There are so many reasons why any classic car should have a 4.8/5.3/6.0 ls based engine under the hood it is not even funny. For starters the horsepower: a 5.3 litre is conservatively rated at 285 bone stock hp. with a mild cam and a tune you are guaranteed to be well over 300 horses. If you go all out and do a cam valvetrain port and polished cylinder heads performance tune and build your transmission with a corvette servo and a shift kit at least; you will be looking at around 400 ponies and all the while you can very easily expect to get 17 or more miles per gallon. Now who can say that they are getting numbers anywhere close to that as far as fuel consumption and overall price in their classic fbody or cool big body cars or even their farm truck. Which leads me to my next point: Price: The reason why I say to go with the 4.8/5.3/6.0 truck engines is a simple matter of economics. the aluminum block ls engine variants usually cost upwards of 3-4000 dollars from a salvage yard. I personally can get the 5.3 for less than 800 dollars all day everyday and the 6.0 for less than 1300 shipped to my door and ready to run with the wiring harness attached. All you would have to do from there is get a computer and alternator power steering unit and air conditioning components. For less than 5000 dollars you can have a super strong fuel injected engine putting down great horsepower numbers all the while getting great fuel economy. Then most shops charge around 5000 dollars just to install it all for you but you could get lucky and find a shop like SBC Performance in Austin, Texas that will do it for only 3000 dollars. so to summarize: 8000 dollars will get you 400+ horses and 17+ gas mileage or you could spend 5000 dollars to revamp and rebuild your old pontiac 400 or chevy 350 or whatever you may have under your hood currently and pay hard out of your pockets for the ever rising cost of gasoline because you know as well as I that you wont ever see 17+ mpg at 400hp with that combo. The gas alone will pay for the swap to a late model engine. Then imagine the warm fuzzy feeling you will get when you see another hotrod like yours and you know without even having to ask that you can go faster and longer for less. Smart decision. Category:Home › Home • Will higher gasoline prices mean lower sales for new cars? — part 2 • Will higher gasoline prices mean lower sales for new cars? — part 1 • Should the crew of the Sea Shepherd board whaling ships? • Which makes a better pet: A dog or a cat? — part 13 • Grandparents: Can blogging chronicle your genealogy? • Which makes a better pet: A dog or a cat? — part 12 • Are teachers unions the cause of public school problems today? • Which makes a better pet: A dog or a cat? — part 11
