I have a 2000 Silverado 1500 with the 5.3 vortec and I just bought a 4L60E monster transmission with a 1800-2000 stall and I want to do some mild upgrades other than bolt ons. I have a K&N CAI and dual exhaust and that's about it but I want a cam and possibly headers but I don't want a big cam and I don't know of any cams that will work with my torque converter stall. If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it. I'm not too mechanically inclined so bare with me if I ask dumb questions or say dumb statements. Thank you

 

Ask questions BEFORE you buy major components. Don't buy anything, save your money to do the transmission right after that one frags. Then get a real stall if you want a cam, the stock cam can use more stall than you have. There is a lot of room between where you are and compromised manners stall wise. There is a lot of room to move up cam wise before you compromise manners too but FIRST you need a good foundation and I would call the tranny you bought a big step BACKWARDS from stock, hopefully they actually learned how to build a tranny recently instead of relying PURELY on marketing as they had for a long time.


If you want to toss the dice and do a cam then FIRST you need to do a decent converter, you could get a cam small enough to drive fine with the low stall but at this point a stall will increase performance more than a cam. This is a mistake I have made along with a lot of other folks, trying to do a cam with a near stock stall and gain almost nothing, then give it a 2800-3200stall and realize the stall should have come first.

 

So basically im screwed becuase the stall i got is way too small? i read that the stock stall is around 1400?

 

What do you use the truck for? Do you tow or haul heavy loads?
If so I would keep both fairly small a 212\218 .550 112 would be a
good upgrade over the stock 191\191 .467 you have now and work with
the converter you have. If not then what are your goals and what kind of
streetability do you need? it gets quite subjective as too much for some is not enough
for others.

 

I hardly ever haul anything and if i do its just my fourwheeler in the back of the truck. Ive been looking at that cam and a few others like the 210/216 .556/.561 110lsa and also the 224/230 .502/.510 110lsa. im just not sure if any of those would workand what else would i know for the installation like lifters or rocker arms etc

 

You can upgrade your stock rockers with a trunion kit from Comp/Lunati for about 125 bucks. This will prevent the stock needle bearings which are not caged from falling out and causing major problems in the engine. Plus you can easily install the kit with a simple bench vice. If you're stuck with that low stall already then the 210/216 cam would be about right. The 224/230 for sure would need a 3200ish stall in a heavy 5.3 application. Depending on mileage you may want to install new lifters but then the heads have to come off and then a valvejob and porting may as well get done at that time. New head gaskets and bolts are only a bit over 100 bucks from say Texas Speed or any other LS1 TECH vendors. An LS 2 timing chain is a simple 40 dollar upgrade and maybe a new LS6 oil pump for piece of mind.

 

i just hit 200k miles. So if i go with the 210/216 cam what else would i have to replace for it to be installed correctly? And with new lifters and a valvejob and porting how much would all that run me?

 

That cam would drive OK with that stall but at this point a decent stall would give you a LOT more performance improvement.

In my LT1 Caprice I went from the stock 191/195 cam to a ZZ4 cam which is 208/221 and went from the stock 1400stall to what was supposed to be a S-10 converter at 2200stall but seemed more like 1800-2000 maybe a K-10 converter of the era. Gained basically nothing performance wise. Then gave it a 2800stall 9.5" converter from a reputable company and gained .7 in the quartermile.

Yes it is a different engine platform but there are a lot of similarities in stock stall, vs. attempted first stall upgrade, cam duration etc. The Caprice is heavy compared to other cars but depending exactly what your truck is may well still be a lot lighter, I have a 2005 Sierra crewcab Z71 with 5.3l and I believe that pig is more like 5300lbs empty compared to 4060lbs advertized curb weight for the Caprice. If you have a regular cab 2wd though it might not be all that far off the Caprice weight.

Another thing I hesitated to do was gears, car came with 2.93s and a 27" tire the truck has 3.42 and I believe close to a 31" tire so that works out very closely in final drive.
Next mod I did to the car was gears, I gave it 3.42 which would be similar to 3.73s in a truck given the tire height difference.

2800stall and 3.42s was awesome when I was putting 20K miles a year on the car driving it through Wisconsin winters.


I know that wasn't a direct answer to what you are asking but the point I am trying to make is I made the mistakes of fearing gear and stall and wanting a cam to early and I would rather help others avoid repeating those mistakes.

Get a 3000ish stall from Edge, Yank, Vigilante or the like then make sure the truck has at least 3.73s AFTER that you can consider a cam.

No sense in going to an aftermarket cam that will wear out valvesprings and such and not give you much actual performance gain till you have the supporting mods.

The valvesprings is something folks forget, you put an aftermarket cam in a daily driver and springs become a maintenance item, the interval depends on the cam, the springs, the use of the vehicle etc. but they do become a wear item.

 

Thank you for explaining all that. I guess I ain't really ready for any of that and after reading your suggestions and opinions and talking with a few of my mechanic friends I don't believe I'll be doing a cam any time soon. I got a little over 200k miles on my engine so I would be risky something going wrong. But I have been told to look into a nice set of headers, a throttle body, and some ls2 36lb injectors. What do yall think about that? And if I do get injectors and all that will I have to get anything else for the injectors to fit and work properly. I'm planning on a getting a custom tune from http://www.nelsonperformance.com/custom-tuning if y'all have any suggestions on a good custom tune for me please let me know.

 

Don't think you need injectors if your stock ones are doing just fine.

 

Right after I bought my truck I looked into headers and it seemed to not be worthwhile on a 5.3l till you were going into the motor. Stock manifolds aren't perfect but they are better than what came on earlier engines.

Far as injectors I would not even consider it and even with heads and cam 36lbs would be bigger then necessary.

 

What's the best tune/programmer I can get?

 

If you can find a reputable custom tuner local I would go that route, a relationship with good vendors is an important part of the hobby.

I would NOT use a Hypertech type canned programmer.

 

Have you heard anything about nelson tuning? They are based out of San Antonio Tx. Just 2 hrs away from where I'm at. Or do you know of any others around Houston Tx area that's good?

 

Check out Chucks LSx Tuning Service in Houston

 

Super informative thread for any beginner build!

 

Pat G in Victoria can tune a ham sandwich to do wheelies !!!