ss454327 Posted August 26, 2008 Report Share Posted August 26, 2008 Ok I'm picking up an '05 AWD SS tomorrow and I'm making it my new toy. I'm not rich so this is going to be a gradual build over the next year or so but I want to have a solid driveable SS that will also hold it's own at the track. From what I've read it looks like I'm better off with a tuner program like EFI Live since I'll be adding mods gradually. I'm going to end up putting anywhere from 100 to 150 shot on this and I'm not going to go with FI as I just can't justify $5000 for 125hp. I'm also going to be towing with this on occasion but no more than 3500# EVER. What I'm looking for is some help mapping out my mods so that I don't buy something I don't need in the process. I'm going to pretty much going to do all the mods up to heads and cam and I'll probably go with the L92 heads as they're relatively cheap. What I'm looking for is advice on mods that can work before and after any big upgrades I do. I don't want to buy headers or an intrake that won't work when I change heads and have to buy another set. I'm going to be running dumps with LT headers and no cats so I can open them up at the track. Help me if you can so I don't make mistakes I've seen other make. ON a side note I REALLY love the SS and even though it's not the fastest truck on the market it has massive potential and looks great. The truck I'm buying is flawless and was owned by an old guy so it's bone stock. I'm giving $16k for it with 40k miles and not a scratch her. Whats funny is I knew my first mod would be electric fans until I popped the hood and noticed they're already there on the '05! HAHAHA! So the challenge is help me map out my build and give reasons why I should do one thing before another or wait on something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black2003SS Posted August 26, 2008 Report Share Posted August 26, 2008 (edited) Headers: Look up OBXlong tube silverado headers on ebay. They are stainless and $500 bucks. They will work with L92 or stock heads, or any heads you can put on a LQ9. That'll save some bucks for you. And the cats are hollow, so its like having no cats, but with a bolt on solution. You can install electric dumps right after them. This would be my first mod along with cai and a custom tune. That will blow about $800-1,000 and hold you over while saving for the heads and cam swap. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/OBX-STAINLE...1QQcmdZViewItem Cam: Lots of choices, I recommend doing the heads and cam at the same time as you will more than likely need larger valve springs (which you can buy with the heads). Probably will want a cam on the order of 570+ lift with a 228+ duration and 112-114 lobe sep ( like the trickflow cam below, or any of several comp XRcams like the XR281) Like I said, lots of choices. Heads: L92's (requires an L92 intake manifold and some modifications to the fuel rails etc.). If you dont want to mess with the custom L92's, I recommend the Dart Pro Ls1 heads for our trucks. Or...trickflow makes a 515hp performance kit with heads, cam, and valvetrain for a little over $3k as well, but its everything you need. It recommends coverting over to a fast of LS6 style intake. If you go this route, you could swap over to an LS6 intake anytime (it requires some modifications to the water pump etc, do a search on it) and not have to worry about changing it when you do the heads as long as you dont go L92. trickflow kit http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.a...mp;autoview=sku Dart heads (price is for each head assembled) http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.a...mp;autoview=sku You will want to study up on trans upgrades and a torque converter. Finally, a link to detjoe's L92 buildup here... http://www.silveradoss.com/forums/index.ph...4004&hl=l92 These are my opinons and I know for sure some will disagree and have their favorites as well. This will at least point you in the right direction. Edited August 26, 2008 by Black2003SS (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wody Posted August 26, 2008 Report Share Posted August 26, 2008 where you from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ss454327 Posted August 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2008 Scott Arkansas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRAD Posted August 26, 2008 Report Share Posted August 26, 2008 Welcome fellow Arkansan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ss454327 Posted August 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2008 Thanks! She's parked right outside as I'm typing this and I couldn't be happier. I've owned a high 12 second mustang and a couple low 15 second trucks and this thing has more torque than any other them. It's very touchy on the throttle and it took me a few stoplights to not buck on the takeoff (trying not to take off hard) I've already learned you can't feather these bad boys! I'm not sure what all has been done to it but I now know it has an aftermarket muffler. Looks like a flowmaster dual in/dual out with a Y pipe and the factory 3.5" exit pipe. I'm happy and ready to start tuning. I'm going to get some general number over the weekend by playing around with my cousin and a couple of his rides so I should know about where I stand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ss454327 Posted August 27, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2008 (edited) How does this look for mods in stages over the next 12 months? EFI live is 1/2 price because I'm splitting it with my cousin so he can use 1 vin and I can use 1 vin. Stage 1 EFI LIVE $375 160 T-Stat $25 Zippy Kit $250 MAF $300 Stage 2 CAI $370 NOS $600 Stage 3 Headers $370 Exhaust $250 E-Dumps$465 Stage 4 L92 Heads/Cam/Intake $1795 Total $4801 Edited August 27, 2008 by ss454327 (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black2003SS Posted August 27, 2008 Report Share Posted August 27, 2008 (edited) Stage 1 EFU live is a great start, but will you be doing your own tuning? Ditch the MAF. Complete waste of money. Spend the $300 on a tune and a nice dinner out with a lady friend as you can find really good tunes for less, or if you are confident enough on using EFI live to do your own tuning, move the headers up from stage 3 to stage 1. I would also budget for a torque converter up front to compliment the zippy kit. You can get a trailblazer converter for about $200. Depending on the cam you select down the road, you will need a bigger converter than stock and possibly a bigger converter than the TB converter. Stage 2 Not bad, except, which CAI are you paying $370 for? You can get the Outlaw or othe rones for under $300. If you plan on running Nitrous, I would plan to spend about $1,000 to do it right. You will want