I am getting a little bit tired of my 5.3L and am looking for a project to occupy myself. I am getting married real soon and after that more than likely a kid. Soooooo, that means this will have to be a budget build and reliable. The truck will remain my DD. I am looking to maintain low-end torque, but would also like to increase my freeway merging speeds. I am not gonna be spinning this thing past 6000.

I am thinking of getting a 5.3L bare block as cheaply as possible, machining for a 383 stroker bottom end, then on top going with something like the TSP Stg 2.5 5.3L Heads/224 Cam and my stock intake.

What do you think? I was thinking that a 5.3 could be had so cheap, and because I am not looking to drag race, not going too big with the cam.

 

Sounds like a nice build, as you mentioned, the block will be cheap, but the rotating assembly will cost a little bit. You mentioned not spinning past 6k, but I think that that cam will probably pull a bit past 6k, even in 383 cubes...not much, but a bit...

 

You say that. But then you find that there is a lot of fun past 6k!

 

i think more budget minded would be to build a lq4 short block with heads and a small cam 212/218 comes to mind.

 

That is very true, in fact I keep going back and forth between getting a 5.3 or 6.0, because a 6.0 is only a couple hundred bucks more and the rotating assemblies for the 383 and 402 cost the same...

It sux being a hotrodder and not being rich