Advice on getting more hp/torque out of the engine.

[Jonathan Floyd]

   Hey guys I’m new to the forum as well the brand. I recently just bought a 2019 custom trail boss which only offers the 5.3. I wanted the 6.2 but that came with only the higher trims. I’m familiar with the 5.7 hemi and I’m kinda down about the 355 horsepower/ 383 torque compared to my hemi that I traded. What can I do exactly to get more power to the engine? 

[gennylight13]

I'm in the same boat as you, just came from a 2014 ram sport.  I am thinking a programmer but still waiting with you on this .

[Jonathan Floyd]

Yeah man I just had the 2018 ram 1500 bighorn and the 5.7 was a beast but it was a quad cab so no good for my growing family. I was trying to buy another ram but A crew cab 4x4 bighorn was about 45,000 they wouldn’t budge either the lowest I got was 43,000. Chevy offered me the trail boss for 43,000 and I like to go off the pavement and the price was something I couldn’t turn down. Plus ram was only giving me 21,000 for the truck Chevy gave me 26,000

[Sean D]

Procharger.

[Mountain boy]

Seeing how you bought the truck slow down and enjoy the ride until they crack the code and tunes come out. It will never be a Hemi. 

[Jonathan Floyd]

I don’t plan on tuning it for awhile since they pretty much gave me the extended warranty for free. I just want to plan now and understand what I  need to do to at least get up to the 400 range.

[AJMBLAZER]

Only a supercharger or turbo will give you noticeable gains without replacing engine parts. 

 

Headers and a straight through muffler would help but won’t be near 45hp. Maybe 20-25. 

 

Not to mention replacing the exhaust manifolds with headers would raise warranty related eyebrows concerning the heads and exhaust. 

 

There’s the 6.2L intake manifold and throttle body swap. Less than 10hp though. 

[CamGTP]

You're pretty much out of luck on anything that adds horsepower because there is no way to calibrate it for the changes. Not even swapping to 4.10's can be done yet.

[Nanotech Environmental]

The 5.3 is pretty close to the 5.7 Hemi in real world performance. To get noticeable improvements, the best way is forced induction, which will end up costing about what it would have cost to upgrade to the 6.2.....

[f8l vnm]

get you some 3:73s is your best bet 

[BlancoSilverado]

19 hours ago, AJMBLAZER said:

Only a supercharger or turbo will give you noticeable gains without replacing engine parts. 

 

Headers and a straight through muffler would help but won’t be near 45hp. Maybe 20-25. 

 

Not to mention replacing the exhaust manifolds with headers would raise warranty related eyebrows concerning the heads and exhaust. 

 

There’s the 6.2L intake manifold and throttle body swap. Less than 10hp though. 

The cool part about doing the 6.2L intake swap is that it moves your TQ and HP curve 400ish rpm lower. Better low end.

[Jonathan Floyd]

So for you guys that have been with GM for awhile what makes you pick the 5.3 over the 5.7 and 5.0? Just curious. Has the 5.3 been that reliable? 

[Grumpy Bear]

10 minutes ago, Jonathan Floyd said:

So for you guys that have been with GM for awhile what makes you pick the 5.3 over the 5.7 and 5.0? Just curious. Has the 5.3 been that reliable? 

 

And I have a front row seat!!!

 

 

[Jricharc]

14 minutes ago, Jonathan Floyd said:

So for you guys that have been with GM for awhile what makes you pick the 5.3 over the 5.7 and 5.0? Just curious. Has the 5.3 been that reliable? 

The fact that GM no longer offers the 5.0 or 5.7 is the reason folks pick the 5.3.  The 5.3 and the 6.2 are the only small block V8 options at this point.  

[Grumpy Bear]

21 minutes ago, Jricharc said:

The fact that GM no longer offers the 5.0 or 5.7 is the reason folks pick the 5.3.  The 5.3 and the 6.2 are the only small block V8 options at this point.  

Bet he meant 5.0 FORD or 5.7 DODGE HEMI. 

 

Okay, back to my popcorn.