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I recently picked up a 90k mile 5.3 to start throwing together. It's going to replace my 200k 5.3 in a 4x4 2000 3 door Silverado. This is my daily driver and just wanted to have a fresh motor with some pep in the throttle. Most of these "mild cams" I see advertised seem much too big, and the SDPC 220/223 with .570 lift seems like it won't be too much cam for a daily. I plan on porting the 862 heads, throwing some long tube headers on, and a 2600 stall converter. I have never built and LS so any advice or experiences would be appreciated.
Is it okay to use the LS6 valve springs that are rated at max .570 lift with a .570 cam? Or Is it better to use springs that are rated for more than the lift required (.600)? Same goes for the lifters, anything specific need to be used, or can some Delphi LS7 lifters be used? I did pick up some Michigan Motorsports 7.4 pushrods.
I don't cheap out on parts, but I would like to only buy necessary parts that are essential to preserve the goal of drivability and reliability and to keep this build relatively economic.
Recommended max on springs isn't a limit. They can usually compress another .050" before hitting coil bind, so going right up to the max lift isn't usually an issue.
Only thing you need for the cam is valve springs, I personally would use PAC1218's because having a little headroom is better than not having any at all, and tbh anything else is overkill and just an added expense really. The cam, long tubes and converter will be a perfect combo for a daily.
My advice on a 5.3 going into a 4x4 is to go really tight on the LSA and really early on the IVC. I went with a LS6 cam in a 5.3 in a 4x4 suburban, and I was never happy with it. Most of the time, going bigger on duration is going to bias the cam toward higher RPM, which is counter-productive in a truck, unless you go tight on the LSA and early on the IVC, hence the recommendation. I have not done any real math behind this, so it's just a spitball, but I'd advise you to consider something more like a 216/220-109+4. It'll have a note to it, so it'll sound cammed, but won't thump. Should give a nice boost in dynamic compression without having to increase your static compression. Valve clearance to piston won't be an issue. Should be a good match to your long tubes and 2600 stall choice.
Sorry to bump an old~ish thread, but I'm Nick (the fat guy in the video that Kfxguy posted), and I wanted to chime in to help OP... even though I'm sure he's already made a decision by now.
The lobe profiles on our inexpensive line of cams like the "LS6 Powermax PLUS" are designed to work with the LS6/LS3 valve springs and OEM LS7 lifters. We understand that we could go with higher lift and a lobe profile that offers quicker ramp rates to pick up more power, but we wanted to keep them this way so customers could get a performance cam that isn't hard on other parts but still delivers respectable results. while some of our cams have the max recommended lift of 0.570, those valve springs will work great and last a long time. You can absolutely run a set of PAC 1218's if you'd like, but it would be extra money spent for no gain or benefit. The reason we run the PACs in the dyno video is because we plan on future mods for that little 5.3 and the LS6/LS3 valve springs were on backorder at the time of filming.
A 4X4 Silverado with a 5.3 is a heavy truck, with the 2600 stall you want to use, you can run this cam on the street, it will sound great at idle. But if you want a little more torque and don't care much about sound at idle, our Hot Truck Torque cam or the standard LS6 Powermax (the other two cams we tested in that video) would be much better for low end torque that a 4x4 needs.
If you would like to hear how this cam sounds at idle, here is a vid of my daily driver. its that cam in a LM7, I love how it drives!
Bought 2 of em.
going in my 02 C5. Ported 243 ls1.Full bolt ons. Fast 90.
10.65:1 scr. M6 let's see what it does. Wasn't looking for a Trex cam anymore. Anyone who remember me.
I used to rock the Trex cams hardcore. I still have 2 original Thunder Racing Trex cams nib.🤪
I know this is a year old. But I have used both the LS6 max and max plus cams. The max plus i have installed with pac .625 beehives (tho SDparts recommend pac .600 beehives) in my 98 WS6 t56 that prior to had 243s, LS6 cam, fast 78mm intake, slp cai kit, LTs, ory, slp lm catback, 160 t-stat, 4.10s, etc tuned with hptuners. Built it back in 2011. Goal then was to built my WS6 with parts that made a C5Z, a C5Z vs just a C5 Vette.
With the sd power max plus cam... I also did a fairly indepth porting (tho didn't fully remove intake bolt bump, but shaved it down considerably) and used pac .625 beehives ( as i have 1.8 crane roller rockers plan it install in the future). I have put about 1k miles on the new set up. I haven't gotten around to retune it yet. Very noticeable difference in idle and 10x louder at wot. After about 500 miles of driving, car has seemed to relearned drivability better, but hunts for idle on cold start in cooler weather here in central FL.
Hope this info might help out someone looking. I plan on doing a follow-up video on YouTube & TikTok as I have many videos from front brembo caliper upgrade to head porting.
01-06-2021, 07:09 PM
LS6 Power Max Plus Cam Question 
