CamGTP

It's normal on just about any gas vehicle. Start looking at other cars/trucks on the road with chrome tips and you'll notice soot trails all over them too.

Around $300 a month. I always put extra cash down but I also never buy brand new. The most expensive truck I've bought was $25,000 back in 2018, it was a 2 year old truck at the time. Longest loan I've done is 4 years. I find is funny that they allow for 84 month loans now, people that do that can't even afford the car they are buying and will be paying so much in interest over that time frame lol. Some people gotta be making a ton of money if you think $1,000 a month on a car note is fine lol, not something I could do with a mortgage and all the other crap.

Nope, not that I know of. Install and away you go.

The rise in temps with an RPM increase like that is normal on a LS or LT engine, every single one I've owned has done that. I can make my truck see 220-225 easy on a 0-80mph down an on ramp or while I'm doing tuning. After 30 seconds to a minute the temps are back down to normal as all the coolant runs through the radiator. In the winter time it's much harder to see those temp swings as the outside air stays in the 0-25 degree range. My uncles 2014's had lack luster A/C too and needed the condenser replaced on it like they all do. After replacing both the compressor and condenser the A/C temps are right back down into the 40's even on muggy hot days here.

The carbon pro beds to me was the brain child of some ****** head that thought they had the next best idea since sliced bread, you see it from every company out there I swear. It costs more and doesn't make the truck any better, it's no wonder that they never catch on in the real world. All it was, was a marketing gimmick and for uber douche bags to rub their belly buttons while talking about their truck to their smug friends and anyone within ear shot that really didn't give a damn.

Use a credit card to pay the bill, if you make decent payments on it every month you won't rack up tons of interest on the balance.

Just go to napa or something and run Valvoline or Mobil 1, they will do just as good of job for that old truck.

Since when is a 5.3 and 6.2 truck engine the same as a LT1 in a camaro that goes racing? If I was taking my truck to a race track and constantly beating on the engine like it owed me money, I'd probably switch oils too....

Oil weight has nothing to do with it. I can make a 5.3 have the same power if not more with a supercharger kit and nothing else, still running the same oil and it won't have a failure because of 0W20.

That truck probably has 15 different modules, not that this scanner could even read them all. Many monitors either don't apply to that truck or there require specific run time for the monitor to be ran. The PCM is always running a misfire monitor even if that scanner doesn't say it is, it's always working in the background and will report an issue if there is one. And fuel system monitor is super vague, what part of the fuel system is it a monitor for?? I'm not asking you that question, it's just in general because the fuel system is pretty complex on these trucks and there are lots of things that go with it. I honestly wouldn't worry about it. If you have no check engine lights and you don't have emissions testings, I wouldn't care one bit.

Do you have a budget and how much power do you want to add?? Those are your two biggest questions to answer. You can easily add 50+hp for under $1,000 with simple mods. I highly suggest a small camshaft upgrade, stay with a 212/218 or smaller in size to run the same stall torque converter you already have. I'd probably put in larger injectors from a 8.1 truck or a L33 flex fuel truck. Those injectors are cheap and give you more headroom for power. Do some long tube headers and then get it tuned. That alone should add at least 50hp and torque to that engine and make it much quicker and fun to drive. Keep the stock intake manifold, keep the stock cable throttle body and all that. You won't outflow those parts and keeps your budget down.

Finding one today, yeah it's more rare. But that truck in the 90's wouldn't be rare, just unusual to see like said above. Probably only a handful out of every 1,000 trucks were built that way back then.

Same station still at $2.89 all summer. Everyone else is $3.20ish, it's pretty funny actually. The lines at certain times are day are long and there is a fuel truck there nearly everyday with new gas because of it lol. E85 is around $2.40-2.50 I think, don't remember what I paid.

At my other job we probably sell at a guess 4,000+ batteries a year, we aren't a huge store by any means and I bet 1 in 30 of those comes back dead within a year and 1 in 20 die within 2 years. Been seeing a lot of specific size batteries come back with 2023 build dates, we think it was a bad run of product for a few months there. Shop by warranty and price, I don't think going AGM is going to make it better or worse.

