02 Chevy Silverado 5.3 liter jerking when accelerating

[Black02Silverado]

Maybe overlooking things.  What kind of fuel?  Has the fuel filter been changed?  It is easy to get to under the driver side door on the frame rail. 

 

Check all the plugs and wires.

[Jsdirt]

Yeah, that's a good point, too. Never know. Could've run some water through the system. With today's fuel, that wouldn't be the first time.

[riverbanks]

Js,there is a 78 for sale in square body forum

[Jsdirt]

Nice, but too new for me. If it was a '72 or older, then I'd be interested. Thanks, though. 

[Chevy9880]

12 minutes ago, Jsdirt said:

Gotta love electronics. No rhyme or reason to anything. People wonder why I miss the old days of carburetors and points! Problems were cut and dry, and ALWAYS fixable with basic hand tools, and little to ZERO money.

 

There's a possibility you had a pin fitment issue at the connector on the old one, and unplugging, and plugging it back in fixed the connection. Hopefully it remains fixed.

 

I like the 5.3 after 3k RPM. Before that, they're slugs, IMO - the old 80's 350's (tuned correctly) will stomp them off the line. I've owned many that would. In fact, our '86 Grand Marquis with the 302 / 5.0 will jump my Silverado off the line with ease, spinning 1 tire (the one-tire fire, lol) the whole way - 2.73 gears back there, too. The Silverado with 3.73's can't leave rubber from a dead stop unless there's sand, or rain. If they'd build these things with the torque of the 80's and the horsepower of today, I'd be a happy camper.

Agreed but I have to say that I like that the response from the pedal to power is still good no delay when I hit the gas. A lot of the newer engines lack the response time. 

[Jsdirt]

My throttle response is good, but the power just isn't there. Been that way since it rolled off the showroom floor, and other trucks I test drove that year with the 5.3 were all the same. Even with the Corsa cat back, cold air intake, and Hypertech program, it's still a total dog off the line.

 

When I drove my buddy's Hemi for the first time, I lit the tires up, not even trying - that truck had FANTASTIC throttle response and torque. Night and day different from mine.

[Black02Silverado]

9 minutes ago, Jsdirt said:

My throttle response is good, but the power just isn't there. Been that way since it rolled off the showroom floor, and other trucks I test drove that year with the 5.3 were all the same. Even with the Corsa cat back, cold air intake, and Hypertech program, it's still a total dog off the line.

 

When I drove my buddy's Hemi for the first time, I lit the tires up, not even trying - that truck had FANTASTIC throttle response and torque. Night and day different from mine.

My 2002 runs great.  The tune from Black Bear Performance really woke it up and I can spin the rear tires off the line.  Before the tune it would just move along. 

[Jsdirt]

I would love to get one, but I can't trust this thing as it is. Differential completely smoked with missing tips of spider gears at 97k miles, and poor oil analysis results going back to around 60-70k miles (started the oil burning at 50k). It can barely handle the Hypertech mechanic-in-a-can tune, lol.

[Black02Silverado]

10 hours ago, Jsdirt said:

I would love to get one, but I can't trust this thing as it is. Differential completely smoked with missing tips of spider gears at 97k miles, and poor oil analysis results going back to around 60-70k miles (started the oil burning at 50k). It can barely handle the Hypertech mechanic-in-a-can tune, lol.

Might not have anything to do with it but on my 2002, it started an oil leak that dripped on the concrete.  I can't stand leaks.  So in the process of finding the leak, I changed out the intake gasket and the cover below that gasket along with the valve covers.  Now before all this and before the leak it would use a qt of oil in 5k miles and would smoke on start up if I towed my trailer, (aka putting a load on the engine) but once I changed out those gaskets, it doesn't use any oil now and no more smoke on start up.  Just an  FYI.  Currently have 197k and all is well.

[Jsdirt]

Wouldn't shock me one bit if the gaskets failed at 60k miles on mine. I don't even have 100k on her yet. Been nothing but trouble since day 1.

 

Thanks for the heads up. Might smoke test her if I ever get the motivation, just to see.