Better towing power for a 6.0L

[demented]

Hey Guys,

I have an 06 2500 hd with a 6.0 liter. I use it for some cruising but mainly for towing my race car trailer which is a approx. 10,000lbs 32ft gooseneck. I travel all over to the races so terrain is always different, hills, flats, everying. I have done some mods to teh truck and everything I have done has been a great improvement to the towing capacity of the truck. First off I do have 285/75/16's on the truck with teh stock 4.11 gears. I have put in a k-n air system, (not just a filter) a HP tuners tuneup that I still adjust, The tranny has been reworked with a PATC triple disc towing convertor, transgo shift recalibration kit and the tranny was rebuild using red alto clucth packs. other than that the truck is mainly stock.

As far as towing goes, I have a slight problem maintaining speed at 65-70 MPH in overdrive which puts me at 2000rpm. Over this RPM I have no problem and the tranny does stay in overdrive at 75-80 but fuel mileage goes way down (obviously) and below 2000rpm it tows fine also but thats not the flow of traffic on the highways.

SO I am looking to boost up the power in the 1900- 2300 rpm window. I have a few ideas but before I spend the money I would like to have some opinions. I was thinking of changing the gears to 4.56's. This should deffinately help the pulling power but I still am concerned about fuel economy to a certain degree. I have a couple of broken bolts on the exhaust manifold so instead of fixing the bolts for the third time with stock, I was thinking of putting in a set of JBA shorty headers adn ARP exhaust studs with a flowmaster muffler, Series 50 so I don't have a bad drone. My other options that I was thinking of is to change the rockers to a full roller rocker arm with a 1.8 ratio. They say they add a few horsepower in that rpm range I am looking for, Other than that I am considering a small super charger but I am leaving this as a last resort. Last thing I was thinking of is changing the factory cooling fan to a dual electric setup.

 

So does anyone have any ideas of what I could try or do, or does all this sound right. I am thinking the gears would make the best sense but like I said I still watch my fuel consumption. Right now I get about 8-9 MPG towing so I really am very happy with that and want to try and keep it there. The HP tuners tuneup gives me the good power and fuel economy.

So give me some opinons guys.

[r1byker]

Trade it in for a Duramax. I know it's not what you asked, but for all the money you've spent and are apparently willing to spend, you could have a setup that would solve all your problems. And that would be in stock form. If you wanted more power, there are tons of tuning options out there to get all the power you want. Funny thing is, I was looking for a gasser pickup for about six months but was leery I wasn't going to have that much more towing power than what I have with my Suburban. Then I saw a Duramax on a dealer lot and a light went on; I bought one a couple weeks later.

[Badass69]

Personally with that weight behind it...... Forced induction will quickly get what you want. Forget shorties as they are a complete waste of money on these trucks. If you want headers get a decent set of long tubes. Rockers again are expensive and give little to no gain. You could install a small cam with around 212 degrees duration on the intake side maximum. A set of 243/799 casting heads wouldn't hurt either and will bump the compression up to around 10.4:1. But even then the problem is the gain you are looking for in the rpm window you want will be noticeable but is it enough to justify cost to you?

 

I myself prefer turbochargers ( my 04 2500 is in the process of a turbo kit, cam and and convertor) but even a roots style supercharger will give you all the gain you want in the rpm range you are looking at. Without adding cubic inches it's not that simple to make a super low rpm powerful LS. 4.56's will no doubt help only because they are offsetting the tires you run. Just put 245's back on it and then you can forget about gears, lol.

 

Otherwise just get a more suitable truck for the situation which would be a diesel or an 8.1. I never normally recommend either to anyone but with 10000 lbs and mainly tow use that is what they are built for.

[demented]

Not interested in a diesel. I know the pulling power is huge, but the hype of a diesel is overrated. Have something go wrong with it in a different country and you'll be getting rid of that diesel real quick. I travel to Canada alot for races and I have heard the horror stories of guys getting stranded with there diesels and nobody close by to fix it. Then when they do find someone When they get the truck there the owner has a grin from ear to ear knowing he just hit paydirt. Not for me. A gas truck even though down on power is much easier to fix if something goes wrong. Beisdes, the extra money for the diesel and the extra maintenance is not worth it for a weekend tow truck.

[demented]

Turbo is not out of teh question either. How bad do you think a turbo or supercharger would do for gas mileage?

