My 5.3 vs 6.0 evaluation

[Nickleahy23]

As you know i swapped a 6.0 LQ4 into my tahoe and pulled the 5.3..

My setup

its a stock 6.0 from a 2001 HD with a 93 octane Blackbear tune magnaflow muffler, intake and efans..

For the trans i have a Transgo HD2 shift kit and vette servo.

3.73 gears

5050 curb weight (add 250 for stereo, and say another 200 for the rims, but thats only weight not the extra rolling mass)

so roughly thats 5500 lbs before me (200) so im over 5700 plus the extra rolling weight..

Others

a 2001 extended cab 1500 4x4 5.3 curb weight is 4700 lbs

a 2005 reg cab long box 2500 hd 6.0 curb weight is 5577 lbs

these are my buddies trucks who ive compared against..

Before the 6.0

with my 5.3 with a BB tune and exhaust the 1500 walked all over me in every area..the 2500 hd was pretty even with me, but i could over take him at higher speed, prolly because of his 4l80e gearing 4l80e..

Now
now with the 6.0 its no comparision..

with the 1500 vs me on the interstate, we stepped on it from 55..within the first 2 seconds i was at least a length in front of him..by the time i hit 95 he was back 4 lengths or more..from a stop i just blow him away..dont even know the lengths

vs the 2500 its basically the same, but add a few lengths onto the interstate one, and no chance in the race from a stop..

Other
on top of the speed ive gained, daily driving is so much better..

no more downshifting with the cruise on, can go through town in 4th where before it was in 2nd or 3rd causing higher rpms..

my last tank i got over 360 miles and it came out to be about 18 mpg..that was mostly cruising country roads to a packer game, and maybe 60 in city..

in the city im getting about 14.5-15.5 depending..

so either way its a huge gain from my 10 mpg city before..

moral of the story, if your looking for a fairly cheap way to gain some nice power a 6.0 swap is perfect..you can pick them up for under 1000 bucks..it would take 1000 into a 5.3 to match what i have id be guessing, plus then your maxed out on the 5.3 without going forced induction..which then its anyones game..motor swap is easily done in a weekend..we got it done in a weekend and that was with tons of problems gettin the trans to seperate from the motor

ill try to get some videos up soon..gotta get the camera from the gf

 

[blueflamed03]

great write up Nick!

 

[coopiesb]

+1 on the write up im deffintly looking into this

 

[BlackDenali]

Interesting............Is yours a 4x4 or 2wd??

 

[Sam Hamm]

i wanna tune and lts soo badd. maybe the 6s will be gone this weekend and i will buy it.

was the tune one of the best things youve done?

 

[blueflamed03]

I know it was my best by far.

 

[Nickleahy23]

Interesting............Is yours a 4x4 or 2wd??

4x4

 

[AtomicHoe094]

Was it a plug and play type deal? drop in and go??

 

[yukondoit]

Very interesting. Its got me thinking..

 

[Nickleahy23]

ya its 100% plug and play..all i had to do was swap flex plates since the motor has a 4l80e behind it before..then i just put my parts from my 5.3 on it like the alt and shit and plugged everything else in just like it was

ill have videos in the first post soon

 

[AtomicHoe094]

thats kick ass. who would of thought it could be so simple..

 

[Grocery Getter]

Thanks a lot for letting me know how in reach the swap is.....fokker', now I'm gonna have the itch and the means.....crap!!!



Nice write up......

 

[JKmotorsports]

Good deal man. Glad you got it up and running and like it.

 

[Max]

Hell yeah now you just need some longtubes. I'm getting 15-16 city with the awd so you should see slightly better with your selectable 4wd. Nice when you can accelerate up a hill and the trans doesn't have to shift, huh?

 

[Nickleahy23]

not the fastest thing in the world, but a huge improvement over before

slow roll in first, manual shift to 2nd

merging onto interstate

from a stop

 

[blueflamed03]

looks like it needs more gear......last vid, you made it to 80 MPH in 2nd gear.

 

[bkboatnsleds]

I am actually doing the same thing.. I have a LQ9 from a Cadillac - Did you do anything to your tranny or Torque COnverter? Or leave that all stock ?

Any tips you have - or any snags you ran into?? I am doing this coming up in a week or so!

mike

 

[Nickleahy23]

looks like it needs more gear......last vid, you made it to 80 MPH in 2nd gear.

theres a chance..it has 3.73s right now, and that was on my 24s which are about an inch talled then stocks..id love some 4:10s, but i cant justify the cost of front and rear, along with loosing what highway mpg i do get..i have a 200 mile trip from home to school that i make 3 times a month..so thats 1200 a month all highway..

---------- Post added at 10:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:32 PM ----------

I am actually doing the same thing.. I have a LQ9 from a Cadillac - Did you do anything to your tranny or Torque COnverter? Or leave that all stock ?

Any tips you have - or any snags you ran into?? I am doing this coming up in a week or so!

mike

it wasnt bad at all aside from the fact that the trans was siezed to the motor..other then that its all straight foward..

my trans has a shift kit and servo, but its slipping now. it has 155k on it so thats probably not helping..im looking into getting a built trans here soon and then throwin a cam and a 3600 stall in it.

 

[bkboatnsleds]

What did you do for the ECU, did you have to have it tuned for the 6.0? Was it driveable w/ the 5.3 computer?

 

[Rollin Thunder]

boy big wheels must weigh down the truck quite alot, your 6.0 vid looks slower than my 5.3.