What "bolt on" engine mods would result in some decent hp gains without going internal?
Not the basic bolt-ons ie; intake, exhaust, e-fans and TB (if there are any I missed, which I am sure there are, feel free to add them in).

Would an electric water pump be a realistic mod for a dd?
Are heads a bolt-on job?

Any and all info would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

heads are considered internal

nitrous is technically a bolton

i dont know of anybody runnin and EWP on a DD truck, quik has one but i doubt his is a daily driver

 

Heads are considered internal?
I thought an assembled head was considered bolt on. If they make assembled heads.
EWP probably isnt the most practical mod for a dd.
Even though nitrous is the biggest bang for the buck for a hp, I'm probably not going to use it.
Looks like I'll just do the basics and see what comes after.
Thanks for dropping in nightrunner, I appreciate the help.

 

i always considered : the bottom end, heads, intake manifold, cam, valvetrain, etc. internals

i saw after i posted this that closet red neck has an EWP on his truck and think his might be DD, has a full bolton, heads, cam, ls6 intake 5.3 NA

they do make assembled heads

the boltons i can think of:
cold air intake
long tube headers
offroad mid pipe ( ypipe, xpipe, hpipe, etc.)
cat back exhaust
tune
plug wires
efans
UD pulleys
p&p TB
lingenfelter 100mm MAF (unless SD tuned)

gears
LSD
stall
built trans

after that you either need a power adder or go to your internal engine mods

 

Wow, I'm going to have 100 questions for you now, lol.

What cold air intake would be the better choice?
I have always used K&N and had no problems but, I'm assuming there are better ones out now. Like the Brute Force by AEM. What are your opinions on this?
For LTs, I was going to go with Dynatech headers and y pipe. Unfortunately I have to have cats or I wont pass emissions. I'm making a cat-back using a Magnaflow 14568 di/do muffler w/ built in X pipe.

Tune, would I need a tune with just bolt-on mods?

Plug wires?
E-Fans, looking for them now.
UD pullies, wheres a good place to find them? What should I look for?
P&P TB, where can I find this as well?
Lingenfelter 100mm MAF, where can I find this to?


Thanks again nightrunner, I appreciate all the help and info

 

Hate to butt in and steal Nights thunder, but you can get the plug wires from Summit if you want, that's what I did. Taylor Pro Race Wires are like 70 something bucks after shipping. The only thing that annoyed me was the fact that their Blue wires are quite difficult to color match. I looked at Wal-mart, Lowes, Sherwin Williams, I finally matched them up at Hobby Lobby. So if you buy Blue colored wires, beware. LOL....Ok ,the rest are left to you Night.

 

intake: yes there are better ones than k&n out there now.im not familiar with the aem brute force but get one with 1. an enclosed filter element for a true cold air intake and 2. one with a dry filter element for ease of maintenance. as long as it meets these two factors, get the one that you like the looks of. i prefer the volant, GMPP, and outlaw. or you could make your own. cut a 4" hole in the bottom of you stock air box and mounting plate, get a k&n drop in air filter and make your own intake tube from either aluminum tubing or pvc works well im told. pm me for a link to some pipe and fittings

headers: the dynatechs are an excellent choice if needing to stay emmissions legal, the only problem ive heard from them is dont ge them super hot and then drive through a stream( dewmanshu) he cracked a weld on them doing that

tune: a tune will be VERY beneficial even without any other mods, i would get a tune before any other mod. if you are locla to wheatley, i hear he is good but if not either find a dyno shop that can tune your truck( best) or get a mailorder tune. it will really wake up your truck. check out wait4me, nelson, wheatley, pcmforless. com, etc.

plug wires: they dont really help with them being as short as they are but i just thought id throw it out there. bluecajun5.3 and v8 are both runnin in the mid 12s on 5.3s and still have stock plug wires. but the ls2 wires are a bit better i hear and not too expensive

efans: i suggest IF getting them , might not want them if going to be towing large load uphill for extened periods of time, id get the 05 efans and get the 34" radiator required to run them

UD pulleys: ASP makes them and i think they are available at Thunder Racing, get the underdrive crank pulley and the overdriven alt. pulley or will have problems with tlow voltage, especially with having efans too.

P&P TB: there are a couple of companies that make these or convert them. Shaner comes to mind and so does BBK's 80mm TB. some people do it themselves but you have to be careful or you can mess it up. it is also debated if this actually works or not

Lingenfelter 100mm MAF: i usually see this on the boosted apps, normally the max-effort radix setups and the front mount turbo guys. the main reason i put this up here is if you decided to make your our custom intake tube later on if you got a intake manifold with a 90mm inlet, you could have a true 4" intake

 

thats alright man, the more people we have the smarter everyone is

 

Indeed...

 

Tig the Dynatech headers come with a catted ypipe theyre emisions legal.
As for the tune everyone needs one and you really need one if your runnin LTs