What should I do?

[Pyrce]

Hi, I have a 2015 Chevy Silverado 1500 crew cab with the 5.3L. It is an ltz and it has 4wd with the 5ft bed. I recently did some cosmetic modifications I had been wanting to do along with some simple performance mods such as a cold air intake, breather hoses, air box delete, upgraded driveshaft, and an exhaust. I also did a cat delete and have a 3 1/2 in lift. Overall, I noticed a decent gain in low end torque, horsepower, and the throttles responsiveness. Now, I am unsure of what to do. I daily drive the truck and want it to be practical but powerful. I also am not looking for modifications that would require puling the engine. I'm open to any recommendations and suggestions. I appreciate the help greatly and thank you for your time!

[CamGTP]

The airbox delete is dumb, you'll be sucking in hot air. The stock airbox flows more air than your engine can breath, so it's not a problem. Just do a airaid intake tube for better intake sound and less engine bay clutter.

 

Upgraded driveshaft is only needed if you are going over the speed limiter, aka about 100mph. Not likely you are doing that on the regular.

 

Get it tuned by someone who really knows what they are doing and that will wake it up a ton. Tuning the 6 speed transmission does a lot for making it feel better.

[Pyrce]

27 minutes ago, CamGTP said:

The airbox delete is dumb, you'll be sucking in hot air. The stock airbox flows more air than your engine can breath, so it's not a problem. Just do a airaid intake tube for better intake sound and less engine bay clutter.

 

Upgraded driveshaft is only needed if you are going over the speed limiter, aka about 100mph. Not likely you are doing that on the regular.

 

Get it tuned by someone who really knows what they are doing and that will wake it up a ton. Tuning the 6 speed transmission does a lot for making it feel better.

I kind of said the wrong thing. I have an intake tube. I also got the driveshaft mainly because the stock one was not long enough with the lift kit. I appreciate the suggestion, I want to get it tuned but im struggling on finding a good place. 

[KARNUT]

6 hours ago, Pyrce said:

Hi, I have a 2015 Chevy Silverado 1500 crew cab with the 5.3L. It is an ltz and it has 4wd with the 5ft bed. I recently did some cosmetic modifications I had been wanting to do along with some simple performance mods such as a cold air intake, breather hoses, air box delete, upgraded driveshaft, and an exhaust. I also did a cat delete and have a 3 1/2 in lift. Overall, I noticed a decent gain in low end torque, horsepower, and the throttles responsiveness. Now, I am unsure of what to do. I daily drive the truck and want it to be practical but powerful. I also am not looking for modifications that would require puling the engine. I'm open to any recommendations and suggestions. I appreciate the help greatly and thank you for your time!

I always use handheld tuners. There’s several some that give you lots of control if you want to learn. I went with the basic premium tune. I would raise the shift points and max RPM. Raised the cut off at 130 MPH, set the TM at 50 percent. My 14 was E-85 compatible using that was a boost in HP and TQ. If your truck doesn’t have that, it’s an easy conversion according to threads found on here. 

[MikeBMW]

On 7/3/2024 at 7:09 AM, KARNUT said:

I always use handheld tuners. There’s several some that give you lots of control if you want to learn. I went with the basic premium tune.

Agreed, I used the Superchips F5 Flashpaq from Holley for the premium tune and tire size correction.
I left the transmission alone because I'm not versed in the idiosyncrasies of doing such.

https://www.holley.com/products/tuners_and_programmers/handheld_tuners/superchips_f5_flashpaq/parts/2847

Edited July 6, 2024 by MikeBMW

[Black02Silverado]

On 7/3/2024 at 12:41 AM, Pyrce said:

I kind of said the wrong thing. I have an intake tube. I also got the driveshaft mainly because the stock one was not long enough with the lift kit. I appreciate the suggestion, I want to get it tuned but im struggling on finding a good place. 

There are many options out there.  Black Bear Performance is who I used and they made a difference on my 2002 Silverado and our on our 2016 Suburban.  I converted the Suburban over to E85 and they turned on the ethanol table and tuned it accordingly. 

[superdave160]

I had a BlackBear tune on my bone stock 2017 Silverado and I was very happy with it.  However, when you start to modify things, then you need a dyno tune to properly update all of the tables in the tune file so that the fuel/air mixture and other parameters are correct for your engine.  That is also the issue with other "canned" tunes.  They may make your truck better, but a dyno tune will get it much closer to perfect.

 

I had a DOD delete, stage 2 cam and l86 intake and throttle body installed on my 5.3L engine.  I recorded a file and had BlackBear update my tune.  After I installed the tune, the engine would die whenever I took my foot off the throttle.  I took it to a local "tuner."  This guy worked with a tuner on the east coast.  The local guy would record data, send it to the east coast guy, then the tune would be modified and loaded.  The "tuner" had my truck 3 times, for 3 days each time, and didn't make any progress.  I found a shop in Nashville, TN who did an actual dyno tune, and he resolved all of my engine issues.  He told me that the WOT tune was spot on, which is what BlackBear did (they have you record a WOT run so that they can modify your tune using that data).  However, the normal driving portion of the tune was not right until the shop in Nashville fixed my tune.  And before I took it to Nashville, I thought that I could figure it out and fix it myself.  NOPE!  Way too much going on in all of those tables.

 

My recommendation is to save yourself time, money and pain by finding a shop that does a dyno tune.  I believe that you will be much happier with the result.

[Pyrce]

Thank you!