My Next Truck, give me your opinions.

[1993GMCSierra]

Hi all,


I've been doing some thinking. While I don't intend on selling my GMC anytime soon, I'd been pondering what will come next when the time does come.

I really prefer the 91-94 interior. Ideally, it will be a 1993 GMC, or 1994 GMC which I will then swap a 88-93 grille on. I like the leather seats in the 95+, but there's too much cheap black plastic in there. Don't think I'd ever really be happy with it. A 1994 Chevy wouldn't be out of the equation either.

I'm basically looking at three options. As my truck sits now, with the A/C working, I average 10-12 MPG. I drive an 80/20 city/highway mix. Plenty of red lights, no traffic, but my average speed over the course of 3 months (according to my Town Car) is 26 MPH. Since the mileage is crappy with the 5.0 anyways, I'm looking at either...

GMC SLE 1500/2500 ECSB with the 5.7L.

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GMC SLE 1500/2500 ECSB (maybe SCLB) with the 7.4L.

GMC SLE 3500 ECSB Dually with the diesel, or 7.4L.

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It's not so much a "I'm getting terrible gas mileage, so I want to get something more economical", as much as "Since I'm getting poor gas mileage with the "economical" 5.0, how much worse would it be with a 7.4L or 6.5L, while having the benefit of more power?"

I know these trucks are gas hogs, but how much worse is a tuned up 7.4L than 10-12 city? The 6.5L?

I know the 6.5L isn't the most durable, but I plan on doing no towing or hauling of any sort, aside from trash, and the occasional "helping a friend". Would the 6.5L hold up better under these instances?

"Why get a dually if you're just going to drive it like a car?" you may ask.

Well, I like the way they look. Granted, it's two more tires, but it's a lot more heavy duty, so I'd imagine it would all last a bit longer too.

 

[95C1500]

I get from 12-14mpg with my 5.7.

 

[gmcyukondriver]

I was able to get 13-14 city and 16 highway pretty easily with my 5.7 before it started running rich (really rich).

Even now, I get about 10, but I think a custom tune would help a lot.

I would think that if you got a custom tune, you could bump the mileage of your 5.0 up to somewhere around 15 city and 17 or 18 highway, maybe a couple mpg less when running A/C.

 

[95C1500]

what does it mean to run lean and rich?

 

[heavychevy98]

Lean means your engine is running short on fuel. And rich is overfueling. Running too lean will kill an engine where as an engine would have to be very very rich to really hurt anything other than milage. And my opinion is long bed crew cab duelly 4x4 454. Go big or go home. Neighbor drives one and gets 12ish.

 

[1997chevydriver]

what does it mean to run lean and rich?

Running lean or rich has to do with the fuel/air mixture. Gasoline burns the best at stoich which is 14.7:1 IIRC (14.7 parts air to 1 part gasoline) when you run rich you are at 14.6 parts of air or less and when you are running lean you are at 14.8 parts of air or more.

 

[95C1500]

How do you tell which you ae running if you are at all?

 

[1997chevydriver]

How do you tell which you ae running if you are at all?

Your o2 sensor does that. If its too far off in either direction it will let you know. Or get a scanner and monitor it.

 

[95C1500]

no o2 sensors on a tbi right?

 

[1997chevydriver]

no o2 sensors on a tbi right?

Lets move this to the chart thread.