Long Tubes or 4.10 Gears for my 3.42 Geared 6.2 ???
 

I have decided that I am going to spend some money on the truck soon and am trying to decide which is the better option for making my truck faster and funner to drive. I may eventually get a small cam and maybe a UD pulley, but I don't ever plan to get a stall since I had one on my ls1 T/A and didn't like the way that the stall was to drive.

I know that gears will likely cause my highway fuel mileage to go down some. I don't spend much time on the freeway so I don't think that it will be a big deal. I will probably get the 1.875" headers if I go that route. I am setup to get an in person BB tune next month.

Let's see your opinions...I am not going to get a turbo or s/c.

6L80 trans? If so id go with 4.10s...

Gears. :thumb:

Both.

410s and a converter..

If ur planing on doing a small cam later, might as well do long tunes 3.42s with the 6spd take off pretty quick just my $.02

it's been my understanding that you don't need the lower gears with a 6spd transmission as much as the rest of us do with 4spd since you have a much much lower 1st gear.
Do you plan on lifting the truck or throwing big tires on it? If not then I'd say stick to power mods for now.

I've read that a 6l80 with 3.42's is like a 4l60 with 4.56's

^^^^ I'm with this guy

headers for now, gears later on,although the 6 speed is pritty short, kniff's truck is a rocket with 4.10s but he has LTs and cam too

I agree. 3:42's aint that bad.

I just ordered cal-speeds 1 7/8" LT's and I'll get some 4.10's from Ron's Monday.
I asked an owner of a local shop who has a few clients pushing big power through a stock 14b g80, so I'm not worrying about a trutrac right now.

I hate 3.42's. Worst gear ever!

I say Tubes of Longness!!!

Agreed. I had those damn things out before I even hit 500 miles on the truck.

They worked well for me now I'm doing 3:23s ;), but I'd still do the headers first hands down

Go with the gears. I'm putting down close to 600 on the bottle and still can't get out of the hole fast enough with a big converter and 3.42s. Get the 4.10s.

Word.

Dont wanna side track this thread but What size conveter u running? Just wondering planing on doing 3:23s on mine since im boosted and adding a converter

I'm running a Circle D 258mm 3400. Call Chris at Circle D and tell him what you want. He'll take care of you.

Which one should I start with though? Also how much did your fuel mileage go down?

Thanks

I'm tempted to get the cal-speeds too, but it doesn't sound like they fit the 4x4s? Let me know how the headers and gears work out for you.

I guess if I had to pick which order, it would be headers then gears.

Fuel mileage didn't change really once I got tuned.

I got a tri-folding tonneau cover last week, and with that on @ 65mph I get 19-19.5mpg on 93 octane.

city driving average about 15.6 mpg (93 octane)

city driving aggressively 13.6 mpg (93 octane)

city driving aggressively 11 mpg (E85)

Before I got the cover I couldn't get better mileage on the highway then 16.2 mpg w/93 and 13.6 w/E85

double post...my bad

Are you paying labor on the gear swap headers and cam? or do you do your own work?

I ask because if your paying normal prices for parts and labor then your getting within range of a SC,which just that nothing else should net you low 13s

I will be installing my own headers with the exception of any welding…this should cost me in the $700 range with some of the lower priced headers.

I have a friend who owns a shop in Redmond who will likely give me a pretty good deal with installing gears …this should be in the $1000+ range.

If I do a cam it will be something like a LS9 or something very mild where I can reuse my stock valvetrain and stock torque converter so this will probably be in the $600-800 range.

On both the gears and cam I would likely pay my friend to help me with the install work.

If I could get a s/c for anywhere near $2500 I would be all over it, but It would probably be 2 to 3 times that once it is installed correctly and running right. I installed a s/c on a tacoma about 10-12 years ago with great full throttle results, but it took a lot of supporting mods/tuning to ever get it good driveability everywhere else.

Cal speed headers ?
 

Brutal please let me know some details on install for ur truck on these headers ! Never heard of this company price is def right but what's the difference between these long tubes vs arh or dynatechs ? I was about buy a set but Im nervous won't fit right ! I have a 12 6.2 4x4.

I hope to have my house done by this weekend. That way I can get these installed. I seen a thread on gmfs on how much someone dented the header to make it clear, however I also read if you leave everything loose upon install you can manipulate them to fit.
I'll be sure to take lots of pictures for you guys. And if anyone in Houston wants to lend a hand and shoot the shit let me know.

thanks sounds great. im hoping works out ok.....

I would do gears first. The 3.42s in my Avy make it slow out of the hole. I'm afraid 4.10s would be too much with the 6L80, but 3.73s wouldn't be worth the swap especially since I have to do two sets. I think 3.73s would be perfect.

I have the factory 3.73s and would have gotten 4.10s if they offered them. I wish they did, that would be a good fit IMHO.

Agreed, especially with the taller tires. With stock tire height the 3.73s would probably have been fine.

I am in San Diego I have gears a stall Blackbear tune and about to get a cam. I also have 4.10s on a crew cab 4.8 let's just say drivability is awesome I drive 33 miles one way to work and I get about 17 mpg average. I also have 26" rims. Gears helped a little bit but the stall was night and day. I got a circle d 278mm 3200 stall and I love it. I'm getting a cam here in a few weeks long tubes and later going turbo

OP,
I just made a thread with pictures of the new Cal-Speed 1 7/8" LT's. Might help ya make up your mind. I upgraded to new gaskets and SS clamps and payed $540ish to my door.

FYI, I just got a quote for Yukon 4.10s front and rear on my CCSB 4x4. 1630$ installed. For the price, the gears are the best bang for the buck over headers. You will notice a much larger SOTP gain with gears vs LTs.

Any reason you went with Yukon over AAM or Motive??

Are you keeping your stock g80??

I was going to go with Yukon because a two friends of mine have had issues with American Standard. The shop I was going to have do it doesn't deal in Motive. They are primarily an offroad shop and have a team that travels the country doing rock climbing events. At this point I'm putting gears on hold because I want to see what my truck traps this weekend in the 1/4. 4.10s are going to push me into 4th gear and IDK if I want to do that or not yet.

Yes, the 14 bolt g80 is much stronger than the 10bolt one. I plan on keeping both differentials stock.

For reference, I did have them check a price on American Standards and they were 1450$ installed. So around 180$ difference in parts.

For pulling or for performance....or both?

i've been sitting on a set of 4.10's for over a year now. just never got around to putting them in

Sorry gents, not on here as much as I used to be. Phil, yeah the 4.10s would have been fun on the factory rubber but the 3.73s probably would not have left me wanting more. On the 33s the 4.10s would likely be perfect, but I'm not going to spend that much cash for such a small change in gearing.
Nemesis, I have done only a little pulling with the truck but have no complaints whatsoever in that regard so far. I could definitely see more gear being nice if towing anywhere in the neighborhood of the truck's 10k+ tow rating. As far as perfoemance I would really like that extra bit of punch down low. Honestly, if they made 4.30s for my axles I would be saving up for them as I think that would be perfect. I've driven many 6.0/6L90E trucks with 4.10s on both the factory rubber and 33s and I think a bit more gear than that would be sweet, combined with the lower weight and higher power of my 6.2/6L80E setup.

Welcome back! And yeah, I'm not considering going to 4.10s either but given the 33s I would have ordered 4.10s from the factory if I could have. Def not worth the money for that small a change now. It's just the nature of the male beast to constantly be thinking about how to get just a little bit more ....