JWest

I have a set of 2001 5.3L heads ported and polished with 2.02/1.60 valves. I want to put them on a 2001 Trans Am. What are the pros and cons on doing this instead of using the 5.7L heads?

VTtransam

The smaller cc's of the 5.3L heads means you can get a higher compression ratio with less milling of the heads as opposed to 5.7L heads. The only downfalls of the 5.3L heads is that a 6.0 or LS6 head is prefferd if you plan on doing a big cube motor or a forced induction setup in future. For a 346 N/A motor the 5.3L heads have proven themselves time and time again. Go ahead and put them on!! <img border="0" alt="[burn out]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_burnout.gif" />

Matt

<small>[ January 29, 2003, 01:48 PM: Message edited by: VTtransam ]</small>

JWest

Hey Matt, Thanks for your info on the head matter. What kind of hp did you get out of the head cam install? and did you have to custom tune the car afterwards? Johnie

VTtransam

Johnie, I put the heads/cam in over my christmas break. I finished it on a sunday night and had to make the 5hr drive back down to college for class at 8am Monday, so I didn't get a chance to drive it <img border="0" alt="[bang head]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_banghead.gif" /> Plus with the snow we had in Pa at the time, I wouldn't have been able to get the car out of my driveway! But I did get a chance to start it and I'll say I was impressed. The car started right up and settled down to idle at about 900 rpm without any surging or sputtering at all, which suprised me. It didn't even try to stall once!! I'm really itchin to take it for a ride and I plan to get tuning done when I got back home so I'll be able to let you know then. I'm hoping for about 410rwhp throught my mac's and borla. Most guys see something in the range of 420-440rwhp with long tubes and off road exhaust or true duals running 5.3L heads and a similar cam.

Matt