I am new to the Internal part of the motor of the LS1, had to take care of the external first.. I am seeing different size heads 5.3, 6.0, 5.7.. Which are for my car?? ALL?? What works best for a daily drivin car with juice that wants a few extra ponies, nothing crazy. Are some of these heads of of Trucks?? Please school my so i get a better understanding. Thanks

 

In a nutshell, here's a crash course. The 5.3's seem to flow better on the exhaust side and have slightly smaller combustion chambers for a bump in compression.

The 5.7's are the stock heads with any applicable port and valve job you order.

The 6.0 truck heads have larger combustion chambers which will lower compression and are popular in forced induction applications.

Again, this is a crash course so keep doing your homework. All of the heads are interchangable in the GEN III series engines.

 

I'm kinda in the same boat. But I think for a dialy drive, a good cheap set of heads would be TEA Stage II. Thats what I want to get if I ever make enough money.

I think the 6.0 are for the strip, but I'm not sure!!! Wait for some other people to tell me I'm wrong before you do and buy anything

 

Nope, as stated above, the 6.0 heads are generally more popular with people that want Low compression motors (usually supercharger/turbo) so not necessarily for strip use only.

The 5.3s are great because you get increased compression w/out any milling (just straightening the deck they yield about 10.8:1) and you can mill for even more compression... also since the 5.3s don't require any milling to get higher than stock head compression you can mill further for higher compressions w/out the same Piston to valve issues you may have w/a set of 5.7s milled the same amount.

 

It seems that most are going with the 5.3's cause you don't have to mill that much to get the compression up there which is awesome!

 

Ok I'm thinking of running a set of 5.3 heads. Currently I have an 03 zo6 cam and springs inside the car, and am running a 100 wet shot. So my question is, how will a set of PNP 5.3 heads work with my application, and how will the higher compression affect my ability to use the nitrous? I know that the high compression import cars love nitrous, I just don't want to blow anything up. Also what would be my limitations in milling the heads, with a z06 cam, and would I need to change anything else? Would this be a good setup?

 

Stick with the 5.7 heads. They are in no way less of a head than the 5.3's. As stated the appealing factor of the 5.3 head is added compression with no sacrifice in piston to valve clearance. I wouldn't be in much of a hurry to up the compression with the NO2.

 

I would say some stuff is trial and error, and being willing to take a few risks, homework comes into play also. But a friend of mine is putting together a nitrous motor, and he is going to be running around 11.5:1 compression, and he's going to be running around a 200 shot of nitrous. If I remember correctly. But it took him a while to figure out what he wanted to do...so just keep doing your homework.

 

See that is the route I'm trying to go. You see all these damn vtecs running around with 11.5:1 and shooting some serious shots. I'm just curious if we can do it too.

 

I prefer the 5.3l heads because you can deck the heads less & still have more compression. Of course I like decking the heads less so you can go bigger cam You might research the Patriot heads, we're having great luck with them & they are the best bang for the buck

Jason

 

Yeah I was looking at their website earlier today, but I couldn't find much info. (very poor site design) I guess I'm going to give them a call. I wonder if I will see any gains with an LS6 cam and some 5.3 heads. I would really like to have a very streetable setup (car is an a4)putting down about 425 to the wheels n/a, and have a 175 shot with a progressive controller (just in case I ever need it). I believe the stock block will take that high of a shot on a controller, I'm just wondering if the nitrous will like the higher compression?