When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I have been a long time member on the site. Ever since I got my truck back in October of 2013. I have been building it to what it is today. I have posted some pics and info on it in other areas of the site, but figured it was time to post my complete build. I found the truck back in 2013, 2004 Silverado 95xxx miles very clean with no rust. It had everything I was looking for 5.3 4L60E regular cab short bed 2WD, and was the right color. This it how it looked when I brought it home.
The truck sat pretty low when I first got it. It had DJM lower arms for a 4in drop and flip kit in the rear. rode rough with a ton of bump steer. Also had some terrible 22in boss wheels those were the first things to go. came with a set of stock 16s so I sold the boss wheels and got a set of tires for the stock wheels.
The motor was all stock besides a flowmaster dumped exhaust, that droned like crazy. But I had some big plans for the truck.
Then came time to make a little more power. Instead of spending money on the 5.3 I decided to pick up a LQ4. Got it home for some clean up ready for tear down. Put my best guy on it!
The motor had 150xxx miles when I picked it up. Tore it down to the bare block. Ball honed the cylinders and put new rings and bearings in.
Rotating assembly all together. time for the cam. I went with a TSP 228r.
High pressure pump. All new LS2 lifters. All new gaskets. Cleaned all the covers and painted them all with aluminum dupli color engine paint and painted the block black.
Found a set of 243 heads that already had some port work and springs installed. Picked them up from a member on LS1 tech for 450$ shipped.
Yanked out the 5.3. Swapped in the mild 6.0l added a FTI 3000 stall converter and some exhaust.
Motor in exhaust all ran. Mail order tune from Black Bear Performance. The new motor really woke the truck up, a night and day difference from the stock 5.3.
Some pics of my exhaust. Speed engineering long tubes and y-pipe. With a magnaflow muffler dumped befrore the axle. This setup sounded great at idle and wide open, but just driving around it droned like crazy.
And another set of wheels. Tahoe LTZ 20s. Also swapped out the front suspension. Put stock lower arms on and put in some 2-3 in drop springs with all new shocks. Fixed the bumpsteer but the ride was a lot better than before but still rough.
Looks like you lucked out with the LQ4 as it has the gen 4 rods with floating pins. Have you thought about injectors yet?
Thanks Yes lucked out on the LQ4 its an 05. The motor is complete and I am running 8.1 marine injectors
The motor is
Stock LQ4 short block
Mild port work on 243 heads, with .660 dual spring ARP head bolts
TSP 228r cam
Comp trunion upgrade on stock rockers
NNBS intake manifold with X-limk throttle body adapter and 8.1 marine injectors.
Long tube headers with a custom made true dual exhaust
Holley 255 LPH drop in pump
Running a mail order tune from Black Bear Performance
still need to get it on the dyno.
Finally saved up enough cash to upgrade the rear suspension. I wanted better ride quality and I was having some wheel hop issues. I had tried relocating the shocks but that didn't seem to help. So I decided to go all out and swap the whole rear suspension to a 4 link setup with coilovers. I went with a Ridetech Air bar setup. Contacted the people over at Ridetech and was able to order only the parts from the kit that I was going to need to make a coilover setup work. This stuff is all bolt in and really nice quality stuff.
09-06-2018, 09:53 AM
The Black Truck
