could also take the block to them & have them bore,hone & line bore the crank & cam. Then assemble that. Problem is I think we are prohibited from teaching this stuff.
For the boring and such it probably is a good idea to take to motor city. I’m not sure if DMS even has the proper tools for that part. It’s the tear down and proper reassembly that I’m interested in. There are techniques and procedures to learn. I would be very disappointed if a class like this was not allowed per some rule. It’s not a brake system. I’ll draft and sign a liability waiver. A big part of a makerspace is learning.
Boring the block won’t increase the stroke. To increase the stroke a new crank, or rods and most likely new pistons will be needed. I’m not a Chevy guy, so I cannot say if there is another GM crankshaft that might be interchangeable to increase the stroke without a huge expense. (swapping cranks, rods, etc is often done with European cars to reduce costs)
I agree in having a good machine shop vat, hone and deck the block & get the heads cleaned up and surfaced / decked.
I was kinda leaning toward building an engine, wasn’t sure where the line was drawn. I thought that we couldn’t teach automotive classes? Am I not remembering correctly?
I think the line is a little blurry here, since the issue lies in the insurance, which seems to hinge on “working on a vehicle”. An engine is not a vehicle, and, if approved for storage, should be fine, in my opinion (and, apparently, in at least one board member’s opinion).
I love engine rebuilding, and have taught classes on it many times in the past.
However, I can tell you from experience, “live work” is rarely a good idea for a variety of reasons. The things to learn here would include organization, measuring and tolerance work (so you don’t have to rely on the machine shop for all your information), and the aformentioned teardown and assembly.
I have vastly limited experience in the chebby world, and have no more notion of the feasibility of bumping displacement than previous posters (though to my knowledge GM “smallblocks” traditionally come in various sizes and typically you can exchange parts).
I would love to commit to teaching this, but for me, for the moment, it is just not feasible. I hope someone can/will pick it up, and I’d be willing to assist such as my time allows, but I cannot take the lead (and you probably don’t want me to, but that’s another story).
PS: Doing @Brandon_Green 's small motor teardown and assembly would have taught you the most basic things needed, is much more manageable, space-wise (and cost-wise), and is less likely to suffer most of the drawbacks of “live work” for classes (e.g. “but I NEEEED my car! I didn’t know it would take this long!!!”, “It did NOT do that before you touched it!!!”, etc.)
Well the good news is this is a spare vehicle and I don’t mind if there are delays. I used the wrong term earlier. This doesn’t require a bore. Just tear down and clean up the block. The 4.8 and 5.3 are the same bore and same block. Different pistons and a different crank. If we can’t get a group together I’ll probably buy a 6.0 and drop it in. I’d prefer to learn the process of teardown and rebuild.
I love the idea, whether it makes sense or not the information is valuable.(I’ve built some air cooled vw engines and built a sbc off a shortblock)
Would it be better to call it a group project instead of a class?
Like I said, I like the idea but you’re better off finding a low mileage 5.3 than doing a rebuild/ stoking a 4.8. You’ll save money over buying a new crank and rods to stroke a 4.8 as well as a set of gaskets/misc parts. At 300k you may need to bore it costing more money and after all that you may still have problems if you didn’t buy quality gaskets. I’ve seen to many rebuilds done with the cheapest gasket set available only to have critical gaskets flake away 50k down the road.
Why different pistons? Are the heads the same? I seem to recall that they aren’t, but that the 4.8L heads are preferred for their higher compression when put on a 5.3L. I could totally be making that up.
In the old days building strokers required clearancing the block. Seems strange that Chevy would go to the trouble of making extra parts (cranks) just to produce a smaller engine, all other things being equal.
Other than the blown head gaskets the engine is good? I think automotive has a borescope you could use to take a look at the cylinders to see if they’re in decent shape before tearing in to it. If they are, I’d be tempted to just replace the gaskets and exhaust studs and see how long I could keep it running. Unless you take long road trips…
All that said, it always annoys me when people give advice on how not to do what the OP asked. So I would say that you don’t really need a trained mechanic to do this. I’ve never been into a modern engine, but I’ve rebuilt a few old iron small blocks and have watched shows and read about LS3 rebuilds on and off. Step # 1: Research!! There’s plenty out there about rebuilding LS3s. The service manuals will certainly help. You might even get by w/ Chilton or Haynes. But if you want to do a quick and dirty rebuild I think the trickiest part will be any computer and/or reluctor wheel changes needed for the conversion. You might also want to use Plastigauge on the crank and get different bearings to make up for wear. And I think there are several torque-to-yield bolts that should not be reused (head, main bearing caps, etc). If the main caps use them, you’ll need 2 sets if you use Plastigauge to check your bearing clearance. (If you want to do it “right”.)
