CaRaZy

Hey I just found this site, been on plenty of car and boat forums and never found a legit knowledgable performance truck site. It would have helped me years ago when I built my ride. About 10-11 years ago I built my 1995 GMC Suburban K2500. Came with a 454tbi/4L80E. I put a kit from whipple on it with their tuning software gained next to nothing on the dyno like 30whp. After a few months I pulled the motor dropped compression which was recommendation by my tuner at the time so i can run more boost... anyways did a mild crane cam set for the supercharger, roller rockers, nothing crazy. My tuner used a smt-6 piggy back to tune and promised me a full capability to tune fuel and timing. He never got to control the timing for some reason. I had lots of issues I worked out that whipple didnt at the time like the egr valve showing duty and setting a cel because the boost was pushing the egr pintle open. Cut the egr open and I put a helper spring to stop that. The roller rockers were being picked up by the knock sensor and it was pulling timing like crazy had to put resistors inline to fool the pcm. I own a transmission shop, so i know what im doing as to fix problems but this kind of stuff should have been handled by whipples testing on their product... anyways speaking of transmission the map sensor sees the higher flow of air at lower throttle because of the blower and it makes the trans have higher line pressure.

I can keep rambling on but I still love the truck. It has many of miles on it since all this. My question is as time and technology evolved what is out there now for me for a good tuning device? OBD2s are easy but I have pre-obd2 and having issues with that. I know the truck has a lot more power to be made once I encorporate new technology in it. Im also thinking of ditching the whipple and tbi and try tune port and some sort of turbo setup. I was out of the truck scene because I fell out of love because of all the bs I went through. I bought in 04 a Dodge SRT4 as a daily which turned into being my hobby for a while which after mods I was running 11.6s out of a 4 cyl it was much easier and modding was much more gratifying. That sat next to the Burb in the garage and I had another daily which was an Audi A4 quattro 4cyl turbo. I grew out of those cars and sold both a few years ago and bought a grown up vehicle... a new at the time 2010 Sierra Denali. So now I have my toy which I have the bug to start messing with. So im here seeing what new stuff is out there, I see swaps are a big thing on this site. I would love to swap a full drivetrain like my Sierra Denali but thats just not in the budget and wouldnt get approved by the wife. I just did a motor build in my boat so I would have to let that settle for a while lol.


**** Update LQ4 Twin Turbo AWD Swap in progress ****

Here are a few pics.

CaRaZy

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ak2007r6

iTrader: (1)

Thats a badass burb man. I dunno what's all out there for the older vehicles as far as tuning, I am sure there are others that will chime in.

kainedogg

iTrader: (23)

Nice truck bro, even nicer boat. Your truck is not that old so a 6.0 swap especially since you are mechanically inclined may not be a bad thing. 6.0's have been out since '99 and the potential (forgive the cliche) is limitless. Check this breakdown for ideas.
http://www.hotrodlane.cc/PDFFILES/Lisa%20Tahoe.pdf

CaRaZy

Thanks guys, the motor is built for boost and it runs great still so I don't think a swap is really in my future right now. Like I said if I had the money i'd have the full 6.2/6L80E/AWD engine/powertrain like my Sierra Denali in it.

I was pretty young at the time of building the engine and took people's advice and apparently they made me go overkill on dropping the compression because they thought I had a bigger compressor blower. So I have supercharger speedpro 7.5:1 pistons, chrome moly rings, bigger pushrods etc... The Whipple kit on it is only a 1600ax compressor so the most I get boost wise after the engine rebuilt is about 6lbs. I was seeing if people did any turbo headers and maybe switch to twin turbo....

When it was dyno'd and "tuned" I put down 350hp/530tq which was pretty good compared to my stock with just a hypertech chip pull of 230/360 and like i said earlier with just a bolt on Whipple setup it gave me only 30hp 260/385. The truck ran 14.7@92mph with a crap 2.3 60' because it just spins with those 22s and I really didn't have the money or motivation at the time to put something sicky on 8-lug wheels lol.

I wish I had a chance to talk to people that has done a Whipple on a 7.4TBI before but of course I have yet to come across anyone.

Has anyone done a TBI to efi conversion on here?

CaRaZy

Looking around more on here looks like a swap to a lq4, lq9 or even a l92 or l9h might be in my future. Install everything and run off obd2 so I can get a good tune. The questions I have are: what are people doing with the old dashes/gauges after the swap? If a swap was previously matted to a 4l60e or a 6l80 can it be programmed to run with a 4l80e?

kainedogg

iTrader: (23)

Not sure about the 6l80e but if you have a newer 4l60e its not hard to reprogram the ecu, but the wiring harness will have to modified and connectors repinned. The 4l80e has 2 speed sensors vs 1 for the 4l60e.

SuperStepside

iTrader: (2)

If you want to keep your OBD1 stuff then head over to moates.net. They have alot of tuner hardware and software that'll let you tune on the fly just like in OBD2.

rj2

Have you tried playing with the pulley size on your charger? There are a lot of people witj whippled 8.1s im sure theres some 454 guys too. Id try to sell that motor and charger and buy a 5.3 or 6.0 and procharge ot. Keep that tranny tho!

CaRaZy

Re-wiring is no issue, the 4l80e has input and output speed sensors. The 4l70es in tbss' also have input and output but the input is in the pump. I guess im trying to figure out how much is really programmable thru a tune to the obd2 6.0 computer.

Thanks first time ive been to that site im going to scope it out a little more but i really think I am moving onto a newer package.

Sure did! During the engine build i was told to lower compression by whipple if i wanted to run a certain boost level safely. Well i did and lower the compression more air needed per cylinder.... well the supercharger is at its max and has on the smallest pulley avail from whipple giving only 6lbs. My dyno and track times were only on 5lbs. I had a custom pulley made but i only get 7 out of that and i took it off.

My plan is most likely to do a 6.0 with a turbo. After having my turbo cars and modding them i enjoy them a little more than the supercharger. That seems another can of worms because of the manifolds needed for the turbos i want to do. I dont see any production ones ready for a twin turbo setup. I want the turbos up front too not rear mount.... i have a lot of researching to do before buying unlike last time lol. Maybe its because im older now