TBSS/NNBS Intake for Mild 5.3 Build?
02-01-2015, 07:00 PM
#1
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
TBSS/NNBS Intake for Mild 5.3 Build?
Hey Guys. I posted this same question over at LS1Tech the other day and never got a response so I thought I'd try my luck here... I’m looking for opinions and info about swapping out my stock ’00 truck intake to one of the TBSS/NNBS intakes. I’ve been reading all kinds of threads here and on other forums for the last few days and am seeing some mixed info/results. It seems like most of the people that had positive results had larger 6.0 motors or 5.3’s with a fair amount of add-ons and the people that had bad experiences had basically stock motors and some didn’t even get a tune initially… Other than the mixed reviews it seems like a fairly easy swap and pretty cheap too with the intakes only being $150-200 used w/fuel rails and injectors.
My first question is if you guys think it’d be worth it on a mild budget build like what I’m trying to do. My engine is a ’00 5.3/LM7 that is going to be swapped in to my ’89 K5 along with a 4l80e. The engine is out of a good running wrecked Yukon that had 140,xxx miles on the clock (still in the donor in my driveway). I should probably just throw the engine in my K5 the way it is but I know I’d be kicking myself if I didn’t try to fix it up a little before I get it dropped in there. I’m already planning to basically redo the top end and have already picked up a cheap used set of 243 heads (Craigslist) and will be ordering a mild custom ground cam shaft from Martin @ Tick (208/212 .554/.558 113+2) along with new springs, lifters, pushrods, oil pump, timing chain, etc. The heads will be getting cleaned up with a performance valve job and may be getting milled .030” to get my compression back up unless I can find a cheap set of 4.8 flat top pistons to drop in… I picked up my complete donor vehicle for way less than I could track down a 6.0 engine by itself so I don’t mind spending a little money in the right places for the 5.3 to help out it’s power and efficiency.
The next question is what size throttle body should I go with? I was originally going to just get a cheapy 90/92 mm throttle body but I had seen a few people say that those are too large for a 5.3 and that it’ll hurt low end performance which is where I’ll need it with my ~5000 lbs truck. Is there any truth to that? One guy actually said he picked up some performance when he switched back to his original 78mm TB… I’m assuming those guys were most likely just losing performance because they either didn’t get a new tune or still had a stock cam and 706/862 heads that couldn’t effectively utilize the added flow. I’m hoping that my new set up would be a decent combo that will work well together and not have any of those issues…
There are lots of swap threads out there so I have a pretty good understanding of what’s involved and what needs to be done to make it work. I’m mainly wanting to know if you guys think it’s something that’d be worth doing while the engine is sitting on a stand and if my heads/cam/intake combo would all work well together. What do you guys think?
Thanks, Anthony
My first question is if you guys think it’d be worth it on a mild budget build like what I’m trying to do. My engine is a ’00 5.3/LM7 that is going to be swapped in to my ’89 K5 along with a 4l80e. The engine is out of a good running wrecked Yukon that had 140,xxx miles on the clock (still in the donor in my driveway). I should probably just throw the engine in my K5 the way it is but I know I’d be kicking myself if I didn’t try to fix it up a little before I get it dropped in there. I’m already planning to basically redo the top end and have already picked up a cheap used set of 243 heads (Craigslist) and will be ordering a mild custom ground cam shaft from Martin @ Tick (208/212 .554/.558 113+2) along with new springs, lifters, pushrods, oil pump, timing chain, etc. The heads will be getting cleaned up with a performance valve job and may be getting milled .030” to get my compression back up unless I can find a cheap set of 4.8 flat top pistons to drop in… I picked up my complete donor vehicle for way less than I could track down a 6.0 engine by itself so I don’t mind spending a little money in the right places for the 5.3 to help out it’s power and efficiency.
The next question is what size throttle body should I go with? I was originally going to just get a cheapy 90/92 mm throttle body but I had seen a few people say that those are too large for a 5.3 and that it’ll hurt low end performance which is where I’ll need it with my ~5000 lbs truck. Is there any truth to that? One guy actually said he picked up some performance when he switched back to his original 78mm TB… I’m assuming those guys were most likely just losing performance because they either didn’t get a new tune or still had a stock cam and 706/862 heads that couldn’t effectively utilize the added flow. I’m hoping that my new set up would be a decent combo that will work well together and not have any of those issues…
There are lots of swap threads out there so I have a pretty good understanding of what’s involved and what needs to be done to make it work. I’m mainly wanting to know if you guys think it’s something that’d be worth doing while the engine is sitting on a stand and if my heads/cam/intake combo would all work well together. What do you guys think?