If your engine is burning both coolant and oil, I agree with your diagnoses that it is probably a busted gasket. But you can do more tests to validate your diagnosis - do you hear exhaust coming through the gasket? Have you run a compression test on each cylinder? It might be just rings. In my mind you could do a class on diagnosing your engine using a compression tester.
I have no idea how to rebuild an engine but it’s one of those bucket list things that I’d love to learn how to do. I think holding classes or “sessions” around your engine rebuild is an awesome idea.
The only reason I was interested in going from a 4.8 to a 5.3 is because I was told by motorcity that it’s the same cost if I have them rebuild it. This was back when this was my daily driver. For the sake of a class im fine keeping it 4.8.
If it sits for a few days it has some pretty wicked piston slap for the first few strokes. Other than that I drove it for at least a year with the head gaskets bad. Kept it topped off with oil and something in the cooling system. Made it to Chicago and back just fine.
I have a Chilton we can use.
I can bring it by whenever. I just thought it was a great project vehicle since it is unlikely to have big unknown issues.
Interesting topic. I’m getting ready to start rebuilding the engine on my track bike now that I’m done moving into my new (old) house. I agree with Bryan here, it just takes a fair amount of research to get it done right. 90% of the answers to questions I couldn’t find in the books I found in the forums for my bike. I can’t imagine this would be any different.
I’d love to learn, too. I’ve replaced the head gasket in a '85 4-cyl Toyota pickup, and done a lot of “supporting equipment” work like water pump, radiator, etc. on my '95 K1500. That pickup will likely need some gasket work soon, so this would be a great training exercise.
My engine hoist is up at the space-you’re welcome to use it, and I can bring and engine stand in as well.
My two cents to help the automotive make $50 without anyone getting hurt:
Have a class on the engine removal - how to label the wiring, hoses, etc. Bag up misc hardware and label it - none of this is a “repair” it is just good practice for those that don’t “do it everyday”. Take photos for use later. Make a list of anything that gets broken or is in need of repair / replacement.
The Lift and the red (now pink) engine hoist makes this much easier.
make it a positive Makerspace experience.
Chase - if you haven’t taken the Lift use class - I can give you that class
“The Vortec 5300, or LM7/L59/LM4, is a V8 truck engine. It is a longer-stroked (by 9 mm (0.35 in)) version of the Vortec 4800 and replaced the L31. L59 denoted a flexible fuel version of the standard fuel LM7 engine. Displacement is 5.3 L (5,328 cc (325.1 cu in)) from 3.78-inch (96 mm) bore and 3.622-inch (92.0 mm) stroke. Vortec 5300s are built in St. Catharines, Ontario and Romulus, Michigan. Another engine variant, the L33, shares the same displacement, but has an aluminum block with cast in cylinder liners, much like the LS1. This allowed a 100 lb (45 kg) weight savings over the standard LM7 model. Other differences were a higher lift cam shaft (0.482 in (12.2 mm) v. 0.456 in (11.6 mm) on both intake & exhaust), higher compression ratio (9.9:1 v. 9.49:1), and cylinder heads originally designed for the LS6. These differences bumped output: GM rated the engine at 310 hp (230 kW) and 338 lbf·ft (458 N·m).”
You’re in luck, the parts for these motors and the motors themselves are really cheap. Everything is pretty much modular, there are a lot of things you can do with these motors, but the standard maintenance items like head gaskets and piston rings probably need some attention, and you may want to check the bearings as well.
I think you have a few options, you could find a used 5.3 or 5.7 with about 30% of the mileage (if you want to go bigger without too much money and hassle) for $400 to $750 on craigslist (I just saw an LS1 yesterday with about 90k miles for $750 that is local). Then all you need to do is pull the heads on the new engine, inspect and clean it replace the head gaskets and you’re good to go.
Want to keep your current block/heads and bump up the displacement? Get a used 5.3 rotating assembly.
Want some extra power and a better sound? Throw in a used LS6 cam.
Want a different compression ratio, no problem, grab some used heads.
Want a bit more power you say?! Pick up a used c5 vette or catfish camaro intake and throttle body and slap that combo on there!