Hey all. Finally decided to get rid of my 4.slow mustang in favor of the Chevy truck. All I have to say is I did not know what I was missing. The truck all stock drives much nicer that my cammed 4.6. I look forward to getting advice from you guys in the future on modding. I have some ideas. I just do not know where to have a good starting point. By the way the truck is a 01 black reg cab stepside 4.8 auto.

 

Welcome! To get you started might I suggest some of the "basic" starting mods. You should swap in an 01 or later 6.0 with at least a 76mm turbo. That wont put you in the top 10% on this site, but should help you keep up It all depends on your abilities. The 6.0 swap is one of the best bang for the buck mods and is a great starting point. You can probably find one for what a set of headers and a decent cat back would cost. Throw a good cam in there and you are well on your way! Decide how fast you want to go and make a plan. Too many of us spent money on crap only to replace it later as it no longer worked with the higher hp setups.

 

Thanks for the welcome. I have been reading up on how easy it is to swap out for a 6.0. And also the price is pretty good. I believe somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500 can get you a motor. The only thing I might worry about is how the tranny will holdup to the motor. I am just looking to play with the truck. Not go to far, but definetly do the motor swap. I believe swapping the motors is actually easier than doing a cam swap while the motor is still in the truck.
Anyway I can pretty much do everything myself. I owned 4 mustangs and had to work on those all the time. So I suppose let the spending and modding begin.

 

Welcome to the site. A lot of helpful people here and good advice. How far do you plan to go? If your unsure, I think the best bet would be a 6.0 swap for a good foundation. If you throw a cam, stall, and boltons with a good tune on top of that, you have a mid 12 to low 13 sec truck from what I have seen. There are even a few NA 4.8's runnin 13's on pump gas. The 4l60e trannies are the weak links in the trucks. The bottom end on the generation 3's are good for around 500hp but I would replace rod bolts with some strong push rods just to be safe. I am planning on doing a 6.0 swap with ls6 heads for a boost in compression of one point over the stock lq4 setup.

 

How long the tranny holds will totally depend on how you drive. My tranny has 85K on it and its still holding fine. Im not sure how much its putting down since my last round of mods as I tune mine on the street with a wideband, but from a slow 15-20mph roll it will smoke the tires through all of first and most if not all of second if I stomp it. Heavier trucks are harder on trannys as well, so I would expect yours to hold up longer than mine. I drive VERY conservatively most of the time though. IMO the perfect bang for the buck setup is a 6.0 with a cam, long tube headers, weld up your own catback, a 3200 stall and a wet nitrous kit... If you shop around you could get all of that for 3K or less.

 

Good upgrade and welcome to the forums!

 

Well it seems I will going the 6.0 swap route. I like the idea of having more displacement with a driver friendly cam. Just need to finish up moving from New Orleans. Thanks guys for your suggestions.

 

Welcome aboard! I'd agree with what's already been said. Just for reference, my truck ran a 13.9 @ 101 with a cammed 5.7 LS1. No coverter, no long tubes, hell not even tuned! That was on a 2.3 60' too. With some basic upgrades (cam, gears, Eaton posi, slicks) you could easily see low low 13s or high 12s. I'm shooting for mid-high 12's on motor and 11's on the bottle.

Just keep reading, you'll get hooked. Just start looking for a second job to fund everything....it gets addictive REAL quick!

 

I do understand about the whole mod bug. I had the bug with my mustang, but the funny thing was the car was still slow.
Scream, how is the truck scene out here in Jacksonville?

 

The truck scene isn't too bad. There are quite a few show trucks, and a couple of us go-fast junkies around. We are always getting together to do something...check w/ me on Thursday b/c we usually go to either Wing House or Hooters.