Hey guys I just bought a 2001 Silverado and I am loving it... Black stepside reg cab 2wd 4.8(harder to find than I thought)

Anyway I’ve been reading these forums for a couple of days now and I was wondering if the experienced guys could give me a few ideas on improving engine and some minor suspension upgrades.

I’m no gear head but, I do have basic mechanic skills and money is an issue(I just have to stretch the spending out over time so my wife doesn't freak out on me).

What I need is ideas of what to do to improve over all performance. I'm starting Friday by adding 2" drop shackles (do they really help handling?), and adding an aftermarket muffler and pipes Monday. What kind of muffler/set up works best for you guys?

Thanks for what ever help you guys can give me and ls1tech.com rocks!

crow

 

Tip for the shackles:

Unload the springs by jacking up both sides of the truck and putting jack stands under the frame, not axle.

Since you have a stepside, you will need to loosen the last 2 bolts on the bed from under the truck to remove the shackle bolts. It's light enough to push up with your arm to get the bolt out.

As for the exhaust, it is a preference thing. How loud to you want it. A lot of guys run Magnaflows in different varities to achieve what they want. I run dual magnaflows. But several guys run Flowmasters, Spintech, Corsa, etc...

Give a little input to the buget and goals in mind and you will get more detail. Mods can range from:

Cold Air Intake
Converter
Tunning
Headers
pulleys
nitrous
plugs
wires
gears
etc....

Those are usually the first things on the list to get done. Then comes the big stuff like engine swaps and rebuilds, heads, cams, blowers etc...

Good Luck and Welcome!!!

 

Budget: No more than a couple hundred bucks at a whack, but over time what ever it takes, I can save

I think I need to work on low end torque to start with, it seems a bit sluggish till i reach the 2800-3000 rpm range...

Oh, and what's tunning exactly(plugs, wires, dis cap, button and stuff)? I read some thing about neilson tunning?(or something I cant find it again)

thanks
crow

 

Tunning= Hypertech, Predator, LS1Edit, Nelson, etc.....

Computer mods to change parameters in the engine.


You don't have distributer cap in your truck. It's single coil per cylinder. No need to upgrade the ignition system anytime soon other than plugs and wires.

 

I would swap out lugs for NGK TR55's, they aren't the ones recommended for your truck, so just ask the parts guy for 8 tr55's. O' Rielly's is the only ones I have seen that stock NGK's. (bout 12-13 bucks)

The best thing to get you in the sweet spot would be a converter, I would go with a YankTT2600 or TT3000. What that will do is let the engine rev more before the converter starts pulling hard, so you get closer to your powerband quicker. They are a bit more expensive than some of the other things you can do. (about 750 plus having someone drop the tranny to put it in or doing it yourself)

I would go for some tuning, if it were me, I would go with Nelsons (www.nelsonperformance.com) everyone that I've heard using them say he's got a bad *** tune and swears by him. They say the handhelds and Wester's doesn't hold a candle next to Nelson's tune. (bout 300-400 depending on year of truck I think)

Headers .. long tube, no shorties. I like the TOG headers, but other's like ASM"s. I think the TOG's are top notch quality, but you need to get them coated. (bout a grand by the time you get everything taken care of)

Exhaust .. I would go with just something relatively cheap. Your not pushing a lot of power and if you go to anything to free flowing your gonna loose even more bottom end. I would just stick to a single in/dual out muffler to give it tone and a little more umph. Intakes are always nice, I like the Volant, but again there are lots of choices.

 

Wester's tuning rocks , I actucally have a modified computer and can honestly say it works great. makes a very big difference. Wester's website is in my sig. Check out the options on if you ever change trucks or mods

 

Thanks for all the great ideas... looks like I'm getting the pipes tommorow. The guy the I ordered my shackles from didn't have them in stock... Should get here next week... They had better anyway.

Any Ideas on suspension upgrades?

Thanks again,

crow

 

ask just about anyone on this site and they will tell Hotchkis
makes the best suspension for our trucks. I ust ordered the 2-4
drop kit with swaybars for mine from tbyrne (link on right)----->
Hotchkis makes 4'' leafs, 2" coils, and front and rear swaybars
for stock height or 4" drop.
Im waiting on my Hothhkis kit right now but will post once i get it on
I also did a poll on the different tuners and it came down to
nelson-- 28 votes
ls1 edit--26
predator--3
hypertech --2
westers--2
Im going with Nelson once I get my Hotchkis on ( hp per $ )
Hope this helps and saves you some time

 

something to consider Gamedawg.

Your poll didn't seperate whether or not the Wester's or Nelson users had a mail order or dyno/driven tune. it makes a difference for the people who are going off their recomendations and they're not getting the same service (dyno/driven tunes will beat the mail order)

Also 2 people voted for Nelson's that don't even have it

 

yes and also like stated on that thread that it also wasnt very accurate
if you havent had each one to compare each other too
I was just trying to get an indication of what people had and liked
kinda like a consumer review you find on best buy ,sears etc etc

would you rather buy a Sony with 28 votes or a Sparkomatic
with 2 votes