I bought this "01 denali with a bad trans originally to flip. Well after driving it once I realized that it is leaps and bounds head of my $400+ a month payment Tahoe for performance. So the Tahoe is for sale. My other project is changing directions to stock short block boosted so I have a nice top end to use or at least part out.

The plan currently is 224/236 cam, 3200 stall, custom tune, and nitrous if she still needs help. It will get the drop, rear bags, rollpan, and 20" wheels from the tahoe for looks.

It will have a fresh stock rebuilt 65 with vett servo. Do you think that will last long with moderate abuse? Or should I plan on an 80 swap in the next year or two? I am sure if I 80 swapped it I would have to do gears with the larger cam, and heavy nature of the truck.

 

Is the trans already in the truck? Add a sonnax boost valve to help it out even more. If you add nitrous id say an 80e will be in your future... but otherwise the tranny may last OK. Just dont abuse the hell out of it. It is a DD of some sort after all...

 

As a disclaimer in Toledo Ohio we aren't going to be featured on street outlaws because everything is slow around here. If I can squeeze low 13 or high 12 on spray I should loose to almost nothing in the area. So it won't be killer fast, but fun and one of the fastest around me.

 

So your Denali is going to slow down hearts????

 

Why did you go with such a large cam? The cam in my sig makes plenty of grunt. I drove it cam only with stock exhaust for awhile and it scooted along very nicely. IMO the cam you choose will be a dog daily driving.

 

I realize it is on the large side. I looked around the found a few guys running a cam this size one claimed to tow with it and it was the best of three he towed with. I understand this isn't supported by common thinking. I bought it used so if I turns out to not suit my needs then I am just some more labor away from a smaller better suited cam. Hopefully it isn't the case but I should only be out time if I don't like it.

My intake side isn't much bigger. What effect does the much longer exhaust duration do?

 

I tow with a 248/256 112lsa, it works great.

Longer exhaust duration shifts peak HP up in RPM. (Top End)

 

Are you serious 03? What size engine. Is that on your charged Denali?

What are your thought on towing with this cam, N/A do you think it will be ok?

 

lol, it will work

LS engines are not good for towing,

if you really wanted a tow pig you shoulda left the stock cam in and bought some gears

 

I can not agree that LS isn't good for towing. What I have found is with a heavy load there is no reason to go past about 40% throttle. With a car on the hauler my GVW is about 10,500 so that I my light loads. I have had a 38" motor home and a 15,000# mini excavator on a trailer plus a few other big loads behind the Tahoe. at 40% throttle it had decent acceleration including up two fairly steep inclines. An on ramp and a bridge both I would say 25+% grades. Now if you get it 50% or more throttle you are just wasting time because it doesn't change from 40% to 100%.



That all was with a tuned but other wise stock 5.3 with 3.73 gears.

I understand this cam isn't helping it be a tow pig, my hope is daily driving it is comfortable enough for me and it will still pull alright. I have trucks that I can borrow if heavy towing is completely out the window with this cam. I also should be able to swap to a different smaller cam if need be without loosing much but time.

If it will pull a car hauler I am good. To be honest anything big I now have this.

It has a 2" reciver on the back. I loved pulling the crazy loads but we all know 18,000 lbs. behind a 1500 Tahoe isn't really ideal! She pulled it great and I would do it again if need be but no reason to push my Denali to the moon if I can fire up almost 500 hp. and 1300 ft. lb. of torque!