I'm looking for a cam for my 2001 silverado with the 5.3.want something with a nice tone, more power with and still be pretty dependable. And some cam supporting mods to do first?

 

What other mods are you planning on doing? Long tubes, converter, etc?

 

From what I have learned..... If you plan on keeping the stock stall stay with something smaller than a 220 exhaust and intake duration. One of the proven choice cam is the comp 212/218 on 114lsa for a stock stall dd.

I would install the headers and exhaust with the cam so you only have to pay for one tune.

220 through a 228 duration is more radical and loss of low end power will be donated to top end. 228 is the max you want to go on a little 5.3L motor.

It's always better to slightly under cam a 5.3L than to over cam it.

 

I want long tubes full exhaust and a intake. What would be some together good mods to start with? and I want to run a stock stall for now. And what size cam would be a good street cam? I don't want anything to aggressive. This is my first build.

 

Pacesetter ceramic coated. Best bang for the buck long tube header. Got mine on google shopping from some website for $350 new.

For a N/A 5.3L I would look around 210/218, 212/218, 214/220, 216/220 duration. Now more goes into a cam than duration, but these are some common off the shelf grinds from different company's for you to research. Comp, Vinci, spdc, tsp 220/220 is very popular, but looses some low end tq so a stall will be needed to put the motor in the power band. A cam to large with a stock stall, is a DOGGG around town driving.

You want to make sure that their is a custom tuner in your area mail order tunes are not always great and a real problem to deal with if poor quality. Programers suck "waste of money and harsh ware" and wont work for header cam swap.

There is a lot more to a cam swap than the cam. If high mileage motor it would probably be a good idea to swap the lifters, which brings a whole new equation of head removal in to the project. Google search ls cam swap.

 

I would do a stall before you do a cam. Any cam on a stock stall will be dissappointing and will most likely hurt your E.T's.

 

I put the SDPC HT-1 cam (214/218 55x56x lift on 111lsa)in my daily driver. Stock stall and it sounds mean for a smaller cam. No loss of low end and huge improvement over the entire rpm range.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ssnieM5PGm8

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BJdY63R87tM


Speedo vid with stock stall
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6cOV-IIJnpE

 

The first cam I did in my 5.3 was a 212/218 .520 .522 and it killed my low end power. It went from smoking the tires with the stock cam to not being able to even roll them over once.

 

I can't keep tires on mine. Haha

 

I'm talking about drag radials not the stockers...