ive been a diesel mechanic in the army for over 2 years now, but the performance side of mechanics is alot different than replacing a broken part, or pulling a engine and transmission on a bradley. Im just getting over my head sometimes when it gets into cam grinds, rollers, bore, porting and polishing, and getting all these parts to sequence together, right now ive only been on this forum for about two weeks now i think, but the replys i have gotten have been a great help, this is my first v8 to attempt to modify for performance, and its hard being a full size truck, the weight, and traction becomes a problem. The hardest part is being 20, and having a low budget, that kills you, i can usually only afford a "part" a month, but im hoping that u guys cant point me in the right direction. Right now, im just trying to get the most out of inexpensive parts, my goal as of right now is to reach constant 14 second q/m times. Right now im just looking for some general help to point me in the right direction, with thought on working on a budget.

jared

2004 chevy ecsb 2wd 5.3 4l60e 3.42 non posi gears
current mods: aem brute force cold air intake, granatelli MAF ( waste of money, i found out) jet TB spacer, JBA spark plug wires, bosch pl4 spark plugs, true dual exhaust, no cats just gutted cans, 2 1/2 inch pipe, all the way out the back, hardly any bends, no mufflers, so just straight pipe, 22inch 4 inch open echo tips ( bad boy is loud) no x pipe or h pipe, just cut into the stock y pipe, granatelli diablo tuner with 93 octane tune, a little custom tuning i did myself, not sure if im hurting the performance, i wish there was a guide out there for dummys on how to custom tune your vehicle with that programmer.

problems : i feel that i dont have much low end power, i feel a power gain in the midrange, and she does great from a 30 punch, or a 60 punch, i barely have any traction at a 30 stomp. but i feel that on the track, my low end sucks.

when i first got the truck, she ran a 15.7, with just a flowmaster and a drop in k&n, thats it, as i was modding her, she dropped to a 15.09, and now, for some reason, shes went back up to a 15.5 15.6 in that range, seems like after i true dualed my truck, she lost the low end, but the crazy thing is, she seems a heck of a lot faster on the street. Thought that could just be my imagination, i just need some help, advice, thoughts, anything, i plan to stay around this forum for a while, ill try to get pics of my truck or something on here, appreciate it

 

Put an x-pipe on your exhaust and get a stall and you wont notice the low end loss you will just see the top end gain that you got by having the free flwoing exhaust. I had the same setup as you on my truck but with the x-pipe and I noticed alot of loss down low. I put cats back on and did a bunch of other stuff then about 4 months ago I ditched the cats again and damn it pulls like a frieght train up top but I had a 3000 stall in my truck too now I have a 3400 and a blown motor.

 

BTW Im 19 I know how you feel.

 

so putting a 3000 stall, and a x pipe, the stall to help me launch out of that low end slump, and the x pipe, to raise my top end gains, i still dont see a 14 second pass out of that, i think she did better with mufflers

 

The x-pipe will put a little bit of back pressure back into the exhaust plus the stall will drop you 4 or so tenths. Were all these runs done at close to the same temperature.

 

the thing that hurt you was i think you don't have enough back pressure in the exhaust, put a muffler you will like the low end power.

 

Get A Supercharger!!!!

Dont Waste Money On Other Little Parts....save For 6 Months Or So And Get A Used Whipple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You Can Get A Used Whipple For Around 2000 Dollars.....

Youll Love It Then..... I Promise You That!!!

 

By The Way Im 21, So I Feel Ya

 

or you can throw in a cam, stall, gears and tune for the same price and be faster than that whipple