Tow/haul mode with my 6 speed Yukon Denali

[adventurenali92]

So far with The new trans I haven't seen it go above 180 either. But I'm not satisfied with that. I'd like to see it stay closer to 150. As of right now I'm not towing with it. Alot of miles but mainly just back and forth across town. I need to lay off the pedal though haha. I don't have the 6.2 motor but the 6.0 is bigger than anything I've had before. So it's fun to lay into the pedal sometimes

 

[busterbrown]

So far with The new trans I haven't seen it go above 180 either. But I'm not satisfied with that. I'd like to see it stay closer to 150. As of right now I'm not towing with it. Alot of miles but mainly just back and forth across town. I need to lay off the pedal though haha. I don't have the 6.2 motor but the 6.0 is bigger than anything I've had before. So it's fun to lay into the pedal sometimes

My trans temps when not towing are around 150 degrees. This summer will be the litmus test for my truck. In fact, I'm almost ready to pull the trigger on a tune with Black Bear as I've heard it really wakes up the 6.2 beast. Black Bear tuners are coming to my state in 3 weeks and I'm trying to convince the wife to make a camping weekend out of it, especially with our new travel trailer! They have organized events throughout the country and will tune the L92 motor in person that weekend. I had a tune on my inline 6 GMT360 (Trailblazer/Envoy/Rainier) prior to purchasing my XL Denali and absolutely loved it. That was a canned tune. Can't imagine a custom tune on my small block V8.

 

[drakon543]

The trans was supposedly rebuilt on my 97 tahoe before i bought it with only 119k on it. I never got a legitimate reason why it was rebuilt tho as the guy i bought it from only bought it as transportation from nevada. Never even had the chance to transfer it into his name. But a trans temp is definitely a nice feature, adding one on mine is on the todo list.

 

[drakon543]

Try not to pull it lower than 150 cooler temps in a trans are good but there is always a thing as too much of a good thing. Having it run too cool can be as bad as too hot.

 

[adventurenali92]

My trans temps when not towing are around 150 degrees. This summer will be the litmus test for my truck. In fact, I'm almost ready to pull the trigger on a tune with Black Bear as I've heard it really wakes up the 6.2 beast. Black Bear tuners are coming to my state in 3 weeks and I'm trying to convince the wife to make a camping weekend out of it, especially with our new travel trailer! They have organized events throughout the country and will tune the L92 motor in person that weekend. I had a tune on my inline 6 GMT360 (Trailblazer/Envoy/Rainier) prior to purchasing my XL Denali and absolutely loved it. That was a canned tune. Can't imagine a custom tune on my small block V8.

Yeah I'll be doing a black bear tune soon at the same time I do a CAI and an exhaust setup as well.

 

[Wake]

My 2006 Denali XL has a trans temp gauge to the left of my rpms. I keep a constant eye on my trans temp pretty much whenever im driving. Even on flat roads and just normal driving. But that's because I just had to have my trans rebuilt @ just over 83,000 miles. Not happy with that fact. But oh well. The trans temp,is a nice feature to have. I'm planning on adding a second trans cooler soon. So hopefully that will help keep the new trans cooler and more well maintained.

My 05 Escalade had a Jasper rebuilt transmission in it when I bought it at 83K miles, I think it had only about 15K miles on it total when it started slipping again. The 4L60/700R4 variants were garbage stock. The problem was they were matched to an engine that was right at their torque handling limits. The 6.0L from that generation got the 4L65 where the 5.3L got the 4L60. GM seemed to build the 6 speed tougher from the get-go so they appear to me to experience less problems. In the earlier versions like what was in my first 96 Vette, the hi performance LT4 engine wasn't available with an automatic, the 4L60 couldn't handle the 360lb/ft that the engine made. If you got the standard LT1 engine (330 lb/ft IIRC) it was mated to an automatic. My first one was an automatic and the trans was starting to act up at 65K miles when I got rid of it and I didn't even drive it very hard.

I've known a few people with Escalades, Tahoes and Suburbans that had to have their transmissions rebuilt before 100K miles.

I'm a bit nervous about the EXT I picked up as it has 180K miles on it and surprisingly the transmission shifts smoothly and the previous owner (2nd) says he never had to replace the transmission in the 75K miles he'd owned it. If the tranny goes though I'll invest in a performance rebuild. I might even give it a go myself to see if I can do it.

 

[adventurenali92]

@Wake , I've heard alot of people,with this generation suv have had issues with transmissions. I was pretty disappointed as I have a client with a 2002 that just rolled over 230k on the clock and he still has his factory trans. But I guess it's just part of life. Especially for me. Im ******* my vehicles. I work out of it everyday and I live in a mountain ski town so driving up and down the mountain puts stress on cars. What I wouldn't give to have the 6 speed trans in my my 2006 hahaha.

 

[Wake]

Yeah, I almost didn't go for another 03-06 when I went shopping for the EXT but I figure since it is a 4th vehicle as far as commuting I can have it down for awhile. Studied a lot about rebuilding them when I had my 05 and might take a stab at it if this one goes.

I just couldn't justify $20K+ for an 07 with over 100K miles that I'd likely only put 3000 miles a year on when I could get my 03 for about 1/3 the price. The 07+ is even more outrageous on the used market but the 02-06 was pretty rediculous as well. I was seeing 150K mile 03-06s for $12K - $16K if you can believe that. If I hadn't found my 03 that runs so well I thought about an 05 about 50 miles away with a blown trans that I could have picked up for $5K. Even towing that home and putting in a reman trans would have been less than $8K total if I had a shop do it. Outside of that, I'd have spent the extra $5K for an 07 model.

 

[adventurenali92]

Yeah, I almost didn't go for another 03-06 when I went shopping for the EXT but I figure since it is a 4th vehicle as far as commuting I can have it down for awhile. Studied a lot about rebuilding them when I had my 05 and might take a stab at it if this one goes.

I just couldn't justify $20K+ for an 07 with over 100K miles that I'd likely only put 3000 miles a year on when I could get my 03 for about 1/3 the price. The 07+ is even more outrageous on the used market but the 02-06 was pretty rediculous as well. I was seeing 150K mile 03-06s for $12K - $16K if you can believe that. If I hadn't found my 03 that runs so well I thought about an 05 about 50 miles away with a blown trans that I could have picked up for $5K. Even towing that home and putting in a reman trans would have been less than $8K total if I had a shop do it. Outside of that, I'd have spent the extra $5K for an 07 model.

When I was looking for my 2006 about a year and a half ago, the 2003-2006 models that had between 120k and like 160k were still going for 12- 14 grand. I absolutely believe how expensive they are still running. And anything nnbs style was pretty expensive, even ones with high mileage were still mid 20g range. But then again I'm in southern California and everything here is more expensive.