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5.3 Budget Build

22K views 27 replies 10 participants last post by  stocksilverado25  
#1 ·
Hey guys, I am new to this forum... this summer I am looking to play around with my truck a wee bit. I am looking to rebuild my motor and put some go fast parts in it. Curious what has been done in the past to get quite a bit of power. I want to stay NA if at all possible. I have heard using the Z06 cam and porting and polishing the heads has been pretty successful. Most of the stuff I have read about is to put a turbo or procharger strapped to the motor. Is there a way to hit 500hp NA?

Right now I am running a cold air intake and custom 3" true dual exhaust from the manifolds back with Flowmaster highflow cats and Flowmaster Super 10 mufflers.

Don't worry about the drive train, I am having Seneff Transmission and Performance building my tranny to handle the estimated power of my motor build. Then I am looking to WyoSpeed to do custom tuning on it after the truck is back together..

Thanks for any help and advice in advance, I truly appreciate it.
 
#3 ·
ZO6 cam wont get you anywhere near 500. You're gonna want a much bigger cam then that. I'd recommend something like a 228R cam from texas speed. If you're still running factory manifolds those need to go first i ran long tubes on mine. With that cam there is a chance you'll need bigger injectors because stock will be about 100% duty cycle on that big cam. Porting the heads helps a little but due to the design of the factory heads porting doesnt help as much as it costs, could spend a little more and get an intake manifold. Even with what i have listed you wont have 500. At peak I'd guess maybe 400. Dont forget you are wanting to more then double what that motor has factory and i think for just playing and feeling good about what you have those mods will make u very happy but again i wouldnt waste the money and labor on the zo6 cam its not going to give you what u hope for. I built my 2000 reg cab short box with the same parts ive listed here and it made a hair over 400 after custom tune and that motor loved every bit of it then decided to spend the money and 78mm turbo and methanol injected with a holley intake and it made 610rwhp
 
#6 ·
If you want 500HP, as people have suggested, you will need to go for at least stroker kit unless you are boosting it. Budget and performance don't go together. It's like this (Cheap, fast, and reliable.... choose 2). If it's cheap and fast, it's not reliable, if it's cheap and reliable, it's not fast, and if it's fast and reliable... well... it ain't cheap!

You'd do well with rebuilding your motor, maybe start with the Z06 camshaft, put in roller rockers, better lifters, SS or Inconel valves, new springs, etc.

I guess we never asked. What is the budget? Doing the motor can EASILY chew a hole into that fast. My 5.3 parts alone so far is over 3K, and that's just the stroker kit, that's NO top end stuff yet. From me to you, do it right the first time and don't shortcut, or you'll have problems down the road sooner rather than later.
 
#7 ·
Mine has lasted 2 years so far and i beat on it regularly. It can defintely be done but as your regular post says u want NA. Forced induction is completely different. And to build a NA 5.3 and expect 500rwhp you gotta plan on spending some money. As i said i did 228R cam on 114lsa(for turbo set up) 78mm turbo 80lb seimens deka injectors dual 450 walbro fuel pump set up methanol injected and a radical custom dyno tune and im sitting at 610 at the wheels. Also at 500 your stock 4L60e will be the first thing to go. All said and done i spent around 4000-4500 on my set up. That being said accoding to dyno shop i could push probably another 50-75 hp but my truck is also on bags and neither me or him liked the way it lifted on dyno so we call it quits
 
#11 ·
Stock appearing 500hp 5.3
Bore .125 to 3.905
Gen IV ls6 Internals w/Good pistons
Worked 799 heads
Monster cam with supporting valvetrain
Full Bolt ons (real headers not f***boy headers)
Should put you at 450 to the crank if built properly.
Lil 100 shot and a good tune will get you close to 500 whp
 
#12 ·
It has been a while since I first posted this thread, however where I stand now is my transmission has been built. Seneff Transmission out of Fort Collins, CO did their typical "5.3" build. Includes Corvette Synchro, Heavy Duty Sunshield, Heavy Duty Torque Converter, and bigger bands, essentially taking the 4L60E and making it into a 4L75E+ with what they have done. I have seen their work in person and they are amazing at a good price... just not the fastest turn around.

