L31 Vortec 5.7 Heads/Cam advice for my 1999 K2500 Suburban

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Iowan

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I wouldn't recommend skip white parts to anyone.

OP, if you're going to run anything but vortec or EQ...or anything with a runner volume larger than 170ish, get AFR's or get nothing. Period.
why not use skip white? I thought they were reputable?
 

slowburb

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was t aware that they were Chinese, sorry for bad info.

It's all knockoff stuff. At most second rate versions of well designed and fully engineered parts with poor manufacturing, grade b or c materials, and shoddy machining tolerances.
I'll take that with an ice chest (yeti $400 or knockoff for $200 or less) or something similar, but not with parts for my truck.
 

big_mike

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There are ways to get more power down low, as mentioned you can cut the valves to flow more at lower lift improving low end power. Did this on my 99 WS6 with a worked over set of stock 5.3 heads and baby 224 cam, laid down over 400rwhp on a 180k stock short block too.

The 383 should have plenty of down low if you parts match right. Maybe even mill the heads a little to bump your compression up some too. The little things add up if done right.
 

slowburb

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There are ways to get more power down low, as mentioned you can cut the valves to flow more at lower lift improving low end power. Did this on my 99 WS6 with a worked over set of stock 5.3 heads and baby 224 cam, laid down over 400rwhp on a 180k stock short block too.

The 383 should have plenty of down low if you parts match right. Maybe even mill the heads a little to bump your compression up some too. The little things add up if done right.

Yes. Also less quench makes for better burn in the vortec chamber. Also equates to hotter tuning on less octane, for more parr.
 

JayMB

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@big_mike - Yeah, some old 243 heads off a dead 5.3 with a cam and supporting parts on a stock bottom end is all we have on my buddy's Camaro. It goes pretty good, but it really only starts pulling HARD around 3500 RPM. It goes good before then, but not like I would want a truck to go down low.

@slowburb - Would you mind educating me a little more on quench with the vortec heads? I was planning to either have my block decked to 9.015" and running a 0.026" head gasket (I think that is what they were stock) making my quench 0.041", or going zero deck with a 0.040" gasket. I'm going to run "inverted dome" pistons - like a half circle shaped dish, with a flat quench pad to match the head. Any closer than about 0.040" freaks me out. What would you run?

I'm thinking EQ Vortecs with the 395 Ramjet cam and 1.6 rockers now. Should be stock sounding and stock-like reliable with some LS7 lifters and better valvetrain/bottom end.

At 0.040"-ish quench, with 64cc chambers, on a 383 - I think I'll be running a 22cc dish to bring compression down to 9.3:1.

Here's a teaser pic of my torque converter that just came in. Jake's Performance out of Texas. Would recommend thus far.

You must be registered for see images attach
 

slowburb

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@big_mike - Yeah, some old 243 heads off a dead 5.3 with a cam and supporting parts on a stock bottom end is all we have on my buddy's Camaro. It goes pretty good, but it really only starts pulling HARD around 3500 RPM. It goes good before then, but not like I would want a truck to go down low.

@slowburb - Would you mind educating me a little more on quench with the vortec heads? I was planning to either have my block decked to 9.015" and running a 0.026" head gasket (I think that is what they were stock) making my quench 0.041", or going zero deck with a 0.040" gasket. I'm going to run "inverted dome" pistons - like a half circle shaped dish, with a flat quench pad to match the head. Any closer than about 0.040" freaks me out. What would you run?

I'm thinking EQ Vortecs with the 395 Ramjet cam and 1.6 rockers now. Should be stock sounding and stock-like reliable with some LS7 lifters and better valvetrain/bottom end.

At 0.040"-ish quench, with 64cc chambers, on a 383 - I think I'll be running a 22cc dish to bring compression down to 9.3:1.

Here's a teaser pic of my torque converter that just came in. Jake's Performance out of Texas. Would recommend thus far.

You must be registered for see images attach


Either way is an improvement. I like to run with the least amount of gasket "meat" as possible. Last vortec headed old school hotrod motor my buddy and I put together (for his nova) was with standard height flat tops (6cc valve relief), steel shim gaskets with spray, a zero decked block, and the heads were shaved a little, I just can't remember how much (think the chambers cc'd at 62). We put in a quicker timing curve and it runs on 91 where it would detonate on 91 before the changes.
 

JayMB

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Wow. Steel shim gasket is what? 0.015"-0.030" depending on what you buy? That's pretty close. I'll have to talk to my machinst. I remember reading a forum post years ago where a guy had his quench in the 0.030" range and he said that you could see an impression of the piston crown on the carbon layer on the cylinder head when he took it off. That sounded a little too close for me. I would imagine that there is some flex in the crank/rod/wrist-pin at high revs and I'm scared of things touching. Thanks for the info though.

Zero deck with 6cc pistons and milled heads must have been very high compression for iron heads. Huge cam to bleed compression off? 327?
 
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