Anyone using a whipple 2.3 on a stock motor lq4 2500 truck? For an all in price around 8k I was debating on either building a very tame 370 cube motor or running my stock motor with a whipple. Truck has 160k and is very well taken care of. I’m towing in the extreme AZ heat and a lot of long pulling mountain grades . Just looking for feedback on a set up.

 

Do the whipple

 

I agree buy a blower and go drive the wheels off of it. Whipple or Mangnuson either will give you what your after.

 

especially if $8k is also your all-in quote on a 370, the blower will come out miles ahead for the same price.

 

What are you going to do about cooling ?
I tow in those same hills every week and can't believe how hot mine gets going uphill, but always cools down going downhill.

 

diff gears, a matching converter, and a good trans cooler setup should suffice.

 

Have you ever towed up 7% grades and it is around 115 degrees ?
It is not "cold & windy" .

 

How hot are you seeing? Do you have an oil cooler?

I have towed thru some pretty hellacious conditions with a boosted 5.3 and a 4L60, usually about 7k lbs. I had an aftermarket aluminum rad with integrated oil cooler, additional trans cooler and e-fans. I see you location, and want to iterate my point- we pulled the race car from Albuquerque to Vegas for LS Fest '18, thru Flagstaff, which is a gigantic climb, in 3rd, pulling about 8lbs of boost- and never got hot. Coolant stayed at 218°, which is fine for conditions, and then dropped back to the mid 190s when we crested. Trans never hit 200°

So, how hot are you getting? GM says overheat isn't until like 240°, but I don't know anyone who agrees with that lol

 

as a matter of fact, my house is a little over 4200ft elevation at the top of a 3-mile 6-7% grade (occasional 10% hills around here) and have a 10-20kt wind in the face half the time. while we see -40° or so in the winter, summers also get up around 105-110°... so yes, i understand your plight. moving into this house (in August, mind you), my truck+enclosed trailer was around 15-16k gross for multiple trips.

i've also towed through Denver but not during the summer. either way, i wasn't going to offer my specific examples because me & the wife don't own any automatics, so the only time i'm concerned about trans temps is in my vette on the track. my truck's also a compounded diesel with pretty good stock cooling, but her grossly-underpowered barn of a H3 does have to pull the grade to our house every day at WOT for about 3min straight, and we never overheat with stock cooling - and that's even occasionally towing a 3000lb tractor.

 

part of what some people don't understand is that you have to slow down. if you already do, then great!
but i feel no sympathy for anybody who complains about overheating problems trying to pull heavy at unloaded interstate speeds - especially not up steep grades when it's hot outside.

that's actually how i trashed a transmission a few years back (trying to rush home from Tucson with a 7k trailer in my 1/2ton GMC at 75mph). engine never got hot, but the trans burnt right up (and manuals ain't got no temp sensor to trigger the idiot light that warns you to slow down).