stock 5.3 upgrades

[mizozuman2]

I'm on the cheap! less than 3K

I've heard you can run the Tick Polluter V2 Cam on a stock 5.3 (239/244 - .620/.590), I found a cam with the same duration, but a .600/.600 lift. Would that still be good to go, or no? I'm wanting to keep the stock bottom end.

I'm also going with 1 3/4" primary to 3" collect headers, high flow cats through a 3" exhaust in front of the wheels on both sides. Will that be good for getting the air out?

What other things can you all think of? I'm not super knowledgeable on engines, so I may sounds like a fool...

What would/have you done to a stock bottom 5.3? I'm looking for a NASTY sound, and some torque and power gains. Want to keep decent gas mileage (Better than 15 highway at least).

Thanks.

[Captkaos]

What are you planning on doing with the truck?

That cam's power range is 3000-7000.  Are you planning on replacing valve springs and pushrods?  with that amount of lift you will also need to verify piston to valve clearance and you will have to buy a 4000+ RPM stall for the trans to keep in the power band and unless you are planning on switching heads if it doesn't have cathedrals it isn't going to operate like you expect...

If you are after torque numbers and decent mileage, your cam is going in the wrong direction and you need to forget about how it sounds.

[454Man]

X2 nasty/ lopey sound doesn't go hand n hand with gas mileage.

What's under the hood??? If you have to ask maybe we shouldn't race...

[Engineer]

That is a lot of cam.

To even try to pull any decent street manners from that cam you need about 125 more ci, or about 2 more liters.

It will have a lopey idle alright.

[rich weyand]

It will be undriveable on the street.

Download the Comp Cams Camquest software and look at cams.  You enter your engine particulars, and then it will show you the torque and horsepower curves for any cam you choose.

A couple things to keep in mind:

1) You race horsepower, but on the street you drive torque.  Particularly in a truck you want something with a lot of bottom.  I would look for a cam that gives you something around 325-350 lbft at 3000-3500 rpm, and maybe 225-250 horsepower at 4000-4500 rpm.

2) Anything with a lot of torque -- power in the lower rpms that dominates street use -- will idle very nicely.  A rough idle means horsepower up top, but a kid on roller skates will beat you off the line unless you go to a really high rpm torque converter, which is rough on transmissions and hard to drive on the street.

3) Probably keep lift in the .400-.450 range.  It's a lot easier on the valvetrain and the heads.