5.3l Tahoe to 6.0l or 6.2l? Options? Advice?

[RedFred]

Wow guys! I wasn't expecting this big of a response at all off of the bat, so I've got a lot of reading to do and a lot of terms in here that aren't familiar to me.

So far the only thing I've done is reached out to a family friend and see what he could do for a 6l and 6.2l swap. If it's within my budget, that sounds like the simplest and most effective thing for me to do.

I had no idea there were so many different things we could do to big trucks lol. I always assumed the options were mostly for speedy little cars!

7 hours ago, Broke_Audio_Addict said:

No reason to swap, that 5.3 is capable of making some serious power when built.

Invest in a head, cam, intake, and a tune to start with.

Rearend will make a huge difference in acceleration depending on what factory gear you have.

I have the 3.73 rear end, I'll look into the other upgrades you mentioned for sure

6 hours ago, YukonXL04 said:

I have a 04 Yukon XL with a 5.3 and 3.73 gears. CAI, Borla muffler, 05 electric fans and a black bear custom tune. It really woke the truck up, much more responsive. Made it much more fun to drive. Would like to do cam and all that, but it's my family hauler and I don't want to lose any reliability from it. You might look into those mods first and go from there. I think the only other thing I might do is speed engineering long tube headers and full exhaust and a retune and call it good.

Do you happen to remember how much you paid for those upgrades? And did you do any of it yourself, or pay someone to do it?

6 hours ago, baron_of_bass said:

I LS swapped my Silverado from a 5.3 to a LS2 with a cam and lifters and Springs, 4.56s and posi. I'm on 20s with 33s. This shit moves for a heavy ass truck. My plan was to leave it NA but I'll probably SC it. Only reason I'm going to SC it is because I'm planning on doing suspension work (mazulla) and putting 37s on it. Swapping might be be more expensive than you think. If I were you I'd do what some have suggested and mod your current block. 

Edit: take it to someone to tune it as well. That will really wake it up. 

I'm not familiar with LS swaps, or NA or SC. It looks like vortec are the truck engines, while LS are from Corvettes and stuff (faster cars). What does NA or SC mean?

edit: naturally aspirated vs supercharged?

5 hours ago, Karkov said:

My 5.3 feels gutless too but its not worth upgrading for me.  Doing the rear end will be the easiest, cheapest, fastest (IMO) of the mods listed and may yield the results you are looking for.  Will not help your top speed but will help with acceleration and may make it feel zippy which may fulfill your desires...  Might hurt your top speed, keeping your engine at higher RPM's on the highway and cause worse MPG if that matters.  Otherwise all good options.  You can get a tune and should be able to notice it with really only costing some money and not having to touch anything physically really...  CAI is cheap and easy and fast but with yield little results.  IDK man...you must plan on keeping that vehicle huh?  5.3 is a good motor like people have said.  If you are going to do bol- ons make sure you get the tune AFTER all the things you want installed.  I don't know how serious you are for power but yea you could start replacing shit like Broke has said...it's hard to know your own personal HP goals honestly, are we talking 20 RWHP only or 60+ RWHP because there is a big difference, and because of the low HP in these I bet you could "feel" 20RWHP but wouldn't be tons more power and barely noticeable, but if you do like everyone is saying and/or add a SC and you see 100RWHP increase...well...that will be an entirely new beats on the roads!!!!!

I will be following

All I got is a CAI on my Tahoe and I could hear it suck more air and throttle got a little more responsive but otherwise I couldn't tell much of a difference because my bottle neck is not air getting to the engine, but if you coupled it with other things it would do more.  Just an FYI........

Haha, I came from the 4.3l 6 cylinder S10 Blazer, so initially the Tahoe felt like a beast and a half!

But after driving that Escalade... man! I started looking around to just buy an Escalade outright, but couldn't find anything anywhere close to the condition of this tahoe (for under $6k).

Hopefully I'll keep this vehicle for 5+ years. I paid $3500 for it, and I'm the 2nd owner, it has never driven on winter roads, and the previous owner was meticulous. It's now the nicest vehicle in our family lol.

I honestly don't really knowing anything about HP, or RWHP vs normal, whatever. I'm just looking to get a bit more "oomph" off stop lights or merging onto the highway.

[reedal]

If you're not there already, check out tahoeyukonforum.com. It's a well of information just like here, more inclined to what you're looking to do. Not that the advice here for vehicles is bad, just it's actually centered for our vehicles there

[RedFred]

2 hours ago, reedal said:

If you're not there already, check out tahoeyukonforum.com. It's a well of information just like here, more inclined to what you're looking to do. Not that the advice here for vehicles is bad, just it's actually centered for our vehicles there

Yep, I just joined up there and will be reading and posting soon hopefully?

I pulled all the audio equipment out of the Tahoe and went for some runs, and the best I could get for 0-60 was around 12 seconds. Everything I'm reading says that I should be around 8.5 seconds...

So far the most price effective solutions look like a Magnaflow Exhaust, K&N Instake, and a DiabLew tune for it all, with the emphasis on the tune.

From what I'm reading, GM made these vehicles with a lot left on the table that these tunes can really bring out both for power and increased MPG.

