I just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself. I just posted this on the LS1Tech as well so for those of you on both sites I apologize for the duplicate.

My name is Clark Ware and I'm from a little town in the middle of nowhere about halfway between Nashville and Chattanooga Tennessee. My father and I have built street rods since I was a little kid (I'm officially an old fart now) and I came across this site while looking for info for the 5.3 I'm building to go in my 1936 Chevy pickup. I picked up a stock, low mileage 2003 LM7 (complete with harness, PCM, DBW throttle and controller, etc) and I'm getting ready to go the full heads/cam/custom exhaust route as well as converting it to a carbed setup. I've already got an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, Quick Fuel SS-750 with annular boosters, and MSD 6010 controller. Whenever I get my post count up high enough I'll be posting the injection system for sale on here. I'm also getting ready to put in a fairly radical cam and better heads. This truck is a show truck with some time down the strip and very little street use so I'm not real worried about driveability lol! With a 4:10 rear gear and under 3000 pound loaded it should be a real screamer.

Anyway, I'll probably be asking a lot of "stupid newbie" questions since this is my first LS build so don't be too rough on me

 

Welcome to the site! Sounds like a fun little project. That 5.3 is gonna be a screamer!

What kind of budget are we talking for the top end build?

 

Honestly I try not to think about the budget because if I do I'll start getting depressed lol! I've been picking up a few pieces here and there as finances permit and that's actually helped because I've been able to take advantage of some bargains along the way.

I caught the intake on sale on the Advance Auto Parts site and with a discount code I got in my e-mail it was just under $250 to my door plus I got a $25 gift card so my net cost was $225. The MSD box came from Amazon and was $250.24.

The carb was the most expensive part because I had some pretty specific things I wanted. The first two items I wanted were mechanical secondaries and annular boosters. I've had a lot of experience tuning carbs over the years and for hot street/mild strip engines I've always had good luck with this combo. It usually takes a little tuning to get it right for each individual engine but when you do it's worth the effort. Since this will be a street vehicle I wanted the option of having a choke so that limited my choices as well. I narrowed my choices down to the Quick Fuel and Demon carbs. I've got a Demon on a built 390 in a 1972 F100 and my only complaint was that I had to drill air bleeds to keep it from being excessively rich at idle. The Quick Fuel has screw in air bleeds and was slightly less expensive so I decided to give it a try. This carb on Amazon is $513.97 so it was as much as the intake and MSD box combined but I think it will be worth the extra money.

I just pulled the trigger on a Pat G/EPS cam a member of the LS1Tech forums was selling that had almost the exact specs I was looking for so that will put me one step closer to bringing this baby to life

The first time I built this truck many years ago I had a 1957 Corvette 283 in it that was putting out slightly over 320 hp when I finished my mods and it was one of my daily drivers all through high school and college. The small displacement and 3:08 gears made it a slug off the line but it's very light so it was still a lot of fun to drive. I can't wait to see what it will be like this time with a lot more horsepower and better gears! I'll add some pics shortly.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of what I started with and the last picture is what I finished with after approximately 2 years of work. I drove this truck all through the 80's and 90's and won a LOT of trophies with it over the years. It's in the middle of a complete ground up rebuild. The first time around it had a Mustang II front suspension (from an actual Mustang II, this was before the aftermarket kits lol!), slightly built 1957 Corvette 283, Turbo 350, and a Nova rear end. This time around it's got the same Mustang II front end but with an Explorer 8.8 rear end with 4:10 gears, limited slip, and disc brakes. The 283/Turbo 350 combo will be replaced with a fairly hot 5.3/200-R4 combo. I know the 200-R4 is a little bit of an odd choice but it would be hard to fit a 4L80E in a truck this size and I got a good deal on a 200-R4 that was built to hold more power than I'll be putting out so it seemed like a good choice for my application. I'm trying to convince a friend to part with the spare T56 sitting in his garage so my transmission choice may change if I can wear him down

I've already done a ton of other modifications to the truck as well. The doors have been converted to suicide doors with hidden hinges, the door handles have been shaved and remotes installed, the cowl vent has been filled, and I'm making a custom 3 piece hood to replace the original center hinge style. Circumstances beyond my control (bad marriage and subsequent divorce) derailed my build for a few years but now I'm getting back on it with a vengeance!

I apologize for the poor picture quality, these pics are several years old!

http://meadowbranch.com/36-1.jpg
http://meadowbranch.com/36-2.jpg
http://meadowbranch.com/36.jpg