When you reach a fork in the road, take it.

[Supercharged111]

454 Vortecs needed the factory cork removed out of the intake and exhaust with a good tune to wake them up.

Are you referring to the intake manifold itself that chokes at 4500? I'm unaware of any mods to it like you can do to the 8.1 intake.

Everything wakes up with time and money though.

Some things more so than others. The 454 Vortec left more on the table than any TBI motor in terms of low hanging fruit.

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

Some things more so than others. The 454 Vortec left more on the table than any TBI motor in terms of low hanging fruit.

Holdener made over 500 HP from a 5.3 on the engine dyno with heads, cam, and bolt ons. Gained about 85 hp from just a cam. Depends on how you define low hanging I guess.

Granted, the LS haters will be like, yeah, but that's over 4k rpms.

 

[Supercharged111]

Holdener made over 500 HP from a 5.3 on the engine dyno with heads, cam, and bolt ons. Gained about 85 hp from just a cam. Depends on how you define low hanging I guess.

Granted, the LS haters will be like, yeah, but that's over 4k rpms.

I'd say that's a better example of "everything wakes up with time and money" than low hanging fruit.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Are you referring to the intake manifold itself that chokes at 4500? I'm unaware of any mods to it like you can do to the 8.1 intake.



Some things more so than others. The 454 Vortec left more on the table than any TBI motor in terms of low hanging fruit.

I am refering to the stock inlet ducting being restrictive. They have the same stupid elbow off the airbox that chokes the 350s. The muffler is also hugely restrictive. Then add in the long PE fuel day, super rich PE fueling and weak advance curve.

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

I'd say that's a better example of "everything wakes up with time and money" than low hanging fruit.

Fair enough. To me, if I don't have to pull the engine, it's on the low hanging side. Maybe mid hanging, LOL.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Holdener made over 500 HP from a 5.3 on the engine dyno with heads, cam, and bolt ons. Gained about 85 hp from just a cam. Depends on how you define low hanging I guess.

Granted, the LS haters will be like, yeah, but that's over 4k rpms.

That combination that would make no low-speed torque at all and not at all at home in a 5,000 lbs truck.

I tuned such a 5.3L in a 67 Chevelle with a big converter in the 4L60E and 4.10 gears. it did not really come up on cam until 4,500 and wanted to be shifted at 7,200 but we kept it under 6,700 rpm because it had the stock bottom end.

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

That combination that would make no low-speed torque at all and not at all at home in a 5,000 lbs truck.

Nothing a converter couldn't fix. The graphs were all actually pretty close from 2800 rpms up to 4000.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Nothing a converter couldn't fix. The graphs were all actually pretty close from 2800 rpms up to 4000.

If you want to listen to a weak engine that has to rev to 5-6K just to pull into traffic because it has a 4,200+ stall have fun. Not for me. I own a sedan that has a factory converter that stalls 3,500 rpm and the automatic shifts at 7,800 rpm in drive. It is snappy if you really get on it, but even cruising at 3,000 rpm down the road it is not overly responsive on the low-end.

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

If you want to listen to a weak engine that has to rev to 5-6K just to pull into traffic because it has a 4,200+ stall have fun. Not for me. I own a sedan that has a factory converter that stalls 3,500 rpm and the automatic shifts at 7,800 rpm in drive. It is snappy if you really get on it, but even cruising at 3,000 rpm down the road it is not overly responsive on the low-end.

Ours has an 1800 rpm stall and if you are doing 5k in it you better hope a cop isn't around because "pulling into traffic" won't be an excuse. It's a ton of fun.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Just read through another 3-4 pages of this...

None of you are going to agree on this debate.

It's all personal bias and soap boxes. I own two LS powered vehicles and enjoy driving them. Love my Vortec 7.4l 'burb too. My 4.7l Tundra is a joy to DD, I liked the 3.4l Tacoma I daily drove before that too.

In my last job I travelled around 125-135k miles per year. I have taken three 1/2t 5.3l powered pickups over 250k miles, two 1/2t 5.3l Suburbans as many miles, and one 6.0l 2500HD to about 200k. The 2500HD was always hooked to a 7000lb+ 5th wheel trailer. I knew its limitations and understood it required more RPM than I was used to towing with. I've towed 1200gal/90' boom sprayers (empty obviously) with the 1/2t rigs. The LS is durable, just makes its power higher in the rev range. If you don't want to listen to it sing, choose a different power plant, but rest assured, it's not going to hurt it. Nothing gets good mileage towing...read that again. Even the Duramax 2500HDs with the 6 speed Allison I towed with were **** in regards to mileage when you put a load behind them. Better than a gasser but nothing impressive.

I've owned/driven 454s, 8.1l, and 502bbc motivated pickups. Always awesome, horrible on gas, and the 8.1 liked to drink oil.

I've owned and built more SBCs than I can count. Carb'd, TBI, TPI, Vortec, some were anemic, some were okay, some were great. The stock ones drove as expected, just like the BBC and LS counterparts.

OP build what you want with what your budget allows and enjoy it!