Everyone,

I've been in planning stage for awhile and with the impending warm season, money will begin flying.

First off, I'm swapping whatever best suits my application into a volvo wagon. Suspension and brakes have been fortified and I'm tossing the idea around of upgrading the differential.

My goals:

Daily driver with little track time. I'd like something around 400whp although having never driving that much HP/TQ, I'm not sure of what the difference between 400 and 500 is.

My budget for the engine/trans will be around $6-8k depending on where little things fall into place. I'm unfortunately stuck with the 4l60e as the 80e is too large and I wish to keep overdrive on the car.


My conundrum is this....
The two budget directions seem to fall into the 5.3 or 6.0 variety.

I'd like advice on overall costs/driving experience on which following option will be best suited for 400 whp and daily driving.

I see four options really.

1) basic stock 5.3 will be cheapest if the 6-8k is not going to cover the project. (I think it should but everyone here will know better than me how much the little things will add up). 300 whp is what I've read most get with a cheap ls6 cam and stock 5.3.

2) boost the 5.3 with a cheaper turbo kit (since I'm not wanting excessive HP, the cheaper turbos should be sufficient?) Single turbo looks to be cheapest, but how about lag? My previous car was a turbo 5-cylinder and city driving was crappy with the lag (and one of the reasons I decided to transition to the power curve of the illustrious LS variety), so any thoughts on a turbo system that is better suited for less-lag is appreciated.

3) basic stock 6.0. A bit more hp than a stock 5.3 and probably cheaper than boosting that 5.3, but the overall cost above the 5.3 and modest hp gains seems counter-intuitive.

4) 6.0 with heads/cam/intake. (the most expensive build)

Thanks for any advice...the LS build has almost too many options, makes us swap-virgins have a difficult time deciding.

 

I like NA for simplicity. With that said, the bigger the engine the better.

So you need to decide if you want to boost it go go NA, as this will ultimately dictate which way to go. Going turbo is not as simple and as inexpensive as a lot of people want to make it seek, especially if you want to run the car on the street and possibly road course (this doesn't sound like a drag car).

Thats my 2 cents worth.

Andrew

 

One of the questions I had was if the 400 whp amount was too low for a turbo 5.3 set up. I've read lots of threads where people pushing low boost pressures were still putting up 500+ whp? There's obviously an upper limit to boost, but what about a lower limit?

Does my budget seem reasonable for the 6.0 build?

 

I wouldn't put anything cheap on something I plan to drive daily.

 

Look for an ly6. It's a6.0 with ls3 top end. Put a cam in it and u will be close to your goals.i payed 1800 for mine.u could def get it in the car in your budget