Michael Clark

So i have an 04 2500HD CCSB with he 6.0 gas 4L80E . It spends 90% of its time with either a plow in front of it or a trailer behind it. My problem with it is that it ha no power to pull any hills even with the light trailer I have behind it that weighs less than 3500#. yes it has 4.10 gears, fresh plugs every 25k miles and a airaid jr kit, and no blow by.
Now i am thinking of doing a turbo setup on it with concentration on quick boost and probably only 5 psi max. Im really looking to help it between 2000-4500 rpm. There are two hills i pull every day that im shifting back to 2nd gear at 60 mph and droping rpm by the time I get to the top and barely running 45. I know a supercharge would be best for this but not really interested in one. I could care less about top end power just more mower down low and maybe able to keep it in 3rd or OD most of the time. Also need to keep the peak power a little lower like 450-475. I know cam work could get me to that but every dyno chart ive seen, every cam that is aftermarket or gm will kill the power in the idle to 3000 rpm band.
I was thinking of remote mounting (under the bed) a holset HX35 just to get it to boost quick and at low rpm and run out of boost as it goes up in the rpm range, or from reading about them a GT45 ebay turbo( yeah i know cheap turbo) but ive heard nothing but good things about them.
Any help would be great in advice for a setup.everyone ive seen is going for max power up high for racing. There are too many trucks around and there has got to be more people like me that want more down low for pulling
NO I dont want a diesel. TOOOO cold up here for them.

Vortec350ss

iTrader: (20)

I would not do a rear mount as those tend to spool a lot slower than you will want.

the Borg SXE 472 would work well for you I think. You dont want it to spool too fast as boost down low isnt easy on an engine. But at 60 having the converter locked in 3rd gear with a couple PSI to help should be enough to avoid a downshift.

Hell if you really want something tiny to get into boost nearly immediately even look at the 369 that a lot of diesel guys upgrade to.

Atomic

iTrader: (42)

From everything you just said, you really really need a blower over a turbo.

GRRR65GTO

Thats what I was thinking, youve got it backwards blowers make good torque down low and turbos make good power up high in the rpms. Take it from a guy who has a 2500hd with a turbo, that tows and plows, you want a blower. Does the turbo pull good on hills yeah, and at only 7 psi, but off the line the instant torque isnt there. Plus it heats up everything under the hood good, I would steer clear of a cheap turbo because Ive had 2 On3 performance turbos have the oil seal go bad on the hotside and I think its cause I get them so hot. Like mentioned a borg warner would be the way to go if youre dead set on a turbo, thatll be my next turbo

ZO6Ted

I can only speak of my experience. I had a 67/76 precision rear mount on a 5000 lb 4x4 5.3@ 8.5lbs with LS6 cam. At part throttle ~ 25-35% it had a huge amount of torque without downshifting and would move out quite nicely. If you floored it, it was instant (downshifted) except from a dig had to spool it on the converter or it took a couple secs. I do like the blower much better for a dd though. Torque off idle till whenever. Not as fast but still tremendously fun and most importantly...reliable. No issues, not even belt dust after 20k miles.

MikeGyver

iTrader: (5)

I think the OP wants a blower with the sound of a turbo. Look for "XL Size Blue Fake Turbo Sound Blow off Valve Simulator Whistle for Car" here

Michael Clark

MikeGyver: No i could care less about the turbo sound or the BOV.

I was thinking turbo for the simplicity/cost of it as compared to a blower. I know they are both expensive. but by the time you pick up the blower, injectors, make the brackets and plumb it and btw i have to tune it myself (no tuners around here, let alone a chassis dyno), it is much more expensive than doing a turbo. I actually didnt think about the turbo geting as hot as it would on the hills.
I also understand a blower produces power basically from idle. As far as I can tell the only options I would have for them would be to buy a vehicle specific kit for almost what i gave for my truck or piece together a kit with twin eaton M90's or pick up a blower off an LSA or gt500. so it may be looking like instead of FI i may be looking at a NA stroker with a 4 inch stroke, and a cam. since I will have to tune it myself I'm thinking it will be loads easier to tune the stroker than messing with the FI options. So all this said, Thank yall for the input that you have given me.

Atomic

iTrader: (42)

One way or another you are going to have $4k-$5k in an FI setup at minimum, so go ahead and get the idea of everything being $500 and working well out of your head. You will have to tune both, so thats a push. Look up the vendor here Atomic Performance, he sells hptuners at a discount and does remote tuning also so he can take care of you on that. Strokers are fun, but still dont have the ultra low end towing power it sounds like you want. With a blower, you basically dont even know its there until you need it, driveability is the same as stock just putting around.

MikeGyver

iTrader: (5)

The problem with a bigger engine is that you are using more fuel always. With FI, the light throttle operation gas mileage doesn't increase significantly.

Michael Clark

ok so watching and paying attention to my truck more over the last couple days, the hills im talking about more specifically. if i can run 60 up to the base of then im shifting back to 2nd and mostly maintaining speed down to about 55 off of 60 turning about 4000 rpm( ish) yesterday i got behind a car on the way up that turned into a driveway. droped down to about 40 mph in 2nd and couldnt gain any speed before the top on the floor. it was about 3/4 mile then it took for ever for it to shift out of 3rd once on semi flat land. btw this is while pulling a single axle trailer with 3500 lb axle under it so not a whole lot of weight. the want for more power at 2000-up is from cruising at 60 mph at around 2100 rpm.
the out of the hole from a stop sign it bulls great. i have no problem pulling from a dig. its just has no power once its up and going. for hills and for passing. also seems like the harder i turn it the more it dies even unloaded.
my last 2500HD 6.0 would bark 2nd with a tune on it. never did any pulling with it but its night and day between the 03 ECSB i had and the 04 CCSB that i have now. on the 03 i had a diablosport predator tuner that i downloaded the program to adjust the fuel and spark and worked it as much as i could. went up about 10* timing all the way through, but like i said never pulled anything with it.
so what do I do. dont want to go diesel for the horror stories ive heard from locals not being able to start them and them gelling up as they drive, it gets -35 to -55* up here in the winter. also was thinging an 8.1 but they are a lot harder to find than i thought. i was tossing around the 408 kit because i read an engine build online by a builder down south that built a 408 with custom cam
that made 550 ft lb peak at 4500 but was making 400 at 2800.
yes i know im all over the place. but im a gear head love working on engines and making things do what the couldnt from the factory.