I purchased an 05 Denali last year to use as my DD but i'm getting to bug to make it more fun to drive. The Yukon is all stock with ~150k miles. The transmission shifts fine and the motor feel great given the mileage and age. I'm new to the GMC and LQ4 motor but everything I have been reading says a cam and exhaust is all that is needed. I will be towing a rhino and a ~3000lb race car from time to time and mostly use this as my DD with some off roading when I can. End of the day I have a fun fast car but drive this one 80% of the time. I want it to be a sneaky fast truck but don't need to squeeze every bit of performance out of it and would rather have reliability than an extra 10-15hp. I will find a local tuner after the modifications.

1: Cam
I have looked and cam's and Texas Speed and Performance keeps coming up with their truck line. Any other recommends for something with a much better TQ/HP curve than stock with mild manors? (Stock type RPM's <6.3k)

2: Exhaust
Does anyone make an exhaust for the Denali AWD? I have looked at several vendors but am not having much luck.

Are stock manifolds or short tube headers, removing the cats, and a good flowing mufflers good enough or are long tubes and a true duals a must?

 

LT headers in a SUV is going to be loud considering how much sheet metal you have to rattle around and the fact you have to throttle in more than a car to move it. I'd aim for a valvetrain friendly cam and a touring orientated muffler. Top it off with a used TBSS intake. If you are going to tow then you don't really want to deal with drone 10 hours a day while traveling. Throw a good tranny cooler and only tow in 3rd. Take it easy on that 4L65E.

I got 210K miles on my heads cam intake 04 Denali before one of my pistons decided it didn't want to live anymore. Now I am starting over with a brand new LQ4 based motor and transmission.

 

I disagree with all that. As long as the exhaust is out the back and muffled correctly it doesnt matter what kind of vehicle it is. Select a muffler that 1 is the right volume level for your comfort and 2 doesn't drone and you're golden. I would also exhaust all other performance options before going into the engine. You'd be really surprised what exhaust, proper tune, gears, CAI, torque converter, etc can do to wake that truck up. For driving, towing, and general use, internal engine mods are definitely NOT needed. See here:

https://www.performancetrucks.net/fo...er-etc-544286/

 

If you are going to cam it I would run the 212/218 550/550 112 cam as it is designed to run with the factory converter. As far as longtubes go, I think you may be able to get any of the NBS longtubes in there, but you would have to get a connection pipe fabbed to hook up the cat-back. Most companies will tell you the headers are only meant to fit 1500 trucks, but there are a lot of tahoes out there running the 1500 truck headers with out issues. I would say that they would probably work, but I would go in it with the mindset that some modifications may be required. I would stick to 1 3/4 though.

Good Luck

 

Kooks makes an 1 7/8 Longtube for the Denali. I had been running Borla shorty headers up until about 3 months ago when I found a deal on a set of Kooks. Don't waste your time with shorty style headers, they are no better than stock manifolds. Also had a true dual SS 3" exhaust built for the truck at the same time as well. No drone with a big Magnaflow muffler and has cut outs for when I wanna be loud.

 

Don't touch that motor until you 4l80 swap it!

Mine killed the trans in a year with just headers, tune and CAI. granted I beat the **** out of it, but given you Tow as well as obviously drive it hard (based on wanting more power), you will kill that trans in no time!
If anything, put a servo and trans cooler upgrade on it immediately while you source trans swap parts.


2wd Trucks rock the 4l60 with minor mods, that AWD FAT Suv, will kill that trans faster than a fat kid can eat a twinkie!

Trust me, NO MODS you can do to that 4l60 will keep it performing with the kind of load a AWD / Tow pig will put on it.
Don't believe me, just dig in this site and various others at the thousands of threads detailing their trans problems in performance modded SUV's.

Trans swap first, then performance mod the **** out of it, or it will be a giant paper weight in your drive way in a few months.

 

I have only built SUVs and have a lot to add to this, but I just want to say my Tahoe and Yukon XL both have LTs and neither one is droney or too loud.

 

Thanks for all the responses!