Supercharge the 5.3 or go 402 stroker?
Sep 28, 2004 | 10:57 PM
#1
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: May 2004
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From: Rome,Ga
Supercharge the 5.3 or go 402 stroker?
Im about to sell my blown 79 Z and im gonna get about 18K for it. I've been thinking over the past few days if i should just slap a Radix on my truck and go with a 4L80E and HD transfer case.....or if i should buy a SLP ZL 402 shortblock and put some 6.0 heads on it with a small cam and the same tranny upgrades.
All im really looking for is hp and torque below 6K rpm. The main thing im going for is awesome big block like torque because my trucks lifted. Im pretty sure that both options would be good for torque and roughly both will cost about the same. But i don't know how well the 402 would do with some stock or mildly ported 6.0 heads and a small "torque type" cam. I know strokers are the way to go for huge torque, but on all the threads i've read on Radix's it seems that most people are seeing killer low end as well.
The supercharger would be less work than the 402, but which one do you guys think would be better for my application? I kinda think there both about even so im stuck......displacement or boost? Both isnt really an option for me because ive already sunk about 10 g's in my truck so far, so i wanna spend a little bit more on it.....but not a whole lot more.
BTW the trucks got almost 69,000 pretty hard driven miles on it, so the motor aint exactly fresh. Although it still has great oil pressure and doesn't consume any oil and doesn't smoke. It does have a pretty noticeble piston slap problem on cold start up though......but pretty much all of our trucks have that.
All im really looking for is hp and torque below 6K rpm. The main thing im going for is awesome big block like torque because my trucks lifted. Im pretty sure that both options would be good for torque and roughly both will cost about the same. But i don't know how well the 402 would do with some stock or mildly ported 6.0 heads and a small "torque type" cam. I know strokers are the way to go for huge torque, but on all the threads i've read on Radix's it seems that most people are seeing killer low end as well.
The supercharger would be less work than the 402, but which one do you guys think would be better for my application? I kinda think there both about even so im stuck......displacement or boost? Both isnt really an option for me because ive already sunk about 10 g's in my truck so far, so i wanna spend a little bit more on it.....but not a whole lot more.
BTW the trucks got almost 69,000 pretty hard driven miles on it, so the motor aint exactly fresh. Although it still has great oil pressure and doesn't consume any oil and doesn't smoke. It does have a pretty noticeble piston slap problem on cold start up though......but pretty much all of our trucks have that.
Sep 28, 2004 | 11:19 PM
#2
Originally Posted by LS1S10
Im about to sell my blown 79 Z and im gonna get about 18K for it. I've been thinking over the past few days if i should just slap a Radix on my truck and go with a 4L80E and HD transfer case.....or if i should buy a SLP ZL 402 shortblock and put some 6.0 heads on it with a small cam and the same tranny upgrades.
All im really looking for is hp and torque below 6K rpm. The main thing im going for is awesome big block like torque because my trucks lifted. Im pretty sure that both options would be good for torque and roughly both will cost about the same. But i don't know how well the 402 would do with some stock or mildly ported 6.0 heads and a small "torque type" cam. I know strokers are the way to go for huge torque, but on all the threads i've read on Radix's it seems that most people are seeing killer low end as well.
The supercharger would be less work than the 402, but which one do you guys think would be better for my application? I kinda think there both about even so im stuck......displacement or boost? Both isnt really an option for me because ive already sunk about 10 g's in my truck so far, so i wanna spend a little bit more on it.....but not a whole lot more.
BTW the trucks got almost 69,000 pretty hard driven miles on it, so the motor aint exactly fresh. Although it still has great oil pressure and doesn't consume any oil and doesn't smoke. It does have a pretty noticeble piston slap problem on cold start up though......but pretty much all of our trucks have that.
All im really looking for is hp and torque below 6K rpm. The main thing im going for is awesome big block like torque because my trucks lifted. Im pretty sure that both options would be good for torque and roughly both will cost about the same. But i don't know how well the 402 would do with some stock or mildly ported 6.0 heads and a small "torque type" cam. I know strokers are the way to go for huge torque, but on all the threads i've read on Radix's it seems that most people are seeing killer low end as well.
The supercharger would be less work than the 402, but which one do you guys think would be better for my application? I kinda think there both about even so im stuck......displacement or boost? Both isnt really an option for me because ive already sunk about 10 g's in my truck so far, so i wanna spend a little bit more on it.....but not a whole lot more.
BTW the trucks got almost 69,000 pretty hard driven miles on it, so the motor aint exactly fresh. Although it still has great oil pressure and doesn't consume any oil and doesn't smoke. It does have a pretty noticeble piston slap problem on cold start up though......but pretty much all of our trucks have that.
Sep 28, 2004 | 11:27 PM
#3
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 157
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From: Rome,Ga
Originally Posted by greentahoe
Id buy a 6.0 and get a good cam for it. With leftover get a tuning program.
Sep 29, 2004 | 01:11 AM
#4
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there is an old adage i am sure we have all heard, "there is no replacement for displacement" I would have to agree with that and go with the 408 with a 215-225intake on a wide lobe speration cam. If all else fails with that setup, and you still have money to burn you can probably find a used radix on LS1tech and then you will have one wicked setup.
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Sep 29, 2004 | 08:18 AM
#9
"The ONLY replacement for displacement is BOOST!" A supercharger or turbo setup will get you there power wise and make the 5.3 much more efficient. Its really up to personal preference but the torque potential of a properly setup boosted engine is much greater than a NA engine and potentially much more "streetable".
