cannonball said: (quoted from post at 13:19:53 03/10/13) The 5.3 is a 325 and a completely new design engine...
Cannonball is correct the 5.3 is a 325 and debutted in 1999. Not really like the old generation 327 in any way.
That said they are good engines. If you are looking at used I would recommend trying to buy a late 2003 or newer. The 1999 to early 2003's (4.8's. 5.3's, and even the 6.0's) can be prone to piston slap when they get some miles on them on cold start (it kinda sounds like a diesel clatter). Really it does not hurt anything as the sound goes away once the short skirt pistons expand a little as the engine warms up. Starting in late 2003 a design tweak was done to correct the annoyance.
For towing run the code in the glovebox and see which rear end ratio the truck has. It will be important as these engines like to rev to make power. Here is my experiences with the 1999-2007 generation with 4 speed auto's
4.10 (Will be rare but is a towing beast. Downside is the empty mileage suffers about 1.5 mpg).
3.73 (will provide best balance of towing capability and empty mileage)
3.42 (will provide optimum empty mpg but really only suitable for light towing and I doubt it will ever reach overdrive even towing light).
3.23 (You could not give me this ratio especially if equipped with the common 4 speed automatic tranny).
Regardless of rear end the towing mpg will almost always drop to the 9-12 mpg range. I currently have a 2003 GMC1500 Ext cab longbed 4wd with 4.10 rear axle. Just towed a 1946 Farmall m home (140 miles) 3 weeks ago on a heavey 12,000 GVW trailer and it handled it like a breeze. Tows my campers fine too. 95k miles on truck and not a single problem with engine.
This post was edited by rankrank1 at 07:13:18 03/10/13 2 times.
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