5.3L build for truck
Teching In
Joined: Jan 2024
Posts: 48
Likes: 7
First off before I comment I'll say I have been driving 5.3 trucks for the last 10 years. And I'm in a similar situation as you are.
After years of pondering this the absolute best thing you can do is not do a 5.3 build. You need cubic inches. Badly. Especially with having a 4L60 a lift, and big tires. There's only so much a 5.3 can do.
Either bore the 5.3 out while it is apart or grab a 6.0 bottom end and put the 706 heads on and go from there. The 6.0 would be a far better choice. Or boring a 6.0 some would be best. But a 6.0 bottom end will still work wonders over the 5.3
As said always do the highlift truck cam option. When there are two of the same cams in different lifts, if you look at the dyno overlays the high lift gains power everywhere over the low lift.
If you keep a stock stall, you'll need a mild cam, and a mild cam in a 5.3 isn't going to be much different than it is now. You'll gain 40 ish hp and 20 ft lbs or tq, and it won't be down low where you are towing.
If you tossed in a bone stock 6.0 you'd be far happier than building the 5.3 and putting in a small cam. That one point of compression will give you approx 4% more power. That's about 15 hp or so. The cam 20-40 hp, but not much torque. You need torque and you need it down low. Camming the 5.3 is gonna kill some of your low end. You're gonna hate towing with a cammed 5.3 with a stock stall.
If anything I would do a stock 6.0 and a small stall way before I did a mildly built 5.3 with a mild cam and stock stall.
Have you ever had a higher rpm stall before? They transform the vehicle and make it feel like you added 200 ft lbs down low, cause you kinda do through torque multiplication.
After years of pondering this the absolute best thing you can do is not do a 5.3 build. You need cubic inches. Badly. Especially with having a 4L60 a lift, and big tires. There's only so much a 5.3 can do.
Either bore the 5.3 out while it is apart or grab a 6.0 bottom end and put the 706 heads on and go from there. The 6.0 would be a far better choice. Or boring a 6.0 some would be best. But a 6.0 bottom end will still work wonders over the 5.3
As said always do the highlift truck cam option. When there are two of the same cams in different lifts, if you look at the dyno overlays the high lift gains power everywhere over the low lift.
If you keep a stock stall, you'll need a mild cam, and a mild cam in a 5.3 isn't going to be much different than it is now. You'll gain 40 ish hp and 20 ft lbs or tq, and it won't be down low where you are towing.
If you tossed in a bone stock 6.0 you'd be far happier than building the 5.3 and putting in a small cam. That one point of compression will give you approx 4% more power. That's about 15 hp or so. The cam 20-40 hp, but not much torque. You need torque and you need it down low. Camming the 5.3 is gonna kill some of your low end. You're gonna hate towing with a cammed 5.3 with a stock stall.
If anything I would do a stock 6.0 and a small stall way before I did a mildly built 5.3 with a mild cam and stock stall.
Have you ever had a higher rpm stall before? They transform the vehicle and make it feel like you added 200 ft lbs down low, cause you kinda do through torque multiplication.
