For over 50 years the small-block Chevy has been the most popular V-8 engine swap on the planet. We doubt there's a car or truck out there that someone somewhere hasn't slapped a Mouse motor into. Those engines are cheap, available, and easy to modify. Which also means they've become somewhat dull and everyone and his brother has one!
That is, of course, unless you've been paying attention to the new crop of small-blocks that are available in GM vehicles. Since the 1997 introduction of the Gen III LS1 engine, a whole new world of possibilities has opened up. Just looking at the specs and performance level of a Gen III small-block makes even the best of the old 350s seem kinda weak. The new Gen III engines are high-tech powerhouses thanks to their roller cam, roller rockers, deep skirt block with six-bolt mains, coil-on-plug ignition, and sequential multiport fuel injection that gives the smoothest idle and best part-throttle cruising you'll find from any engine. Plus, Gen III engines can be had at an affordable price if you know where to look.
If one of these powerplants sounds good to you, then you need to talk to the experts at Turnkey Engine Supply. Turnkey specializes in late-model GM engine packages and has developed more than 10 different engine combinations, some of which can even be swapped into older 4x4s as an emissions-legal package.
Advance Adapters has jumped on board too and is leveraging its swapping experience to make these one of the best values in crate engines today. We know that ever since we learned about Turnkey's package deals we've wanted to get our hands on one of its iron-block 6.0L engines to repower our '82 K5 Blazer. Follow along and we'll show you how to adapt your 4x4 to accept one of these late-model monsters.
Turnkey Engine Supply
Chevy's fuel-injected Gen III small-block V-8 comes in four displacements: 4.8, 5.3, 5.7 (all-aluminum LS1), and the 564-pound aluminum-head/iron-block 6.0L version we're using. All four versions share the same architecture and external dimensions and are available as crate engines from Turnkey Engine Supply and Advance Adapters. At press time the 6.0L crate engine we selected (392 hp, 426 lb-ft) sells for $5,663 from Advance. Not bad considering a Ram Jet 350 (350 hp, 400 lb-ft) sells for about $5,000 and doesn't include any of the accessories! If you need the swap to be smog-legal, there's also a 6.0L package (340 hp, 385 lb-ft) that Turnkey has developed using a production GM computer and calibration for $6,038.