Corverado SS

I have the iron 6.0 ripped out and bear.. within the week I'm putting it back together. I've had the gaskets and the oil pump ordered but I need HELP!!! I don't know what cam to put in the engine! The original cam comes has a .467 lift on the intake and I want a lift in the .580-.650 range... I'm not sure what brand to go with or what lift. Also i hear that high-ratio rocker arms are a must when swapping cams. The stock ratio on those are 1:7:1 and I have no clue what ratio would be good for whatever cam I want.

The engine has been machined so I'm not sure what size my cylinders are at this point.

One more thing... The intake that's going on the engine is the original truck intake because of the torque it creates... but since this truck isn't going to be on the strip much I want to have the nice classy corvette intake with the ls2 covers, but i've heard that the intake will not fit because of the heads that come on the LQ4. Anyone hear any different? Any help is appreciated!

custm2500

iTrader: (10)

The best intake for power and not spending a fortune is the TBSS truck intake. If you want to run a low profile intake you have to get an intake and heads that both have cathidral ports or rectangle ports(sorry forget if they are called anything differant). So if you truely want the low profile intake you should be able to find a set of stock take off heads that will be an upgrade over yuor 317s and allow the low profile intake.

P.S. If you decide to stay with a truck intake I have a nearly new TBSS one for sale. Message me if you are interested.

rjwz28

Don't listen to this guy. All gen 3 smallblocks can use either the truck or the car intake; they are ALL cathedral port from 1997-2005. The LS7 head (introduced in 2006 on the Z06 only) uses its own port design that doesn't match up with anything else, and the L92 head that debuted on the Escalade for 2007 (and is now fitted to the LS3, L92, L99, L76, LY6, L94, L9H, LSA, LS9, LH6, and LFA) also has a different port design. That's three different port designs in the LS family, and any intake will fit on any engine with the same ports.
In short, if you don't mind the loss of low-end torque, feel free to toss an LS1 car intake on your cathedral-port truck engine.

rjwz28

Also, the 4.8 and 5.3 still use the cathedral-port heads to this day. The L92/LS3 factory heads require a 4-inch bore to clear the larger valves, while the more intense factory LS7 head requires a 4.125-inch bore, so GM continues to use the cathedral-port on all engines below six liters. The Trailblazer SS intake mentioned by custm2500 is factory-installed on all truck heads from 2007.5-current and is a performance improvement over the original cathedral-port truck intake. Since you are looking to install the Corvette fuel rail covers, get the cathedral-port car intake and go for it.

Corverado SS

That's what I originally thought. Thanks a lot that could've turned bad. I know I'm going to lose the low-end torque, but I'm hardly at the strip with this truck anyways thats why I wanted to give it that show-truck look and what better to do it with than making an LQ4 look like a corvette engine? I'm also getting a new rear-end for it with 3.73 gears but with posi-track. I guess if I ever do take it to the track Im going to have to put some fat tires on it. Thanks again! I'm new to all this, so I'm learning as I'm going!

rjwz28

Lower gears like 4.10s will help make up for the adjustment to your powerband that you will experience by putting a bigger cam and the car intake in your truck. You'll love this setup coming from the 4.8.

skeet

iTrader: (18)

lets see first off 1:7 rockers are fine you wont need new ones unless you just wanna raise the lift of the cam. your cam choice will come later after you decide what else youre wanting to do and accomplish with the engine, now if the block has been machined you deffinitely need to find out the bore size before actually doing anything else specially buying gaskets or parts. break out the micrometers and start measuring.

what did the machine shop tell you as for as bore size ? why did it go to a machine shop? to be freshened up?

batboy

iTrader: (6)

I agree with Skeet, stay with the stock ratio 1.7 rockers. As for what cam, you need to decide if you are installing a higher stall converter or not. With the stock converter, you'll be limited to milder cams. For street use you want to retain as much torque as possible for a heavy truck. Since this is a bigger displacement 6.0, you can go a little bigger on the cam than with a 4.8/5.3.

Corverado SS

Well I don't think theres no reason to have an outrageous cam, since the truck is going to be used mostly on the streets. So I'll leave the ratio at 1:7 And 4.10's looks good right about now, hows the gas mileage with these gears?

Corverado SS

The motor was machined to get freshened up because of the miles on it. I know the crank is now .010 and the head gaskets need to be .030 other than that I need to call them tomorrow.