a remote bottle opener, a bottle warming blanket, gauges to tell you what is going on (fuel pressure, bottle pressure, etc), and window switch or nitrous controller system would be a good idea. All of that will put you over or around $1,000. I suggest watching the boards as some used kits sometimes pop up for sale for a bargain. Stage 3 Headers for $370? Pace setters I assume? Unless you have the ability to cut and weld, you will need about $150-300 for someone to install and weld in mid pipes fromt eh collectors to the stock exhaust location. This would be the perfect time to install the cutouts obviously. pace setters are not bolt ins if that is what you are considering. If you are looking at shorties, you would be wasting your money as there is no performance gain. Stage 4 Right on the money. I think you will spend a little more than $1795 on the heads and cam though. We assume you will be doing the install your self. Do you plan to use the L92 truck intake or the car intake that fits the L92 heads? This will make a significant cost difference. Stage 1A option 2 I know you originally said you didnt want to run FI. But if you look at your totals, about $4k, you can find a very nice used setup (like midnight's in the for sale section) and it will be much easier. I did all my mods for less than 5k as I found my radix kit for $3k used (there are also prochargers and vortechs popping up from time to time). I paid about $500 for the pace setters and welding for the mid pipes and cats. $680 for my Corsa Sport exhaust, $400 for efans. And my torque converter and trans work was about $3k, but thats because I blew it up. I'm just presenting a different option. Edited August 27, 2008 by Black2003SS (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usabodyguard Posted August 27, 2008 Report Share Posted August 27, 2008 ditch the MAF on stage 1 and go with a CAI... Volant for the win!!! Plus they look killer and it will give you much better performance than a MAF... Stay away from NOS at least a budget one... like black2003ss said, spend the money on a quality kit with all the bells and such... get headers in stage 2... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ss454327 Posted August 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2008 (edited) Thanks guys! There's some good advice getting tossed around here. As I build this I'm going to post my results so anyone else building from scratch will see how the plan unfolds. I wish I had to money to do it all at once but if I did I wouldn't have created this thread... My cousin already informed me today that the MAF is a waste of money and I was planning on installing the pace setter LT headers and taking the truck strait to a shop and having the dumps X pipe and exhaust installed the same day. As for the heads/cam/intake it's an L92 kit made for trucks from Summit. http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.a...mp;autoview=sku The CAI kit I was looking at is the Vararam Tri-Power. Also on the NOS I was looking at the Venom EFI wet kit and already planned on having a window switch. Keep the info coming though! Once I have a plan I'm going to stick with it. Edited August 28, 2008 by ss454327 (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ss454327 Posted August 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2008 Does this look better? I'm holding back on the stall since I want to tow with this thing and I'm not looking for FI because I want to have a strong NA motor that I can hit with the bottle every so often. You can't turn off a blower... Stage 1 EFI Live-$375 160 T-Stat-$25 Zippy Kit-$250 CAI-$370 Stage 2 Headers-$370 Exhaust-$250 Electric Dumps-$465 Stage 3 NOS-$1000 Stage 4 Heads/cam/intake-$1795 Total-$4901 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black2003SS Posted August 30, 2008 Report Share Posted August 30, 2008 Looking a little better. With almost any cam, you are going to need a bigger stall, theres no way around it when you select a cam, unless you either A) select a cam that doesnt need a stall which means, a very weak NA motor, which you dont want. Or B) you select a cam that needs a stall to get the hp figures you want, but dont do the stall and the motor falls flat on its face out of the hole. A lot of us tow with a larger torque converter and unless you tow right up to the GVW limit, you will be fine with a trailblazer torque converter. Its a stock converter out of a trailblazer so its like OEM, but provides a higher stall than the OEM one they put in the Silverado SS. They cant even tell the diff at the dealership. So the converter when you do the heads and cam and you should consider an upgraded trans cooler in stage 1 either way. Its a $50 insurance policy. Do a search on here and you will find tons of advice for one. It wasnt hard to custom intall the B?&M one I went with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slammedbowtie Posted August 30, 2008 Report Share Posted August 30, 2008 switch stage 3 and 4 haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireman31 Posted August 30, 2008 Report Share Posted August 30, 2008 switch stage 3 and 4 haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ss454327 Posted September 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2008 Well I have HP Tuners on it way and it looks like I already have a really stout truck for a baseline! I made some runs this weekend against some known 14.30 trucks and my first run I tried hand shifting because it shifts too soon normally and I blew the 5.7 Tundra away out of the hole then held him off until I hit the rev limiter while shifting to 2nd and he only pulled to my door with his hood and stayed right there then I hit the rev AGAIN shifting to 3rd and he pulled a fender on me and stayed right there. I let off and we turned around to run again and this time I just let it shift and he pulled me about 1 truck in the 1/4. Then I ran my cousins Duramax and jumped him out of the hole a fender and he pulled me until my front tires were even with his back tires and I slowly gained on him right at the end of the 1/4. That run I hand shifted perfectly and he said I couldn't be pulling any worse than a 14.60 because he runs his truck in 4wd at the track and pulls the same either on the street or at the track. There was also a '97 LT1 TA there that was beaten badly by both these trucks but I didn't run him...eveyone agreed that I would take him by a truck so I wasn't too worried. The only thing my truck has is a dual in/out flowmaster in place of the stock muffler. It even has the stock 3.5" exit pipe. I dropped in a K&N before I left to come home and it will chirp the tires rolling in 1st gear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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