AFE Mods

Justin Wilt · August 1, 2019

Bought myself a new Custom Trail Boss for my first truck, have driven about 3500 miles on it and I can’t get enough. While bored at work I’ve been looking at parts and mods to milk anything extra the engine has to give and came across the AFE site. I’m interested in buying their cat back and intake and then afterwards getting their scorcher tuner (AFM engine). I know from reading that many of you guys are doubtful that it’s worth it but does anyone have any input on the quality of AFE? Also does anyone know how they come up with their power claims? They seem a bit....optimistic lol.

KEEPER OF SECRETS · August 2, 2019

They make very good products.

I'm watching their specific products myself for the future.

Here's a few things I've noticed with the aftermarket.

- Most tuners are shy of modding any 2019's because of the computers. Most all of them do not know that the Custom and Custom Trail Boss with the L82 5.3L 6spd is unchanged and there are other tuners who are tuning them.

- It's a 5.3L. Freeing up the exhaust front to back, and adding a cold air intake kit will net you a nice seat of the pants increase. But you're not going to see 50-60 rwhp, maybe 25-30 if you're lucky. Without the Flex-Fuel option and E85, you really can't tweak the timing tables much and see significant power and torque increases. Sure, a cam swap with all the mods will net some power, but you loose a lot of smooth-street ability IMO.

- It's gonna be at least a few more months or 5 before we really see Supercharger and turbocharger kits available for these trucks. I'm looking forward to updates on new products and force induction kits from the PRI show, followed by SEMA show at the end of the year.

In reality, most new owners will get used to the power after a few months, especially if it's their first truck and want more. In this case, once you get to the 50-60 rwhp's worth of N/A upgrade, your street ability starts to suffer and it gets old if it's a daily driven truck. This is where a supercharger kit or a turbo kit really shine. Serious hp upgrades without loosing the street ability, but the downside is the initial cost of admission.

I myself am a turbo guy, but would love to have a decent sized supercharger kit for my new truck in the future.

A couple of things you can do in the meantime, would be the easy to do exhaust mods, stock replacement K&N filter, run a few tanks of 93 pump gas (if you currently run 87 or 89 now) and when conditions are favorable, turn off the traction control and see how it feels. Trust me, you will notice the difference. The free hp from the exhaust mods and no traction control nannies, along with good timing tables in the tune from running 93 pump gas, can really wake the 5.3L up. That and cooler ambient temps. Just use caution with TC off as it can get very addictive. That being said, I'd never turn off TC in wet conditions.

Sorry to ramble on. I can assure you though, once the serious hp parts start rolling out from the aftermarket, you will see owners posting on this sit so stay tuned.

Congrats on your first truck.

-Patrick-

Justin Wilt · August 4, 2019

Awesome reply, good to know and thanks, will stay tuned and fight the urge to spend haha.

Justin Wilt · December 29, 2019

So got my new exhaust and CAI installed, sounds great and I love them. Only hiccup is that I have a little rattle while idling that I believe is my heat shield? Anyone ran into this and have an easy remedy?

SquireSCA · December 29, 2019

On 8/2/2019 at 5:45 PM, KEEPER OF SECRETS said:

They make very good products.

I'm watching their specific products myself for the future.

Here's a few things I've noticed with the aftermarket.

- Most tuners are shy of modding any 2019's because of the computers. Most all of them do not know that the Custom and Custom Trail Boss with the L82 5.3L 6spd is unchanged and there are other tuners who are tuning them.

- It's a 5.3L. Freeing up the exhaust front to back, and adding a cold air intake kit will net you a nice seat of the pants increase. But you're not going to see 50-60 rwhp, maybe 25-30 if you're lucky. Without the Flex-Fuel option and E85, you really can't tweak the timing tables much and see significant power and torque increases. Sure, a cam swap with all the mods will net some power, but you loose a lot of smooth-street ability IMO.

- It's gonna be at least a few more months or 5 before we really see Supercharger and turbocharger kits available for these trucks. I'm looking forward to updates on new products and force induction kits from the PRI show, followed by SEMA show at the end of the year.

In reality, most new owners will get used to the power after a few months, especially if it's their first truck and want more. In this case, once you get to the 50-60 rwhp's worth of N/A upgrade, your street ability starts to suffer and it gets old if it's a daily driven truck. This is where a supercharger kit or a turbo kit really shine. Serious hp upgrades without loosing the street ability, but the downside is the initial cost of admission.

I myself am a turbo guy, but would love to have a decent sized supercharger kit for my new truck in the future.

A couple of things you can do in the meantime, would be the easy to do exhaust mods, stock replacement K&N filter, run a few tanks of 93 pump gas (if you currently run 87 or 89 now) and when conditions are favorable, turn off the traction control and see how it feels. Trust me, you will notice the difference. The free hp from the exhaust mods and no traction control nannies, along with good timing tables in the tune from running 93 pump gas, can really wake the 5.3L up. That and cooler ambient temps. Just use caution with TC off as it can get very addictive. That being said, I'd never turn off TC in wet conditions.

Sorry to ramble on. I can assure you though, once the serious hp parts start rolling out from the aftermarket, you will see owners posting on this sit so stay tuned.

Congrats on your first truck.

-Patrick-

How much difference does disabling the T/C really make? Are you talking about just pushing the button, or holding it for several seconds and having it disable T/C and Stabilitrac?