Im pretty sure you would be better off with a LS engine..
i drove my buddys 95 1500 to Louisana to take a transmission down there and best we could get was 16.. With several small normal mods and stock size tires..

i can squeeze 24 out of mine on a long trip like that. same style truck.

When it was a factory truck from 2000 i went to a shooting competition in Pennsylviana and averaged 20-21mpg round trip. That was a lil over 2600 miles.


If you want something different then try that 4BT cummins swap.. theres a guy on the Z71 tahoe-suburban forum that did it and is gettin in the 20s. Do a 4L80E and a 2.73 gear or something and that thing would be fun! Dont make much HP but TQ can be had in the 500-600range easy.

 

Going to go out on a limb here and say if he says he doesn't have idea what to do with heads, I would think a swap, the PCM, harness, ect would be a bigger PITA *** for him. No reason he can't get out of the 350 what he needs.

 

Well you have to understand with me. Machine work I don't know anything about. I'm mechanically inclined but have never done anything like this. I AM however an aircraft electrician. So wiring is actually super easy for me.

 

In that case you have to say to your self then. What kind of budget do I have, how much work do I actually want to do and how much time do I want to spend on it. If you have the ability to do all the wiring, to get everything working, are mechanically inclined enough to take on the swap, the mods to get the LS and L80 trans in there then that is the way to go. It is just going to be a bit of wiring so that all the gauges and what not work.. A cheap way to prob get the gains you want is to do the heads, camshaft. That would be a solid 30 hp/tq or so for not much money or down time.

 

No matter what engine/trans setup is in my truck, I'm redoing the dash. The fab shop here in town is going to make me a new dash and door panels to match, so I'm going to have to rewire all of my gauges anyways. (part of what is leaning me to do a swap)

My entire truck will be stripped out if I do a swap, and it will basically come back from the ground up. (obviously very time consuming to do it)

The issue right now is SC 350 vs a swap. I still need $800 just to rebuild the current trans, which is 1/3 the cost of a full on swap to a 5.3 or 6.0 at the local yard.

Trying to break 20mpg and do something different and special at the same time sucks.

 

If you like challanges and something different then try putting a LS/80E/Xcase in a Suzuki Samurai.......
Its quite a job.

 

lol. I'll save the really complex stuff for building a dune buggy from scatch in 5 years.

 

I would not put a blower on the stock 350. Yes you can boost it but not to the point of a LS and make reliable HP unless you have a built(frged rod/psiton 350. If you decide to add power either way, you should opt for a 4l80e trans regardless of engine. 1 your going to tow, 2 your going to up HP. Given your truck is a little lighter then the 99+ trucks but still a 80E is the best bet. A built 60E is decent but still does not have the power handling ability of even a stock 80E

 

I didn't know they were that far off in strength. Won't the gearing hurt me more on the highway for economy though?

 

The final 2 gears are the same IIRC in the trans. The 80e has a lower first gear which is actually better for towing.