Hey gentlemen. Im new here,from Canada and have a desire to learn more about motors. I have a 99 extended cab,2wd,2/3drop with SS 20s on it. Its got Doug Thorley long tubes,cats are gone,with a magnaflow muffler. Its got about 110,000 miles on it. Recently I got the tranny built by a Race Tranny shop in Calgary. Stock torque converter. A while ago I installed a intercooled Magnacharger MP112 on it. Of course they said the tune was gonna be fine and it was a turnkey upgrade. But after awhile i started to notice some pinging goin on. So I ran it for another bout 4 months until I booked it in at a dyno shop. Sure enough it was running way to lean. The guy fixed it up the best he knew how, put it took a lot of life outa it. When we had it on the dyno we put a knockbox on it to listen to the internals and there was a lot of racket. Now this fall its started using more and more oil.
So Gents here is where im coming to the experts. What should i do? Im wundering if a ls2 aluminum block with a ls6 head combo with my maggie dropped in would be the right thing or should i be looking at rebuilding my 5.3 and stroking it or something. I wud like safely around 450-550 RWHP.
Open to suggestions folks, please help me

 

You should be able to hit your goal without doing anything to major really. Look around in the dyno section and you will see there are some relatively stock trucks making those numbers. I would just freshen up the 5.3 and make sure you get someone who knows what they are doing to tune it for you.

 

Running it lean for that long can take a toll on valves and the pistons, maybe you havent cooked the rings too bad.. if i was you, i would steer away from the stroker idea if your wanting to be a reliable daily driver setup.. stroking it offers alot of power and torque but 90% of the time you lose alot of reliability.. your 5.3 would get you to your goals fairly easy but if your considering doing a different engine then my vote goes to a 6.0 swap.. you wont be disappointed in it and you can build one for a very reasonable price.

 

So if I want to go the 6.0l route. What kinda block and crank combo should i be looking into? And also what kinda heads are the guys getting the best luck out of? Thanx

 

stock bottom end will work just fine for a good amount of power, and the goals you have as well.

 

You will max your blower out before you push a stock 6l to destruction as long as you have a good tune. If you want to keep things simple and reliable, go buy a 05+ LQ4 and put in a good maggie cam like the Lengenfelter GT2-3 and stick the blower on. From there I think your money would be best spent on boost minded upgrades such as a larger 90mm J-tube and 90mm throttle body, etc. With this setup you should be at 500+whp at around 10lbs of boost that will be as reliable as your tune is good.

Btw there is no reason to build a motor unless you are looking for 650+whp... Your not re-inventing the wheel here, this setup is proven reliable and powerful on a stock motor if done right. Stock LQ4 heads flow the same as LS6 heads stock but keep the compression lower and more boost friendly. Just upgrade cams and cubes and go with it.