LS Donor Questions
 

I have a ‘70 Malibu that I purchased 30 years ago from the original owner (little old lady in my small Kansas hometown). It has the original 350/TH350 drivetrain, but I made the normal mods like carb, intake, cam, dual exhaust and shift kit years ago.

The last few years I’ve been chewing on the idea of swapping in an LS engine with a 4Lxxe transmission. As fate would have it, I purchased a 300k mile 2006 Suburban LTZ a few months ago for $3,000. It has a 6.0L LQ4. It’s my family’s daily driver and in decent shape. My wife mentioned tonight that she would like to upgrade to a newer Suburban with fewer miles and no major oil leaks that make her think it’s on fire. 🤷🏻*♂️😂

While I was hoping to find a wrecked vehicle with an aluminum block 6.2 gen 4 and 4L80e, I’m thinking that this suburban might be a great donor vehicle. I have a couple questions for those with experience in this area.

-Are there any major differences or advantages that the Gen. 4 LS has over the Gen. 3?
-What’s the simplest way to identify my transmission model? From researching online, it sounds like my 2006 Suburban LTZ 6.0 LQ4 could be either a 4L65e or 4L80e, but i couldn’t find a definite answer. What kind of horsepower can each normally handle in stock configurations?
-Have any of you successfully parted out a donor vehicle to help fund the swap project? I’d like to hear about any and tips and wisdom you can offer.

Thanks!

Eric