gmt 900, lets talk boost and reliability

uchi · November 20, 2011

lets see if we can get a nice collection of information together about boosting these beasts. i built a turbo setup for a car i had and ive got one in my shop for my bike that i may put on over the winter. but something about putting a turbo on my 09 5.3 liter just gives me a special kind of chub. so i started to do some thinking. manifolds arent cheap but a remote mount turbo would work well. theres plenty of room under the truck to run a charge pipe back to the motor. then some other things came to mind. fuel system being one of them. how far will the stock injectors and pump go before they arent sufficient anymore? are there any off the shelf upgrades? example, can a 6 liter pump and injectors be put into the 5,3 to add the fuel needed and then have it tuned from there? i know these trucks are rated to tow a good deal of weight so im gonna assume the 6 speed would take the added power and not have an issue with it. so lets hear what you know and for anyone whos done it lets hear your experience. i know the folks over at black bear had a video up of one of their trucks running around with a blower on it. as nice as that is i can build a remote turbo setup for much cheaper than any off the shelf power adder costs and have it make as much or more power. so this is a plan ive been tossing around my head for next year. i know with my car my injectors wont sufficient for boost and i needed to upgrade them right away, added a 255 lph pump and an adjustable fmu that reacts to boost and she was more than fine and made great power. id like to do something similar here, if i could get away with a stock system and an fmu at say 5 psi id be more than happy. figure that depending on the size of the turbo and with a v8 5 psi should produce an extra 100 hp, give or take.

what are your thoughts?

Carder09 · November 21, 2011

My thought is putting a turbo on a truck is a waste of money unless of course you can afford to blow money on the truck for turbo(s). Personally I would supercharge instead of running a turbo(s) being its cheaper. But its what you prefer. Depending on how much boost your wanting to run, Your lookin at buying some serious parts. Unless the newer motors are built with really good internals, im use to the 06 and below model engines and parts. Not the best went wanting to do custom apps so some internals need to be swapped.

uchi · November 21, 2011

excellent thanks for the suggestion ill head over there and see what those guys are saying. also a blower wont make more power than a turbo. theres a reason you see turbo diesels and not blown diesels and its much cheaper to do a turbo than a blower. done both between my own cars and friends cars in the past years.

thanks for the response guys. although i didnt think the 6 speed was that weak of a tranny. i know gm gave it a pretty good tow rating, figured it would take a bit of added power

Mike@Diablosport · November 21, 2011

Turbo is a great idea, forget blowers ;)

You wont need a built trans either, just some proper tuning ;)

You also dont need any fancy manifolds, you can use the stock manifolds turned around backwards in most cases. All the f-body guys are using them for their turbo setups, and making plenty of power with them (1500+ easy).

Check out Flacos GM turbo trucks for some nice kits...

Jennabear · November 21, 2011

Your fuel injectors and pump will be sufficient if you have a flex fuel truck, however E85 usage will not be possible without upgrades to both. We have quite a few customers with both front mount and rear mount turbo set ups with good results. Neither will have the "snap" that a roots or screw charged setup will have though.

uchi · November 22, 2011

agreed a blower will have a more instant power on but these trucks makes plenty of low end power so a properly sized snail will only have a little bit of lag. thanks for the help jenna, ive got a flexfuel truck but no where to get flexfuel so thats not an issue for me.

ive got a tune in the truck right now, tranny shifts nice and hard and crisp no complaints from it in that department. i figure as long as i keep the power tame i shouldnt have issues with it

im thinking rear mount setup or even next time im under the truck seeing how much room i have where the headers meet and see if i can make an adapter to put in place and attach the turbo to. ill see what i can come up with next time im under there.

thanks for the help and the link ideas guys. gonna go do some more reading on this and see what guys have done and what kind of results theyve gotten.

jenna what tranny are you guys using in your blown truck and what kind of work has been done to it? i saw the acceleration video of your truck and it was quite impressive

Jennabear · November 28, 2011

The Silverado currently has a Level 6 transmission on it (was running the stocker with an HDII shift kit), the TBSS has a stock transmission, and the Tahoe had a stock transmission with a Vette Servo. I assume the video you saw was on the Tahoe, it was running: LTs, cam, Radix 112 with 11psi.

svensk · November 29, 2011

Screw turbos and blowers. Real men drive with smog belching cams.

Jennabear · November 29, 2011

uchi · November 30, 2011

haha one giant cam that barely idles and moves me 3 feet each time it rotates, lol. i love it

not sure which setup it was but i remember being impressed

Jennabear · December 2, 2011

Any truck with a power adder under the hood is pretty impressive, in my book!

uchi · December 3, 2011

agreed, im surprised with how fast mine gets to 60 mph after the tune went into it. its already beaten a handful of those little tuner cars from light to light, lol. i can only imagine the look on their face when a big crew cab 4x4 truck lays a beating on a hiway pull. lol. you guys have any new videos of your toys?