kelchie

Hey guys, my motor in my 01 1500HD (6.0) is getting tired, Im going to be getting everything together over this summer and when Im done landscaping in the off season I'll have the new motor/trans ready to swap out. I tow daily but also want to be able to smoke hemis and what not at lights since this is my daily driver too. I bring my truck to the track about twice a year.

If i am towing 4-12000 lbs daily what would you'se reccomend for parts

tune -
cam -
valve train -
heads -
blower or turbo -
brand -

Any what would you get done to the tranny -
I have 285's on it so i plan on gearing it at the same time, ill be doing a 3 inch body lift too so ill be getting even bigger tires so should i go 4.10's or 4.56's? keeping in mind i tow daily -


Some times i wonder if i should just spend the same or less and go diesel

Thanks -Korey
any other suggestions would be great!

Lurius

iTrader: (7)

I'd say ya need a diesel. =)

-Lurius

BlownChevy

iTrader: (20)

if I were to make a suggestion....Anytime someone is doing a "towing" purpose build, I always suggest the sell their truck and get a diesel. Gas motors will do it, but the diesel will do it BETTER.

yurs78

If you decide to redo your engine, I'm assuming that you have over 100k on it for miles, I think a build like grippy's would be great. You may be able to cut out some of the extras to keep the cost down but there aren't too many. If you do rebuild.

I hate to say it but if you do tow a lot I really think you should go to a diesel. Especially in your case. By the time you do everything you'd like to your engine/tranny you will have atleast 8-10 grand in it maybe more. You may spend more to trade for the diesel initially but you'd be saving yourself a lot of time and frustration by not going through the build up of your old truck.(unless you've got the time and would really enjoy the challenge, there are just so many little things that can screw stuff up) Once you pay yourself for your time, I think you'd come out ahead with the diesel. Then you just buy a good programer and you've got more TQ for pulling than you'd ever get with a gas. As far as diesels go I'd strongly suggest the LBZ duramax. Any duramax would be good but I really think that one is the best. Not becasue of the increased power but it's really quiet, it's almost freaky. That and you can get a 6 speed allison instead of the 5.(just another overdrive, all other gears are the same) If you pull and work as much as a landscaper does the added fuel costs, diesel cost more, will pay for themselves down the road with the longevity and use of the engine.
Good luck

Lurius

iTrader: (7)

All of the above plus diesels kick ***. If you wanted to tow and still haul some *** from time to time theres nothing better than a diesel rig. Throw a chip in, some new exhaust and your faster than many cars.

-Lurius

Spoolin

iTrader: (8)

. Many new and slightly modded diesels are suprisingly alot faster than people think. Simple tune and breathers and your outrunning sports cars and rice alike.

nightrunner

iTrader: (4)

well since everyone else is going with diesel i guess i need to be the one who tells you how you can do a better GAS engine, although a diesel is a good choice

tune - get a dyno tune if you can or get a good mail-order tune - nelsons is good among others
cam - this depends on if you are going to go naturally aspirated or blower or turbo but a small torquey cam for NA - like a comp 212/218 or 216/220 hi-lift versions, for blower id suggest a LPE GT2-3 or a vinci trucker, or for turbo either a stock z06 cam or get a turbo cam spec'ed out
valvetrain - go with comp918 springs or equivalent or better, hardened pushrods, ls2 timing chain, a ported ls6 oil pump
heads- id see richard at wcch for some options of some ported #317 casting heads or if ya got money to burn go with AFR225
blower - id suggest a blower for towing just because of their natural low-end TQ, search radix on here or look into kennebell's new intercooled SC, dont get a centrifugal like a procharger or vortech
turbo - if a turbo is sized correctly it can have just as much low-end as a blower, to an extent. STS would probably be best depending on whether you can deal with the location of turbo(under bed). a front mount would not be good if you tow in hilly areas as it would have load on it constantly and get very hot - not good. if you decide to go front mount turbo see trick motorsports

tarinitup

iTrader: (11)

You could rebuild your 6.0 to a 402 or 408. I used a smaller cam than most recommended and off idle torque is bad ***. I'm sure if I had a hitch I could tow a good amount and still smoke hemis like you want. Only bad thing I can think of with my 402 is fuel consumption but I have a heavy foot.

Steve Bryant

iTrader: (1)

My build may be of interest to you as I think that we have similar goals.

I'm currently building a 408 as a daily driver/tow vehicle. I bought a good used 6.0 block and had it measured and sonic tested, bored to 4.031", align honed the mains, decked for 9.230", and installed new cam bearings. I have a Callies DragonSlayer 4.0" crank plus CompStar rods, and Wiseco -18 cc pistons with TotalSeal Gapless top rings and standard tension oil rings. I'm installing a LS6 valley cover and will re plumb the PCV. I plan on using the Patriot Predator Heads with 205 cc intake runners and 72 cc combustion chambers once they are available. I will re use a Comp 212* 218* 114* LSA cam that I used to run a couple of years ago and keep my Thorley Tri-Y headers with the big ugly truck intake. All of this is set up for good part throttle (and full throttle) torque below 5,000 RPM's. I'm not very concerned about HP at all and I want to continue to run 87 Octane.

You can see my trailer below and a graph of my desired torque and HP with this setup via DynoSim. The graph shows my current setup at 364 CID with the 200/206 109 cam and my former setup with the 212/218 114 cam (didn't have enough low end torque). Then you can see the same two cams in the 408 at 9.5 CR.

Steve

Spoolin

iTrader: (8)

Wow!!! That was really impressive!! Talk about someone who does their HW!!