I'm building a 5.3 similar to the junkyard builds. It is freshened up , new rings and bearings . Stock 862 heads with springs , Victor Jr intake, CSU carb, cam i havent got yet but i was looking at the lil john stage 2 boost cam.
Just trying to get the most out of this thing somewhat safe as far as the tune goes. Is it worth going with an air to water IC vs Air to air ? From a power stand point and tuning stand point due to lower intake air temps. I was looking at putting a 5- 10 gallon tank system in with heat exchanger and IC. Also how much extra power can be made going to the air to water roughly? I know the tuning can be more aggressive with cooler IATs.

 

I'd like to know this also.

 

From what i gathered is if its a drag car yes but street car possibly not due to the system eventually getting heat soaked from putting miles on the car. My car is a mix of both so i would like to hear other people take on this.. Also was thinking of e85 along with atw ic.. The colder the iats with higher octane the better/more relaible the motor will be provided you dont get carried away and set it on kill..

 

Would be better to let us know what you want power wise. With which turbo and on what kind of fuel.

You don’t need a heat exchanger in most cases. The IC won’t get heat soaked with a 5-10 gallon tank. You don’t turn on the IC pump unless you’re in boost. So the water sitting in the tank should be close to ambient. Plenty cool for street driving. An $80 china A2W setup will cool the IAT’s similar to the midgrade (treadstone etc) A2A IC’s. That same A2W unit Iced down will cool much better than the $400-600 A2A units. The A2W will add more weight and complication to the build, but it’s usually weight where you want it. It also free’s up airflow to the radiator and is more compact.

A2A is easier, less complicated and will work “good enough” for most.

It depends on your goals and how much extra effort you’re willing to put into intercooling.

 

600 - 650 at the wheels.. around there. I posted what I'm building in the introduction thread.. I just thought cooler iats would be better no matter what your goal is. At least from a tuning perspective.. Like for instance take a stock 5.3 on e85 /meth/ and atw ic, wouldn't that make more power to a point? Or very least would help with any upgrades you add vs just pump gas with ata ic? Good advice on letting me know about not needing a heat exchanger that I knew nothing about. Good to know about the heat soak issue as well.

 

Yes, cooler/denser air will always make more power, but with such a low goal it's not needed IMO. What fuel are you planning on? What turbo?

 

Well I wanted to do e85 but I would have to send my carb back in and money is somewhat of an issue. So pump gas more than likely definitely ic . For turbos I wanna go with the Borger s400/475 but we'll see how money is. If not it's going to be ebay gt45 with the 68.7mm inducer . Undecided about cam as well. Was looking at BT stage 3 or a ls1 cam for now.

 

IMO I'd spring for the $640 1.32 T6 S475, Not worry about the IC and have the carb modded for E85. Even with no IC you can push E85 to 650 hp pretty easily on an S475 if you have the tune setup right. Or limit the boost until you have the funds for a $400 treadsone IC.

 

Yeah I'll more than likely go with the borg unit. Would the stage 3 cam work? Just cause I can get a deal on one. Converter and gears I have will work for this cam..

 

Yes it will work, can’t really go wrong with lil’johns shelf cams. Though they usually require a pretty good dual spring setup, light weight retainers, and upgraded push rods. Where if you went with a mild cam… Say JFS Triple 12 cam you can get away with single beehive PAC1218 spring and 100% factory valve train.

 

For anyone looking for a budget LS cam, you guys should check out summit racing and the trick flow LS cams. Some of them have pretty decent specs and are actually cheaper than list price on the famed LS6 cam. Of all the LS grinds out there, the Trick Flow stuff is WAY cheaper. Also if you were planning on ordering a cam kit, I have priced out the stuff individually including Lunati Gold dual springs and came up 100 bucks CHEAPER than the Texas Speeds single spring cam kit!

When looking for pushrods, don't put LS1 in the search or they cost more money. Punch in 7.400 5/16 pushrod and Trick Flow stuff pops up for 86 bucks instead of 130 bucks. Its just a damn pushrod and has no idea what its going in right? LOL

 

I'm running the little 216/220 cam in my car and have been a 9.36@148. You can also save a couple bucks buying the Pac 1218 springs under trick flow. I bought t h e trick flow spring and it says made by Pac right on the box and they were cheaper than what I've seen Pac ones selling for

 

I went 8.8 @ 156 on the 216/220 Trick flow cam in my 6.0 with PAC 1218's. It did nose over at pretty hard at 6k on my setup.(installed the 1519 springs and it made no difference)

Current 224/224 @ 113 .610 lift Howards cam pulls clean to 6700. It was a $308 shipped. I do use the next step up 1519 PAC single springs and better push rods.