Three Of A Kind

LS Truck Intakes Can Deliver Great Power,  but Which Intake Is Best for You?

- Richard Holdener

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a lowly LM7 or a top-of-the-line H.O. sporting higher compression and 243 heads, everyone loves 5.3L truck engines. The 5.3L has quickly become the go-to engine for swaps, performance builds or just about any type of performance use. The reason behind the popularity is that they are both powerful and plentiful, always a good combination. GM produced literally millions of trucks and in many cases the 5.3L was the base engine, meaning it was produced in the greatest numbers. As if that weren’t enough, the smaller 4.8L and larger 6.0L both shared intake manifolds with the 5.3L. What this means is that there are also thousands upon thousands of truck intake manifolds available. As luck would have it, the factory truck intake is a solid performer, bettering both the original LS1 and LS2 for power and nearly matching the much-sought-after LS6. With the original truck intake being so versatile, is it possible to better the factory truck intake? That’s what we are here to find out.