More POWER!
BOOSTING OUR 5.3-LITER CHEVY SILVERADO
WITH A NEVER-ENDING quest for more power, lifting a fullsize extended cab Silverado and slapping 35-inch tires on it doesn’t help the pursuit for more ponies. Throwing off your factory engineered power-to-weight ratio is extremely noticeable with each and every pedal push, and modifications like these simply decimate any preconceived fuel economy numbers. It only takes a few months before this decrease in torque will make any man go mad, which is exactly where we found ourselves after our last few tech installs. If you can recall, once we lifted our daily driven Street Trucks Silverado, we added a new set of 4:56 Yukon gears to the rear end along with a Hypertech Maxenergy 2.0 reprogrammer. This simple parts swap brought our driveline back to factory specs and our fuel economy to manageable numbers. The results were better than expected, but in the wise words of Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor, we wanted “More Power!”
In past builds, we’ve done all the basic bolt-on power adders including intake, exhaust, headers, throttle-body spacers and so on. We wanted to do something a little different with this one though. We took some time to reach out to our good friends at Procharger to discuss all the options available. The entire crew was extremely knowledgeable on their products and they were very easy to communicate with over email or phone. Generally, most guys do all the common bolt-ons before realizing a supercharger is what they really want, which is why we made the decision to build boost first. More air in means more air out, so along with this kit we are adding a Magnaflow cat-back exhaust system so our dailydriven Chevy can exhale as fast as it inhales. This is just one step in a long line of power upgrades we plan to do on this 5.3-L Chevy that is currently pushing 98,000 miles on the odometer. If you have the same engine in your modern-day full size or possibly transplanted into your custom classic, keep an eye out over the next few issues so you can follow all the upgrades in see the results as we push this LC9 to its limits. For now, let’s get boosted!
Are you building a modified engine for your GM truck or
SUV? Procharger supercharger systems feature easy installation, minimal relocation of components, no need for external oil feed or return lines and avoids having to deal with the complexity and maintenance issues of an air-to-water-to-air intercooler configuration. An intercooled Procharger Tuner Kit like the one we chose supports the highest boost and power levels in the industry. Procharger systems are designed to have a visually appealing, “from the factory” look and come with a standard three-year warranty on the intercooler and one-year warranty on the supercharger.