diff --git a/config/config.go b/config/config.go
index 538f191fb..dac0546b9 100644
--- a/config/config.go
+++ b/config/config.go
@@ -643,6 +643,9 @@ type P2PConfig struct { //nolint: maligned
 	// Comma separated list of nodes to keep persistent connections to
 	PersistentPeers string `mapstructure:"persistent-peers"`
 
+	// Comma separated list of nodes for block sync only
+	BlockSyncPeers string `mapstructure:"blocksync-peers"`
+
 	// UPNP port forwarding
 	UPNP bool `mapstructure:"upnp"`
 
@@ -712,7 +715,7 @@ func DefaultP2PConfig() *P2PConfig {
 		RecvRate:                5120000, // 5 mB/s
 		PexReactor:              true,
 		AllowDuplicateIP:        false,
-		HandshakeTimeout:        20 * time.Second,
+		HandshakeTimeout:        5 * time.Second,
 		DialTimeout:             3 * time.Second,
 		TestDialFail:            false,
 		QueueType:               "simple-priority",
diff --git a/config/toml.go b/config/toml.go
index 0dceb12e5..db2fc9c0d 100644
--- a/config/toml.go
+++ b/config/toml.go
@@ -306,6 +306,9 @@ bootstrap-peers = "{{ .P2P.BootstrapPeers }}"
 # Comma separated list of nodes to keep persistent connections to
 persistent-peers = "{{ .P2P.PersistentPeers }}"
 
+# Comma separated list of nodes for block sync only
+blocksync-peers = "{{ .P2P.BlockSyncPeers }}"
+
 # UPNP port forwarding
 upnp = {{ .P2P.UPNP }}
 
diff --git a/internal/blocksync/pool.go b/internal/blocksync/pool.go
index 0bea807ca..939741ceb 100644
--- a/internal/blocksync/pool.go
+++ b/internal/blocksync/pool.go
@@ -31,9 +31,8 @@ eg, L = latency = 0.1s
 */
 
 const (
-	requestInterval           = 10 * time.Millisecond
-	inactiveSleepInterval     = 1 * time.Second
-	maxTotalRequesters        = 600
+	requestInterval           = 100 * time.Millisecond
+	maxTotalRequesters        = 50
 	maxPeerErrBuffer          = 1000
 	maxPendingRequests        = maxTotalRequesters
 	maxPendingRequestsPerPeer = 20
@@ -54,7 +53,7 @@ const (
 	BadBlock    RetryReason = "BadBlock"
 )
 
-var peerTimeout = 10 * time.Second // not const so we can override with tests
+var peerTimeout = 2 * time.Second // not const so we can override with tests
 
 /*
 	Peers self report their heights when we join the block pool.
@@ -356,6 +355,12 @@ func (pool *BlockPool) SetPeerRange(peerID types.NodeID, base int64, height int6
 	pool.mtx.Lock()
 	defer pool.mtx.Unlock()
 
+	blockSyncPeers := pool.peerManager.GetBlockSyncPeers()
+	if len(blockSyncPeers) > 0 && !blockSyncPeers[peerID] {
+		pool.logger.Info(fmt.Sprintf("Skip adding peer %s for blocksync, num of blocksync peers: %d, num of pool peers: %d", peerID, len(blockSyncPeers), len(pool.peers)))
+		return
+	}
+
 	peer := pool.peers[peerID]
 	if peer != nil {
 		peer.base = base
@@ -370,7 +375,7 @@ func (pool *BlockPool) SetPeerRange(peerID types.NodeID, base int64, height int6
 			logger:     pool.logger.With("peer", peerID),
 			startAt:    time.Now(),
 		}
-
+		pool.logger.Info(fmt.Sprintf("Adding peer %s to blocksync pool", peerID))
 		pool.peers[peerID] = peer
 	}
 
@@ -431,6 +436,7 @@ func (pool *BlockPool) getSortedPeers(peers map[types.NodeID]*bpPeer) []types.No
 	for peer := range peers {
 		sortedPeers = append(sortedPeers, peer)
 	}
+
 	// Sort from high to low score
 	sort.Slice(sortedPeers, func(i, j int) bool {
 		return pool.peerManager.Score(sortedPeers[i]) > pool.peerManager.Score(sortedPeers[j])
diff --git a/internal/blocksync/reactor.go b/internal/blocksync/reactor.go
index 5504f075e..d2a5f1a73 100644
--- a/internal/blocksync/reactor.go
+++ b/internal/blocksync/reactor.go
@@ -560,10 +560,11 @@ func (r *Reactor) poolRoutine(ctx context.Context, stateSynced bool, blockSyncCh
 				continue
 
 			case r.pool.IsCaughtUp() && r.previousMaxPeerHeight <= r.pool.MaxPeerHeight():
-				r.logger.Info("switching to consensus reactor", "height", height)
+				r.logger.Info("switching to consensus reactor after caught up", "height", height)
 
 			case time.Since(lastAdvance) > syncTimeout:
 				r.logger.Error("no progress since last advance", "last_advance", lastAdvance)
+				continue
 
 			default:
 				r.logger.Info(
@@ -611,8 +612,7 @@ func (r *Reactor) poolRoutine(ctx context.Context, stateSynced bool, blockSyncCh
 				// See https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/pull/8433#discussion_r866790631
 				panic(fmt.Errorf("peeked first block without extended commit at height %d - possible node store corruption", first.Height))
 			} else if first == nil || second == nil {
-				// we need to have fetched two consecutive blocks in order to
-				// perform blocksync verification
+				// we need to have fetched two consecutive blocks in order to perform blocksync verification
 				continue
 			}
 
diff --git a/internal/p2p/peermanager.go b/internal/p2p/peermanager.go
index 44fd3dd03..f006ab150 100644
--- a/internal/p2p/peermanager.go
+++ b/internal/p2p/peermanager.go
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ import (
 const (
 	// retryNever is returned by retryDelay() when retries are disabled.
 	retryNever time.Duration = math.MaxInt64
-	// DefaultScore is the default score for a peer during initialization
+	// DefaultMutableScore is the default score for a peer during initialization
 	DefaultMutableScore int64 = 10
 )
 
