That makes sense. I am not woried about power reduction. I consider most american trucks over powered.
My '97. The blue one. 4.3/NV3500/3.08's, +200,000 miles.
It's NOT over-powered! Lol! Not even close.
Some of the l-o-n-g steep mountain passes around here, & I'm down to 3rd gear, foot through the firewall, just to maintain 80kmh. (50mph)
...and the semi's are passing me! So embarassing!
Stock Honda Civics make more power & weigh 1/2 as much as the truck.
I figure that a 5.3 with a few mods (Cam/springs, good heads, good tune) could produce approximately 2.75x-3x more than what the getting tired V6 is producing.
450-500hp?
Throw in a gear swap for some 3.42's.
Oh yea. Now THAT's just about right! Lol!
I have a 3.73's eaton posi rear end sitting here too, but that ratio may be a bit steep for a daily.
As you can probably tell, mileage is not a real concern for me.
In the '80's I drove a car that got 6mpg, of premium, 8 months of the year for 9 years. 450hp+. As a daily. In rush hour. A stickshift, to boot. I'd spend more on gas per month than rent. Didn't care! Miles per gallon? Nahhh. SMILES per gallon. That's always been the priority.
If you look at the average wage back in the '60's and compare it to the cost of gas at the time, & then look at today's average wage & compare it to the price at the pump right now, on a percentage basis, gas actually takes less out of a person's paycheck today than it did back in the '60's.