my dad just gaive me his 2000 silverado 5.3L. what the frist thing i should do to put more hp on it. that dont cost so much

 

I know this is a waste of my typing but any how,,,,, leave it alone. It is not a race car its a truck,and probably your only transportation. If you blow it up you are stuck. If you want to mess with something get another vehicle then when you blow it up you still have wheels.

 

Yes, it is not a race car.
You could put a cold air intake on it, but it is built for strength,
not to see how fast you can get from 0-60

 

Have to agree, first truck, leave it alone.
My first truck was a '89 Chevy 1500 with a 350. had 287,000 miles when my stepdad handed it down to me. First thing i did, rebuilt the motor with a cam and heads, bored out to. It needed a rebulid, needed to be bored out... Did not need cams or heads... 13 transmissions later, i sold it.

but, your young, you want it to be a cool little truck. Put on some good mufflers like Flowmaster or Magnaflow, maybe a cold air intake. Put some nice wheels, NOT 24s!!! some american racing wheels or something along them lines. And keep your foot out of it. It will save you a lot of heartache. Im bout to be 24, and I finally learned... Take care of your wheels.

 

Good ideas ns87.
Put a nice throarty sounding exhaust on it, maybe upgrade to 3" tailpipes to make it loud,
Buy some aftermarket 17" wheels for it, maybe a cold air intake and it will be yours.
It will look good, sound good, have some power, and your friends will like it too.
But other than that, for your 1st car, just learn to drive and whatnot 1st.

And I hope you understand we are not tryin to give you a hard time, it is just that
All of us have gone through our 1st car experience and from our experiences you should
just hold off on some of the major upgrades for a few years until you have real
money to put into it. Mods that actually get you power and the stuff you want aren't cheap.
And if you look for the cheapest major upgrade you will be sorry you didn't get somethin better.
I am turning 26 this weekend and I have had 16 vehicles (cars trucks SUV's)
and 6 motorcycles and looking back on how much I wanted to mod my 1st car I am
Sooooooo glad I didn't. Save your money for gas and hangin out with friends and
Just be glad that you are fortunate enough to have a nice truck in the 1st place.
Get a flowmaster 30 or 40 series exhaust for a couple hundred bucks and a
cold air intake for when Your friends check out your engine and maybe some aftermarket wheels.
that stuff alone will score you points with friends and girls. Other than that, just leave it alone.

 

I am 55. I went down that horse power road when I was young. I only had one thing to drive and guess what, was on foot a lot from breakage. I waited till I was in my 40's had a truck and a monte carlo ss. I got the ss to run in the 11's but it still cost money from breakage, but i had a truck were i wasn't on foot.

 

JMHO, start with new spark plugs, tranny filter, oil change,and air filter.

Low cost, preventive, and requires not mod 1 to also slightly increase

gas mileage.

Don't forget tire inflation...

 

im kinda in the same boat i just bought a 1988 z71 short bed single cab with a 305 . but the motor has 240,000 on it and im looking to upgrade to a 350 from a chevelle with a nickel block im not looking to race or go fast but any ecu tips or computer tips id appreciate greatly

 

All good thoughts here, USEagle. It's hard to do much on a budget, but a cold air system w/K&N would be my starting point. If the budget allows, full flow exhaust would be next. These Silverado trucks are terrific and will run a long time if you drive with respect. My K1500 has 190K, and gets 20mpg highway, 15 in town. Not bad. I haven't done any mods except for air intake. It is fun to have a hot rod truck, but it's expensive and stuff happens much more frequently. Expensive, time consuming stuff.