any low cost worthy upgrades for my 04?

my guess is that since it's a new truck and you picked it out, you wanted a 5.3L, right?

i hate to sound like an ol' fart (which i am) but there IS no replacement for displacement... you can spend a fortune on air filter systems and exhaust, chip it up, etc.... and it's still a 5.3 and probably not much usable difference.... and might be in violation of a brand new warranty... also, i'n cheap.. and the idea of throwing away brand new parts to buy more expensive ones just makes my wallet clamp.. *g*

~~inline~~

~~~~~~~~~~Can you say loaded question???

~~~~~~~~~~No matter how you sound...fact is fact!!!

you can spend a fortune on air filter

~~~~~~~~~~Not true for the most part, substantial improvements can be had with over the counter parts that can be installed in a driveway.

and

~~~~~~~~~~For the most part, I gotta disagree. Damn near everything made for that truck is 50state legal.

All I can do to that comment is chuckle as my wallet does the same!!!

filter

'nother wise and rich man, thanks.

Hatt

well, i think of the 2 trucks we have, a 99 and a 2001.. both came with 7 year warranty on the exhaust, so i'll wait til it's on my own dime before i play with em..

An engine with balls.

always have an engine or two on ebay.

-The Lonely Grease Monkey

1985' K5 305CUI TH700R4 NP208 KJ's successor

"Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, then he who believes what is a wrong." - Thomas Jefferson

My '02 5.3 responded QUITE well to a set of good plug wires. I ran MSD 8.5's, for the LS1 engines. Real easy mod. Great off idle throttle responce and driveability.

There are at least five different intake kits out there. My favorite of them all is, the UPD, found at

I'm not a fan of intakes that pull air from the engine bay, like air-raid's and K&N's. Just personal preference.

The stock bottom end of the airbox is a real good design. There's really no power to be found down there. I modded mine pretty well with a home-made cold air intake / ram air to the front bumper. I got some gains on the highway with sacrifices around town. It really wasn't worth it.

There are about four different headers that'll bolt up to the LS1 based engines. Shorties don't provide much gains, because the stock manifolds are already pretty good. Arizona Speed and Marine seem to get the most gains.

A cat-back exhaust usually makes all kinds of nice noise, but with only little gains. For the money, they're not really worth it unless you want the sound.

A K&N drop in filter won't help a whole lot, but does provide a tiny bit of "seat of the pants gains". Nowhere near what plug wires did for me.

MAF's and big bore throttle bodies aren't really worth it either.

I've heard a number of people say that throttle body spacers work decent in a 5.3. Not so well in the big blocks.

Off the top of my head, that's all I can think of right now.

You might want to run by

for more in-depth info...

-marc '04 SS

Kevin:

You are looking for performance upgrades on a brand new truck which isn't even broken in? A brand new truck and limited budget should not go in the same sentence which means you are carrying too much paper.

There are several performance and fuel economy upgrades available for your new truck. Try the GM Truck forum, the engine Gurus there have all of the latest and greatest.

Have a great one!

Bush