6.0 liter performance

Mike's 2500HD · December 31, 2003

I was wondering what you guys with 6.0 liters have done performance wise. I am trying to see some where around the 425 HP mark and some where around 450 to 500 lbs of torque from my 6.0 liter. These motors seem to be quite capable of making that kind of power. I would like to hear mods have had the best results. I currently have a flowmaster cat back exhaust...but I will be doing some more mods here shortly.

YZRider · December 31, 2003

I have been doing the same research for a couple of months now. From what I have found you may as well foget all the small mods, that will just end up costing you lots of money for little gains. The only reliable way I see of getting what you are looking for is with a supercharger. I am ordering one for my truck in January. It would appear that the crank horsepower will go from about 300 to 450ish, while rear wheel horsepower(225) will jump about 130! As far as torque, I saw specs on my '03 1500HD listed at 365lb/ft and while I have been unable to find the supercharged numbers, I expect they will be around 500? I am not really sure on this and I know there are some very knowledgable people on here that may have these #'s. I checked out the Kenne Bell and while it sounds good I won't go that way as you have to ship your PCM to them for reprogramming and I am in Canada. I have seen nothing but positive comments on the Magnuson Radix Intercooled and that will be the one I use. There are several threads running about this right now and Durkin just had one installed last week and Tom Byrne recommends it too. There are going to be some actual #'s posted for the 5.3 on this site but I haven't been able to find actual #'s on the 6.0

Steve

Shaners · December 31, 2003

Tom, from TBYRNE Motorsports (one of our preffered vendors), got some very impressive numbers from a 6.0L on one of his previous trucks.

1BADHD · December 31, 2003

You can hit the 400hp range fairly easy. There is two ways to go about it. You can spend $4-5k and strap on a supercharger. Or spend about $2500 for a custom grind cam, LS1 Edit tune and a set of Ported and Polished heads. That will get you 400hp. The second way is the route I am going. Think about it......spend $2k less to get to the same point. Save the other $2k for later on when you get used to the power. By then have enough saved up to buy the supercharger and strap on another 100 hp. 500hp, big ass truck. I bet that will surprise a few ricers! LOL!

YZRider · December 31, 2003

Is that for sure? 100hp from a pair of heads and a cam is very impressive. Where did you get the info from? I could probably be happy with that and it's a lot less coin. I am leaning more to the supercharger as it is bolt on, reprogrammer included and done. 130 additional rear wheel horsepower will more than take care of my towing needs. I don't even plan on doing a cat-back, unless my pressure check on the exhaust, after the install, tells me otherwise. There are cheaper superchargers as well, I know there is another Magnuson for under $4000 US and there are several centrifugals and turbo kits available, I guess it depends on what type of power and application you are looking at. The Whipple sounds OK too, I just dont want to add injectors to the dry manifold or piggyback the PCM.

Steve

1BADHD · December 31, 2003

Well, the 6.0 is very, very mild from the factory. The cam is like a 190/197 with a 114 LSA. Over at LS1Tech, I have seen dynos on the 6.0 with a pretty mild cam installed and seeing 32-38 rwhp. Slap on a ported and polished set of heads on there and you can see an additional 35 rwhp easy. Get a custom tune for it, Westers, Nelsons, whatever it may be and you will be knocking the 100hp area. I forgot the members name. He has this set up, plus electric fans, underdrive pulley and headers.......he dynoed at 402 rwhp. Pretty impressive for a N/A 6.0.

8100HD · December 31, 2003

Hey Matt, is the member you are talking about BLK6.0HD?

1BADHD · December 31, 2003

Hey Matt, is the member you are talking about BLK6.0HD?

Dont think so......he has just a BIG cam and headers. But he is another that gained massive hp from just a cam. I think he put down 330 rwhp with just cam and headers. NO TUNING! He tunes it he will be in the 350 rwhp range. Factor in the drivline losses and he is knocking 360-380 flywheel hp now! Install P&P heads and viloa. 400rwhp. I think he is shooting for 500 rwhp by time he is done.

Chevyfreek · December 31, 2003

That does sound about right for a good cam and a set of heads with a custom tune to go along with it. The 6.0L is a good motor and can see some good gains in HP. Some guys are getting over 40 additional HP from there 6.0L just with the 93 octane tune from westers. That is a noticable difference for the money. You will need a custom tune if you do any kind of engine work for sure. I agree that some of this aftermarket stuff just does not give you the gains they claim to, not to mention the prices of some of this stuff.

Mike's 2500HD · December 31, 2003

I have been thinking about going with Westers, some sort of air filter system ( K@N's FIPK, or Brute Force, something along those lines), and a set set of power pullies. I think I could see 375 to 385 HP from the crank by adding those mods with my cat back exhaust. What do you guys think? The truck is still under warrenty and I don't want to do anything to void it right now.

Thanks

1BADHD · December 31, 2003

I have power pulleys, dual exhaust, UPD (NSV) (NSV) Intake, electric fans and the Westers. Can get a much closer combo on someone elses truck. The stock numbers for a 6.0 to the rear wheels are about 269hp 306tq. I seen the dyno sheets from that run. Anyway, with all those mods you would be more in like the 320-330 rwhp range. No where near 375. At the crank maybe, but ot rear wheel. The more mods you add, the harder the hp is to come by. If your wanting tried and true performance advice, www.LS1Tech.com is the place to go. The guys are dyno whores. They dyno everything they do. Helps you pick and choose mods to get the numbers your wanting to see.

From dynos over there the pulleys average about 8-10rwhp, the fans are in the 15-17 rwhp range, UPD (NSV) is good for 12 rwhp and tuning can vary. With a good tune you can get 20-35 rwhp. So you strap all that on you get...55 or so rwhp. Beleive it or not. On the 6.0, exhasut does very little. The stock system flows very well. You might get 5-7 rwhp. Hope this helps some.

MrQuadrasteer · December 31, 2003

Sorry if this is stupid, but what the heck is UPD (NSV) (nsv) ???

I'll mod mine eventually- good info here.

Bitchen rig, BADHD.

Mike's 2500HD · January 1, 2004

Thanks !BADHD....sounds like you have done all the mods that I have been looking at. How does your truck feel...can you feel a big difference with those mods. Did your gas milage increase? Again...thanks for the info.

Mike

1BADHD · January 2, 2004

Well, my dad has the same truck as me. I mean down to the exact sticker price. When I drive his, I find myself pushing the gas farther and farther to get going. Where as in mine there is not near the pedal effort. I run cirlces aruond his truck. When we are both towing a good size load on the interstate, I will get along side of him, we will pin the loud pedal at the same time and I will steadily pull away. I say they are very worth while and very reasonably priced mods. as far as milage, the way you see my truck now, I get about 13-13.5 mpg on average.