Looking for more power

If you come by some 4.10's on the cheap, go for it. Otherwise I think you'll need to go at least 4.30 to really get some advantage for your situation.

 

Are you running ethanol free gas? Mine downshifts less with pure gas.

Another option is to do the undercover snorkel. I can't say mine did a whole lot, but I think it helped some on the freeway. The intake noise is increased though. Sound deadening on the front floor and firewall really helps that. It's a cheap/ fairly easy upgrade. You can see the snorkel in the picture. It just routes your intake to the cowl. It requires the piping be modified and you cut a whole into the side of your cowl. I still need to replace my ribbed intake tube for a pvc pipe. One of these days.

I'm running an aem dry filter and I noticed nothing from it alone. Putting a straight through muffler on my truck might have helped a tiny bit though.

 

12 Port Injectors ($350) will make your engine run smooth and also make your transmission shift a differently. Its a great value to buy new injectors especially with the age on our trucks as the Originals are probably clogged/not optimized.

If you have the budget, then :

1) Long Tube Headers $4k

2) Regear $2-4k

 

Have you heard about the 5.7 in the gen2,
I hear they have 381 hp
LOL, JK

 

Yeah, but 381hp

 

Re-reading this makes me think your torque converter isn't locking up. If that's so, it WILL cause premature failure of your trans fluid. A trans cooler would be a good idea for your situation. SLOWING DOWN would be a good idea for your situation. Your rig doesn't match your needs plain and simple. Too much drag, too much speed, wrong truck. Drive 60mph with OD off and your problem may be solved. for zero $$$.

 

I think my plan for now is get the scangauge to track the trans temp, pull that plastic bedliner to bring the camper down a few inches, possibly a rear sway bar, and injectors. If I come by some 4.10 gears for cheap, I'll probably snag them. As for how it was shifting, I am due for transmission fluid within 12k miles, so I might just get it over with now. I'm not sure about the torque converter, because it didn't feel like it was slipping in OD, and my rig wasn't vibrating. I guess I'll be able to tell better once I can see temps. I also forgot to add that I think it was an issue with the cruise miscalculating itself, because it would just go between gears every few seconds trying to stay at 75, but failing pretty badly. It would downshift, accelerate to 80, shift and drop to 70, repeat. Eventually when I do sell this truck, I do plan on buying a second/third gen, or maybe a chevy 4.8 and supercharge it, but that won't be for years.

Probably not if I had to guess. Not much available in Montana. I usually run on 89/91 so my high schooler wallet doesn't light on fire.

 

Hey @Ghostly.-

Hope the CAI is working well for you. A couple of things:

I don't know about the fuel they sell in Montana, but if it's like here on the east coast, 89 is medium, 91 is high test. You don't need either of those with this engine. It's made to run on 87... so running higher octane is simply costing you more money for no return.

Secondly, as someone else mentioned, when you have that camper on there it's like driving with a parachute open. Wind resistance increases exponentially -- which means it doesn't simply double as your speed increases (5+5=10), it's squared (5x5=25). You're in high school, talk to your math teacher about it. He/she will probably enjoy the conversation.

Thirdly, knowing the intricacies of how our transmissions operate will help. This thread goes into it in detail.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/regarding-od-off-and-towing.72459/#post-1910944

But the part about TC lock-up and OD was in a post I made:

The thing to remember is that you want the torque converter locked as much as possible. When it's unlocked it's slipping which is inefficient and is generating lots of heat.
What many people don't know is that if the transmission automatically executes a downshift from OD to Drive, the torque converter unlocks. If the driver manually executes a downshift from OD to Drive (by pressing the OD off button) the torque converter stays locked.

So when you're cruising along on a flat road in OD, then you come to a hill, take it out of OD yourself... don't wait for the transmission to automatically do it.

 

The CAI is so much better than my old rotting intake tube! I honestly enjoy the sound too. Good to know that it stays locked when shifting myself, I thought it unlocked when shifting out of OD anyways. Also didn't know that the OD gear in my 01 is weak. As for gas, 89/91 is mid, 93 is premium, but I'll start running 87 if that's the case. I also got it weighed with me in it(~155lbs), and I'm at just under 6200lbs, about 200 over GVWR. I just pulled some weight from the back seat, about 40lbs of crap back there, some weight from in the camper itself, and ill probably lose 20lbs from pulling that plastic liner.

 

Your cruise is behaving normally based on the throttle input required to move your truck with main sail deployed (your camper). There is so much drag at 65mph+ that the aerodynamics is killing your truck. Keep it out of OD and keep it below 65mph. Problem solved.

 

Powersports friendly areas usually have an ethanol free option. It's worth a try. The price difference is almost covered by the extra mpg my truck gets with it. It runs better so I do it anyway. It seems to slip the trans less in overdrive and downshift less so it seems like money ahead on transmission work.