Well, I just got back from pulling our new travel trailer 1200 miles up and down the mountains, and to say I was not happy is an understatement. First let me give you what i have, 93 K1500 with 350 & 4L60E and 3.42 rear end. I was very surprised at how bad it drank the gas 6-8mpg pulling a 4500lb camper. and the lack of power (even small hills made me drop from 70 to 50). I am going to have to do something to correct this situation. I grew up with a 73 suburban with the 350 and 4x4 pulling a large 4 horse trailer and never had to drop much below 65 on the hills and we always got 12mpg.
Here are my questions, should I replace my stock motor with something with a little more power, change my rear end ratio to something alittle higher (3.73 mabye?) or sell it and by a K2500? I really like the truck and it is in great shape so I am leaning towards doing whatever is needed to get it up to snuff.
I took the rear end apart (to replace leaking seals) and found chips in my ring gear, and some wear marks on the outer axle bearing areas, looking at replaing both the axles and ring and pinion should I just swap out the whole rear end for a 14bolt?? Is this a straight forward swap or is there alot of other stuff to think about, I can get a 77 14bolt posi/4.10 rebuilt for
400.00 (I know the rims won't fit). How can i adapt the front IFS to handle the 8 lug rims?? or is it cheaper to adapt the 14bolt rear to the 6lug axles.My current motor is all stock and in very good condition, however it simply lacks the power to pull my trailer, even in 2nd I was loosing power and speed on the grades. Any suggestions? I want to keep my stock TBI and emmisions, however all else is game, I will need to use it as a daily driver and run pump gas. Exhaust, intake how much power can they really gain me? Enough to make a difference?