Well, the truck made the trip successfully. I'm guessing I was pulling about 4k lbs between the tractor, trailer, and a bunch of "stuff" I pulled out of an old garage. I know that's not a large load but it's probably typical of what I'll be hauling. Overall I'm satisfied that this truck will work out although if I was crossing the Rockies or maybe even towing on the high plains the current combination probably wouldn't make me happy.
There were a couple of larger hills on this trip and at least twice I spent a significant time at WOT on the way home. Dyno software predicted the engine would feel flat around 2500 with the stock intake and boy, does it. At 65 mph I'm right in the middle of that flat spot. The combination of 3.42 gears with the current intake keeps the trans busy which means I've got more work to do nailing the shift tables. I'm going to see if there's a tow/haul or economy switch that will fit right into the dash to make use of dual shift patterns. 3.73 gears would be nice but I'm not likely to go that far. I was towing the entire trip of 335 miles which meant no OD. Empty trailer one way, loaded trailer the other, lots of hills in the middle so I was surprised to see 12 mpg when I calculated the fuel economy. Not that it's engine related, but I'm going to be replacing the gear oil with full synthetic. The diff gets warm when towing and the airflow around the truck carries the smell of hot gear oil right into the passenger area.
So subsequent work will be:
install large trans cooler (didn't have time to install during engine adventures)
service differential with synthetic fluid
Tow / haul button
Adjust shift tables for faster TCC unlock and quicker downshifts, and to hold downshift longer
hot restart parameters still need adjustment
-->Fix A/C!!!<---
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Originally Posted by 1project2many
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