96-99 Vortec 350 or 99-03 5.3?

[bufmatmuslepants]

I just sold my 95 extended cab z71 because I need a 4 door SUV to fit my wife, daughter and dog on our travels this winter. I'm only looking to spend up to what I got for my truck, $3500, and have found tons of 96-99 4 door tahoes with 130-200k miles, and a few 98-03 tahoes with 180-250k miles. My wife likes the ride and fuel economy of my dads 05 Tahoe, but I like the low end grunt, truck ride and looks of the gmt400s. I have had 4 TBI 350s but no vortec 350s, and I know the tbi 350s are solid to 300k miles, what about the vortec 350s? And how many miles is too many for a 5.3? I found 2 vortec 350 tahoes with 130k I'm going to see today for $3300 and $2800, and a couple 5.3s with 180-220k miles, and am torn on what to get. Any thoughts? It'll only see maybe 3000-5000 miles before I sell it in the spring, I only keep trucks about 4-6 months at a time before I sell them for profit and upgrade. The market for the gmt400 tahoes and burbens seems stagnant and very cheap for some reason. I think I can turn a bigger profit on a 5.3 Tahoe or burben, but they also have a higher initial cost. The 95 I just sold I bought for $1200 and sold for $3500, the other 95 I bought for $2500 and sold for $3500.

[speedygonzales]

Vortec 5.7's suffer a few recurring problems unless they have had them updated. The spider injection is a nightmare. The intake gaskets are worse, and the distributor is plastic.

All as I mentioned they can be updated to much much better quality.

The 5.3's at least are closer to the products that are being made today. Distributorless etc.

[Tom]

Since you don't keep them, get a LS motored truck. People want new stuff, and LS powered trucks looks new under the hood at least lol. If you actually kept it, then vortec 350 all the way.

[killthewabbit]

Maybe I'm aggravated because I'm experiencing some of those recurring problems speedygonzales mentioned, but I wouldn't recommend a vortec 5.7 over a LSx to anyone.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Well I went down to Virginia beach this weekend to help my grandparents move into their new house in my escape with my wife, daughter and dog and my little escape was stuffed with baby stuff. We got there and my grandparents had this beautiful marble double sink vanity that they removed and were going to throw away since they had a wheelchair accessible sink put in. We had been shopping for vanitys like this and needed this exact one, but it wouldn't fit in the escape with all of our stuff, and they needed it gone now since they needed to put their van in the garage.

So I pull up Craigslist, find a 97 Yukon 4 door with 168k that says "needs fuel injector" for a good price. I go see it, and $1100 takes it home. It wouldn't go into overdrive but all other gears were fine, and it was hard to start if you let the fuel pump prime before hitting the starter, but otherwise was in good shape. I'm going to start a build thread on it, but long story short here, I fit the 500lb monster vanity in the Tahoe, put the front plate of my escape on it, added it to my insurance, changed the 1-2 shift solenoid, dumped 3 bottles of fuel injector cleaner and a tank of 93 Shell in it, and it made it home great.

[speedygonzales]

If you have to "prime" it, it is probably loosing fuel pressure and that is usually from a bad fuel pump check valve. If you had a bad fuel injector, you would likely experience a miss which would throw a code and SES or your oil would smell like fuel.

Neither of which you stated. Sounds like you stole without a gun. Enjoy

[bufmatmuslepants]

The issue is that I can't let it prime, if it primes it floods and I have to put it at WOT to get it to fire. I have to put the key in and turn on in one quick motion. No fuel smell in oil yet but that's just smelling the dipstick. The level isn't high, but I'm going to change the oil before I drive it anymore and see what it smells like. It threw an SES code when it finally went into 4th after 100 miles of driving right after I left the gas station after putting in 93 and the last bottle of fuel injector cleaner.

I started a new thread under "project vanity yukon" in the projects section.

[95 S_Trucker]

More than likely, it is the fuel pressure regulator leaking. It is under the upper intake manifold.

[bufmatmuslepants]

Today I played with it and I could not recreate the hard start condition. Knock on wood, the tons of fuel injector cleaner fixed it

[Cabnchassis]

We have 4 2002 ecsb 5.3 vortec trucks at a place I work sometimes. The lowest mileage example is just 5K shy of 300K miles. One is around 340K and one around 360K and one which the company gave to a favored employee just rolled 400K last week. My dad works at the same place and daily drives the truck with 360K on it. It will still leave asphalt on the pavement if you ask it to, and all four of them are on original unmolested running gear head to tail. I'm sure it helps that they never missed any maintenance and still don't, without fail. It's an insulation company and two of these trucks lived most their lives overloaded by 500lbs or more with drums of liquid component for foam and bundles of fiberglass insulation up to the top of the racks. I still don't like half ton bowties but these trucks are soldiering and it's hard not to notice.

Now that said it is an interesting experience spending time around these trucks. They literally sound like different vehicles all the time because they are all on the home stretch of their lifespans and you can literally hear them aging but it's really been an impressive experience. Everyone has been waiting for about two years now for these trucks to go but they refuse.

[Cabnchassis]

This is the one my dad daily drives that I mentioned above. Actually almost to 370k. I'm sure being on a fleet maintenance program helped because they get all the suggested maintenance that I'm sure a lot of people don't bother with. To me though what is far more impressive than four sbc engines with that many miles is 4 half ton chevy transmissions with that many miles.

I've never driven a vortec 350 but I've not heard enough good said about them feel left out. Seems like everyone is aware that is has intake issues and that the injection system is hard to work on.