I am about to put a lower mileage motor in my truck as mine now has 277,000 miles. I am going to install a aftermarket cam to get some more power out of the 5.3L. I need to know what cam would be good for a stock 5.3 with no other mods as of now. I will be doing the following but not right away:

Lower gears out back 4.10 or so
Stall converter for street/strip use
Headers and other bolt ons

I want a good sounding cam but dont want to have to swap springs and redo my heads. Also I know that too big on a stock motor is actually a loss in power, Ive been there before with my old mustang.

Anyhow. what do you guys suggest? I know tons of guys do this so what do you know about it?

 

Nobody has any info?

I have looked and looked and cant find any good info on a cam to swap in that i can use with my stock heads. Im starting to wonder if a cam swap is the best option for me for the gain im looking for. I just wanted to get it done because the motor will be sitting on the engine stand and thats the BESTTTT time to do it.

A friend told me about a GM Performace "LSA" but i cant find this cam. Ive found several that say LSA in the description but I dont know which one will work for me. I guess my next step is to call GM and ask them, but i doubt they are gonna say, "you dont need our ls6 springs, just use yours."

 

He was probably talkin bout the ASA cam. There are several options but adding the stronger springs is a must for you might break them or your valves will float in WOT. The stock Z06 cam added 50hp on the engine dyno to the 5.3l. The GM Hot Cam is a nice upgrade also. Go onto you tube and listne to some cammed 5.3 motors so you can get an idea. If you want numbers, here ya go... http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/genera...cam-guide.html

 

Copped a Z06 cam and springs for $250 so the cam upgrade is a go.

 

nice... just for the record though the lsa cam is from the cadillac cts-v.

 

i got the cam and springs today. ill be getting a motor in the next week or so. i really want to do a stall at the same time but my tranny is possibly the stocker at 273,000 miles so i dont know that a stall is a good idea at this point. but gears are definently the next order of business. the stock 3.42 with my 20's are absolutely killing me.

 

oh yeah... gears will help you out a lot... i went up two inches in tire size in my '02 with 3.42s and it almost fell on its face.

 

If I remember correctly the Z06 cam gives you good midrange power, but you loose lowend torque. Just a thought to consider.

 

Adding the stall wont harm your transmission any, if you have sufficient added coolers for the extra heat build up from the converter. And if your tranny goes out after a while, just have it rebuilt with the same new stall.

 

I know the stall wont "harm" my transmission but I do know that It will further strain it with heat and with it being stalled I would be leaning on it eve harder. I can rebuild it myself so Im not reall concerned when it does go out but If I can make it last a little longer it would be nice.