Greetings All,
I'm newly registered on the forum but I keep up to date on it and have learned alot from you guys. Right now I'm considering either supercharging my truck (set on a radix for the intercooler and other things I've heard about whipple) or put in a cam/torque converter/headers, and maybe head work or other boltons. I plan on doing a Nelson tune either way but i'm basically just looking for the most bang for my buck, i realize the supercharger would give more power but if I can get large performance gains without the blower for cheaper then I may go that route... but it is a daily driver and I don't want to sacrifice too much reliability. I am looking for quite a big noticeable gain in power and I'm just wondering if i can get that without a supercharger (wanna give the stock gts something to think about ). But I don't really want to use NOS, I'm planning on keeping the truck awhile and I'd rather have more power all the time.

Thanks alot
Ryan

 

welcome, sounds like a Radix is in your future

 

Go blown then. The N/A combo you mentioned would be good for about 60 or so RWHP but you may have small drivability issues. The blower will drive like stock and give you over a 100rwhp gain. Cost more though

 

The Radix seems to be better suited for what you want. I personally wish I wouldve gone the other route (Heads Cam and maybe a 125 shot). The heads and cam will give you alot of power and be less hassle I think. Then when you really want to whip up on some Lightnings or Radix blown trucks you can hit the N20 .
Have you thought about a cammed 6.0?? You can never have too many cubes

 

I only picked up 75rwhp with the whipple.

 

I sometimes wish I would have a blower, but I like to hear the cam
I think you'd be happy either way. Just remember, this is not a hobby for nickles and dimes

 

well a cam, botons, stall, headers will increase nicely for about $2500-3000. If you want that extra power and can spend or want to spend another $2k then get the radix. I have decided that I am going to stay N?A and do a good size cam with a 3k stall, shift kit, nelson tune, and I am hopping for 13's with traction.

 

I say go

H+C $2000 tops
converter $800
Billet servos/transgo/tranny cooler $500 (?)
Tune $400
Eaton/gears $900-1000 installed

That's still only $4700. And I'm sure it would be a quick little truck!

All the power in the world is no good unless you have a drivetrain to back it up.

 

Thanks for all the replies, still not 100% sure what I'll do. May go Cam/TC/shiftkit/servos/tune for now and do more later. The 6.0 sounds fun but i'm not sure if I'm up to pulling out the 5.3 just yet, only 23k miles on it. Although then I could do NOS and have a backup engine if it blew up. Any idea how much a new/slightly used 6.0 would run? As far as Nitrous goes, how much would a 100 shot hurt the engine? I've heard that it will hurt the engine and then some say that the new engines/kits work well and i shouldn't have any problems. Also I've heard something about putting 5.3 heads on the 6.0 and increasing the compression ratio, does this work well?

Thanks
Ryan

 

Check the classifieds. There was a guy selling new Stage 2 LS1 heads with a TR 224 cam for $1350. There is another guy selling a VIG 3200 for $450. If you have the money jump on that!!
Stuff like headers, servos, tranny cooler, shift kit, Easton, and a tune you will need either way you go if you are looking for performance. Those are moot points.