Hey guysngals, title says it all. I need power pdq to get up this mountain I live on. At 150k the motor is still strong although I know it's seen its stronger days, so I don't really think it's time for a rebuild or swap. And before you chime in Synth, I just don't have the dough for the D-max wish like hell I did, that would be the best!

So I'm looking at getting new heads with a mild cam to get me a little over 400hp; a Procharger supercharger for some more horsies, or a big ole Edelbrock turbocharger for even mo hosses up front. Heads and cam are the cheapest option at around $2500 with lifters, pushrods, oil pump etc, but the most work-intensive and the most down time. The Procharger looks fairly straightforward for about 6k, and the Edelbrock would be a little more involved, 6.5k.

For the turbo/super route I'll have to take out a 2nd mortgage and sell my 58 year-old body on the street corner; the heads/cam route I can probably do with creative accounting. Again the drawback with the heads is I don't know if I want to dive back into that sort of heavy maintenance. Don't know if they make long enough cheater bars for me to get the head bolts broke loose without ending up in my chiro's emrgency back pain ward. So I would likely just pay to have it done, and you KNOW they's gonna find broke stuff or make broke stuff so the cost might end up close to the other two choices anyway. Damn, I think I just shat myself...

No idea what will happen to my gas mileage but at this point I need to be able to get on up without stupid F350 duallies hauling horse trailers or four-wheelers passing me going up a 6% grade

 

F350's are going to have insane torque compared to what your rollin. Even dumping that kind of money they may still be passing you.


IF I were going down the same road as you (or up for that matter) I would probably go the procharger route. They seem the most reliable in other vehicles I've seen them in (GTO, Camaro, etc). I would probably run only low levels of boost. Beefing up the valve train is great but leaving the bottom end untouched will eventually end up in problems.


Let alone, think of everything the power goes through in these heavy pigs-torque converter, tranny, transfer case. That's a lot to beef up and worry about problems down the road.


Even with FI I think you'd be in boost the entire time going up that mountain. Short periods of boost I think would be fine and these engines probably wouldn't bat an eye but sustained boost would leave me a little concerned for longevity.


Again anything is possible with enough money but you start dumping cash into forged internals, cryo treating, and all that fun FI stuff you'll be in duramax territory in no time.


Here's my disclaimer:
I know not a damn thing about FI in regards to timing, EGR, O2 sims, cattless stuff-all that weird stuff those FI guys do. Let alone turbo trims and tables. I've tried to learn some of it but it gets insanely confusing to me. The above is just my thoughts from being a weekend wrencher my whole life.

 

I would do the Edelbrock upgrade, see if you can find a neighbor kid who likes cars to help you with the hard work. I am approaching your age and I no longer find it fun to crawl around an engine bay like I used to. On the other hand I would be afraid to have a shop do it.

 

Wonder how easy it would be to drop the H2 chassis onto an F250/350 frame...

 

go with the F.I route. i would actually recommend you go with a roots style blower such as a magnacharger instead. they build torque instantly compared to the procharger youl need some rpm to get in the power band. i ran both a magnacharger and a d1sc procharger on my old silverado SS 6.0. procharger was way better for top end power but the magnacharger was great for AWD burnouts lol. also the procharger requires oil changes every 5k while the magnachargers are rated every 50k. and all in in all i feel the maganacharger is much better for daily use. the kit is a full bolt on kit out of the box with no fabrication needed. magnachargers come out of the box with 42# injectors as well as a walbro 255 fuel pump so you wont need to buy them either separately.

i would NOT recommend the heads /cam setup. you will need fueling upgrades as well and if you keep your stock torque converter stall speed the truck will lose lots of low end torque. to optimize a heads / cam setup you will need a stall converter to get into the power band of the cam. which will destroy your gas mileage. your trans will also hate you for always being up in the higher rpm band to get power.

 

Okay, the OF is struggling here: what's FI??

 

Just talked with Magnuson. They said the rotors for the 03-07s are on run-out, meaning discontinued after their stock is depleted. They have three or four kits left as of today. SO if anyone is thinking about it now's thwe time, $5895 + 2% credit card fee.

 

Forced Induction

 

magnachargers old unit is the radix 112. its out dated, works well but they have a newer unit out. i ran the 112 for 4 years without issues and i bought it used with 30k on the unit. if your interested look into the tvs 1900 its the radix replacement. it works on our motors its just a little beefier and cools better. also you could easily find a used radix unit for probably around 3k they always pop up.

not to sound bias because im really not i actually liked the procharger way more but i used it for drag racing not daily driving and towing.

kennebell and vortech make roots style blowers that work on these motors as well. i have no experience with either of them

 

Thanks Phil.