As some may know, I have had this bad ticking noise after my recent cam swap. After going over everything, the problem seems to come down to the lifters. I will not be changing the lifter b/c I already feel like I messed them up when I changed the cam. Don't know how, but they tick when they feel like it and it is pissing me off.

Its going to cost around $700.00 in labor to change the lifters. I thought if they are going to pull the heads I might as well change them. I was thinking about the WCCH Stage 2 5.3 head. Completely assembled with dual springs will be about $1300.00 to my door.

My questions are;
What type of hp is reasonable to expect with the heads?
Any other head suggestions?
Are heads going to be worth it in a 5.3 Radix combination?
6.0 heads?
Or is there better was to spend $1300.00?

I just would hate to spend $1000.00 to change the lifters and not improve performance at all.

Please help!

 

I found myself in similar situation as yourself. Rather than spending money on the 5.3, I decided to spend the money on a 6.0.

 

I would look into the DART LS1 casting heads so far I havent seen any results from the WCCH heads that made me feel they were worth it. Also you could go the route KY went and put a 6L in it for about the same price head swap and motor swaps are just about the same thing as far as labor goes IMO.

 

I actually was considering a 6.0 swap. I can get an 04 Silvy SS motor w/ 7,000 miles for 2000. Labor to put it in would be $1500.00. Total cost = $3500.00.

To put a set of heads on my truck would cost me about 1300.00 and the labor would not change because im changing my lifters anyway.

To tell you the truth, I just want to make sure the gains are going to be worth the money. How much hp could i reasanably expect?

 

I know you have a radix, but yesterday when I was at allens, I asked him what did he think about me putting some heads on the 5.3 or getting a 6.0 w/cam... and he said, "6.0 w/cam is the way to go", he said he has done so many 6.0 w/cam and they just put out alot of power, and for him it is better to go that route instead of trying to put some heads on a 5.3....
plus you could just p&p the stock 6.0 heads and it'll wake it up a little more...

 

Well for what it's worth, I put a head/cam package on my blown 5.3L two weeks ago. I put a set of Stage 2 Patriots on with a Vinci Cam. Horsepower gains? I went from 402 RWHP to 498 RWHP with the heads/cam/ LT's and 3" exhaust. With that said, I am also looking at a LQ9 down the road. The Stage 2's flow 300 cfm at .600 and the cam and 1:85.1 rockers provide a .589 lift. The dyno was 498/492 ft lbs and I still have about 20 hp left in my tune plus another 5 or so when I finish the E-fan install...

 

Those are pretty promising gains. What do those heads flow on the exhaust side. Any change in boost? You have the specs on the cam? If I could expereince gains like this, heads will definately be in the works!

 

I went the Dart 225's. They cost about the same as the Patriot and WCCH heads, have larger valves and more room to port later. They will also work great on a 6.0 should you make the switch down the road. I think Summitt gets less than $1300 a set. Mine are not installed yet so no numbers but the post above with the cam and Patriot stage 2 heads should be in the ball park.

 

Most of the specs are in my sig....

Gunnar at Patriot is who I worked with on the heads. Heads had a 63cc chamber in lieu of stock 61.15cc. I want to leave them at that due to the blower. Flow bench on the heads were 300 intake/225 exhaust @ .600. The cam, oil pump, dual timing chain, and VHP 1.89:1 rockers are from Vinci High Performance. The cam was his 216/224 .551/.551 115LSA set at 4 degrees. The accelerated lift rockers provide a .589 lift.

The dyno run was run on the tune I drove in on with the exception of rescaled injectors to handle the 60#'s and modified idle, VE, and PE. Timing was left at what I drove in on. I was running 11-12psi when I drove in and actually lost a pound with the upgrades.

The dyno was a DynoJet dyno run outside behind Vinci on a 93 degree Florida afternoon with barometric pressure in the 29.8 range...

Like I said, there is still a lot of HP left due to the tune and timing. Waiting on my upgraded HP tuners cable to finish tuning with my LC-1.

Hope this helps..... Good Luck

 

nice #'s flabouy.
where about's in FL?