Im thinking about ordering a tsp224r cam and an sct pro racer tune or efi live for my 99 silverado 1500 5.3. All it has right now is a cold air intake and flowmaster exhaust, otherwise bone stock drivetrain. What would i need to make this work? I've read about getting an ls2 timing chain, ls6 oil pump, and new springs. My motor has 140xxx miles. would new push rods be a good idea? And lifters? what would you guys recommend for all this? What else would you recommend? Who has done this before with a truck? thanks

 

ls2 timing chain (maybe gears too if yours are worn)
ls6 oil pump (ported preferably)
new springs
hardened pushrods

you have to pull heads for lifters, so I would steer away from that unless you upgrade heads too

you will need a good street or dyno tune and a higher stall aftermarket torque converter for that size cam IMO

if you don't want to touch the converter, get a smaller cam and all the same above still applies unless you go down to something real small like the Cam Motion drop in cam I run (it only really needs cheap ls6 valvesprings for $40 and a tune) but the other stuff isn't a bad idea anyway

 

I ran that in my 2000 gmc 5.3 long tubes full exhaust and electric fans with 3600 stall nice cam I liked it! 317 rwhp and 310 tq factory intake and heads nothing fancy but it was fun and street able 11.52 1000 ft on 22s with nitrous converter and 10.69 on 125 shot... I would upgrade to ls7 lifters buy the cam kit from tsp it'll come with springs and pushrods, revmax convertors are cheaper but I liked mine a lot. Set of 243s or 799 heads would help and you can pick them up pretty reasonably priced, might give Martin a call at tick perfomance and have him spec you a cam I think I he could do better, but overall the 224 is a good cam!

 

Thanks for the replies. Another question, do any of u guys have experience with that b&m shift improver? I've heard good and bad things and its like $40 so i was wondering if its a good buy?

 

Not worth messing with if you are gonna do a cam swap the tuner can adjust all your transmisson pressures and how it shifts, and when

 

the Transgo HD2 kit is better than the B&M kit and yes it is a good idea, every 4l60e that gets built at my dad's shop gets some variation of it

 

Do you think a higher stall comverter is definitely necessary for this cam?

 

Yes I do. I used to have a 230/224 and the car was a nightmare to drive with the stock converter. In a 5.3 it would be worse and in a truck it would be even worse still.

The absolute biggest I would go on a stock converter would be something like Brian Tooley's stage 2 (212/218 iirc).

I really like my Cam Motion drop in truck cam, picked up huge power in the places I use it...idle to 6000rpm. And even with it, the truck really wants either a slightly larger converter or some 4.10 gears to really wake it up.

 

with the lockup in the converter, a high stall converter doesn't really use that much more gas. After its been in for a little while you won't hardly even notice it any more

 

On an iron manifold car that would not be the best setup in the world. Get something custom ground for those and it would make more power everywhere.

 

What stage cam motion do you have? Does it sound good? Also whats a good lsa to go with? You can the 224 with 112 or 114

 

No headers on the truck? I would def be looking at getting those ASAP. Speed Engineering just came out with some nice stainless longtubes for $230. I will be getting some very shortly.

Mine is the Cam Motion Stage 2 drop in cam. See this thread for dyno, full review, and sound clip: https://ls1tech.com/forums/dynamomet...hp-22rwtq.html

 

Speed engineering headers fit great on the fbodys! I've had 3 sets so far and stainless steel no issues what so ever like thunderstruck said, I can't vouch for the truck headers but I don't see why they wouldn't be great headers like the fbodys! Look into Revmax if your on a budget for stall, 400 bucks I believe for 2200-4000 stall If I remember right! No issues and they have good customer service, I wouldn't go much bigger than the 224r cam on a 5.3 just start getting into to much cam for the cubic inches, had a buddy run the 228r and it was a slouch with his 5.3 but he also was on factory conveter, 228r is the biggest I would go if you wanted something more radical