New to the 5.3 and AFM, questions
 

My question, is there anything I need to know in perticular about the engine since it has the AFM system? I've read on here that frequent oil changes seem to be a must. My dad is the one who had this truck, he passed away in November and I decided to keep the truck and just take over payments.

The truck has 28,000 miles on it right now, i plan on doing a few performance modifications such as Longtube headers, true dual exhaust, CAI, and a few other mods. I've been in contact with my local dealership that my dad bought the truck from, asking them what i can do as far as performance wise without it voiding my warranty.

I wanted to ask on here for any good sites to buy parts from other than summit racing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Well the 5.3 is a great motor, the AFM is not a good part of it. The truck will go down to 4 cyl but with the slightest touch in gas pedal or headwind it'll go back to runnin on all 8. Most people get it tuned out when thu get a custom tune. Also have read that it causes problems later down the road motor wise. Seems like it's a bad lifter design or somethin.

If you're gonna do some mods I'd recommend LTs into a single 3" exhaust, airaid intake tube with drop in filter, and a custom tune from blackbear or gowheatley(or a local shop that has hp tuners and knows what they're doin). If that doesn't work for you then go to a cam/stall combo

I've noticed i'll set the cruise on the truck and you can hear it switch from 4 cylinder mode to 8. You can also see the RPM's drop then raise then drop. My dad hated it, never noticed it until he put an exhaust on it.

I've thought about tuning it and turning the AFM off. I've thought about doing a cam also, I love the loping idle.

The only thing I was worried about with the tuner was my warranty on the powertrain. The GM tech I was emailing told me it's a solid engine and recommended me to tune out the AFM, if I had the money then i could replace the lifters and such with non-AFM ones and not worry about much down the road.

My dad's always used royal purple oil, so I'm going to keep using that. Should I keep it at 5W-30 oil or could i go to a 5w-40 since I live in Florida?

as far as shops I can take my truck, I live 20 minutes from Gainesville, just never have been there much to see what they have.

If you do tune it, kiss the warranty work goodbye. Once they see it has/had a tune on it they won't work on it. Honestly if you do LTs they might not warratny it due to gettin rid of your cats. That's the only problem with modding your truck. And as far as replacing the lifters, if you do it, you have to do a cam swap from what I've read. And I'd keep usin the 5w-30 if that's what it's had all its life.

Yeah they told me my warranty would go out the window if i use a tuner.

if i do the longtubes and get rid of my cats they told me my emissions warranty would be void but not the powertrain warranty.

Really now? Didn't know that. Well what I do know is that he can say that, but if you bring it in, and it can somehow be related to the headers, then they'll use it to not warranty the work

I wouldn't doubt it one bit

Performance
 

Are there any websites that sell performance parts such as exhaust that are exclusive to silverado or trucks in general?

I looked under my truck yesterday and was checking out the exhaust setup, I want to do the longtubes but can't seem to find much help on mid pipes.

I want to do most of the exhaust work myself such as the header install. Of course I could install the headers and run straight headers on the way to the exhaust shop lol

Sorry for your loss , Doing the mufflers shouldnt void the warranty , the other stuff might , you would have to remove those parts if you would take it into service .

I usually shop at www.jegs.com they have alot of good performance parts for Silverado's

Or buy a supercharger from Chevy :P

Thanks. I'll check it out. I've just been having trouble finding bolt on stuff rather than having a shop custom fab the exhaust. I've actually thought about trading the truck in on a camaro since there is much more after market stuff out there. Just don't want a bigger payment then I already have