04 suburban wreck. LS swap?

I’ve came across this suburban. 5.3 and good trans but transfer case is gone. Supposedly under 100K miles but cluster is already gone. Really nothing else worth anything on the thing. Roof was cut to get people out. You guys think it’s worth $1200?


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If you can start it up and hear it run with no smoke or weird noises, and it passes other inspections (good looking plugs, no water or other crap in oil, no oil in coolant, all accessories included and in decent shape, etc), I would probably offer a max of $900.

A grand is about what a running 100k pullout engine only would go for around here (where I live anyhow). Hard to verify that the tranny is actually good with the rig in that kind of condition and if it’s not in good shape you’re looking at $1500-2000 for a rebuild or go find a decent junkyard tranny.


Edit: is that a 3/4 ton burb? Can’t really tell but it almost looks like it has hydro boost brakes and I thought they only put those on 3/4 tons. If so I doubt it’s a 5.3 probably a 6.0. But 6 lug wheels? Maybe I’m seeing things

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I'm thinking that the hydro boost started showing up in the 1/2 ton trucks too. I think it had more to do with packaging than needing that much braking power on some stuff. Hell Astro vans had hydro boost (on some, all models?) . you're not seeing things, those are 6 lug wheels.

Carfax the VIN will tell
You how many miles are on it

The cluster was gone so I got scared of it


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That just helps you because the transfer case is a drivers side drop anyways so unless you were planning on swapping to a dodge or ford front axle then you will want to probably stick with what was in your truck to start with (as far as the transfer case goes), and it can be adapted to fit fine.

No reason to be afraid of high miles on a LS motor. You might just need to have the trans rebuilt but in most major cities you can swap the 4l60 for a rebuilt unit for around 500 to 600 bucks.

The last LS I swapped in had 260,000 miles on it. I picked it up off the ground where some Mexicans had dropped it because they were after the trans. I change the cam and springs, and that was it. I never even looked at the bores, and didn't replace a single other part except the front seal.

I put it in my 65 C10 in front of a TH400 with a Ebay GT45 and spent the next two summers shoving 14 psi through it. Then sold it and that guy is still doing rolling 60 mph burnouts in it.

Jrgunn5150 said:

The last LS I swapped in had 260,000 miles on it. I picked it up off the ground where some Mexicans had dropped it because they were after the trans. I change the cam and springs, and that was it. I never even looked at the bores, and didn't replace a single other part except the front seal.

I put it in my 65 C10 in front of a TH400 with a Ebay GT45 and spent the next two summers shoving 14 psi through it. Then sold it and that guy is still doing rolling 60 mph burnouts in it.

Click to expand...

I freakin love it. Good onya!!


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The LS we bought had 270k on it
We couldnot hear it run but did a compression test
Which turned out good

And changed the valve cover and oil pan gaskets

And my teenage son has been driving it for two years with a five speed behind it and 35 inch tires