5.3's are so cheap. lq9's are not too expensive, i only paid 1400 for mine and it looked brand spankin new, and had very low miles. to be honest when i tore it apart it looked new inside, looked like it wasn't even broken in(could still very clearly see honing marks, no wear on bearings, ect). there is a place down here that is bad ass for getting good deals on truck engines, called bessler its in ky. good luck on finding a ls1 though, they seem somewhat hard to find anymore, unless they are blown up lol.