Replacing damaged Ls1 in 99 DD fbody with 5.3. Will be eventually doing turbo, but just need to get this thing on the road now and I'd rather not drive around a lower HP +60lb dog while I get the turbo finances and plans lined up.

What would be a good cam and budget minded heads that would allow a GenIII 5.3 to run very strong NA now, and still be poised for the turbo later, maybe with just a head swap later to get compression down? Trying to avoid doing cam later since this is a DD and it would take it out of service for so long, I feel like heads later could be done without taking the car out of service too long because I've done heads before in a day or so.

Car currerntly stalled with stock cam and Ls6 intake, long tubes, ran 12.5et, don't need 400whp or anything but really don't want it to be slower if I can help it.

My plan is to take all accessories and as much as I can off of the LS1, LS1 has rod knock after racing a friend, so most parts can port over according to what I am reading here.

Or let me know what plan you'd do if you were poor like me. Long term goal is to have a budget minded driver friendly DD running around 450RWHP. Thanks.

EDIT: I want the cam on the smaller side for reliability and street manners, I know large cams need valvespring swaps like every 20k and are not as street friendly because they need higher idle etc. Note that I am stalled to 3600 however. Thanks again.

 

Probably start with something like 228/240. But to get good power out of a street cam NA you will need compression. When you go turbo you will want lower compression. You obviously know that. So I kinda doubt you will get to 450 NA on a street cam if you're setting up the long block for boost. And the heads that would get you there on a 5.3, like the AFR 205, are not cheap. I would save the money. I mean you are talking about not spending an extra 350 for a cam but an extra 1500+ on heads.

 

Sorry I wasn't clear. My endgame goal of 450rwhp will be the turbo'd 5.3 later. Short term I just don't want to drive a dog 5.3 for the whole summer. :-)

And for the cam, it's not so much the money but the fact that I am comfortable swapping heads myself pretty quickly but a cam swap seems to be a large project that combined with the turbo efforts it'll take my DD "down time" to weeks or something. Trying to get a good balanced cam in one time and done (if possible).

So far I am considering either 212/218 Lunati which has small enough lift (.530) that I shouldn't wear out the valve springs every 6 months/year (lot of miles on this DD). Not sure how this responds to turbo later.

Second option I am reseaching now would be a GT2-3 LPE which has .571/.578 lift and will need the routine valvespring maintenance but this one will have near stock vacuum and somewhat stock-ish idle apparently, and the valvesprings aren't getting beat up as bad as a monster cam.

Have not yet discovered how those work post-turbo.

After all the reading, am also now just considering bailing on the turbo and do a large cam right now and reasonable heads just deal with the valvespring maintenance and just shoot for maybe near 400RWHP, and have another 5.3 ready for a potential valve drop. :-) Trying for the impossible of reliable AND cheap AND fast LOL.. yea I know.

Thanks for the info, I appreciate all the help everyone always gives on this site.

 

Ummm, something you haven't probably considered. That motor if it is OEM spec only has about 9.5:1 if it's all stock inside. If you go too big on the cam you will lose all your cylinder pressure, and then it really will be a pooch plus the fact it will be down 20+ cubes. If you have to put a 5.3 in it to get it driving then put a 5.3 in it to get it driving and work out what you want to do with the turbo and do it right. Quite honestly 450rwhp is quite obtainable with a healthy 6.0, so a boosted 5.3 will easily exceed your goals with no issue.

 

Good point, the reviews I saw on the GT2-3 having good vacuum and idle were not in the 5.3 with dish top pistons, that probably won't be my experience then, wasn't thinking deep enough.

So right now I was looking at an aluminum LM4 which I understand has the dish top pistons and the lower compression concern you describe for a non-turbo. I think I am reading that there is a L33 that is also aluminum but with flat tops to keep compression up, but it's apparently rare and price is likely way up there. I was thinking the heads would be the big factor in controlling compression but yea clearly pistons are a giant factor. There's also the Lq4 which is a dished 6.0 versus the Lq9 which has flat top pistons to consider, at least I'd have the cubes back and then some LOL.

Wow, a lot to take in. Need to digest this. Thanks for the info

 

With quality valve springs and valve train hardware the GT2-3 cam shouldn't be too hard on valve springs. LPE back in the day used LS6 valve springs and gave a 2 year 24,000 mile warranty on the parts and LPE install. This based on what I read some years ago when researching and buying a GT2-3 cam for my wife's 02 Z28 that never got installed. I would have wanted a better spring than the LS6 spring but that's my nature.

See post #35, there's a lot of good info in the thread.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...ing-kit-3.html

 

I know I am straying a bit from the original question but here is my recipe so far and wanted to see if anyone had input on if this would be a good combination as I can source all these parts reasonbly priced.

LM4 aluminum 5.3 shortblock (saves weight but only 9.5:1 compression I think)
799 heads from a newer GM truck with upgraded springs and pushrods
228R or similar cam
LS6 intake (from my LS1)
Longtubes (from my LS1)
Accessories and everything else taken from my LS1
I am A4 but stalled already

Shooting for minimum 350 at the wheel, hoping for more, I think that's about where my DD ls1 was.

I'll cross the turbo bridge when I get to the turbo bridge, but at least I'll be standardized on the cheaper more plentiful 5.3

 

799 heads on an LM4 will drop compression due to the larger combustion chambers.

 

 

Thanks guys. Those dished pistons are killing me LOL... almost all of those cheap truck motors have them, and the ones that don't seem to be up near LS1 territory pricewise.

As it turns out I now have a lead on a $1500 high mile (over 100k miles) LS1 long block I am going to go look at.

The LS1 motors are just so expensive, was hoping to get a 5.3 and get it all going turbo ready and still have it fast now, but clearly I need to learn more and don't have time to do the homework. Will just plop another LS1 in there and take the financial hit before I waste money and time on bad 5.3 decisions.

if I have to drive a dog all summer I'll open a vein LOL.

BTW almost have the bad engine out, pulling from the bottom is pretty easy just a LOT of steps none of which are hard. Did the whole thing myself. Used this site for reference for that too of course. Killer resource.

 

 

I am in SW PA south of Pittsburgh, in a zone where a good tuner is like a unicorn.