What is a lq4 motor

The LQ4 is a 6. For marketing purposes, it was also known as the Vortec The engine specs and information listed here is for the stock LQ4 engine. These motors are capable of making a lot of horsepower, and respond well to upgrades like turbos, superchargers, high-flow cylinder heads, intake systems, cams, and nitrous oxide. The aftermarket is strong, crate engines are available, and used motors are often cheaply sourced through junkyards.

Summit Racing has created a series of comprehensive guides for each engine in the LS family, so engine builders and tuners can have a handy reference for their projects. You can explore all of our LS engine spec guides and LS tech resources here. Thank you very much. I am in the process of adding ls3 heads and boring to 4. I am going to make a cam change to hopefully build an engine to produce a pretty flat power curve for daily driving but help when pulling a pound travel trailer. The information you provide is invaluable to me.

Ken, It seems that I am having the same issue as you. I have a 27 ft travel trailer and my with the 6. My truck has the. I would be interested in more details to what you are doing to your engine to gain that extra umph to pull your rig. Thanks -Brad. Cam, Ls3 heads. Anymore questions feel free to ask. Will the stock ECM be just fine with all the upgrades or will I need to tune or replace it with one that will?

This is my first LS build and I grew up with the first and second gen small blocks. Let me know please, thank you. You will need to tune. Mines 6. All info is very much invaluable too me also. I am getting ready to do a ls swap to a 1ton dully for pulling trailers and I am try to find the best heads and cam and things to build a very good pulling truck.

The reason for the cam is ls3 heads are very high flow, therefore a heavier-durable cam is needed. As far as a list for other bolt on upgrades:Choice of exhaust system, performance spark plugs and plug wires, better quality distributor complete set , cooling fan, better quality oil. Thanks for this very detailed information. I too am going to build my LQ4 for my 66 Nova. The flat-top pistons allowed for an increase in compression, and the engine produced slightly more power than the LQ4 -- plus horsepower and plus foot-pounds of torque.

Visual identification between the two engines is very difficult, since the primary difference is the pistons and wrist pin rods, which are part of the engine's rotating assembly and thus enclosed in the engine block.

The LQ9 was replaced by the L76, which incorporates an all-aluminum block in addition to variable valve timing. I love LS engines quite a bit and my boyfriend and I started getting into the hobby of going to the junkyard every weekend and seeing what they have.

From there, it sparked an engine project. We wanted to see how budget conscious we could be in putting together a really cool combination or my El Camino. Olivia and Travis love a good junkyard find, and they often visit a yard located in Sun Valley, CA where they seem to come out with a few gems more often than not. I have other friends that go to that same yard and they walk away with nothing every time, so I feel pretty lucky. One of those junkyard LQ4s was just the thing Olivia needed to make the horsepower she was looking for in her El Camino.

Olivia got the engine machined, honed. The CP Carrillo flattop pistons have a The AFR Enforcer heads feature cc runners with 64cc chambers and they flow cfm. We wanted to use those to keep the build pretty relatable.

We wanted to focus on the budget aspect. The rebuild entailed a ball hone, surface, and valve job for the stock heads.

The truck intake received a manual mm throttle body to replace the factory past DBW unit. Each test motor was also run with long-tube headers, an aftermarket FAST XFI management system and tuned for maximum power which they were not from the factory.

The test motors were also run without any accessories, air intake or full exhaust. Run in this manner and tuned to perfection, the stock LQ4 produced peak numbers of hp at 5, rpm and lb-ft of torque at 4, rpm.

It is obvious from the power curve that this motor was built with low-speed in mind. Torque production from the 6. This low-compression LS was designed for heavy hauling, and performed well, if customer satisfaction is any indication.

Up next was the LY6 6. Initially, some may question the use of the larger, high-performance, rectangular-port heads on a low-rpm truck application, but the LY6 performed admirably.

It should be pointed out that this test motor received a cam change to eliminate the VVT, as we had no way to control the system without switching to the factory ECU. Run with the fixed cam profile retarding the cam would improve peak power slightly , the rec-port LY6 produced peak numbers of hp at 5, rpm and lb-ft of torque at 4, rpm. Note that peak power and torque occurred slightly higher than in the LQ4 by rpm , but the power output of the LY6 was greater through the entire rev range.

As expected, the gains were greatest higher in the rev range, but the test shows that time and technology certainly march on, and grabbing an LY6 is certainly worth extra power over the LQ4. Better yet, the rec-port heads and matching intake might just offer even greater power gains once you apply a cam upgrade!

The original LQ4 6.