Well, I just got back from pulling our new travel trailer 1200 miles up and
down the mountains, and to say I was not happy is an understatement. First
let me give you what i have, 93 K1500 with 350 & 4L60E and 3.42 rear end. I
was very surprised at how bad it drank the gas 6-8mpg pulling a 4500lb
camper. and the lack of power (even small hills made me drop from 70 to 50).
I am going to have to do something to correct this situation. I grew up
with a 73 suburban with the 350 and 4x4 pulling a large 4 horse trailer and
never had to drop much below 65 on the hills and we always got 12mpg.

Here are my questions, should I replace my stock motor with something with a
little more power, change my rear end ratio to something alittle higher
(3.73 mabye?) or sell it and by a K2500? I really like the truck and it is
in great shape so I am leaning towards doing whatever is needed to get it up
to snuff.

I took the rear end apart (to replace leaking seals) and found chips in my
ring gear, and some wear marks on the outer axle bearing areas, looking at
replaing both the axles and ring and pinion should I just swap out the whole
rear end for a 14bolt?? Is this a straight forward swap or is there alot of
other stuff to think about, I can get a 77 14bolt posi/4.10 rebuilt for
400.00 (I know the rims won't fit). How can i adapt the front IFS to
handle the 8 lug rims?? or is it cheaper to adapt the 14bolt rear to the
6lug axles.

My current motor is all stock and in very good condition, however it simply
lacks the power to pull my trailer, even in 2nd I was loosing power and
speed on the grades. Any suggestions? I want to keep my stock TBI and
emmisions, however all else is game, I will need to use it as a daily driver
and run pump gas. Exhaust, intake how much power can they really gain me?
Enough to make a difference?

Inline...............

"Pat Vickers" <pat.vickers (AT) comcast (DOT) net> wrote

Hmmmmm...........
Number one, a K2500 will just exacerbate the problem as it will WEIGH MORE
withthe same damn engine. So, that's not a very intelligent thought. I'd
dump the Sb and go for a 454, or even better, the Ram-Jet 502 if you have
$8,000 to spare. Another thought..........how about a top end rebuild with
some higher compression pistons, some head work and a nice set of tri-y
headers? A quick reprogramming of the PROM and you'll be laughing up the
hills. You could make her into a 450 HP monster with little effort.

Just leave the axle as is and swap out the r&p if need be.

Headers with net you a solid 5-10%, new intake may or may not help. I'd go
for the high-compression pistons (9.75:1 is as high as you could go with 93
octane with cast orin heads. Lose the iron for aluminum and you could run
10.5:1 without a problem).

Cheers,

Doc

"Pat Vickers" <pat.vickers (AT) comcast (DOT) net> wrote


I have done JBA Headers shorties, hypertech chip, K+N , Dynaflow, comp
cam for TPI 1987 to 1995 I much happpier, Shift kit Change rear end
ratio and I sure you will have to have a new chip burnt. If are going
to change a few things then have the chip made for all modes at the
same time. Except for rear end change, you may not have to change the
chip. I am going to guess at about 40hp before I do heads. Good luck.

http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive/index.html
Will do Edelbrock aluminum heads next