I am curious about modding my truck, but also want the truck to last me 100K+ miles also. It is a 2001 and it has about 32K miles right now. It is also a 4 x 4. I am wondering what are modifications that I can do without reducing any longetivity of the engine and drivetrain. I do not plan on taking it to a track, but maybe stomping on an occasional car or 2 on the highway. The warranty is about to be up and more then likely I will be getting the extended warranty before my current one expires, but still want some advice and opinions from current truck owners on things that I should do.

Thanks in advance,
Carlos

 

You could go for a Hypertech Power Programmer - pretty easy to use, easy to undo if you need to take your truck to the dealer, and less than $350.

 

I have an 01 Z71 with 36,000 miles on it. Current mods are: HPP3, 160 Thermostat, True Dual exhaust with glass packs, ASP Pulleys, UPD Intake, Magnecore plug wires, NGK TR55 plugs. My roomate has an 02 Z71 completely stock. After driving his I can tell a huge difference between the two. I plan to go with a set of AS&M headers this winter with QTP cutouts and possibly a set of ported and polished heads. It all depends on how much money you want to throw at it as to how fast it will go.

 

The only time the reliability of the 4wd system will come into play is if you use it all the time. Even if you have Auto-Trac it only engages when needed, so either way, it sits dormant.

Now unless you have dual lockers, 5.30 gears and a gear driven transfer case and are out scaling mountains or rock crawling, it's reliability should'nt even be a factor.