1999 Silverado 5.3l Cam Upgrade

hy_69 · June 3, 2011

so i have a 99 silverado ext cab 4x4, 5.3L, 6" lift, 35x12.5 tires, 4.56 gears, Long Tube headders, no cats, flowmaster, K&N Cold Air Intake.... i was talking to a friend and mentioned him i was planning on buying a blackbear autocal.. and he told me to get a cam upgrade and a pulley kit first... so.. what is the cam i am looking for? thats the question.. considering it is my daily driver... i´m not looking to build a hot rod.. just getting more power out of it.. and better mpg... can someone help me here?

Carder09 · June 3, 2011

so i have a 99 silverado ext cab 4x4, 5.3L, 6" lift, 35x12.5 tires, 4.56 gears, Long Tube headders, no cats, flowmaster, K&N Cold Air Intake.... i was talking to a friend and mentioned him i was planning on buying a blackbear autocal.. and he told me to get a cam upgrade and a pulley kit first... so.. what is the cam i am looking for? thats the question.. considering it is my daily driver... i´m not looking to build a hot rod.. just getting more power out of it.. and better mpg... can someone help me here?

Well if your not wantin a hot rod then a cam and pulley kit probably wont be for you since the BB tune works magic for the whole truck, and being that you have some good upgrades on it im sure you can get a good performance jump from just the tune, "Justin will ask for all the most and such on you truck and will tune accordingly to maximize those products"

hy_69 · June 3, 2011

yeah i know bb works wonderful but i want a little more what i meant with not wanting a hot rod... is that i dont want a <12 second truck that has stroker engine or upgraded heads, upgraded injectors, intake manifold, supercharge it or turbo or any other major modification that would compromise MPG, every day driveability, comfort, my wallet (dont intend to spend thousands of dollars in engine mods) etc... but i do want it to be faster with more power... i have no idea how much money is a pulley kit and a cam upgrade... maybe the cost/benefit its just not worth it... i dont know.. just trying to learn a little bit about it from the ones that have done it, or know something about it... the bb tune is something i'll deffinitely get as soon as i can afford it... but maybe there are other mods i can get first that would improve the trucks performance even more when i get the bb tune...

Mckenzie · June 5, 2011

so i have a 99 silverado ext cab 4x4, 5.3L, 6" lift, 35x12.5 tires, 4.56 gears, Long Tube headders, no cats, flowmaster, K&N Cold Air Intake.... i was talking to a friend and mentioned him i was planning on buying a blackbear autocal.. and he told me to get a cam upgrade and a pulley kit first... so.. what is the cam i am looking for? thats the question.. considering it is my daily driver... i´m not looking to build a hot rod.. just getting more power out of it.. and better mpg... can someone help me here?

You have a kick ass truck from what your description says, can we get some pics please? And maybe a youtube vid of the exhaust?

hy_69 · June 6, 2011

so i have a 99 silverado ext cab 4x4, 5.3L, 6" lift, 35x12.5 tires, 4.56 gears, Long Tube headders, no cats, flowmaster, K&N Cold Air Intake.... i was talking to a friend and mentioned him i was planning on buying a blackbear autocal.. and he told me to get a cam upgrade and a pulley kit first... so.. what is the cam i am looking for? thats the question.. considering it is my daily driver... i´m not looking to build a hot rod.. just getting more power out of it.. and better mpg... can someone help me here?

You have a kick ass truck from what your description says, can we get some pics please? And maybe a youtube vid of the exhaust?

thanks i love driving my truck... here are some pics tell me what you think about it... i'll try to do something about that video of the exhaust i'll post it this week...

