Total Sleeper! Junkyard LS-swapped Chevy Colorado Meets 22 PSI of Boost
This Colorado is the epitome of an unsuspecting, sleeper truck.
Talk about a sleeper: no one would suspect what is under the hood of this Chevy Colorado. This particular truck is a “fleet-spec” model: white with unpainted bumpers and trim, and steel wheels. It couldn’t look any more pedestrian in appearance.
Pop the hood, and you’ll see a very a tired, looking junkyard 5.3L LS V8 where a four cylinder once resided. That junkyard LS is boosted thanks to a Borg Warner S480 turbocharger. But wait, there’s more: follow those hard lines in the engine bay and you’ll see a nitrous setup plumbed into the intake. Here is an ultra-budget, LS-swapped Colorado. Perfect.
LS1tech.com forum member, and YouTube personality Sloppy Mechanics has cobbled this swap together and it’s time to see what it will do on the rollers. 4 (5?) psi of boost sees this old, unopened 5.3 putting down 462whp. We are guessing that’s just wastegate pressure, and that’s why it was the baseline run. 462whp is good, but how does that do when paired up to a 50 shot of nitrous oxide? With a small jet and just a base tune: 550whp. Now things are getting good, but Matt says the two magic words synonymous with big power runs on a dyno: “fuck it!” My man.
After playing with the boost controller for a bit, Matt comes up with a 22psi target. Without nitrous, it makes 820whp right off the bat. Matt and his dad talk fueling: the car has enough injector for more power (“they’re only at 50% duty cycle), but the boost controller doesn’t want to give more than 22 pounds. If you’re out of boost, and you have more fuel, time to get more air via a big helping of nitrous. They heat up the bottle(s?), and get both kits ready. With two jets in the intake, and 22psi of boost, this LS-swapped Colorado puts down a massive 1076RWHP and 1050WTQ. Holy hell. Good job, Matt!
