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Truck Mods for more power and torque


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I am wanting to add some mods to my truck to get more power and torque and performance. I really want it for towing my boat, hunting trailer, camper, cattle trailer, and for better overall performance. I drive the truck about once per week because I have a commuter car. I am looking for suggestions as to what you recommend for mods and why? I have gotten a few ideas from a lot of people, but I wanted to see what GM owners thought and have done in the past.

 

I have a 2007 Silverado LT extended cab with the 5.3 liter. It has right around 150,000 miles on it and has been an awesome motor. I am thinking about selling it and getting a 6.0 swap, but dont know if I can afford that right now. 

 

And GO!

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I’ve researched this quite a bit and it seems low end torque, the kind you use while towing, will not be improved by nearly every reasonable performance cam job, so in my opinion I’d totally forget it.  Those 600hp monster cam motors have no low end torque.  

 

Gear ratio is probably the most important thing you could do, but only if it makes $ sense...and if you have the worst gears.

 

A 6.0 swap, unless you are mechanically inclined to do all it yourself, is not worth it IMO.     I believe the biggest benefit of the 2500hd 6.0 over the 1500 5.3 is axle load rating and rear 4.10 gears, a 4l80 variant transmission...and a much bigger gas tank ;)

 

the 5.3 goes great for what it is.  I don’t think it’s really reasonable to turn it into a 3/4 copycat when you can just get a 3/4 truck.    I’d say if you can tow it and stop it just fine don’t rock the boat.  Just press the peddle down further!

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On 11/9/2018 at 1:06 PM, cgarldt11 said:

I am wanting to add some mods to my truck...

I have a 2007 Silverado LT extended cab with the 5.3 liter...

 

Which 5.3 Motor does it have?  Is it 2WD or 4WD?  What size are your tires?

 

A tune will do wonders for the engine and transmission, your best bang for the buck.  If you have an LMG or LC9 engine and have E85 available, run that, it's like race gas to these motors.  I just did some local towing on E85 in my truck and it actually got better mileage while hauling and idling while loading.

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A Tune would be your immediate and best bet, E85 gives horrible gas mileage but you can modify your 5.3 to except it with tune and parts. I ran it in my flex fuel 5.3 and then started visiting the dealership with idle issues amongst multiple other issues because I ran E85 even though I had a flex fuel 5.3. I visited the gas station twice as much too. The theory behind E85 is good but be careful modifying your vehicle to except fuel that it’s not meant to take. Good luck

 

 

Sent from above

 

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9 hours ago, swathdiver said:

 

Which 5.3 Motor does it have?  Is it 2WD or 4WD?  What size are your tires?

 

A tune will do wonders for the engine and transmission, your best bang for the buck.  If you have an LMG or LC9 engine and have E85 available, run that, it's like race gas to these motors.  I just did some local towing on E85 in my truck and it actually got better mileage while hauling and idling while loading.

I dont know what you mean by "which 5.3 motor do I have"? If you are asking if it is a flex fuel motor, it is not. Straight gas and even if it was flexfuel, I would not add that stuff to my motor. It is 4WD and I have 33x12.5x20 tires on the truck.

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3 hours ago, cgarldt11 said:

I dont know what you mean by "which 5.3 motor do I have"? If you are asking if it is a flex fuel motor, it is not. Straight gas and even if it was flexfuel, I would not add that stuff to my motor. It is 4WD and I have 33x12.5x20 tires on the truck.

Yes, there were three 5.3 V8s available, so you have the LY5.  So gasoline only for you.  

 

Those big tires have killed your effective gear ratio.  To get it back or increase it, means going with new gears.

 

If you originally ran 265-70-17s and have 3.73 gears, your truck turned about 2775 in 3rd and 1925 in 4th at 70 mph.  Those larger tires lower the revs to about 2700 and 1875 respectively.

 

3.90s will turn about 50 more rpms over the original configuration.

 

With regards to FlexFuel, I was the same way.  Now, I use it almost exclusively around town, it's free horsepower and saves us quite a bit of money.

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I wouldn't go through the hassle of swapping in a 6.0 or selling yours to buy one.  I don't think it makes that much difference.  I have a 6.2 and it still downshifts a lot and gets horrible gas mileage.  I have cam also so it gets horrible gas mileage even without towing.  nothing beats a diesel towing.  before this truck, I had a 6.4 f250 and it never downshifted.  it would haul a car on a car hauler and still get 16mpg.  the 6.7 f250 and 6.6 duramax's get even better than that.  buddy of mine pulls his rzr with 35" tires and gets 20mpg deleted.  if you don't want to get a diesel, I would look at sc or turbo.

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17 hours ago, swathdiver said:

A shorter tire turns more rpms.  Your "r25s" has me curious though.  Did you mean 15" wheels?

Are you saying that the bigger tires are making me lose horsepower and rpm's in the engine? I am not the smartest mechanic, nor I claim to be one, but I dont think that is correct. I could be wrong though.

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Are you saying that the bigger tires are making me lose horsepower and rpm's in the engine? I am not the smartest mechanic, nor I claim to be one, but I dont think that is correct. I could be wrong though.

Larger diameter tires give you an effectively lower final drive. It has no effect on the engine other than that the engine has less mechanical advantage to get the truck moving, and is turning slower for a given groundspeed, provided it's in the same gear.

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

 

 

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