929

Hello folks, i've had my Yukon since December of 01 and never really looked into performance mods. I am nearing 35k miles and tons of my friends (who own LS1's) have been trying to convince me to do something to this thing.

Well, I decided why not. After making a couple of friendly runs with friends who own rice and some other SUV's and actually pulling quite a bit on them, I was surprised by my new found Yukon's nickname (The Rice Punisher) Although it's my daily driver and I wouldn't want to do anything outrageous, what can be done performance wise?

I know of the intake, catback doing wonders just for the primary mods. What else can be done? Freemod wise?

I know quite a bit about LS1's based on experiences with friends (Venkman on here with an 01 WS6) but didn't know many ideas can be shared with my 5.3.

So what's the deal truck folk? Can someone share some experience and knowledge with me?

cstchevy

yes these engines can do alot. It totaly depends on how much money and how outrageous you go. A radix is one of the best things you can do to the 5.3. Also long tubes, headers, 3.73 or 4.10. for you I would go with 4.10. stall 3000. customer tune from farmtruk(allen) theirs just so many ways to go, or just through on a 100 shot of NX and your off.

929

As far as outrageous, this is probably as far as I am going to go.

Stall
Gears
Longtubes
Better Cam
Tuning for the ECU

Are there any free mods I can do for the time being? Money is hurtin right now, but later this year things should get better. I wouldn't mind tossing a blower in there towards the end of the year, so cam choice should be versatile...or it'll wait till this fall/winter.

My dad and I are finishing a project on a 63 NovaII, we'll use my truck as the tow vehicle so it'd be nice to pack some punch.

cstchevy

cam I would do a 212/218 with 114 lsa, I am going to do this cam or a maybe one a little bit bigger. if your going to be pulling the car make sure you get a stall that can handle the weight. oh you will also need 918 springs.

GoatChs

iTrader: (7)

Just to be clear, the Comp 212/218 comes in two versions, a low lift (522/529 on 114 LSA) and a high lift (558/563 on 115 LSA). For your application (towing) you would probably want to stay with the low lift version. It maintains the low end torque and a stock-like power/torque curve. With either choice, going to a set of 918 springs is a good investment (and a must with the high lift version). Long tube headers will also help a bit. Personally, I like to use the "hp per $$" evaluation method...how much usable hp will I get for the $$ spent. Using long tubes requires modification to your y-pipe, whereas using a quality set of shorties (Edelbrock or JBA) bolts right in and is only 7-10 hp shy. If I had the ability or resources to mod my exhaust at a reasonable cost, I would've gone with the TOG long tubes, but saved the $250 cost for install by going with the JBA shorties...10 hp/$250 = $25 per hp. Too much for the gain when talking about my wallet...yours may vary. Then again, I paid $4200 for my Radix...divide that into 140 hp gain and your talking over $30 per hp...so, I guess it is relative, right?

cstchevy

thanks for clearing that up, wasn't sure about the different lifts.

moregrip

iTrader: (8)

welcome 929, I'm relatively new as well. My first purchase was a magnacharger radix, second was a magnaflow catback exhaust, third was a stereo/security system, fourth was a set of rims. That's where I'm at right now, waiting to install it all.

I love my 954 probably as much as you love your 929, sweet bikes!

99Silver6.0

iTrader: (1)

You do not have to use the 918's with the lower lift 212/218. It wont even put those springs to the test. You can use 02 LS6 springs which are good to .550 lift. Good part is the LS6 springs are alot more forgiving than the 918's. Valvetrain will be considerably louder with the 918's cause they pull the valves back to the head so hard. JBA makes the best set of shorties for the 5.3. I wouldnt spend my money on any other shorties.

929

Sure are, I love mine even more after I tossed the "fresh" head on the block at 17k. Gotta love any power increase on a bike.

As for my Yukon, the cam choice is still going to be a toss up. I won't choose a cam until I have the money for the radix. Exhaust wise, I want to go with longtubes and a ypipe setup. If I have to go custom for the Ypipe, I will. I will however consider shorties and a prefabbed ypipe if the budget doesn't allow more. I do all of my own work, have in the past...with the exception of tuning ecu's. Labor wise, I am not worried about much, it's just the expertise and guidance along the way with GM (I was born and raised a Ford Guy)


As far as lift on a cam, it's going to vary....based on past experiences anything above a .540 lift I will toss in a brand new set of springs just to be safe. My wallet isn't open to all the good things the parts market has to offer for these trucks, but I would like to be better safe than sorry. This is my daily driver. As far as cam choice, it's not going to be setup mainly for towing. I would like to retain some low-end torque for hauling the car a few times a month, but won't make it absolutely necessary.

I didn't intend on going off into the deep end, but this forum may seem to make that hard. All in all, I want to stick with my choices....free mods, blower and cam, gears, stall and exhaust. Ones in question are exhaust: long or short, cam: duration/lsa/lift.

In the end, i'll do my research. Cosmetically, I am not all about wheels so I will keep the stock 16's on there for now, considering I have 2 extra sets of tires that i've aquired in the past from friends ditching their stockers in favor of 20's.

moregrip

iTrader: (8)

theres just no good rubber for my 16x6.5" wheel.....If it was even a 16x7 I would have thought more about keeping them. But then again I have a different issue from the 1/2 ton guys, my front track width is wider than my rear, and I wanted to correct that...hence, new wheels. I also do all my own work

The order in which I will do my mods are as follows:

1st Stereo/Alarm
2nd Wheels/Tires

Not for the obvious cosmetic reasons though, but for the purposes of performance upgrade comparisons, i.e. total vehicle weight. I want the truck to weigh what its going to weigh with these things first, then get my baseline numbers, then start performance mods, and record like data.