Been primarily a F..d guy most of my car driving life but don't nail me to the wall yet. Owned many mustangs along the way with my most current baby being an 08' GT500 which I have had for about three years now.

I recently purchased an 02 Tahoe daily driver with the 5.3 in 2WD. It has lots of miles on it (190k) but it still runs and looks great. I am thinking about rebuilding another 5.3 (from boneyard) on the stand to replace this one some time along the way. Of course, I wanted more power and know there are several ways to get more to the wheels. I don't want a high budget build.

What are some options on how to make this happen? Open to ideas at this point but just not wanting to get the HP with boost.

Goal: NA and put 400+ to the wheels.

Thanks in advance and glad to be a part of both worlds.

 

While 400 hp to the wheels is certainly possible with a small displacement engine like the 5.3, you will give up some driveability trying to reach your performance goal. Since you're still in the planning stage, consider more displacement. Building a 6.0 truck engine would make more sense to me. If you do get another 5.3, have it bored out to 5.7 dimensions.

 

bigger is better ,a 5.7 or a 6.0 would be great.Martin at tick has been working with 5.3 ,and making good power.get some ported 5.3 heads and a better cam.check Texas Speed for heads.

 

I am not opposed to a 5.7 or even swap for a 6.0 if it can be as easy as plug and play. I do understand it will need a new tune. I just don't want to have to swap out lots of wiring and have to do a lot of mod's. I may sound less than knowledgeable and I am when it comes to all the perks on engines but love a challenge.

 

Your 2002 Tahoe 5.3 is a gen III engine. Just get a gen III 6.0 engine and really tuning is the only thing you need, no other wiring. Don't remember the year cutoff, but I think 2005 and older 6.0 is what you need.

 

Another vote here for a 6.0 build. You can get to your 400 RWHP Goal much easier and it will have a lot more issuable torque which you will need in a heavy vehicle like a Tahoe.

 

How much HP is lost on the Tahoes from the Fly to the wheels?

After doing more reading I am leaning toward the 6.0 build for the obvious reasons. Thinking of going this route possibly and hopefully have all big things in list.

1. LQ4 block and crank
2. 243 heads (possibly milled for more compression)
3. LS2 piston/rods
4. LS6 or Hot Cam
5. reusing top intake and such from my current 5.3
6. Shorty headers
7. Of course 91-93 Oct tune

Think it will hit 400 RWHP or better?

Concern is how will the stock 4L60E tranny connect to the 6.0 and hold up with this heavy beast? Read that adding better cooling and shift kit help a lot, and not sure I really want to do a 4L80E swap.

 

Figure about 18-20% driveline loss. No way to reach your goal with shorties and either of those mentioned cams. Why shorties? Do you have emission inspections?

 

Shorties because I have to keep the cats. Unless LTs and cats are not a hard fix. Just was not sure I wanted to cut up the exhaust also. I want to keep as DD so any suggestions or changes that might be a way to consider? It would have to be a 500HP engine at the fly then to get 400 to the wheels. I did not think the drive loss was that much but I had no clue.

So how much HP at the fly do you guess this build might make?

 

Did a 5.3 build on mine with mahle pistons 243 heads ls6 manifold long tubes big cam hit 404rwhp so its def. possible in a budget

 

I would alter your plan slightly. Go with long tubes and high flow cats and one of the truck grind cams from comp.

 

Automatic trans and torque converters eat up a lot of hp. With shorties and cats, you'll give up about 20 hp, but it's not a deal breaker if you need to stay legal. If this is a daily driver, don't get hung up on a horsepower number. Build for torque with a heavy vehicle. Find some ported 243 heads and check out the Tick Performance Street Heat Stage 1 Camshaft for LS2 Engines (see link). Might get the whole kit since you'll need springs anyway. This will probably give you close to 350 hp to the wheels and a ton of torque.

http://www.tickperformance.com/tick-...r-ls2-engines/

 

After lots of reading, I think (I know) I have been looking at the wrong curve. I should be thinking of building a torque monster vrs. a big HP engine. I want something that will have good towing ability, and fun red light to red light ability. I would rather have great take off up to highway speed than top end. So that being said I will read up more on building a torque engine and the engine setup will definitely be adjusted but not sure what yet.