I am swapping in a 02' z06 cam into my turbo 5.3 soon and have a few questions regarding the swap.

I will be reusing the timing chain, replacing the springs with gm yellow 12499224 springs, and replacing the stock pushrods with hardened ones.

1st question: what pushrods should I buy? I hear people use the stock 7.4 length pushrods with good results, than I hear I should swap in longer 7.425 since the z06 cam has a .050 smaller base circle. what better?

2nd question: Will I be ok reusing the stock valve springs retainers?

3rd question: Will I be ok reusing the stock timing chain? I hear its not worth the effort to change out for a cheap build like mine.

any help and part numbers would be great!

thanks,

Matt

 

1: yes, 7.4's are fine. I have not run a Z06 cam, maybe 7.425 are better, hopefully someone will say.
2: yes
3: yes, I ran my factory timing chain on my 6.0 after cam swap, unless its getting chewed up or REALLY high miles I wouldnt worry about it

however!..... I DEMAND pics of that 5.3 swap turbo beetle?!

 

I am using 7.400 in my 4.8 with a zo6 cam with no issues or noise.

I am using stock chain had about 70k on the motor when i did the cam swap.

I am using stock retainers as well.

Dustin

 

1. The stock 7.4 should be fine. Im pretty sure thats what they use in the stock Z06s.

How big of a turbo are you running? How many pounds of boost?

2. If you are going to do a cam swap you might as well upgrade the heads to support what your doin, especially since your running a turbo.

3. I would upgrade to either the double roller or the LS2 timing chain. Again since your there you might as well do it all at once so you dont have to do that then more when things get broken.

 

Stock Z06's have longer valves to compensate for the smaller base circle of the Z06 camshaft, that's why they use the same length pushrod. IIRC, I figured it out mathmatically once, and came up with 7.425 as being optimal for getting correct lifter pre-load, but that was a while ago so don't take it as gospel. I do believe that many folks have used either the stock 7.38's or aftermarket 7.4's and been fine, although I'll bet that lifter pre-load isn't optimal in that situation.

You'll be fine with the stock retainers, and an LS2 timing chain is a nice upgrade that can be had for about $50 from SDPC IIRC. If the budget is tight, and you don't feel like pulling the oil pump, then you should be fine reusing your stock timing chain, many have done it. I reused mine, but I did my cam swap with fairly low mileage (37k), and it's still doing fine at almost 60K (wish I could say the same for my trans lol)