phats130

so I have my daily driver, which is a 2005 Sierra Crew Cab 5.3L LM7 that has 216k miles on the original motor........it has the infamous sporadic lifter tick, which has driven me nuts since I first heard it.
I'm looking to have the motor rebuilt and am looking for suggestions on several items I'm looking to do or have added to the build......
1) suggestions on a mild truck cam (remember, its my daily driver)
2) suggestions on cat back exhaust
3) suggestions on a CAI or MIT
4) should I have any head work done(ie:port and polish)
5) larger throttle body??....also port and polish throttle body??
6 ) trailblazer ss intake manifold??
7) what additional parts should I get to not get the lifter tick again??
I want to do very mild/simple upgrades to the motor so I can keep the reliability of the motor, have that sleeper look, but not the "bone stock" look and feel!
I've also heard that just a simple tune wakes these motors up without really doing anything to them...how valid is this info??

any and all info on this subject would be greatly appreciated.......pics and info to come once the rebuild starts!!

thanx again!!!!

FFDP

iTrader: (2)

1. Stay small. Anything from texas speed or brian tooley racing or comp cams that offer a cam in the 212/218 range or slightly smaller. That size will be perfect for a stock stall converter still. Valve springs to match that cam size can likely be bought as a package from those vendors.

2. Whatever you want, it's your money and preference on sound. Dynomax probably makes one of the better cat-backs for the price. Most are under $400. I had one for 2-3 years and it never had a single problem. The bigger the name brand the more you will pay, magnaflow, corsa, borla etc are rather spendy.

3. Airaids work great and are priced good.

4. A deep cleaning would do good. To me it's not worth the money to pay someone towork those heads, I'd do it myself for free but just cleaning them up with my dremal bits.

5. Not required, you won't be out flowing it with small camshaft.
6. Not required and often more hassle if you are keeping this budget friendly. You'd have to buy a different throttle body if you did this upgrade to make it worth it.

7. New stock lifters should be good parts but don't be shocked if they tick on you someday. These engines just always tick and sometimes even with brand spanking new parts from a dealership.

8. Yes a tune wakes the truck up. You will require a tune anyway once you swap camshafts.

I highly suggest you have your injectors cleaned and serviced with new filters. Or just purchase new injectors that are either the flex fuel variant or some from a 8.1 vortec truck because they are larger than the factory injectors and give you more headroom if you plan for further mods. Factory injectors are just about maxed out on a small camshaft upgrade.

Runnerxs

Be sure to ad a corvette servo to the trans. Easy to do and cheap mine cost 20 bucks.

phats130

please excuse my ingnorace in this matter but what specifically would I buy and how hard is it to install

arthursc2

iTrader: (5)

FFDP

iTrader: (2)

Buy whatever you want, I was just giving you lots of tips and suggestions.

What you choose is up to you and your wallet. How hard the stuff is to install all depends on your mechanical ability. If you've never done a camshaft swap or taken cylinder heads off, this will be a struggle.

arthursc2

iTrader: (5)

FFDP

iTrader: (2)

Eh, lol.

Runnerxs

This is the servo that you can buy from your favorite vendor. https://www.oregonperformancetransmission.com/product/NTP-K51828C.html
YouTube has several videos on the install. It should take 30-60 minutes to install.

phats130

FFDP......I appreciate all of your input and will take it all into consideration......I was talking about the corvette servo for the trans when I made the "ignorance" post!!
arthursc2 and runners, thanks for the info and the links......will also take this info into consideration!!