Picked up an 04 LQ9 out of an Escalade ESV a couple weeks back. Pulled the ol 5.3 and stood it up next to the 6.0

The old and busted... and the new hotness


LS6 camshaft and valve springs installed



A little colormatching was in store, I think it turned out pretty well. The water pump is black too, just not on there yet.

 

You will like the lq9, i love mine but why dis you go with such a small cam?

 

I got the cam for free and also a lack of a built t/c. Once I save for an 80e I'll get a bigger cam, exhaust, and some real go fast goodies.

 

You could run a much bigger cam with stock converter esp in a 6.0 however your stock trans may not like it so it may be best to wait till you upgrade the trans as you said.

 

While you have the motor out I would look for some 243 heads. The combination of those and the LS6 cam will give you a pretty good power bump. Is this an 02-04 LS6 cam or an earlier one? The later cam would be worth about 20 extra ponies (same difference it made on the LS6). The combo of the 243's and the 02-04 LS6 cam will be worth over 50-55 HP on that LQ9. If you swap to the TBSS intake you'll be lookin at 65+. You/re probably going to need bigger injectors anyway, so at some point it becomes worth it to swap the whole intake.

 

243 heads are definitely in the picture, but I may grab some 799s and give them a port or even cnc. Maybe even some l92s? They're comparable to a set of cnc'd 243s. Along with that a nicer cam, tbss intake, maybe some type of boost or spray, the 80e, better gears. I just wanted to get my hands on the process, get dirty and really learn about my truck, before I jumped into breaking things. I'll have to baby this 60e, she already has 170k on her.

 

Yup it wont last long behind this engine. The L92's are great heads, but because of the massive valves and huge intake runners they are better suited on a 6.2 where the bore is slightly bigger. You would make more power from a set of CNC's 243's with this cam. If you were building a screamer I would say go for it all day long.

The 799 and 243 heads are the same exact casting. The 243 will come with z06 springs while the 799 wont. You already have those valves though. I was just shooting out some cheap options to get a considerable amount of more power (untouched 243 or 799) while the engine is out and everything is so easy to reach. The combination of the heads and cam will get you as much power as most cam only 6.0 guys have, but you wont even be able to hear yours and it will drive like stock... pretty sweet. Thats why I threw it out there.

 

Well here it is, started her this afternoon. Open exhaust, no tune, running rich.

[url=http://youtu.be/EYscG_e4wJw]LQ9 First Startup - YouTube[/url