My SS Silverado is a dx. Looking to do intake heads and cam. I might have a good deal coming with LS3 take offs, full intake, TB, fuel rails, heads, and car acc pulleys. Or was thinking of staying cathedral heads and car intake OR cathedral heads with LSXrt intake but keep hearing how hard they are to tune. Any advice? Not sure if the cheap hook up with LS3 heads are worth the hassle with playing with head gaskets and cam sizes with ptv clearance. I've read a ton of threads here but still undecided, just looking for first hand expierence. Any advice is appreciated.

 

Ls3 heads with stock head gaskets shouldnt have any ptv clearance issues unless you are running a ridiculous amount of lift and a really tight lsa, be no different than a gen iv 6.0...

 

Look at the dollar per horsepower if you even think about the LSXR setup, you'll spend so much money and get so little in the end. You'd be better off buying a NNBS truck intake for 1/5th the cost and still be gaining power.

I think too many people think they must change everything to get more power but they don't even have a clue of what they already have. If all you want is the so called H/C/I upgrade you could do it with just 2 of the changes and be better off. Change the intake to a newer NNBS, select the correct cam size and maybe shave the stock heads that already flow great. Finish it with a good tune and you'd be happy with the result and you didn't drain your wallet.

 

I feel like with that truck it's extremely important to have low end torque. I'd say keep 1 7/8 headers, get a set of 243/799 heads (on eBay for 450-600 bucks for take offs) get them Ported and polished, use great gaskets, get a TBSS or an 08+ intake of a Silverado and a 90mm throttle body with an x link, get either a TSP224r can or a 228r cam with a great stall 3000k and up, then do supporting mods and it'll be quick off the line with those factory 4.10 gears and with those exhaust and intake mods it'll keep power into the rpm range too, but not have you spend to 6800 like in a car, keep you in a 2000-6400 rpm range.

 

That is my build to a at, just an old *** 5.3 until it dies then a LQ9.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm still on deployment with the military so I have 2 months to think it over. I'm not on a budget. Spending a little extra for prime parts isn't a problem. I just want to spend it in the right area.

 

No budget?
Choice os simple.

Blower or turbo.
Eff the rest.
Want more power later, turn up the boost.

 

I've build a couple of nice turbo all-wheel-drive cars in the past. The thought of boosting the SS has crossed my mind.

 

A mild turbo build around 8-10psi would be "fun".

 

No doubt, and then would have to come the 4x4 4l80 swap lol