I thought long and hard about what I should put in the car.  In 2020, rotary prices were through the roof.  A T2 shortblock was going for several thousands!! Without any rebuild or anything!! What the dickens.  Anyways, hate to say it but LS1.  I really don’t think more words are needed.

Okay maybe some.  LS1s get hate because they’re cheap, make gobs of power with just a lil kiss, parts are cheap, and they’re American and don’t belong in a Japanese car.   I think that’s why they get their hate, but honestly that small list seems like a ton of positives to me.  I’m in!

The world of LS motors is huge!  A massive variety of bores and strokes for different folks.  Naturally, I hopped on Marketplace to see what I could find.  There was literally hundreds of listings just within the Orlando and surrounding areas.  After sifting through posts and endless back-and-forths, I finally landed on ‘the one’: a 2004 LQ4 from an Escalade.  If you’re not familiar with LS engine codes this is an Gen3 iron block with a whopping 6.0 liters of displacement.  Sadly, this engine did come with the low compression 706 heads..BUT the seller decided to throw in a pair of sweet sweet 243 heads.  These are a great match for the LQ4, giving higher compression with arguably slightly better flow. 

Forgive the mess, it was a small garage

Everyone loves a nice, refreshing paint job right? ..right?? Oh well after bringing the engine home and inspecting it, I decided to block off all the ports and give it a nice ol high-temp rattlecan makeover.  Tbh I was pleased with the results.

Next up was to install the new heads using some fancy shmancy ARP hardware.  Luckily, I had a good friend nearby who hooked it up by sandblasting the valve covers and giving them a nice coat of black paint. 

Then life happened, and I had to move to Nashville.  The LQ4 currently lives in a shed back in Florida awaiting her next journey. Stay tuned for The Engine: Chapter 2 to see what I put in the car fr fr.