2004 Tahoe - 328,000+ Miles - Budget Rebuild

[jjenkins]

I need to rebuild my Tahoe. As in the title she has 328,000 plus a few miles. Right now she’s getting her original trans rebuilt. (Crazy right? Never been rebuilt and the only reason it’s being rebuilt now is it ran dry on atf cause of a leak) The motor is sound, doesn’t tick but she leaks some oil. How much I don’t know cause it’s masked by the ATF. Should I rebuild the motor? It’s a l59 with the 706 heads. It’s a good start but my concern is would I need to get a new block. Should I go ahead plan for it? I don’t have the tools to hone it out but would that be enough? It’s 328,000+ miles with decent but not great maintenance. I want to keep her very reliable but I want to give her some more pep in her step. It has the 3.42 rear end and I’m going to go to 3.73s. Any other things that are obvious to do? What cam should I go with? Has to be low lift and not to crazy. Also advice on exhaust? It already doesn’t have cats, the previous owner gutted them. I’m doing headers straight to a muffler, so what muffler do y’all recommend?

 

[treehan77]

I’d be checking all the suspension components, especially the front

 

[fasteddy]

I need to rebuild my Tahoe. As in the title she has 328,000 plus a few miles. Right now she’s getting her original trans rebuilt. (Crazy right? Never been rebuilt and the only reason it’s being rebuilt now is it ran dry on atf cause of a leak) The motor is sound, doesn’t tick but she leaks some oil. How much I don’t know cause it’s masked by the ATF. Should I rebuild the motor? It’s a l59 with the 706 heads. It’s a good start but my concern is would I need to get a new block. Should I go ahead plan for it? I don’t have the tools to hone it out but would that be enough? It’s 328,000+ miles with decent but not great maintenance. I want to keep her very reliable but I want to give her some more pep in her step. It has the 3.42 rear end and I’m going to go to 3.73s. Any other things that are obvious to do? What cam should I go with? Has to be low lift and not to crazy. Also advice on exhaust? It already doesn’t have cats, the previous owner gutted them. I’m doing headers straight to a muffler, so what muffler do y’all recommend?

Depends what you budget is.
For increased pep I would recommend the AutoZone 6.0L, pretty inexpensive and comes with a warranty.
With that and 3.42 gears it'll move out and still get 17-19mpg.

For mufflers it depends how loud.
Check out these guys on youtube. I think they've recorded just about every muffler and even without on a Tahoe.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTgJD67-ZWGxPoe9bQFqr6w/videos

 

[fasteddy]

 

[jjenkins]

I’d be checking all the suspension components, especially the front

Everything suspension wise except rear coils was done less than 50k miles ago. That was my first priority when I got the truck.

 

[jjenkins]

Depends what you budget is.
For increased pep I would recommend the AutoZone 6.0L, pretty inexpensive and comes with a warranty.
With that and 3.42 gears it'll move out and still get 17-19mpg.

For mufflers it depends how loud.
Check out these guys on youtube. I think they've recorded just about every muffler and even without on a Tahoe.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTgJD67-ZWGxPoe9bQFqr6w/videos

I like the idea of the 6.0 with the 3.42. I was looking at autozone for the 6.0 you were referencing and I think I'll do that. Do you know if the heads are any good? Also can I just use everything off of my l59 such as intake, fuel rails, ecm, etc with the new motor? I feel that would be most cost effective.

 

[Tonyrodz]

I like the idea of the 6.0 with the 3.42. I was looking at autozone for the 6.0 you were referencing and I think I'll do that. Do you know if the heads are any good? Also can I just use everything off of my l59 such as intake, fuel rails, ecm, etc with the new motor? I feel that would be most cost effective.

You would need a 6.0 tune to get the most out of your new 6.0.

 

[fasteddy]

I like the idea of the 6.0 with the 3.42. I was looking at autozone for the 6.0 you were referencing and I think I'll do that. Do you know if the heads are any good? Also can I just use everything off of my l59 such as intake, fuel rails, ecm, etc with the new motor? I feel that would be most cost effective.

I think the heads they use are the stock 317 heads. It says in their description on the website.
You can reuse everything....bolts right up.
Tony is right. You would just need a 6.0 tune. Those blackbear guys can hook you up, unless you have HPTuners.
It'll run without a new tune. It'll just run better with a new tune....especially with headers.