Hello all I believe this may be my first post here so might be kinda long but here goes. Got me a '90 Sierra SLE with a 350 and only 73,000 original miles a few months back. One owner, very well taken care of, dealer documented service, etc. Stock as hell and kinds gutless unless ran high into the rev range, but would pull hard once she was wound up a bit. The high gearing doesn't help.
I am a huge believer in big gain for little money as long as it isn't crap. I looked online right away for cheap power mods and found the infamous lid flip. I flipped the lid and found a bit of gain but was left with more to be desired. Over the last few months it has lost some weight (canopy and ac delete) as well as had the oil changed to t6 and the spark plugs replaced and some other cheap tune up stuff. Oh yeah, It also has a 3 inch straight pipe off the cat about 2 feet long and exits behind the passenger. Sounds great and was a huge performance gain in the mid to high range and had slightly better off-idle response. Best part it only cost $20 in off the shelf parts from orreillys.
Though all I've done has helped power, response, and gas mileage by quite a bit, I was still left wanting more immediate throttle response.
Keeping with my thrifty belief, I decided to cut the housing around the stock air filter down to make it a legitimate open filter. Free, and I recon damn near as good as the $200 k&n that does the same thing. Took a couple of hours, but I did it right and it looks great. I also bought a $1.89 spring to use as a throttle assist. I mounted the spring on what looks to be a spring mount for a carb (could be totally wrong) and attached the other end to where the tv cable attaches. Had to tweak the spring a bit, but eventually found the perfect tension.
These two mods have increased throttle response and driveablility so much I am now sorta pissed I didn't do this the weekend I bought the truck. Cost me almost nothing and coupled with my exhaust and recent tune up this thing really boogies now. The assist spring also helps keep the converter locked up when I let off the gas and helps keep it in overdrive at lower speeds which I'm sure will help my mpgs.
Sorry for the long post but I guess it counts as my introductory as well. Anyway on to pictures!
Before:
After:
Closeup of the spring:
I am a huge believer in big gain for little money as long as it isn't crap. I looked online right away for cheap power mods and found the infamous lid flip. I flipped the lid and found a bit of gain but was left with more to be desired. Over the last few months it has lost some weight (canopy and ac delete) as well as had the oil changed to t6 and the spark plugs replaced and some other cheap tune up stuff. Oh yeah, It also has a 3 inch straight pipe off the cat about 2 feet long and exits behind the passenger. Sounds great and was a huge performance gain in the mid to high range and had slightly better off-idle response. Best part it only cost $20 in off the shelf parts from orreillys.
Though all I've done has helped power, response, and gas mileage by quite a bit, I was still left wanting more immediate throttle response.
Keeping with my thrifty belief, I decided to cut the housing around the stock air filter down to make it a legitimate open filter. Free, and I recon damn near as good as the $200 k&n that does the same thing. Took a couple of hours, but I did it right and it looks great. I also bought a $1.89 spring to use as a throttle assist. I mounted the spring on what looks to be a spring mount for a carb (could be totally wrong) and attached the other end to where the tv cable attaches. Had to tweak the spring a bit, but eventually found the perfect tension.
These two mods have increased throttle response and driveablility so much I am now sorta pissed I didn't do this the weekend I bought the truck. Cost me almost nothing and coupled with my exhaust and recent tune up this thing really boogies now. The assist spring also helps keep the converter locked up when I let off the gas and helps keep it in overdrive at lower speeds which I'm sure will help my mpgs.
Sorry for the long post but I guess it counts as my introductory as well. Anyway on to pictures!
Before:
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After:
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Closeup of the spring:
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