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The other tow rig, maybe now primary?

red

red

Being a lake bum in Texas
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Location
Lake Brownwood, Texas
Companion to the 95 3500HD, found this truck that covers the 3 main issues the HD has. 4x4, a back seat, and offroad traction. This truck can make it up my driveway without spinning the tires!!!

Say hello to this truck, 95 3500. 454 tbi, nv4500, 4x4. Original owner used it to haul a camper until he passed away a few years ago, been parked since. 232k miles, turns feels like it was just rebuilt or replaced. Bed isn't the greatest and there's a broken bolt on the exhaust manifold.

Cruising at 70mph got 10mpg with the ac on and 400 lbs cargo.

20210424_120855.jpg
 
I wouldn’t. 454 is a good engine. There are things to do that help power and mpg Just like the 6.5.
Turbo is the most often missed option. Simple turbo with low boost is safe, adds about 2mpg, and enough poser to make it tow nicely. But non wastegate and a blow off back into the exhaust is usual. Then it doesn’t sound like wanna be racer and breathes easy on the hiway.
bigger exhaust and better cold intake air helps too- just the same as diesels.
 
Won't be towing as heavy as the HD gets and the build will focus on some offroad capabilities. Mild lift, up to 35" tires, rear locker for sure maybe front, armor.

Other than dusty the interior is in good condition, even the power seats still work.

While I prefer a diesel, a big block works well enough since the truck will spend much of its time connected to a trailer. As long as the fuel economy is regularly 8+mpg towing the camper (max 10k pounds, 5th wheel 28ft) then it's good. The 6.5 in the HD was getting 9-10mpg pulling it with the dying stock turbo.

Any engine mods I do will be reasonably budget minded and keep the ability to happily run 85/87 octane gas.

Pics of inside and out. Both rear fenders have damage, there's some cracks at the front top of the bed (seen it on headache racks that didn't have enough bed support), tailgate is damaged. Truck will spend time offroad so a different bed might happen or could add a few things to this bed.


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Will L. said:
I wouldn’t. 454 is a good engine. There are things to do that help power and mpg Just like the 6.5.
Turbo is the most often missed option. Simple turbo with low boost is safe, adds about 2mpg, and enough poser to make it tow nicely. But non wastegate and a blow off back into the exhaust is usual. Then it doesn’t sound like wanna be racer and breathes easy on the hiway.
bigger exhaust and better cold intake air helps too- just the same as diesels.
Click to expand...

Details on a turbo setup, tbi compatible or require a change? Still have that cko hx35 sitting here
 
I don’t know details because I never owned one with a turbo, There was a few guys that had turbo tbi in Vegas. But I remember them doing bigger injection parts in the body, and a bigger fuel pump.

I remember something about seeping fuel around the throttle shaft if you didn’t swap in dual direction seals on the shaft- but not enough to worry about actual fuel leak- just made it look dirty.

tbi heads dont flow worth a crap- so guys that really went for power swapped heads, but guys doing just a bit of boost would run the gm 6 or 8 turbo and have boost in 5-7 range. This was bolt on- not doing anything in lse to build up the engine.

Also retuning made a good difference just like it does for ds4 turbo boost bumped 6.5.

So I would say start looking on a tbi forum- they surely have details of best way for how you would use it.
 
Maybe down the road, currently don't want to put much money into the engine since there are other higher priorities. As is when it comes to torque it feels similar to the 6.5 in the HD before its turbo failure. Able to maintain the hill climbs here with the same amount of throttle. HD on 245/70r19.5 with 4.63 gears and new truck on 215/85r16 with 4.10 gears at the moment.

The 1 ton cruises at 70mph, which the HD just doesn't like to do haha.

Gooseneck hitch, windshield, rear locker, bed work, and front bumper with winch are the initial steps planned.
 
Oh yeah- definitely not now. I wouldn’t put any money into a rig that I can’t take those parts back off instantly (like a winch) because it might seem ok for a few thousand miles then need a ton of money in several months. I was just saying if the power or mpg isn’t quite enough, there is long term options if it proves itself.
 
Keep in mind the 94/95 454 tbi was an odd duck. It used smaller injectors than the other tbi units(45 lb/hr), but it ran at 30-38 psi of fuel pressure vs the 9-13 if all other tbi units. I learned about this working on boats as they all used the 454 tbi units. A good basic upgrade to it would be to get a 96-00 vortec 454, swap an aluminum 4 barrel dual plenum intake on top of it, and use a 4 barrel to tbi adapter plate to run your tbi unit. Put a vortec fuel pump in it, set the fuel pressure up to run 60(this is what Mercruiser ran them at), long tube headers, and install an ebl kit into your ECM for tuneability. Then you would have the basic reliability of the tbi system, but the power & mpg's of a vortec.
 
Didn't know about the fuel system differences on this generation of tbi, always has to be something unique haha. From reading up it sounds like the stock fuel pump is maxed out with the 454 in stock form. Maybe upgrade to an external fuel pump/filter setup and add a second fuel tank to it.

Last week the tcase decided to pop out of high range when letting off the throttle and a new hairline crack developed in the tcase housing where the shift rail goes in. Found a replacement that I'll be grabbing today, this new one has a PTO port on it. Got the new windshield installed and went with LED cab clearance lights.
 
red said:
Didn't know about the fuel system differences on this generation of tbi, always has to be something unique haha. From reading up it sounds like the stock fuel pump is maxed out with the 454 in stock form. Maybe upgrade to an external fuel pump/filter setup and add a second fuel tank to it.

Last week the tcase decided to pop out of high range when letting off the throttle and a new hairline crack developed in the tcase housing where the shift rail goes in. Found a replacement that I'll be grabbing today, this new one has a PTO port on it. Got the new windshield installed and went with LED cab clearance lights.
Click to expand...

Does this truck have the oddball 4401 t case? My 92, 93 and 94 K3500s all have it.
 
red said:
Didn't know about the fuel system differences on this generation of tbi, always has to be something unique haha. From reading up it sounds like the stock fuel pump is maxed out with the 454 in stock form. Maybe upgrade to an external fuel pump/filter setup and add a second fuel tank to it.

Last week the tcase decided to pop out of high range when letting off the throttle and a new hairline crack developed in the tcase housing where the shift rail goes in. Found a replacement that I'll be grabbing today, this new one has a PTO port on it. Got the new windshield installed and went with LED cab clearance lights.
Click to expand...
The ep381 vortec provides plenty of fuel snd drops right In place of either tbi pump.
 
Do any of y’all know where to get a PTO kit for these transfer cases. I haven't called around but in the past I have looked across the internet and I can’t seem to find anything for these transfer cases.
 
Or are PTO units universal ? Fits from transmission to transfer cases or the other way around ?
Seems I had taken a PTO from a 5 spd truck trans and mounted it to the transfer case of my 59 Power Wagon.
 
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