Thanks, Anthony
02-02-2015, 12:49 AM
#2
I am sure lots of other people will chime in on this one. The main purpose of this swap is to gain flow especially in the upper RPM range. The stock intake does just fine up until a certain point. That point is about 6,000rpm where power begins to fall off. Once new heads, a cam, higher shift points, and other factors come into play it gets to be a restriction. That all said you are doing some things right. This intake works best with 243/799s which have matching ports vs the smaller heads. You I am sure will have a proper tune and exhaust setup. Now issues I have with your plan. The cam is way to small to take advantage of this intake. That cam is going to peak very early. I would bump the duration up at least 5-10*. Also you need to keep your compression up so either get the flattop 4.8s like you suggested or mill the heads, bc otherwise you are giving up too much.
02-02-2015, 03:41 PM
#4
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
Thanks for the replies fellas.
I’ll definitely be doing something to get the compression up and will most likely be milling the heads since I already have them and haven’t been able to track down any 4.8/flat top pistons cheap enough to make it worth it. I’m shooting to get the compression up to around 10:1 but don’t want to go much higher than that since it’ll be run on cheap 87 octane gas. Reason being, a lot of the gas stations up where my family hunts only carry regular 87 octane or diesel.
I should’ve mentioned earlier that my goal for the truck is for it to be a reliable toy with more power and fuel efficiency than the old TBI 350 that’s in it now. It’ll be used for occasional DD duty in the summer with occasional trail use getting up to our camping and hunting spots. Because it’ll eventually have larger tires (35’s most likely) and a heavy 4l80e, the cam was intentionally left a little on the smaller side to keep the power band down low where it’ll be used the most. With that being said, would the newer intake really do me any good then? I was under the impression that it flowed better than the older intakes throughout the power band, not just above 6000 rpm where my engine will almost never see it.
How do you like the newer intake on your 5.3? Did you have it on when you did your swap or sometime after? If so, what kind of difference to you think it made? Also, which 90mm TB did you go with? I’ve been looking at some of the nicer Edelbrock, Holley, and Nick Williams TB’s but it’s hard to justify almost or above $400 for a TB when some of the $100-150 TB’s seem to work just as well…
I am sure lots of other people will chime in on this one. The main purpose of this swap is to gain flow especially in the upper RPM range. The stock intake does just fine up until a certain point. That point is about 6,000rpm where power begins to fall off. Once new heads, a cam, higher shift points, and other factors come into play it gets to be a restriction. That all said you are doing some things right. This intake works best with 243/799s which have matching ports vs the smaller heads. You I am sure will have a proper tune and exhaust setup. Now issues I have with your plan. The cam is way to small to take advantage of this intake. That cam is going to peak very early. I would bump the duration up at least 5-10*. Also you need to keep your compression up so either get the flattop 4.8s like you suggested or mill the heads, bc otherwise you are giving up too much.
I should’ve mentioned earlier that my goal for the truck is for it to be a reliable toy with more power and fuel efficiency than the old TBI 350 that’s in it now. It’ll be used for occasional DD duty in the summer with occasional trail use getting up to our camping and hunting spots. Because it’ll eventually have larger tires (35’s most likely) and a heavy 4l80e, the cam was intentionally left a little on the smaller side to keep the power band down low where it’ll be used the most. With that being said, would the newer intake really do me any good then? I was under the impression that it flowed better than the older intakes throughout the power band, not just above 6000 rpm where my engine will almost never see it.
How do you like the newer intake on your 5.3? Did you have it on when you did your swap or sometime after? If so, what kind of difference to you think it made? Also, which 90mm TB did you go with? I’ve been looking at some of the nicer Edelbrock, Holley, and Nick Williams TB’s but it’s hard to justify almost or above $400 for a TB when some of the $100-150 TB’s seem to work just as well…
02-02-2015, 04:02 PM
#5
Formerly ScreamingL
Thanks for the replies fellas.
I’ll definitely be doing something to get the compression up and will most likely be milling the heads since I already have them and haven’t been able to track down any 4.8/flat top pistons cheap enough to make it worth it. I’m shooting to get the compression up to around 10:1 but don’t want to go much higher than that since it’ll be run on cheap 87 octane gas. Reason being, a lot of the gas stations up where my family hunts only carry regular 87 octane or diesel.
I should’ve mentioned earlier that my goal for the truck is for it to be a reliable toy with more power and fuel efficiency than the old TBI 350 that’s in it now. It’ll be used for occasional DD duty in the summer with occasional trail use getting up to our camping and hunting spots. Because it’ll eventually have larger tires (35’s most likely) and a heavy 4l80e, the cam was intentionally left a little on the smaller side to keep the power band down low where it’ll be used the most. With that being said, would the newer intake really do me any good then? I was under the impression that it flowed better than the older intakes throughout the power band, not just above 6000 rpm where my engine will almost never see it.
