now i can sleep at night knowing that the 8.1 is goin to be around for a while. i was afraid they'd ditch it for a v10. Call me old skewl, but i'm a huge fan of the BB v8. I'm not a fan of havin to wind up a small block or waiting for the boost 2 kick in on a diesel. with a big block u got all the torque/hp down low when u need it. Throw in some nos when the BB dies up top and you got yourself a great motor

 

you guys can believe whatever makes you happy..

 

GM has a lot of great crate motors , but they are not going to work in any newer truck with OBD11 computer systems. We have pulled 6.0's and reinstalled 8.1's, hooked the computers back up,they run just fine. Use LS1EDIT to reprogram fuel and spark and they run awesome! and still clear smog tests.
Raylar

 

Here is an interesting thought, Raylar. How would I go about building a blown intercooled 8.1? I have an 88 3/4 ton burb that needs an engine/tranny swap. I have been trying to figure out how to put in a 502 ram jet and modify it enough to pass emissions for NC for 88. Surely if I swapped in a 8.1L they can't bitch on the emissions side right? I like twin screw SCs but I am not a big fan of Whipple's solutions. You can see the details on this in the current Whipple threads in this forum, but the short of it is their computer and injector solutions in their kits are less than desirable. How would I go about getting a manifold made or modifing the current 8.1 FI manifold to accept a top mounted Lysholm SC like whipple sells individually? See here:

http://www.whipplesuperchargers.com/...sp?ProdID=1162

 

01Z71GMC:
You should probably check with the emissions boys in NC and see whether they will ever approve an engine that was not available in that truck originally. You might be wasting time and a lot of money trying. If you can convince them that an Avalanche with a 8.1 is the same as yours via a vin # you might pull it off. As for a real reliable supercharger for the 8.1, where working now on a blower manifold (intercooled) for this motor now and we feel that MagnaCharger or Whipple may end up first with the best package if we can get a good injection sytem thats programable and compatible with OBD11. Whipple's 8.1 intercooled marine unit is a pretty good piece, the biggest problem is the motor and its restrictive iron heads which requires all kinds of crazy programming to keep it from detonating itself to death.
Happy Hunting!
Raylar