Chris 6060's 1994 K1500 LQ4/4L80E Swap

[Chris6060]

Hey there, guys. I could have sworn I had a thread previously, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I dug and searched and found nothing. My apologies if I missed it.

Apologizing for the novel in advance, bear with me here.

Okay, so. Plans are decided.

I had to get my left femur re-broken on the 20th due to a non-union (never healed) when I broke it a year and a half ago. Been working part time limping my way around since January of 2015, after 6 months of not being able to walk at all, hence the slow progress.

I have a 2005 LQ4 6.0L with roughly 160,000kms (100,000mi?) torn down to the bare block sitting in my garage. First step is going to be getting it hot/tanked or acid dipped (recommendations?), and obviously new cam bearings. Which bearings would you guys recommend, or should I just let the shop install what they've got in stock?

I'm going to get the motor in the truck and running with a nice N/A cam for a while, and get the heads milled, as well as use thinner head gaskets to make up for the low-comp pistons while I'm still running N/A. Gonna put a TransGo HD2 (HD3?) kit in the 4L80E until I boost it, which will obviously require some more building. I want to DD this thing.

Once my legs healed up, I should be able to work full-time. I'm going to cam the motor, valve springs, lifters, etc, do semi-low compression forged pistons (9:1, 9.5:1?), to future proof it for boost and nice forged conrods, sticking with the stock crank. OR, I might just do high-comp (aim for 10:1, 10.5:1?) hypereutectic pistons instead of the forged ones until I boost it and not worry about milling the heads.

Whats a good intake manifold option that isn't 1000$?

Then, later on, I'll pull the engine, switch to a boost cam, put on a set of LSA heads and go from there, but that's irrelevant for now.

For now, I need to get this 6.0L built and ready for a nice N/A set up. Looking for around 380-450 RWHP, depending on whats realistic without boost. I don't want to go a stroker route for previously mentioned reasons (no local machine shop, closest one that will do cylinder boring is 2.5 hours away.) There is however, a nice cylinder head shop only 40 minutes away from me that will do basically anything except bore a block.

What size injectors am I going to need?

Also, I'm going to be doing a completely custom fuel system including tank, so, what's the best way to fuel this thing? Return or returnless setup, etc?

I've been reading hit and miss things about LS7 lifters, but any other aftermarket options are super expensive, it seems. So how are the LS7 lifters? I mean, I've never heard of a lifter failing in any 'Vette Z06's, and they spin all the way up to 7000RPM, so... I dunno.

What would you guys recommend for a cam? Been looking at cams in the 220-230 duration range, with around .580 - .600 of lift, around 112 - 114 LSA for the N/A set up. Thoughts? Heavily considering the TSP 228R 112 or 114. Like I said, I wanna daily drive it. So if you guys think a smaller cam would be better for that, lemme know. I've never built a full size engine before, so any advice is more than welcome.

Also: Out of curiosity, what are my seat options in this truck? I've got the 7 way power drivers seat, but there's pretty much no support for a performance application. I know a few welders and I'm sure we could fab up a mount for an after market seat to keep the power features the truck already has, but I dunno if thats realistic. Either way, what seats or seat would you guys go with?

I definitely want this truck to atleast somewhat handle well.

What are my options for the front suspension to stiffen it up on a 4WD?

I'm going to 4-link the rear using a universal Parallel 4-link kit from either Ridetech or NFamus, as well as do a watts link instead of a panhard bard, because I like the concept a lot more, and like I said, I know a few welders that would be more than willing to help out. Any opinions on this?

Probably going to do Ridetech's Shockwave Air shocks in the rear, or some coil overs. What do you guys think? I still wanna be able to hook up a 3-4000 lb trailer (at most, probably will never tow more than 2500lbs) to the back of this truck if I ever have to. I spend my winter months snowmobiling in the mountains and still want to be able to tow most sled trailers. I mean, last resort, I can probably install helper air bags back there and be fine, correct?

Thanks in advance, here, guys. I know theres a lot jam packed into one post, but thats my plans so far.