5.3 turbo build questions?

[DBRODS]

Yeah replacing rod bolts is a gimmick also. If I turn the boost up over a certain level I can guarantee it will bend the rods up as I've done it a few times. Usually everyone blames the rod bolts as a failure cause they spin a bearing and the rod breaks sending pieces of bolts everywhere. The spun bearing is due to a bad tuneup that causes detonation beating up on the upper bearing half till it finally looses its crush or a oiling issue due to starvation. Its all about the tune 99% of the time. And when mine bends rods it still runs and you don't really notice a difference in normal driving until you load it. Or the knocking noise from the bottoms of the pistons hitting the counter weights on the crank.

[cjcalhoun]

Dbrods what do u think about the 317s on a flat top 5.3?

[o2camaross]

And those are gen 4 rods that he bent too haha. Gen 3 stuff is weaker than that. How much boost did it take to do that Jon?

[cjcalhoun]

The rods I have are the newer rods also.

[George C]

heres some food for thought on another route


I have a weak rod 53 in the truck. I have 06 5.3 243 heads, fast 102, 230/236 cam and on 12.5 psi at 4700lbs ive trapped 130 mph with an aggressive tune up. you do the math as for power

so there is gain to be had running better parts then stock with boost. you can run all stock parts and cram more boost into motor...then youll have heat issues so I prefer less boost more power NA

killed the clutch when turning truck up to 18psi

my motor has ARP rod bolts as they were cheap insurance but like john stated from rods ive seen broke I haven't seen a bolt failure only in the 97-98 motors really.
my motor also has ARP head studs over torqued with Ls9 gaskets

[o2camaross]

Yea no doubt if you have increased VE with the NA setup, it will make more power in boost. Just depends how much he wants to spend since he said it was a "budget" build lol. Thats some damn good mph, but Im sure the turbo setup has a lot to do with that mph just as much as the heads and intake do. I also have arp rod bolts, studs and ls9 gaskets and torqued them like you suggested George

[George C]

Yea no doubt if you have increased VE with the NA setup, it will make more power in boost. Just depends how much he wants to spend since he said it was a "budget" build lol. Thats some damn good mph, but Im sure the turbo setup has a lot to do with that mph just as much as the heads and intake do. I also have arp rod bolts, studs and ls9 gaskets and torqued them like you suggested George

I paid 200 for my 5.3 and 200 for the 243s so shit can be found and had on a budget

I recently picked up a set of trick flow 220s for the 53 but wont be playing with that setup anymore. would of liked to see what truck would of done on 18psi, I calculated around 136mph if stars were aligned

[cjcalhoun]

If I could find a set of 243 for 200 I would sell my 317.

[George C]

If I could find a set of 243 for 200 I would sell my 317.

look around Ive picked up a bunch of 799s and 243s for good prices this past yr. need to deal with yards that don't know what they have

[o2camaross]

Yea good point George. You have a set of 243 or 799 heads you want to sell? Message me if you do lol