@@ -101,6 +101,9 @@ type PeerManagerOptions struct {
 	// Peers to which a connection will be (re)established ignoring any existing limits
 	UnconditionalPeers []types.NodeID
 
+	// Only include those peers for block sync
+	BlockSyncPeers []types.NodeID
+
 	// MaxPeers is the maximum number of peers to track information about, i.e.
 	// store in the peer store. When exceeded, the lowest-scored unconnected peers
 	// will be deleted. 0 means no limit.
@@ -157,6 +160,9 @@ type PeerManagerOptions struct {
 
 	// List of node IDs, to which a connection will be (re)established ignoring any existing limits
 	unconditionalPeers map[types.NodeID]struct{}
+
+	// blocksyncPeers provides fast blocksyncPeers lookups.
+	blocksyncPeers map[types.NodeID]bool
 }
 
 // Validate validates the options.
@@ -217,6 +223,13 @@ func (o *PeerManagerOptions) isPersistent(id types.NodeID) bool {
 	return o.persistentPeers[id]
 }
 
+func (o *PeerManagerOptions) isBlockSync(id types.NodeID) bool {
+	if o.blocksyncPeers == nil {
+		panic("isBlockSync() called before optimize()")
+	}
+	return o.blocksyncPeers[id]
+}
+
 func (o *PeerManagerOptions) isUnconditional(id types.NodeID) bool {
 	if o.unconditionalPeers == nil {
 		panic("isUnconditional() called before optimize()")
@@ -234,6 +247,11 @@ func (o *PeerManagerOptions) optimize() {
 		o.persistentPeers[p] = true
 	}
 
+	o.blocksyncPeers = make(map[types.NodeID]bool, len(o.BlockSyncPeers))
+	for _, p := range o.BlockSyncPeers {
+		o.blocksyncPeers[p] = true
+	}
+
 	o.unconditionalPeers = make(map[types.NodeID]struct{}, len(o.UnconditionalPeers))
 	for _, p := range o.UnconditionalPeers {
 		o.unconditionalPeers[p] = struct{}{}
@@ -367,6 +385,9 @@ func (m *PeerManager) configurePeers() error {
 	for _, id := range m.options.UnconditionalPeers {
 		configure[id] = true
 	}
+	for _, id := range m.options.BlockSyncPeers {
+		configure[id] = true
+	}
 	for id := range m.options.PeerScores {
 		configure[id] = true
 	}
@@ -384,6 +405,7 @@ func (m *PeerManager) configurePeers() error {
 func (m *PeerManager) configurePeer(peer peerInfo) peerInfo {
 	peer.Persistent = m.options.isPersistent(peer.ID)
 	peer.Unconditional = m.options.isUnconditional(peer.ID)
+	peer.BlockSync = m.options.isBlockSync(peer.ID)
 	peer.FixedScore = m.options.PeerScores[peer.ID]
 	return peer
 }
@@ -464,6 +486,10 @@ func (m *PeerManager) Add(address NodeAddress) (bool, error) {
 	return true, nil
 }
 
+func (m *PeerManager) GetBlockSyncPeers() map[types.NodeID]bool {
+	return m.options.blocksyncPeers
+}
+
 // PeerRatio returns the ratio of peer addresses stored to the maximum size.
 func (m *PeerManager) PeerRatio() float64 {
 	m.mtx.Lock()
@@ -1318,6 +1344,7 @@ type peerInfo struct {
 	// These fields are ephemeral, i.e. not persisted to the database.
 	Persistent    bool
 	Unconditional bool
+	BlockSync     bool
 	Seed          bool
 	Height        int64
 	FixedScore    PeerScore // mainly for tests
@@ -1388,7 +1415,7 @@ func (p *peerInfo) Score() PeerScore {
 	}
 
 	score := p.MutableScore
-	if p.Persistent {
+	if p.Persistent || p.BlockSync {
 		score = int64(PeerScorePersistent)
 	}
 
diff --git a/node/setup.go b/node/setup.go
index 921f37f21..526382440 100644
--- a/node/setup.go
+++ b/node/setup.go
@@ -255,6 +255,16 @@ func createPeerManager(
 		peers = append(peers, address)
 	}
 
+	for _, p := range tmstrings.SplitAndTrimEmpty(cfg.P2P.BlockSyncPeers, ",", " ") {
+		address, err := p2p.ParseNodeAddress(p)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, func() error { return nil }, fmt.Errorf("invalid peer address %q: %w", p, err)
+		}
+
+		peers = append(peers, address)
+		options.BlockSyncPeers = append(options.BlockSyncPeers, address.NodeID)
+	}
+
 	for _, p := range tmstrings.SplitAndTrimEmpty(cfg.P2P.UnconditionalPeerIDs, ",", " ") {
 		options.UnconditionalPeers = append(options.UnconditionalPeers, types.NodeID(p))
 	}