[Badass69]

I honestly can't say as I haven't personally done it yet, lol. I paid for my KB kit in mid Decemeber and it probably will be showing up around the end of January or so. I should have my Isky triple 12 cam and Yank convertor beforehand however. I am not really concerned about the mileage myself but results from people that have done it are favorable. The more boost you are pulling the more fuel it will burn but out of boost mileage will be the same. I consulted a few guys through private message ( performancetrucks.net is a board I recommend you look at if you haven't) when I was sizing a turbo and got some interesting results. There is a fair number of guys on that forum running either supercharged or turbo'd trucks used for towing. Honestly the heavier the load the bigger the turbo..... it sounds backwards but really it makes sense when you start to think about what you want. Full boost at part throttle with heavy load.... equals bad, lol.

 

I will tow my carhauler with this truck but I just don't need to tow often is all. And personally... I am no fan of diesel either. I had my fill growing up in agriculture and driving highway tractor. I'm good.

[markw8]

Get rid od the 285s and go back to an OEM diameter tire. It will make a huge difference.

 

Mark

[vucelick]

Loose the 285's like markw8 said. I had 265's on my 8.1l and switched back to the stock 245's and could not believe the difference towing my boat.

[music]

Why not just tow in 3rd? You'll get the same mpg as towing in 4th. The rpm's will be higher, but you'll be using less throttle... so it all works out. There's no reason to use OD w/ that much weight, imho, as it will be unlocking the TC all the time and running less efficiently than just sticking w/ the 1-to-1 ratio of 3rd w/ the TC locked.

[demented]

I hear what you guys are saying and its kind of along the lines of what I was thinking as well. The bigger tires have made it tougher for the motor to pull the weight so my options are to either go back to the 245's which I don't think will happen or change out the gears to 4.56's and recalibrate the trans for the new gears for the shift points. I like this option better for myself and it should prove for me to be what I am looking for. As for towing in 3rd, its a 650 rpm jump from 3rd to fourth gear. Thats alot bigger of a jump in rpms than a set of 4.56's would be and it does use alot more gas in 3rd gear. Tried it already.

[Chris]

Magnacharger TVS1900. More power and a little lower power range than a turbo will do

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2

[99 2500]

The JBA shorty headers are not a waste, I recently installed on my 02 Tahoe because of broken manifold bolts and surprisingly got a nice little gain in power and mileage, also don't have to worry about braking bolts again. I have ARH long tubes on my 2500 pickup and they definitely give more power but to say they are the only way to go is wrong.

[yukon25008.1]

I was going to say..Unless you really love the truck..look for a 06-07 lbz duramax..

Although the 4:56,s would make a nice improvment! You can put money into the 6.0 to get it to tow the way you would like or need it to and get 9-11 mpg,s Or find a decent d-max and be happy, You could also find an 8.1 truck and be alot less then the cost of a diesel, And have all the TQ you need.

My 8.1 has a blackbear tune,intake,exhaust, and a raylar cam.. the cam brought the big block to life pushing me over 400 hp, and over 500 ft lbs,

Look into borla mufflers..Top qaulity and the drone people try to get away from isnt there.. Ecspecially with a 16" long vs the 12".

[454ss]

some day people will learn high revving small blocks are not for towing. without the 496 in the line up gm is missing the boat for people who dont want a diesel. towing the same weight in comparable trucks, the 6 liter gets worse millege than a 496 or the 96-00 454. three of my friends in the excavating bisiness found this out the hard way also. all of them got new bb trucks every two years for the last 10-12 years and when gm killed the 496 they naturally went with the 6 liter thinking it was comparable because of the hp rating, well 2 of them traded for duramaxs within a year and the other bought his old truck back and privately sold the new 6 liter. lesson learned.

[doverarjim]

Old drag racing secrect for auto trans go with the longest headers you can find for a standard transmission go with the shortest header possible. You may get some small gains from the change from stock to headers but the length of the tube will do more for touqe than anything else. Also to the op I am sure years ago diesel repairs for pickups were alot more "high tech" than they are now. After listening to guys with newer trucks with over 200,000 miles on them stock with no problems why kill your self to make a engine work its self to death? My 99 6.0 did everything I asked of it for 186,000 miles, it pulled every time I mashed the pedal but it was hard on it I know it and anyone else who has worked a truck hard knows it. I now don't worry about what I have behind my truck just hook and book.

And I have always been one of those who wanted to do something different from everyone else.