How do you like the newer intake on your 5.3? Did you have it on when you did your swap or sometime after? If so, what kind of difference to you think it made? Also, which 90mm TB did you go with? I’ve been looking at some of the nicer Edelbrock, Holley, and Nick Williams TB’s but it’s hard to justify almost or above $400 for a TB when some of the $100-150 TB’s seem to work just as well…
I’ll definitely be doing something to get the compression up and will most likely be milling the heads since I already have them and haven’t been able to track down any 4.8/flat top pistons cheap enough to make it worth it. I’m shooting to get the compression up to around 10:1 but don’t want to go much higher than that since it’ll be run on cheap 87 octane gas. Reason being, a lot of the gas stations up where my family hunts only carry regular 87 octane or diesel.
I should’ve mentioned earlier that my goal for the truck is for it to be a reliable toy with more power and fuel efficiency than the old TBI 350 that’s in it now. It’ll be used for occasional DD duty in the summer with occasional trail use getting up to our camping and hunting spots. Because it’ll eventually have larger tires (35’s most likely) and a heavy 4l80e, the cam was intentionally left a little on the smaller side to keep the power band down low where it’ll be used the most. With that being said, would the newer intake really do me any good then? I was under the impression that it flowed better than the older intakes throughout the power band, not just above 6000 rpm where my engine will almost never see it.
How do you like the newer intake on your 5.3? Did you have it on when you did your swap or sometime after? If so, what kind of difference to you think it made? Also, which 90mm TB did you go with? I’ve been looking at some of the nicer Edelbrock, Holley, and Nick Williams TB’s but it’s hard to justify almost or above $400 for a TB when some of the $100-150 TB’s seem to work just as well…
its one i had from 07 as for the TB but ive bought a few of the 120$ ones on ebay for last several builds
I did the motor with its mods all at same time as swap in jeep, my daily which is a 2010 has same intake and does just fine
the intake is a good mod to have just dont over pay for it. I paid 80 bucks for intake, fuel rails, injectors, sensors, engine cover, gaskets, hardware
02-02-2015, 05:09 PM
#6
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
George C... Thanks for the input. I'm in the same boat when it comes to something as simple as a throttle body. I can't see spending 3-4x as much for a name...
Where did you find your intake setup for only $80? The cheapest I've found the newer ones on eBay is $175 and they're usually more than that when I find them in the classifieds on here or LS1Tech and the yards by me that get the newer stuff want even
Where did you find your intake setup for only $80? The cheapest I've found the newer ones on eBay is $175 and they're usually more than that when I find them in the classifieds on here or LS1Tech and the yards by me that get the newer stuff want even
02-02-2015, 06:12 PM
#7
Formerly ScreamingL
ppl sell them on here dont know any better, you can buy a whole 58x 5.3 or 4.8 complete for 600 bucks, if you part it out then what do you think that intake is worth?
i picked my intake up at a local yard, paying big prices is just being ripped off. Its a stock intake on all 4.8 and 5.3 trucks from 07 to 2013
ive ran a fast 102 TB, the bling factor was cool but it did same job as the chinese runs ive ran....
i picked my intake up at a local yard, paying big prices is just being ripped off. Its a stock intake on all 4.8 and 5.3 trucks from 07 to 2013
ive ran a fast 102 TB, the bling factor was cool but it did same job as the chinese runs ive ran....
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02-03-2015, 09:17 AM
#8
TECH Resident
I had an 04 intake and switched to the 08 intake. I kept my throttle body and used the fast adapter plate. I know it pulls in more air because I had to change my idle airflow in the tune. I have no dyno #'s but it feels better all around especially from 4000 rpm's and up. I have a 2004 5.3 lunati 212/218 cam, LT headers and CAI in a 1992 chevy pickup 2wd 5 speed.
02-03-2015, 04:42 PM
#9
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
ppl sell them on here dont know any better, you can buy a whole 58x 5.3 or 4.8 complete for 600 bucks, if you part it out then what do you think that intake is worth?
i picked my intake up at a local yard, paying big prices is just being ripped off. Its a stock intake on all 4.8 and 5.3 trucks from 07 to 2013
ive ran a fast 102 TB, the bling factor was cool but it did same job as the chinese runs ive ran....
i picked my intake up at a local yard, paying big prices is just being ripped off. Its a stock intake on all 4.8 and 5.3 trucks from 07 to 2013
ive ran a fast 102 TB, the bling factor was cool but it did same job as the chinese runs ive ran....
I had an 04 intake and switched to the 08 intake. I kept my throttle body and used the fast adapter plate. I know it pulls in more air because I had to change my idle airflow in the tune. I have no dyno #'s but it feels better all around especially from 4000 rpm's and up. I have a 2004 5.3 lunati 212/218 cam, LT headers and CAI in a 1992 chevy pickup 2wd 5 speed.
I have a CAI from the donor already but unfortunately I won’t be able to run LT’s thanks to my crappy smog laws… I picked up a set of C6/LS3 manifolds though and they should flow more than what this 5.3 will ever put out. Right now the plan is to re-use the donor's cats with the C6 manifolds and then run a 2.5” Y to a single 3” exhaust.