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Canned 4.8 or Tuned 5.3

Emg.27

By Emg.27
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Emg.27 New Member

Emg.27

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Posted

I have a 2002 Silverado 1500 2WD.

It has the 4.8L vortec with 225K Miles ! Its still alive ! Lol

It runs good. Only things is when you're at a stop and floor it. It kinda chokes... and stalls and lags . Then its goes haha. Not too bad. But noticeable . Anyways. Should I swap it for a 5.3 Tuned or keep the 4.8 rebuild with performance kit & cam ?

Cammed* excuse the typo.

GrumpyGhost Enthusiast

GrumpyGhost

Posted
Posted

The 4.8 and 5.3 are identical engines, only difference is the 4.8 has a shorter stroke and hits its power band higher in the rpms. You have a genIII LS engine which means it doesn't have floating pins and the piston rods are not as strong as the newer gen4 engines from 2003 to 2007ish.

 

Depending on budget, I would find a used parts place and get a 6.0 or 5.3 with around 100-150,000 miles and build it from there. If you switch to a gen4 engine you have to get or make a harness to extend knock sensors and get a cam relector wheel that works with your computer, and a tune is needed no matter the application.(use blackbear, don't waste time with Diablo or superchips preprogrammed stuff)

 

GenIII engines are generally safe to about 500wheel horsepower, so 600ish brake horsepower with stock bottom end. Also when you increase hp the stock trans will need to be built, a stock 4l80e swap is a safe and cheap bet with a converter stall change depending on hp. But the 4l60e trans will not survive long with increased hp. So that needs to be considered as well.

 

Gen4 can handle around 700 wheel horse power with stock bottom end.

 

Also it's a good time to take the rear diff cover off and check for metal and end play.

 

If you just want the "cam sound", throw a cam in your 4.8 with high lift. The 4.8 also has flat top pistons which increase the compression ratio and limit the lift the cam can have. Look into what heads you have as well. If it's 243 head they have small intake valves which limit the amount of fuel you can dump into cylinder, so those will need to be upgraded/rebuilt/replaced as well.

 

Also if e85 is available, I'd do a conversion for free hp with a tune, just need a diff fuel pump like a walbro 400. The injectors will also need to be replaced with higher psi ones, stock injectors are smaller on the early 2000 trucks, yours may have the bigger stock ones but idk for sure.

 

Exhaust and headers: don't waste time with shorty headers, go with longtube headers, catalytic converters do affect hp but I usually just leave them on or replace with high flow cats, true duals don't make much of a difference that it's noticeable, I hate flowmaster fart cans cause they rust out in couple years(live in salt belt). If emissions are not an issue just straight pipe it. Doesn't drone on highway until it shifts into 3rd to pass someone.

 

I personally have a 1999 4.8l sierra as well and find it has plenty of stock power that can be coaxed into it. I have 3.73 gears and have no problems squeeling the tires running stock.

 

Cold air intake is not really much of an upgrade, let's water into intake and more dust, plus you have to clean it more often, otherwise it actually hurts performance if not maintenanced properly

 

Don't hold me to everything I just posted, things I said may not be 100% correct as I just wrote this off the top of my head from own experience and past research.

 

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

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