So I just bought my dads truck; after bombing around in my 1990 ford 150 for a year it was time for a "nicer" winter beater/tow pig; a 2001 GMC 1500.
Unfortunately, it has the Vortec 4800 motor in it(4.8 liter?), which is great on gas(13mpg towing a car), but shitty on power.
Luckily I know someone thats good with turbos and Im thinking a good 100whp bump across the board will help.
Ive heard from a few people to just toss an FMU on there and call it good. The FMU is not my favorite thing to do, but if itll work fine for 5-6psi, Ill just do that. But what about timing? MSD Boost Timing master?

Ive also heard that you can tune these factory ECU's with an OBDII scanner, which Id drive down and dyno the thing while Im at it(who in Michigan could do this?).
What would be advised for the greatest driveability(remember, tow pig)? Any resourceful forums that have experience in this? I saw that turbo 408 truck vid awhile back, that gave me some inspiration for looking into this

 

i believe it might be the same block as the 5.3, 5.7, and 6.0

so, you could just swap blocks.........they're all basically LS1's...and i'm pretty sure all the parts are interchangeable...but the 6.0 is an iron block, might apply to all the truck engines, where as the slowmaro/trans am are alloy blocks....no?

 

I know one of the biggest GM tuners over here. He does that **** all day long with diff proms I guess in the stock ECU.
Ill see if he has any sites or anything for more info.

 

Im looking for relatively simple bolt-ons here, not dropping in a different motor

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by itr206 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I know one of the biggest GM tuners over here. He does that **** all day long with diff proms I guess in the stock ECU.
Ill see if he has any sites or anything for more info. </TD></TR></TABLE>
Thanks man!

 

check out

http://www.pcmforless.com
thats his site

Brian is the guy that is local to me. He knows some sick **** about these ECU's. As far as what I know he is one of the more sought after tuners.

 

Emailed, hopefully this is something that can be done mail order, itd be kinda silly to tow my new truck to Ohio with my OLD truck And Im not sure itd phsyically do it...

 

actually he's in PA.
He lives down the Rd from me.
I think he can do some baseline stuff maybe? I dunno too much about it to tell you the truth. I just know he does it and he does very well at it

 

I'd FMU it. 5-6psi should be a decent gain on that v8. The 4.8l isnt a bad motor.

 

Yeah just ghetto it. FMU and retard the dizzy if its adjustable. Those motors are built like a tank.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Muckman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yeah just ghetto it. FMU and retard the dizzy if its adjustable. Those motors are built like a tank.</TD></TR></TABLE>

LS1's don't have a distributor, they're coil on plug.

http://www.carputing.com

LS1Edit is around 400 bucks, it's the LS1 equivalent to Hondata. I'm sure you could handle tuning it, so you don't have to worry about that. That motor plus a .68 A/R 60-1 and an intercooler will make some solid power, and boost should be coming on by about 2000-2500 RPM's for lots of torque.

 

what did you do with your old beater cody? is it for sale? i'm kinda in the market, but i was thinking of buying one later this year.


does superchips offer something for the new chevy smallblocks? they might be pricey though.

if just run a few psi an FMU would probably be AOK....and maybe a boost timing retard setup, if thats possible.

 

I checked out the LS1edit, sounds like its the way to go! Gotta try to enlarge my piggybank first, right now its rather small(just bought a truck duh ).
I was just going to use a GT32, they will support around 500whp and can be had with an internal wastegate for pretty cheap. Also, I believe turbine housings in the 1.0+ are standard so they are perfect for bigger motors. I want boost from 1500rpm on up, not looking to break any HP records.

 

email djfreggens@aol.com ... My buddy Sean uses a GM computer to run his boosted Accord. He's a pretty crazy guy, and hella smart. He probably would be able to guide you and/or tune your ****...

AND he lives in Michigan... Near Pontiac I think.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by redzcstandardhatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what did you do with your old beater cody? is it for sale? i'm kinda in the market, but i was thinking of buying one later this year.


does superchips offer something for the new chevy smallblocks? they might be pricey though.

if just run a few psi an FMU would probably be AOK....and maybe a boost timing retard setup, if thats possible. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Do I need to say it again? LS1 is distributorless. MSD BTM doesn't work. 6AL doesn't work. Knocking the distributor back doesn't work. An FMU is a poor way to handle things when LS1edit is a powerful tool available for around 450, you can have your motor drive like it was boosted from the factory. Superchips only has off the shelf chips for LS1's. SCT only makes custom tuned chips for Ford vehicles, and even if they didn't the cost of the chip plus a dynotune will be greater than doing LS1edit yourself.

 

wow. sorry.

i'm really not a big chevy fan. i didnt know the truck engines were also distributorless, like the ls1.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tinker219 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Luckily I know someone thats good with turbos and Im thinking a good 100whp bump across the board will help.</TD></TR></TABLE>

NO WAY! Who??! LOL

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by redzcstandardhatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">wow. sorry.

i'm really not a big chevy fan. i didnt know the truck engines were also distributorless, like the ls1.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Truck engines and LS1's are all the same Gen3 architechture, and the 5.3, 5.7, and 6.0 motors even all share the crankshaft. The 4.8 is a shorter stroke and a smaller bore.

4.8: 3.780" x 3.27"
5.3: 3.780" x 3.622"
5.7: 3.900" x 3.622"
6.0: 4" x 3.622"
7.0: 4.125" x 4.00"
All the Truck motors (4.8, 5.3, 6.0 LQ4) were Iron blocks. The car motors (LS1 (5.7) LS6(5.7), LS2 (6.0), and LS7 (7.0) are all aluminum block motors. They all share the same basic architecture so heads, cams, etc, are all swappable.

 

smaller bore=thicker sleeves=crank up the boost! After $1600 in rods/pistons and probably the crank too

I will be going with the LS1edit, thank you for pointing me there!

 

Modified by gdrum at 3:43 PM 5/12/2005

 

http://www.diy-efi.org/gmecm/

 

http://www.hptuners.com

 

Trying to swap out a turbo for something thatll suite me better. Once this is done, project turbo truck begins

 

you might want to look at Holset H1Cs... They can be had for *dirt* on ebay, and the exhaust housings on them are massive enough that they'd probably suit your V8 quite nicely.

 

one thing Ive learned about building a reliable turbo vehicle is to GO NEW on the turbo. Not even a new rebuild, but NEW. Ive had too many turbos fail on me, taking out the motor because of lost oil, etc. to chance it again. Especially if Im on the way to the race track 5 hours from home, with my S2000 on slicks ON the trailer, and the truck dies because of a shitty turbo. Im not going to skimp on the turbo by looking at 2nd handers Thank you for the tip though!!!