SILVERADOSC540

+1 on the Duralast from Autozone. Bought one a few years back based on a Consumer Reports ranking, and it fires in a hurry, at 100 degrees or 20 below, hasn't skipped a beat in almost six years.

We all love our trucks, and I feel like mine is the greatest thing that I've ever owned, but this is what's important. Enjoy every minute of it Tim.

Worked 14 hours last night , got off of work and entered a car show today to raise money for homeless vets . Then watched my daughter in a talent show , then watched my wife in a tae kwon do demonstration , now spend the rest of the day with my mother-in-law.

Sarah, you be nice to the new kid. Get him all excited and he'll hit a bump and bend his frame.

Haven't taken it out on a run lately. To work from work to work from work, etc. All work and no play.

Still think your best mod is the front bowtie. It's just cool.

nice

looks good. Did he re-shoot your intake cover? I know you weren't happy with it, and maybe he's got a little extra in the gun

Polished mine up this morning and then went and got some new ink work done...

Depends on who you ask. Callaway says yes, not sure the dealership cares. "show me the money"

Oh that Sarah- Handy with a truck and funny too...I'll make you a deal Sarah. You send me a check and I'll order the wheels for you... If your looking I hear good things about performanceplustire.com You can search by size vehicle price style number of spokes etc. They'll be alot less expensive than these as well. Besides, if you like these you'd probably like the black chrome version better. I didn't like them on black but they looked great on red... http://www.karlchevrolet.com/new-Des+Moines-2012-Chevrolet-Silverado+1500-LTZ-3GCUKTE21CG118145

Odd as this sounds, Sarah, you are the man. Between the intake cover, the headlight covers, taillight covers, sierra emblems, bed liner, grille, etc., you are not only talented, but a risk taker willing to go for it. Kudos to you. As for those "animated" opinions that someone had a few pages ago, well, some people are opinionated, some are just h8rs. There are hundreds of trucks on here, not many alike as most or all have done something to them. I see very few people dissing on eachother's mods. Those that do should spend less time critiquing others and more time in the mirror.

clay bar or sports bar?

Trust me Sarah, you don't like them as much as they do...I got hit last week in the left rear wheel/tire/quarter. Body damage minimal, Tire has a small gash, wheel is scarred up nicely. Body damage and a four wheel alignment that I insisted on is less than a grand, wheel and tire combo is almost thirteen hundred bucks. Think the wheel is around a thousand, the wheel and tire marked up a bit by the dealership since the other person's(nicest thing I could say) insurance is paying for it. When I called Callaway on the wheel they quoted me just under eight hundred bucks. I was told when I bought the truck that all the Callaway parts could only be sold to a registered Callaway owner, I guess they don't want people building their own, I don't know. Kinda sucks, my '02 lasted five years and 89,000 miles without a scratch, my '07 five years and 42,000 miles not a mark. My Callaway, five months and 4927 miles. I guess I was past due in the luck department.

Only a few mods. Added black billet bowties front and rear, line x, caliper covers that I found online, and I think my mom mighta pee'd a little in the passeger seat...

Aaron- Ankeny right? It is Iowa Muffler on second avenue just north of University. Guy's name is Pete. He is awesome. I had a 2002 2500HD with the 6.0 liter in it, and we put on a magnaflow with a terrible drone. He replaced it a month later at no charge with a big body magnaflow, same deal. So when I got my '07 vmax I brought it in and he had his guys put on four different mufflers one at a time so that I could pick the one I liked. I went with the flowmaster, uh, super 40 I think it was, and it sounded great. I believe he has four Corsa systems, the dual side sport, the single side sport, and both the dual and single side in the touring version, which is quiet but flows better than stock. All come with the nice polished stainless tips. Give him a call- 515-243-5186, great guy and he'll take good care of you. PDYoung- Dude, I hope that I don't meet you at a stop light. If they do eight letter license plates where you are I'd sign up for "THEBEAST". It sure sounds like your building one. Also, check my post at the top of this page, it gives you an idea what Black Bear can do for your tune. You could drive with one pulley for a while and gather data for Justin at BB, drive with the other pulley for a while, and he could build you a tune for both pulleys, or all three if you wanted.

Brian- As Fred mentioned. I'm told Justin at Black Bear is the man when it comes to tuning an LS engine. I believe that with an auto-cal he can download your driving habits and then put a few different tunes on the auto -cal to suit your needs ie: performance, towing, mileage etc. I felt like my VortecMax got a lot more air with a K&N CAI, but I can't speak for the 6.2 as mine came with one. Pull off your factory intake tube, and if it is as jumbled as the mess was on my VMax I'd consider adding one. Don't know how far down in Missouri you are, but a buddy of mine has a muffler shop in Des Moines and bought a bunch of Corsa cat-back systems from a dealership going out of business and has them for $500.00 installed, full stainless with the polished split Corsa tip out one side or dual with eliptical tip out each side, same price for either. Usually about a grand not installed... Fred- Tell me about this Black Truck Club...

