Everyone knows the saying about when in doubt go with more cubes. But, I have yet to hear about anyone doing a heads/cam on a big block 8.1 I was talking with gran patron about it and it got me thinking GM got 600+ft lbs out of it NA. So lets hear some pros and cons and why no one has tapped into it.

 

The fabrication needed to install it in our trucks as to a plug a play 6L that can be bored out to whatever you want. I owuld like to have one but dont have the time nor the effort to put into it at the moment. They definately have potential to make big power it would be nice to see someone put a nice hopped up 8.1L in a truck.

 

id like to see one with cam,p&p heads, forged pistons and a huge shot of nitrous in a reg. cab truck. but yea i believe it would be way to time consuming for a daily driver

 

I'm working on these pigs right now but it is in a 2500hd ECSB. Raylar heads, cam, intake, and forged short block. As soon as I get it tune I'll put my nitrous back on and some #.

 

It has been done check this site out, very nice RCSB. I think this was supposed to be the SS.

 

why doesnt GM ever build these cool concepts! Does anybody remember seeing the colorado SS concept? It used 100% produciton chevrolet parts. It was simply a 6.0 AWD colorado that was lowered a little bit with some 17" front and 18" rear wheels. It was really cool stuff. I want a cool daily driver like that! The silverado SS is just too damn much money, too heavy, and too slow. I think a little short box short cab AWD drive like this truck would be something perfect. Sell it for 25-30G and there would be fist fights at the dealers ships for who gets to drive one home first.

trav

 

Hey, that's the truck in Gran Patron's sig...he has a link to it's specs!

 

thats what Im looking for if you could slap some big heads on em with a huge cam and get over 500 rwhp might be cheaper than going the FI route. How much more does the BB weigh over the 6.0?

Any info you can share on fabrication youve had to do. Is there much aftermarket for them?

 

Hey guys thanks for bringing the Chevy CoolsideII into discussion. Ive been dreaming to have that truck forever that why is on my sig. I think if GM would produce it would be a pretty damn good seller I know I would buy one as soon as it came out.

Here are some pics of my all time dream truck:

Engine bay on this sucker just marvelous!!!

Here it is at a car show...

interior...

and on the road(one of my favorite pics)


But right now GM offers a 8.1 L,496ci, marine engine with 525HP/560TQ but dont konw if they ever announced it for trucks.

But BIG BLOCK GOOD!

 

I'm a little old school and moding my first 3rd gen small block. I am a huge fan of cubes but always have done large cube gen 1 small blocks (409-428). I am planning on an up grade from my 4.8 to a 408 or....now you got me thinking, a N/A 8.1. The biggest problem with the factory heads is the exhaust port size. Definately would need a lot of porting. The motor should bolt to the tranny, and the motor mount locations should be the same. You would just need some for a 8.1 I would think. I am basing my assumptions on previous sb and bb differences and there were very little. GM has never been known to change much **** for no reason like ford and dodge have done for the last 50 years. There would be a lot of reseach required to set up the computer but I bet there wouldn't be much to it. I'm slightly ignorant about internal (software) differences of the computer systems. Hell of an idea! Hmmmmmmmmmmm