Next step on my build is to pull the motor down to the short block, inspect connecting rods and crank and make sure they will do. I will get my block washed and inspected as well. Then it's on to building it back up, high compression pistons, hotter cam, trunnion bearing upgrade, heads will be ported and polished as well as work done for them.

I will have short tube headers put on with an electric fan as well.

As I have talked to plenty of different shops around: WyoSpeed, Seneff Transmission and Performance, Automotive Machine and Supply, we are expecting between 450-500hp out of this build... and yes I am able to keep it Naturally Aspirated. It can be done folks!

Will keep you guys updated as the motor work begins and when the tuning starts.
 
#13 ·
Definitely possible. Well, throw enough money at a build and just about anything is possible. As far as it being budget. Starting to get these shops involved along with some of the other particulars of the build. It's not going to be budget though. Make sure you get an estimate from them first. Don't be surprised at the end when they say you owe many thousands on the engine build alone.
 
#14 ·
I'm doing most the motor work myself, I'm expecting about 3k for the motor. My trans and tcase is $3,200 installed. Then tuning starts at $450. When I said budget I was more of trying to get an idea of what other people have done. But instead everyone just told me it was impossible, so I figured out what to do by talking to these shops.
 
#15 ·
Ckep33 said:
It has been a while since I first posted this thread, however where I stand now is my transmission has been built. Seneff Transmission out of Fort Collins, CO did their typical "5.3" build. Includes Corvette Synchro, Heavy Duty Sunshield, Heavy Duty Torque Converter, and bigger bands, essentially taking the 4L60E and making it into a 4L75E+ with what they have done. I have seen their work in person and they are amazing at a good price... just not the fastest turn around.

Next step on my build is to pull the motor down to the short block, inspect connecting rods and crank and make sure they will do. I will get my block washed and inspected as well. Then it's on to building it back up, high compression pistons, hotter cam, trunnion bearing upgrade, heads will be ported and polished as well as work done for them.

I will have short tube headers put on with an electric fan as well.

As I have talked to plenty of different shops around: WyoSpeed, Seneff Transmission and Performance, Automotive Machine and Supply, we are expecting between 450-500hp out of this build... and yes I am able to keep it Naturally Aspirated. It can be done folks!

Will keep you guys updated as the motor work begins and when the tuning starts.
Show us your dyno sheet when you hit 500hp
 
#16 ·
This is sounding like a great build. If at any point you have any questions about your exhaust set up feel free to reach out to us over the phone at 707-544-4761 or online at www.flowmastermufflers.com.
 
#25 ·
500 Crank Hp is going to be tuff while keeping it N/A. I am at about 450 crank HP (365 WHP) with TSP-PRC CNC Ported and Milled 243 heads using lightweight LS6 Valves, 10.5:1 Compression running a mix of 75% 91 Octane and 25% E85, Cometic 3.910" Bore, 0.045" Thickness Head Gaskets to achieve 0.037" Quench, BTR Truck Stage 2 Cam, Polished 90mm Throttle Body, Port Matched NNBS intake, ARH 1-3/4" x 3" Long Tube headers, Airaid Jr. Intake and a Blackbear Performance Tune. This ran me about $5,000 or so. I wanted all my peak numbers to be below 6,000 rpm, with a larger cam it will raise your peak numbers in the rpm range.

Now I have seen people hit 480-485 crank HP with a larger cam such as a 224/228 or 228/228 with .600/.600 lift, a LSXRT intake, crazy porting with larger valves, and 11:1 Compression. The peak power was around 6,800 RPM.

You can use a Magnuson TVS1900 Supercharger, Should put you around 550 Crank Hp on a stock engine.

The next hurdle is your transmission, you will need to mod everything to handle 500 crank hp.