Carder09 · June 6, 2011

Yeah I was going to get a cam also but really one wont give you any better mpgs even the really mild ones, the one I was going to get would have cost me about 300 and that's not with replacing the springs like it highly suggests, but look around some cams are balance so they could probably give you a few more hp and tq, but def spend the money for the bb tune,

hy_69 · June 6, 2011

Yeah I was going to get a cam also but really one wont give you any better mpgs even the really mild ones, the one I was going to get would have cost me about 300 and that's not with replacing the springs like it highly suggests, but look around some cams are balance so they could probably give you a few more hp and tq, but def spend the money for the bb tune,

what about changing the pulleys? will i see improvement from doing that? the bb tune is something i'll deffinitely do! no doubt about it... but i want to know what else can it be done without going too far and have everything modified or compromising comfort, etc.... i'm thinking maybe changing the cam is not the way i want to go today i'll visit a mechanic who is supossed to be an expert on this subject to see if its convenient changing the cam or not... the friend that recommend me doing that has a mistsubishi evo and said that it did wonders for him and improved his MPG but maybe that works for 4cyl turbo little cars dont know if it will do the same for us big boys with big toys and our heavy 4x4 trucks with v8 engines...

Carder09 · June 6, 2011

Yeah that would be your best bet, as for the pulley system upgrade I dont know what exactly that would effect unless the parts are all lightweight and shiny, or its to delete the a/c system off your truck, but I prefer some nice cold air in 100% humidity days

tyhuck · June 6, 2011

THe pulley kits are called "underdrive pulleys" and consist of a smaller crank pulley. In theory, the smaller pulley turns the accessories slower so there is less paracitic (sp?) drag on the crank, which in turn leaves more power free to go to the back wheels. Most people that I have seen with these only report a small amount of throttle response, not much power or MPG improvement. The kit also comes with a smaller alternator pulley to keep the charging system at a operable level. However, because the other pulleys are stock and the accessories turning slower, they can give you some problems. I have heard of cooling issues because the water pump is turning slower, and steering issues with oversized tires (which you have) because the power steering pump isnt turning as fast.

All of these problems are from older (SBC engines) trucks with fairly worn accessories, and they dont show up in all trucks. But, be aware that if you put these pulleys on there is a good chance of some or all of the gremlins showing up and some of your accessires may need to be replaced as a resullt. There is also a good chance that nothing bad will happen. Im not trying to discourage tanyone from getting this mod. Im just bringing some info to the table that you may or may not already know.

Maybe someone with the pulleys on their own truck can chime in on their experience with them.

Doug_Scott · June 6, 2011

a few years ago my boss at the time had a 2000 Mercedes ML320. That thing was about the slowest thing I have ever driven. Slower than an old Chevette.

He wanted more power, and I had no interest in trying to work out mercedes electronics. I found a guy in Belgium I think, that has supercharger kits for the ML320. $7500 later and I had two big boxes at my house. 10 hours later I had a completed supercharger install on a ML320. That thing was incredible after that. Huge increase in power, and no changes to the computer. His fuel mileage actually went up if he did not floor it all the time. If he drove sensibly he got about 5mpg more that he did before.

The coles version of this post, get a blower for it. Then get a tune. Not sure if you want to spend the coin, but be careful when thinking about a cam swap, there is a lot more to it than just tossing a new bump stick into it. There is a lot of "might as well while I am in there" talk.

Mckenzie · June 7, 2011

so i have a 99 silverado ext cab 4x4, 5.3L, 6" lift, 35x12.5 tires, 4.56 gears, Long Tube headders, no cats, flowmaster, K&N Cold Air Intake.... i was talking to a friend and mentioned him i was planning on buying a blackbear autocal.. and he told me to get a cam upgrade and a pulley kit first... so.. what is the cam i am looking for? thats the question.. considering it is my daily driver... i´m not looking to build a hot rod.. just getting more power out of it.. and better mpg... can someone help me here?

You have a kick ass truck from what your description says, can we get some pics please? And maybe a youtube vid of the exhaust?

thanks i love driving my truck... here are some pics tell me what you think about it... i'll try to do something about that video of the exhaust i'll post it this week...

Beautiful truck!!! Now we just need to hear that beast!

nickvrebel · June 7, 2011

for that particular truck and what you are looking for a supercharger would be ideal, except the cost. Fuel economy wouldn't suffer except when you put your foot in it.

the cheaper route that would have a small effect on fuel economy, but would make it nicer to drive overall (with the big tires) would be a torque converter swap. Maybe something like a "Trailblazer Inline 6" stock converter or a Yank 3000.