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I recently purchased a 1988 C1500 single cab, step side, short wheel base truck. It is a work truck package so no bells and whistles here but a solid builder. I also purchased a 2002 5.3 out of a Tahoe with supposedly 86,000 miles on it that came with extras like a motor mount swap kit, H3 oil pan, a stand alone wiring harness, a extra truck intake, a box with some an fittings and steel braided fuel line, a Corvette fuel filter and a dipstick tube.
The truck came with a very blown up 4.3 v6 and a five speed. I am thinking about using the 5 speed for now until I can afford a 4l60e. So here we go let the fun began...I will try to update the post as I progress with the truck.
Totally new to the LS game...in fact more of a Ford guy in the past. I've come to the dark side!
This is going to be as budget a build as possible. So with regards to the heads, cam and intake I have a couple more questions...
Heads - read about 243 vs 799 castings. Best bang for my buck?
Cam - goal is to build a nice little street fighter and spray it till it goes kablooey, so what cam would be best for that kind of application.
Intake - read about LS6. Seem affordable without having too much modification
Exhaust plan is already for long tubes and no cats with dumps
I, myself, can't speak for the heads. I've always had worked LS3 heads. There would be a never ending debate on cam choice. Some people like "nitrous cams" which from what I've seen is a slightly milder cam to compensate for the hit of nitrous. Other people just use a good N/A cam and deal with the hit. As for the intake LS6 seems to be the choice of a lot of budget builds.
Don't waste your time on heads,cams,LS6 intake in a truck is just throwing away money.If you're just gonna spray and grenade it,get it up and running,while you are burning that motor down,gather parts and pieces for your replacement engine.
The plan as it is now is to just get the swap done, bugs worked out and make it a running and driving vehicle, with performance mods at some point in the future.
I'm asking for performance opinions at this point simply because if I come across a deal on parts, I can snag them and put them on a shelf.
tfi racing - you mention that I shouldn't worry about any performance mods...is that because the engine is going in a truck? Or because I plan to spray the **** out of it? Just curious.
The plan as it is now is to just get the swap done, bugs worked out and make it a running and driving vehicle, with performance mods at some point in the future.
I'm asking for performance opinions at this point simply because if I come across a deal on parts, I can snag them and put them on a shelf.
tfi racing - you mention that I shouldn't worry abrout any performance mods...is that because the engine is going in a truck? Or because I plan to spray the **** out of it? Just curious.
I believe he's saying not to put money into it just to blow it up on purpose. Speaking from the truck side of the world, leave the stock intake on it, LS style intakes aren't designed for torque like the trucks intake are.
Ok let me clear up something. Yes I do want to spray the motor but I am not going to put the mother fogger on. I am just going to run a small shot something like a 150 or smaller shot to get it rolling. And yes after time it might blow up but i'm not going out just to kill it.
01-25-2015, 04:57 PM
Project Work truck 
