I'm at a crossroad. I've been a huge fanatic of anything performance with my dad when I was younger playing with foxbodys. Now I have a 03 silverado (extended cab/5.3/3.42 open)which is my DD and going to be my first build. I've been reading this forum every day now for over a year or so researching what I want to do.
I dont know if I want to do a btr stage 3 truck kit, 28-3000 stall, hp tuners pro, long tubes, and a small shot of juice. The other option is I buy a 2500 for the 6.0/4l80e combo and swap that with hp tuners. Both cost about the same give or take a few hundred. I'm not expecting to set the world on fire with these mods but being in New orleans it should run better then those way above sea level. Another thing is it's my dd/work truck that sees up to 500+ miles a week so it has to be reliable.
I would do a turbo build because it's not a lot more but I just dont have the coinage for it now.

 

leave it stock and buy another one to play with.

 

 

Figured I'd get answers like this. I think for now I'm just gonna do the cam, hptuners, long tubes, stall, and such. I'd like to see the incremental gains. I'm going to get oem efan set up with the radiator and harness too in the a.m. I was having a hard time deciding between this or just doing the truetrac/4.10 with hp tuners. I'll start a build thread with some of the things I've done to it so far soon.

 

If you aren't hell bent on power the stage 2 camshaft is a better daily driver camshaft because it retains the stock stall. If you've never tuned anything before the stage 2 cam would be easier in my eyes because there is no aftermarket stall converter. Then you'd have spare money to upgrade the rear diff from the one tire fire you have now.

Invest in a wideband o2 sensor as well, that is a absolute must for calibrating the computer.

 

I dont want to start posting a bunch of separate questions in this section so I'll ask here. I have 706 heads, here lately my truck has been telling me I have low coolant. Me being afraid of having the cracked castech heads which I'm about to start researching on, do you think it's worth it to go 799s? I found a set locally I can pick up pretty cheap and just get them milled. I know I'll have to check pushrod length, gaskets and what not but figured it might be worth while.

 

Also, I'm gonna be ordering a aem uego here soon. I'm trying to find a pod I like, i dont care for the pillar pods at all. Probably gonna get a pod that goes the airbag key goes and hide that switch inside the dash. Anyone have a good recommendation on a muffler? I was looking at the aerochamber by hooker but they discontinued the bigger one and only have I believe a 12 or so inch one still in production.

 

Just a factory set of 243/799's should up the compression ratio some if I remember right, not sure how much but some. I wouldn't even mill those heads, just new gaskets and run it.

 

They lower compression on a 5.3L

The Gen 3 series 5.3L has a an -8cc dish in the piston.

The 706/862 are around 61cc chamber
The 799/243 are around 65cc chamber

You have to mill them to gain back the compresion.

 

Yeah, I knew that the 4.8 gen 3, L33 5.3, and all gen 4 had the flat tops. I believe 30 thousandths brings them back and a lil more. I can get another set of 706 for $50 but would rather just do the 243/799 unless it isn't that great of a gain.