i have a 2000 silverado z71, with cai, headers, cat back, ported throttle body and a tune, i picked up some 799 heads with the intention of doing a heads and cam swap, since then ive decided to go a different route with the build, im just going to do head swap, i will be sending the heads to a machine shop to have them milled 0.030 so that i dont lose compression, my question is, has anyone else done just 799 head swap and what kind of hp gains did you get

 

If you have them milled so that you won't lose compression you should be somewhat close to a newer 5.3 as far as HP numbers go. If nothing else I would move to an 05 LS2 cam to make sure it has the cam sensor hardware in the back. To be honest the work and money it would take to do the swap I'm not sure is worth it is heads are literally all you will change.

 

well the heads are sitting on my table at home, already paid for, i talked to the machine shop today, they want $150 for the machine work, plus head studs and head gaskets, i dont think its all that expensive compared to i was going to add on to that, $780 for a custom grind cam package and an additional $450 for a dyno tune, but im trying to stay away from a cam swap in this build, my goal is just to buy something else after that is more practical for a engine build, instead of a z71 truck

 

Need a cam to really utilize those larger runners and valves. You will probably loose some lowend tq with 799 due to a loss in velocity of air flow.

I would go ahead and have the machine shop put springs on the heads so if you do decide to do a cam, the springs will be good to go.

You can look for a low millage used cam if its a budget issue.

 

im pretty sure youve posted this in multiple places.

theres no ls2 cam with cam sensor. its on the sprocket.