Changing gears isn't that hard, you just need the proper tools to do it. The ring and pinion is all you have to change, the center section can stay the same if you wanted to. Or you can go with a real posi traction diff, like a eaton tru-trac. You'll need the ring/pinion set. New bearings and seal, torque wrench, dial indicator and a press would be handy. You can watch tons of youtube video's on it. I bet most driveline shops would charge $1,500 or more to install gears in a rear end, that's parts and labor pricing. But changing gears from those boring 3.42's will make a ton of difference in towing and getting up to speed much faster.

Napa sells batteries with 18 month, 24 and 36 month warranties. When there is really only 3 people that make batteries for everything, you don't have much to choose from. You're basically buying what the sticker says and what warranty you want on the battery. I've run nothing but Napa batteries for the last 15 years, they've treated me just fine in every vehicle I've owned. Sometimes you get bad batches.

They can get good fuel mileage on the open road that's for sure. My parents just got back from the black hills in their 2021 Silverado 5.3 and they avg'd around 22-24mpg for the whole trip. So many 50 mile stretches of 27-28mpg with the right roads, winds and traffic.

If the water pump ain't leaking and the thermostat isn't showing any signs of failing, I wouldn't be doing the work. A coolant flush or drain and fill is a good idea though. The pulley, belts and A/C tensioner are good idea's though, the A/C one always fails first. Do spark plugs now, they are 13 years old at this point, easy to change. Flush the brake fluid and exchange the power steering fluid, suck the fluid out, refill and do it again after 20min of run time. Change the transmission fluid now too. That's 13 years of time, moisture build up and wear, again it's another easy thing to do.

Easiest thing would be any supercharger, that is a instant 75+ horsepower and torque on that engine. The next best options you have are modding the engine. Install a small camshaft, like 212/218 in size. You can mill the cylinder heads a little bit to bump up the compression ratio to gain more power too. I'd stay with the stock exhaust manifold to keep the lower end torque. And a small camshaft will work with the stock torque converter. You might see a 40-50hp gain at peak with those mods. You'd need to do alot more to really see gains on the 4.8, but then you don't get a useful engine anymore. The peak power will but pushed way out because you'll have to spin the engine to 6,500-7,000rpm. If the truck is 2WD, for sure swap gear ratio's. I would do 3.90's in a 2WD. If it's 4WD, go with 3.73's or 4.10's because last time I checked you can't get 3.90's for the front diff.

Casting cracks like that is very normal to see, that's not a problem to me. What codes are you getting? Rich codes could be from leaking injectors or if the truck is a flex fuel truck, the alcohol composition reading could be stuck at a high value and needs to be reset back to normal.

Hard to say really but I've seen plenty at that 200k+ miles. In fact I just tuned a 2011 truck with a 6L80 with 202k with the original transmission still. He wanted it tuned, so I did it even with that mileage in hopes of getting more life from it. My work has had 2 big box trucks that made it over 150k on the stock transmission and those truck were always loaded to 10,000lbs easy every day. So I'd say if you get 200k on any stock transmission, you got your moneys worth on these trucks. Different trucks with a diesel that run an eaton, allison or heavy duty like that should see way more miles.

Have you tried resetting the transmission adapts with the VCM scanner yet?

Yeah, those transmission temps are way too high. You need to install the lower temp transmission thermostat from GM or do the thermostat mod to stop it from working and have it flow fluid all the time. The thermostat mod will reduce transmission temps under normal driving condition by at least 30-40 degrees. It can be 80 degrees outside and I'm cruising down the highway with temps in the 140's.

How heavy was the trailer? DId you check on the dash to see your transmission temps at all? Usually the tach would move some if it was surging, because either the engine is being lugged down or the transmission is slipping/torque converter issues. You could also have a trailer brake be an issue as well. The brake could be dragging and releasing on an incline and that is what you are feeling. Hard to say at this point without driving your truck and see it happen in person.

I've have no flat tires in the last 16 years running just P rated tires, so is this six of one half dozen of the other thing here? Seems more like bad luck than anything or you drive on job sites that are riddled with hazards that a lighter duty tire might not enjoy as much.