long story short i have a 355, with flat top pistons, an elderbrock 4 barrel, headers and at the moment a eldebrock performer RPM intake manifold. this is all on my 89 K5 which i mostly use for towing my pop up camper or small trails wheeling, not so much in the mud drags or such, but my question is i also have an eldebrock performer (non-RPM) intake manifold, and i see the RPM makes power for more street and higher rpm's while the non-RPM makes it more down low, my question is do you think there wil be a considerable power difference as far as towing? i know its easy to swap out but just so i have a few opinions as far as these intakes go...

 

I say leave it. You likely would not notice that much of a difference with a stock cam. What gears do you have in the truck?

 

haha stock 700r4 tranny and the 1/2 axles, after this motor install i;m in need of dana 60's i want to run something like 4-11's cuz my 36" 14.5 are alittle much of a drag on this old girl, is there something i could change as far as a different tranny to gain alittle more strength and still be able to rock the street?

 

Just build the 700R4. It's plenty strong enough when built correctly. Regearing the truck would help to extend its life too. What do you have for axle gears now?

 

as far as building the 700r4, what do you mean? beefing up components or replacing with aftermarket? umm i would have to look to see exatly what my gear ratio is, i have yet to get to that part of my build.... i was just running the truck for a few weekends to get the camper out, is there a faster way to find out with/out pulling diff covers?

 

You can get the truck up in the air and spin the driveshaft counting how many turns it takes to spin the tires once.

And yeah, the aftermarket has parts that can build a 700R4 up to 500+HP capable relatively easy.

Also, please resize your sig image. That's HUGE! For some guidelines, check out the stickies in the Chop Shop section.

 

thanks buddy yeah i didnt know why is was so big haha, so where do you go to find aftermarket for the tranny's? or should i say what is it exactly you are changing out? i'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to tearing into auto tranny's

 

I recommend you find a shop close by that can do the trans work. A 4spd auto trans isn't something to cut your teeth on.

There are many performance 700R4/4L60E online shops that sell parts.

Keep the trans for as long as you can and upgrade if/when it fails. Upgrading the gears would help make it last longer.

 

oh ok, do you know off hand if they make different gea ratios for that tranny or is that asking a bit much?

 

You don't change the gear ratios in the trans. The old power glides had different ratios available, but that is due to their popularity in drag racing.

You need to change your axle ratios to make the engine & trans not have to work as hard with those 36's. Since you are driving it, I think I can safely assume that you don't have 3.08 gears. 3.42's are probably not likely either even though they were one of the most popular gear ratios for the later K5's. If your truck isn't an absolute dog, you likely have 3.73's. 4.11's would be the minimum that I would recommend for 36's with 4.56 gears being preferred when you have an overdrive transmission.

Of course, you should look at upgrading to 1-ton axles (Dana 60 & 14 bolt full floater) if you really plan on wheeling your truck with those 36's.