Research in 3.73 vs 4.11 rear end shows it's probably not worth the time and money..

[Broke_Audio_Addict]

Dont waste your money on a diablo tune, it won't make a big difference in your truck.

Intake and exhaust will probably only net you 10hp and could actually cost you power do to the exhaust being too big for an otherwise stock engine.

A lot of people think exhaust is a good first mod but in reality its usually not for an otherwise stock vehicle,

exhaust velocity is important, go too big or too small and you do more harm than good.

[RedFred]

16 minutes ago, Broke_Audio_Addict said:

Dont waste your money on a diablo tune, it won't make a big difference in your truck.

Intake and exhaust will probably only net you 10hp and could actually cost you power do to the exhaust being too big for an otherwise stock engine.

A lot of people think exhaust is a good first mod but in reality its usually not for an otherwise stock vehicle,

exhaust velocity is important, go too big or too small and you do more harm than good.

Earlier you said to get a tune, now you're saying not to? Is it just Diablo tunes you think aren't as good?

So far the starting point is 12 second 0-60 in the tahoe, and high 7s to low 8s for 0-60 in my buddy's Escalade.

[Broke_Audio_Addict]

Getting the tune or not is dependent on what you do, and a tune with your truck being pretty much stock is a waste.

If you do some mods then get it tuned you are better off getting a dyno tune.

[Ron36]

I'm not a GM fan but there are tons of upgrades for a 5.3L U should not have any problems getting power out of that motor , do not up grade to 6.0. Just remember more air in needs more air out  and fuel pressures is important.  It all depends on what u can do yourself . I'd start with heads , cam and exhaust kit , it will come with a tune. Start there but if u have 800lbs of subs and enclosure your wasting your time .

[RedFred]

1 hour ago, Broke_Audio_Addict said:

Getting the tune or not is dependent on what you do, and a tune with your truck being pretty much stock is a waste.

If you do some mods then get it tuned you are better off getting a dyno tune.

Yep that much I understand. Get the tune after I'm finished with whatever I do.

Everything I've read though has shown that a tune and no other modifications, yielded the biggest gain in 0-60 acceleration.

A lot of people who just daily drive like I do, say they get the $400 tune on every vehicle and it makes a huge difference.

54 minutes ago, Ron36 said:

I'm not a GM fan but there are tons of upgrades for a 5.3L U should not have any problems getting power out of that motor , do not up grade to 6.0. Just remember more air in needs more air out  and fuel pressures is important.  It all depends on what u can do yourself . I'd start with heads , cam and exhaust kit , it will come with a tune. Start there but if u have 800lbs of subs and enclosure your wasting your time .

I've only got two 10s and basically stock electrical. Less weight than most of these vehicles?

[Broke_Audio_Addict]

Some peoples huge difference is all in their heads, numbers dont lie.

[YukonXL04]

6 hours ago, RedFred said:

Wow guys! I wasn't expecting this big of a response at all off of the bat, so I've got a lot of reading to do and a lot of terms in here that aren't familiar to me.

So far the only thing I've done is reached out to a family friend and see what he could do for a 6l and 6.2l swap. If it's within my budget, that sounds like the simplest and most effective thing for me to do.

I had no idea there were so many different things we could do to big trucks lol. I always assumed the options were mostly for speedy little cars!

I have the 3.73 rear end, I'll look into the other upgrades you mentioned for sure

Do you happen to remember how much you paid for those upgrades? And did you do any of it yourself, or pay someone to do it?

I'm not familiar with LS swaps, or NA or SC. It looks like vortec are the truck engines, while LS are from Corvettes and stuff (faster cars). What does NA or SC mean?

edit: naturally aspirated vs supercharged?

Haha, I came from the 4.3l 6 cylinder S10 Blazer, so initially the Tahoe felt like a beast and a half!

But after driving that Escalade... man! I started looking around to just buy an Escalade outright, but couldn't find anything anywhere close to the condition of this tahoe (for under $6k).

Hopefully I'll keep this vehicle for 5+ years. I paid $3500 for it, and I'm the 2nd owner, it has never driven on winter roads, and the previous owner was meticulous. It's now the nicest vehicle in our family lol.

I honestly don't really knowing anything about HP, or RWHP vs normal, whatever. I'm just looking to get a bit more "oomph" off stop lights or merging onto the highway.

I believe the tune was 3-400, the electric fans were about 150, the muffler was 100 installed and cold air intake was 60ish

Black bear was great to deal with on the tune, not a dyno tune but a 1hr ride around log and tune. Big reason for tune was to turn on the computer pin for the electric fan swap to work just like the factory ones do. I love my e fans. Ice cold a.c. even when idling for a long time. Big deal with kids and living in Texas. But also takes the load off the engine.

Muffler just added a little extra sound, doubt j gained any by it. 

Also did a big trans cooler but I tow stuff all the time. 

I did the fans, intake and trans cooler myself. Paid 30 to weld the muffler on.

The big thing on the tune is the shifting. It shifts so much faster now, no hesitation, just goes. I drove my uncle's 4.8 single cab and couldn't stand it, the lag and lack of throttle response had me wanting my Yukon back.