I wasn't really considering the looks of the intake when I started digging into options here. My primary concern was overhead height between the intake and the inner skin of the hood if I found the motor mounts lifting the motor to any degree.
What I am dealing with here is a two prong problem, ground clearance and overhead clearance. The LS-6 intake will give me the overhead clearance that I need without going through the exercise of shaving a stock truck intake down. Mind you, I do know where to score a cheao truck intake for an 02 but shaving it removes a couple of essential mounting bosses that accept the brackets needed for the throttle body actuator cable and the cruise control actuator cable. I am not fly by wire here; this situation is pure mechanics.
As for ground clearance, my 5.3 came from an 02 Avalanche truck, and quite probably a 4x4 as it has the deep sump pan. That pan is too deep and suggestions that the motor can be raised would work for a full sized truck engine bay but not for us S-10r's; there is just not enough overhead room in there to do it. There are pan options out there that, as I accumulate a budger for this, I may explore in more depth. Holley in particular makes a shallow draft pan but it is not cheap, or possibly I am more cheaper than it!!
As for the CPW engine management harness, nice option and the price is probably in the right ballpark for what it is, a full custom assembly.
Thing about that is..................................................... I GOT MY HARNESS, I GOT MY HARNESS, I GOT MY HARNESS, I GOT MY HARNESS,!!!!!!! (Insert picture of me dancing here), and the bite on it was less than a C-note. It is so complete that it includes the plug ins for under the fuse block in the engine bay as well as the positive and negative battery sub-harnesses. i even scored those cute rubber grommets that wrap around the pin ports on the ECU. And, the thing here is, since I got to pull most of myself--couldn't do the bottom plugs due to insurance and liability issues for the yard,-- I got to learn how it all fits together for when I mate it to my mill.
I still have to grab the fuse block because, after some thinking, I might need it as well as some fiddly bits from the throttle body but hey, this is not about pretty, unless pretty easy counts.
I don't even have any intentions of a cam upgrade at this point although I might score a set of beehive valve springs simply because the stockers are apparently marginal even with a factory stock stick.
But what i do appreciate most here is the input and feedback posted by the members here. I am very aware that there is a steep learning curve attached to all this and right now I would prefer wherever possbile to keep the cost of that curve as minimal as possible. Which brings me to another question here.
Were the injectors and rails used with the 02-04 LS-6 body the same as those used for the trucks? Put another way, Can I simply remove my rail and injector assemblies from my stock truck intake and plug them into the LS intake as is? Yeah, the crossover would have to be swapped for the LS version due to the change in height.
Nick
www.currentperformance.com
