5.7L Towing Upgrades (yes, another thread)

[Trenton]

I have a 1998 Chevrolet K3500 CCLB with the 5.7L Vortec/4L80E/BW4401. My truck is a lot more truck than engine. The truck can support more trailer weight than the engine can pull, so I want to add upgrades to the engine to help it pull more.

I'm wanting to pull my 2019 Impala Premier on a gooseneck trailer back and forth between where I live in the rockies of Colorado and my home of East Texas. The truck has factory auxiliary oil, power steering, and trans cooler, heavy duty leafs, trailer brake controller, and huge brakes for the truck. The only thing holding me back is the 5.7L Vortec engine. I don't want to swap in a head-gasket-blowing 7.4L or a crankshaft-busting 6.5L diesel, so I want to see what y'all think about the following upgrades:

1. JBA Competition Stainless Steel Long Tube Headers

2. Comp Cams 210/214 X4260HR Extreme 4x4 Camshaft

3. GM Performance LS6 Beehive Valve Springs

4. Comp Cams 787-16 Valve Spring Retainers

5. Comp Cams Magnum Self-Aligning 1.52 Roller Rockers (these are cheaper than 1.6 full rollers)

The gooseneck I'm wanting to buy weighs around 3900 pounds and my 2019 Impala weighs 3867 pounds, so I would need to be able to haul damn near 8000 pounds. I know the truck and brakes can handle it, I just want to see if those upgrades will help out the 5.7L enough.

Thanks in advance!

Oh, and yes, the truck in my sig is the one I'm talking about.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Those rockers won't help you at all. Go with the full roller if you get rockers. The main friction reduction is the pivot point not the tip. The rollers also keep better geometry than the sliding of the factory style pivot balls.

 

[stutaeng]

I think your truck and my 00 K3500 SRW are identical if I recall from your past posts. That drivetrain combination is rated to tow 6,500 per the manual with 4.10s. There is a pretty good jump to 4.56s, right at 8,000 lbs in fact.

Admittedly, I don't know about anything camshafts and all of that stuff, so can't help you there...Without throwing the engine on the dyno before and after, not sure how anyone could quantify increase in performance. And a lot of the camshaft swaps don't really get you any marginal increases, just shifts the power curves on the RPM range, but again, I'm clueless when it comes to LSA and all that stuff, LOL. @L31MaxExpress may be able to help you...

But 4.56 will get you there per the manufacturer literature for sure, page 4-54:https://assets.gm.com/manuals/chevrolet/1998_chevrolet_1500_owners.pdf

If it were a 2wd, it would be a no-brainer economically in my opinion to regear to 4.56s. It looks like the parts you listed is already $1,000 pre-tax, without even adding any labor. Being 4x4 is not as easy choice. Oh, and you take a bit of performance-wise hit if you have larger tires than stock.

Well, at least you got a gooseneck trailer!

 

[stutaeng]

Damn, beat me to it, LOL.

 

[Dravec]

The lobe separation on that cam seems a little bit on the narrow side to me, and would definitely require a tune for the conputer to not throw a fit. Good news is even with the slightly higher ratio rockers, it still falls into the lift limit of the L31 head. Barely.
Springs and retainers might work? Someone probably knows better than me on that.
The headers are probably well suited to what you're going for.
Do you have 4.10s in your truck? That would be a requirement, I would suspect. If so, you're already rated at 7k towing.

 

[Trenton]

:
https://assets.gm.com/manuals/chevrolet/1998_chevrolet_1500_owners.pdf

If it were a 2wd, it would be a no-brainer economically in my opinion to regear to 4.56s.

I really did think about swapping to a 4.56 gear, but mine is 4x4, and the lift kit has a cross member below the front differential, so I'd have to tear apart the suspension to get the front differential. I don't have the tools or knowledge to set backlash on differentials anyway, even if I wanted to replace it. It has 4.10s already, which really does do well.

As far as labor goes, I'm doing all this work myself. I have already taken apart my engine to replace the gaskets and removed the whole front clip when I replaced it, so I can do everything I mentioned in the list, besides rework the exhaust for the headers.

 

[Trenton]

Those rockers won't help you at all. Go with the full roller if you get rockers. The main friction reduction is the pivot point not the tip. The rollers also keep better geometry than the sliding of the factory style pivot balls.

Good tip, thanks. I was curious about that anyway. I guess I'll use the 1.5 full roller rockers that cost $400 instead.

 

[Trenton]

The lobe separation on that cam seems a little bit on the narrow side to me, and would definitely require a tune for the conputer to not throw a fit. Good news is even with the slightly higher ratio rockers, it still falls into the lift limit of the L31 head. Barely.
Springs and retainers might work? Someone probably knows better than me on that.
The headers are probably well suited to what you're going for.
Do you have 4.10s in your truck? That would be a requirement, I would suspect. If so, you're already rated at 7k towing.

So I do have a blackbear tuned PCM already, and they give lifetime free re-tunes, so I'll just get that adjusted. I planned on re-tuning the PCM anyway.

I've done research, and the LS6 beehive valve springs with the comp retainers increases max lift out of the factory heads anywhere from .532" to .580", and the cam with 1.52 rockers is only around .480" lift.

So if I bought this cam for towing and some light off-roading, what cam lobe separation would you suggest? The lobe separation on this cam is 111° according to the Comp Cams website.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

For your setup I would suggest this cam over the one you are looking at.

With the shorter intake duration and tighter LSA it will close the intake valve sooner and keep more low-end torque.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/cca-08-408-8/make/chevrolet

This cam ground on a 108 or even better 106 LSA would increase the low-midrange torque even more. Being that it is such a short duration overlap will not increase much. I have tuned a 218/224 on a 108 LSA with a Black Box and it ran very well after some tuning.

A 206/212 @ .050, 106 LSA and 102 ICL would pull hard just off idle. Probably beat out the 4x4 cam you chose by 20-30 ft/lbs @ 2,500.

 

[Trenton]

For your setup I would suggest this cam over the one you are looking at.

With the shorter intake duration and tighter LSA it will close the intake valve sooner and keep more low-end torque.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/cca-08-408-8/make/chevrolet

This cam ground on a 108 or even better 106 LSA would increase the low-midrange torque even more. Being that it is such a short duration overlap will not increase much. I have tuned a 218/224 on a 108 LSA with a Black Box and it ran very well after some tuning.

A 206/212 @ .050, 106 LSA and 102 ICL would pull hard just off idle. Probably beat out the 4x4 cam you chose by 20-30 ft/lbs @ 2,500.

Alright, awesome! That cam does have a 200 rpm lower operating range, slightly higher lift, 1 degree less lobe separation, and there's a difference in intake versus exhaust lift height, interesting. Thank you, much appreciated! It even saves me $10 because I was actually able to find jut the cam on Summit unlike the original one