Scoggin-Dickey’s Turbo 4.3L Makes 644HP

When we start thinking about powerhouse engine choices, obviously, LS and LT engines of all sizes immediately come to mind. Everything from a 4.8-liter junkyard LS to the 6.2-liter supercharged LT4 can be an excellent choice to power your ride. We can now add the LV3 4.3-liter V6 to the list of powerhouse engine choices. Scoggin-Dickey’s turbo LV3 is making power on par with its bigger V8 LT cousins.

Same Same, But Different

Now before you start grumbling that this is LSX Magazine and a 6-cylinder doesn’t belong here, let’s take a closer look at the much smaller cousin to the Gen V LT engines. Known as the LV3, these 4.3-liter engines can be found in 2014 and newer GM pickup trucks and 2018 and newer GM service vans. It features an all-aluminum block and cylinder heads. Dane Arnold of SDPP informed us that the cylinder head architecture is identical to the 5.3 L83/L84 cylinder heads. The 4.3 engine is almost identical to the bigger Gen V LT engines minus two cylinders. The other noticeable difference is the 3.92-inch bore size compared to the 3.78-inch bore found in the L83/L84 5.3L LT engines.  

Overall if you look at it next to a regular Gen V LT, it just looks…smooshed. – Dane Arnold

The LS3 intake and the V8 headers bolt right up. Block-off plates for the missing cylinders are necessary.

According to Nick Adams at SDPP, these engines are being transplanted into rock crawlers, drift cars, track rats, autocross cars, prerunners, swamp boats, and even a Delorean. They have created such a following for being known as strong engines that can make good power that the guys at SDPP developed a line of stage 1 and stage 2 camshafts. Nick and Dane were so interested in these little “buzzin’ half dozens” that they eventually convinced their manager to allow them to pull an example from the local junkyard. With limited time available, the duo roped Kurt Urban from the SDPP Race Shop into helping them with tuning their junkyard gem on the dyno.

Getting The Party Started

Up first was a baseline pull to get starting numbers to compare against SDPP’s stage 1 and stage 2 camshafts. This engine runs a completely stock bottom end consisting of steel rods, a steel crankshaft, and factory high-silicon alloy pistons. There has been no milling or porting of the factory cylinder heads. The only parts that aren’t stock are an LS3 intake and throttle body Nick pulled…