mikealicious2k5

What's up guys. New to the NNBS/truck world. Just got my '12 Silverado 5.3 about 5-6 months ago. Lots to learn with these trucks and engines, but I'm plugging along.

As it sits right now, the truck is basically stock. K&N intake, flowmaster lunchbox, and superchips flashpaq programmer (mainly for tire size/speedo correcting, and removing of speed limiter and dod). Leveled with 265's. 285's going on next month.

Just ordered some 1 3/4" TSP long tubes, Y pipe, and their .600" stage 3 cam that were delivered yesterday.

Wanted to get some baseline #'s the other day, so I put her on the dyno. Top run is the superchips 91/performance tune. Middle run is stock, and the bottom run is superchips fuel saver/87 tune.

Runs were done on a DynoJet. Plan on re-dynoing when I put the Long tubes and Y pipe on next week, and then again when the cam goes in end of march.

Truck currently has the junk 3.08 gears, which I'm planning on swapping out with some 4.10's in the next two months. Other than that, what are some popular mods people do to these trucks? I daily drive this, for now, 59 miles one way to work. I'd like to keep the reliability, and fuel economy reasonable until I pickup a daily. Head work/head swap on these? Intake mani's, throttle body's, etc?

Thanks for looking.

-Mike



UPDATE 2/21/17..

Shot a short vid after putting the Texas Speed Headers and Y-Pipe on.




UPDATE 2/23/17

Cutout installed today, followed up by another dyno with the cutout closed and opened.

Here's a cold startup video with a few revs, and two dyno pulls following.


Here is my cutout. It's the DMH Low profile.



DMH Low profile cutout

And a picture of the dyno. I had to roll onto it a little slower this time, which is why the start of the curve looks lower than my first dyno. I jumped on it twice at 3k rpms, and it downshifted both times.




Silverado Dyno

UPDATE 3/30/17

Finally picked the truck up this morning. Must say I'm pretty pleased with the results. Matt over at GPtuning did a great job tuning the truck. Happy with the texas speed cam. Truck feels great at all RPM's. I need to get gears, a stall, and a locker ASAP. These 3.08 gears are not the business.

put down a best of 349hp/337tq today. That's a gain of 47hp with just the cam. Total gains so far are 58hp/33tq with the Texas Speed long tubes, Y-Pipe, and 216/220 112lsa .600" cam.

FFDP

iTrader: (2)

Keep the stock heads, intake and throttle body, you aren't going to outflow them. The intake flows great the the 243/799 cylinder heads are pretty much the best flowing stock heads they made. They can make tons of power in stock form.

I highly suggest you upgrade your driveshaft if you want to go at speeds above 100mph, they are not rated to go that high and will explode on you. The unlucky ones will damage the fuel tank, line and break the t-case or transmission nose in the process.

Hoprfully you ordered the rest of the AFM/DoD delete kit when you bought that cam. You still need new lifter, lifter trays, 4.8 valley cover, timing cover, timing gear if 3 bolt cam.

Sell the superchips programmer thingy, you won't be able to custom tune the vehicles as needed once you install the headers and camshaft. You need to use a tuning software like HP Tuners or EFI live.

mikealicious2k5

What driveshafts are people going with?

And yep. Got the complete kit. Springs, 7.40 chromoly pushrods, cam phaser limiter, head gaskets, head bolt kits, valley cover, lifter tray, new lifters (16, not 8), water pump and timing cover gaskets, and a few other things in the kit that I'm drawing a blank on.

That was my thought on the superchips. Having a local company, GP Tuning, do the tune on the track when the cam goes in next month (earliest he could squeeze me in). He specializes in Chevy's/GM's.

Any easy way of re-calibrating the speedo for gears/tires once I get rid of the programmer?

Also, since my truck is flexfuel, any benefits of doing an e85 tune on it? or is 91 going to be sufficient?

arthursc2

iTrader: (5)

I have a set of lifters if you want them, but that .600 cam is def gonna eat the AFM lifters

mikealicious2k5

Thanks, but I'm doing the AFM delete, and got 16 new LS7 lifters.

FFDP

iTrader: (2)

Said tuner can make the gear ratio/tire size changes when they tune it. HP Tuners and EFI Live both have that feature built into them.

Might squeeze some more power from E85 but you will lose 30% on gas mileage. It's much easier to just stay with regular premium pump gas.

As for the driveshaft, just get one built for you. Most people likely just find a local driveline specific shop that makes aftermarket driveshafts.

Slow05CC

iTrader: (1)

Adding that cam will definitely give you a nice bump in performance. Typically we see around 55+ hp at the flywheel from just the cam swap. The headers will really open it up as well. Together with the tune it will be very noticeable!

Going to the bigger and heavier 285s will definitely show, and give you a bit of a more sluggish feel, but even so it should still be a pretty fun truck to drive around. Personally, I would toss a small converter in there and put some 373 or 410 gears in it. These little mods will really wake it up and make it a great little street truck.

The heads you have are excellent in factory form and can be even better with a CNC program. The intake is about as good as it gets for a factory piece in a truck. Sure you could do the fast LSXRT but the cost doesn't out weigh the performance, and I would not be willing to give up the low end, but to each their own.

Ditch the handheld! it will be worthless after you get a tune.

Also I would confirm whether or not you have VVT. That graph look like a vvt dyno. If you do have the system you will either need to delete the VVT or run a VVT cam. You may have already addressed this, but I figured I bring it up.

Good luck!!

mikealicious2k5

Yea I put the headers and Y pipe on the other day and noticed a small difference in performance, a big difference in fuel economy (I now get 2-3mpg better), and it sounds amazing. Can't wait to put the cam in.

From the gear shops I've talked to, it will most likely be 4.10's that end up in the truck, in the next couple of months. It's just got absolutely no ***** from a dig.

As far as converters are concerned, what are some good brands/rpm stalls? I've seen a bunch of folks using Circle D stalls. Being that it's daily driven, would something like a 2500 stall be ok?

The truck DOES have VVT. I was sure to get the correct cam kit when I placed my order. Russell was incredibly helpful, and made sure I was taken care of. Got me everything I needed.

I got a cutout that was delivered yesterday, and will be installing this/next week. I'm going to re-dyno with it open/closed, and see what kind of gains I made with the TSP headers and Y pipe. Will dyno again when the cam is installed and tuned. I'll be sure to post updates in here when I do.

MikeGyver

iTrader: (5)

You are going to melt your motor with headers, cutouts, and stock tune.

Choda

iTrader: (1)

i think you have a hell of a start. I would ditch that flow master. My 09 5.3 truck lost power going from stock to flowmaster. I went to a magnaflow and love it. Stuff the biggest one you can fit in there. 30 something inches long and 3 inch in - 3 inch out.