Here's the situation - I've got a 5800 lb truck with a 5.3L that I want to continue using as a truck. There are lots of guys looking to make their trucks into race trucks, but that's not me. Don't get me wrong - I like power, I've got a blower, and every once in a while I like surprising someone - but at the end of the day, driveability is the most important thing to me.

So given that, I was looking into cams and realized after talking to a number of folks that even if I added the most meager of cams (e.g. the lowly 212/218), I would really need a higher stall to take advantage of the increased power band up high. And I'm unwilling to get a TC that slips more than stock and generates more heat, plus I don't want to deal with pulling the tranny and swapping the converter, and I don't want issues when towing. So I'm 95% sure I'm not putting a cam into my truck.

Then someone suggested rockers only. Specifically, the SLP 1.85:1's in place of my stock 1.7's. This way, I could keep the driving characteristics of the stock cam's durations (191/190) while increasing the lift from stock (.466/.457) to right around .510/.500.

So if this is possible, I have a few questions:

1) SLP says +18 HP...what about with the Radix?
2) Can I stick with stock springs/retainers (do I have LS1 springs)?
3) Labor time for (a) rockers only, (b) springs/retainers/rockers?
4) Considering my needs, is this a worthwhile mod?

Thanks in advance.

 

whats that kid doing with that outlet?!

 

your stock springs should be fine ... get some 918's if you're feeling iffy on it ... labor time i'd say tops 1 hour, taking your sweet @ss time ... and i'd get 1.8 harland sharps ... nasty performance is having a sale in the sponsor section on harland sharps for $300 shipped ...

so $300, 1 hour work ... couple of ponies ... i think it's worth a try

 

Anyone else?

 

get a cam.

 

here's my gains using the VHP/Crane 1.89 accelerated lift rockers
hp graph


tq peak is misleading due to spike at beginning of run. cursor shows actual gain.

 

I think people are blowing smoke at you about the torque converter. I just installed a 210/218, .531/.531 on a 114LSA Crane Truck Power cam in my 03 5.3 Tahoe. It ran good with the stock tune. Absolutely no bog or convertor issues. Pulled all the way to 5500. Then I installed a Crane Power Tuner and set it to cam performance level 2. Unbelievable improvement. Now it pulls like Jack the Bear all the way to 6 grand. Raised the idle 50RPm (just as easy as scrolling down and pushing a button )and it is absolutely dead smooth. (I'm like you, I want great driveability so that my wife doesn't think something bad is going to happen to the truck). That tuner far exceeds all other hand helds. It really smoothed out the torque curve and the truck is actually smoother than stock and a lot quicker. The next step is the Crane 1.8 accelerated ratio rockers from VHP. They are a solid 12-15 hp according to Roger Vinci. That will give me .562 lift. I installed the Crane duals for insurance. Roger said they are quieter than beehives to the knock sensor which helps power over 4800 and I know I absolutely need them with the .562 lift. I would recommend them with a supercharger because under boost your blower is trying to blow your intakes open and its affecting the lifter bleed down rate. Years ago on a Banks system (a 8.5:1 454 w/ 8# boost) just increasing the seat pressure from 95# to 120# was 85 hp. I was there and saw it with my own eyes.. If you have a blower you need to raise your seat pressure, guarunteed!!!! My next step is a cat back and then the blower. The Crane tuner has tuning for blowers and high flow injectors so I won't have to pay for a special tune!

 

at the time i had VHP install the rockers, i had them install their dual springs as well.

 

Hi, N.AV! You asked,"Anyone else?" I'm "anyone else"....
Have you considered something besides mechanical mods? Today's gasoline ain't worth much ; anything to improve combustion of this "horsewhiz" would help you out! Octane is one thing, even racing gas (110,112 octane) is "less" than it used to be ....
My 2 cents worth : check out <www.freewebs.com/goodgas/> ...use Google,link.
Peace! Things are not as difficult as they first appear!