Brian- Have you put on an aftermarket grille? My buddy put a billet style with the narrow bars/narrow openings between bars on his truck and his tranny temps went up as well. Did you use tow haul mode? That will usually keep it from downshifting quite as often. I'll bet that without that trailer behind you you're getting much better hwy mpg with the 3.42's. I guess there are pros and cons to both sets of gears.

Nice work PDYoung. You buy a truck, rip off the front end, re-wire it, and tear apart the motor, all in the pursuit of more power. You've got a giant set my friend. Keep the updates coming, If I ever get a day off I'll try to get some stuff together on mine as well.

Hey buddy. No boost gauge, Callaway tells me about 7 pounds as well. As far as a tune, I'm told Justin at Black Bear Performance is the man for GM tunes. I'm told that these LS motors, in our case the L9H, have pretty good knock sensors and they will retard your timing if they sense detonation. That might ease your mind a bit. If you end up doing a boost gauge let me know how that works out, I may follow suit. You sound just like me, I get 540HP under my right foot and within a week I'm thinking "a little more"...

PDYoung, you are correct in the smaller tire equals a better launch. You have less mass to get moving, so you should get moving in a hurry. The taller tire should catch up in the upper rpm range, because at the same rpm the taller tire would be moving a greater distance. Sounds like you're getting close on the install. I too have a conservative tune from Callaway, but with my 5 year 100,000 mile factory warranty still valid I don't dare mess with it. I've considered an Auto Cal from BlackBear, which would allow me to store the Callaway tune, put in a custom tune from Justin, and reload the Callaway tune for any service visits, but for now it's plenty quick so I'll leave well enough alone. Keep us posted!

The tires that I have are 305/40 ZR22's, which comes out at 31.6" tall. Not sure what tires you have, but the conversion is easy. I took my width of 305 millimeters, converted to inches on my cell phone(12.01 inches) times the height plus 22 inches. The height is the number after the width(in red) and is the percentage of sidewall compared to the width. So- in my case it is 12.01 inches times .4(40 percent) equals4.804 inches, times 2(above and below rim) equals 9.608 inches, plus the rim size of 22" for a total of 31.608 inches. As for my gear ratio I have 3.73 gears. Not as aggressive as the 4.10's I had in my VortecMax, and not as highway friendly as the 3.42's that a lot of GM trucks have. I believe the NHT option code (max trailering pack) is standard with 3.73 gears, so you may be running the same. Sorry I can't help with the injector pics, I'd likely break one of those covers I have trying to remove it. Run over to your nearest dealership and take a look at one on the lot... Good luck- pics when you're done!

drove by the dealership today, they also have a Callaway SC450 Suburban, and a sweet short box regular cab SC450 in black. It's based on the 5.3, and probably hauls a$$ with no weight. 2wd and the Callaway suspension package. As far as the ZL1, that sounds awesome until winter or the next family vacation. I can still haul family, luggage, trailers and ass. If I could afford a weekend toy the ZL1 tops the list, but I can afford only one vehicle, and it has to do it all, and I have that vehicle.

AaronIROCZ is correct. The Iowa Callaway dealer is Karl Chevrolet. I believe they are also the dealer for Minnesota as well. Right now they have a red 540, a white 540 and two black 540's, one 2011 and one 2012. They also have an SC450 Avalanche in stock. It does pretty well on the street. When you're done you'll find that 4wd auto is you best friend. You won't be able to hook up in 2wd. I've got 305/40 ZR22 BF Goodrich G Force T/A's and can't hook up in 2wd. You will love the launch in 4wd, it's a neck snapper...

Let us know how the install goes, i'm very interested! As far as mpg, what are your driving habits? I'm averaging around 14 right now driving to work and back, and that is through town, mind you it's not stop and go traffic. I thought my driving habits weren't too bad.I never floor it and hold it there.I haven't been in stop and go backed up traffic,just normal around town stuff.Had the truck dynoed yesterday to get a baseline before the supercharger install.The dyno tech couldn't keep the trans from down shifting when he nailed it.This kept giving horsepower and torque curves a loop on the graph.What he did manage to get was 311hp peak at the wheels.So somewhere around a loss of 22% of the flywheel horsepower was being lost through the drive train.Tech said anywhere from 20 to 25% is typical. My mileage with a TVS1900 supercharger has been right at about 12.7 MPG in the city, and on a road trip this week I got 16.7 MPG on the highway at roughly 72 - 73 miles per hour. I anticipate those numbers rising slightly as I only have about 3800 miles on the truck.