Trusted truck mechanic? - Engine Work.

[Rev. That Guy]

and also, depending on how many miles are on the truck, may not be a bad idea to change the front main seal while you are in there as they are cheap and easy once you have access and would mean that you wouldn't have to replace it later if it goes.

- J

[ars0n]

Only 38k on the odom. I have done every basic engine mod I can do to the engine I have full exhaust, intake, throttle body spacer, b-pipes, Only thing left is headers and new cat unless I want to do something more crazy like a turbo or supercharger but prob wont.

This is the last engine mod before I get my uprev cpu. then i will be totally done with the engine and the rest will be lift kit + cosmetics.

I appreciate the insight mang!! I usually do LOTS of research and actual testimonies from people with the same truck and have done the same mods.

Dont know the the difference on the ultralight pulley its I think maybe 5-8% smaller, but a shit load lighter.

[Rev. That Guy]

(10-05-2015 02:54 PM)ars0n Wrote:  Only 38k on the odom. I have done every basic engine mod I can do to the engine I have full exhaust, intake, throttle body spacer, b-pipes, Only thing left is headers and new cat unless I want to do something more crazy like a turbo or supercharger but prob wont.

This is the last engine mod before I get my uprev cpu. then i will be totally done with the engine and the rest will be lift kit + cosmetics.

I appreciate the insight mang!! I usually do LOTS of research and actual testimonies from people with the same truck and have done the same mods.

Dont know the the difference on the ultralight pulley its I think maybe 5-8% smaller, but a shit load lighter.

Time to venture off on a tangent for my own curiosity... what kind of exhaust do you have and by full I assume you mean cat-back? To me, Full means headers back... or at the least down-pipe back. what intake?

I guess my real question is what is it that you are trying to get out of the thing? i mean it is only designed to do so much... there are some pretty cool centrifugal blower kits, but one of the mfgs, cant remember which one off hand, had a reputation of internally imploding itself over time launching chunks of compressor wheel into the motor. would be concerned about internals and trans problems too. I know my Colorado has forged hyper-eutectic pistons and other forged internals from the factory and the motor is good for about 450HP on boost with no internal, ECU or fuel mods although larger injectors weren't a bad idea. I know a guy in Ft. Collins, CO, with a ZQ8 Colorado inline 5 that literally bolted a T3/4 on a custom set of headers with a 13lb waste gate and was making 399 to the ground up from 225 stock crank HP - all in an afternoon. Im not sure what he did later for tuning as I know he was working out fuel management trying to make more.

ECU mods can often times unlock A LOT of power but generally at the cost of reliability. I know on the older NorthStar motors in the cadilacs, the seville and deville specifically, used the exact same motor but the ECU difference accounted for nearly 70HP more in the Seville - granted mine was a loaded STS and the Deville was severely detuned for reasons I still cant work out. They basically neutered the motor on a car that was bigger and heavier. Typical GM logic though.

Another thing to watch out for on that, and likely not an issue, was if the ECU mods are a drop in eprom, you are good, but some of the euros and jap cars did not have removable chips, so you had to flash the ECU but then the car would relearn itself and basically reset (or make what it thinks are the appropriate running running conditions) the operating parameters back to OE spec essentially. Audi is notorious for this which is why they are hard to tune.

One thing I am curious about is if your motor is internally balanced. My Inline 5 on my truck was TERRIBLE with a lightened main pulley as it also did double duty to balance the crank due to the odd cylinder config and firing order. No noticeable gain from it and WAY more vibration. Yours shouldn't be much of an issue being a V6 that's fairly well balanced by design.

and just so you know I am not talking out of my ass, I was, in a past life, a GM, Chrysler and ASE certified tech.

- J

[vegaseric]

(10-05-2015 04:13 PM)That Guy Wrote:  ...One thing I am curious about is if your motor is internally balanced. My Inline 5 on my truck was TERRIBLE with a lightened main pulley as it also did double duty to balance the crank due to the odd cylinder config and firing order. No noticeable gain from it and WAY more vibration. Yours shouldn't be much of an issue being a V6 that's fairly well balanced by design....

This would be my main issue with an underdrive pulley... there is sometimes a harmonic balancer on the OEM part. Do you have enough room to get an impact wrench on there?

That being said... I'm betting your Uprev tune will net you the biggest gains over any of your bolt-ons. They work great on the VQ engines.

[ars0n]

ah your right, tech not a full exhaust, but, i have full 2.5 inch unrestricted piping all the way to the flowmaster exhaust. there was a bit of a rattle when I installed the b pipes so Im thinking about putting a resonator in and or mangaflow cats behind the bpipes.

Volant intake with intake manifold spacer.

The headers I plan on replacing with shortys and magnaflow cats once the warranty is up..will be a year or so..

not sure about the techs of said pulley, but i know lots and lots of frontier peeps do it, even nissan z folks swear by it with no repercussions..

biggest perks are faster revs, which this truck is terrible for and quicker response..


They say you can fit a breaker bar in there without having to remove the fan shroud by its a pain the arse...

Thanks Big E, I cant wait to get the uprev tune. SOOOO many good things about them and their tunes/computers. Bit Pricey, but worth every penny and 2 free tunes!!

[ars0n]

Everyone that has supercharged this truck has ended up removing it or spending over 8 grand it get it fully tuned/installed by stillen..lol.. im not dealing with that! =D

pretty much done with all engine mods after this until the headers/highflow cats and then a retune...

[ars0n]

whats funny is i never noticed a butt dyno diff till i got the manifold spacer and bpipes. It was like night and day.

[vegaseric]

(10-05-2015 06:33 PM)ars0n Wrote:  whats funny is i never noticed a butt dyno diff till i got the manifold spacer and bpipes. It was like night and day.

I was going to ask if you had a plenum spacer. I've got a 3/8" Powerlab spacer on my G and it definitely woke it up.

[ars0n]

Yup, instantly the second I hit the gas, was smoother, faster throttle response for sure!