Quote:
Originally Posted by Formulajones
If you guys do any decent amount of towing at all these small engines don't cut the mustard in my opinion. Mike and I were just talking about this.
I started out with a 77 pickup and a 350. Lived in Ohio, mild hills. But even towing a flat bed car trailer 3-4 times I knew it just wasn't getting it done and I knew there were better options.
After a year I bought a 79 454 1 -ton. Worlds better. My father at the time was buying new 3/4 tons with 6.0 LS engines. They did fine but when we would tow our flat beds together, any slight grade and my 454 would run away from him. Towed for 20 years with that truck, even moved the family out here to Arizona with it pulling my 28 foot enclosed trailer.
Then things changed. AZ, NM and CA is mountainous terrain where it goes from sea level to over 7,000 ft in just a few miles. Talk about some grades to climb, even these small cars today have a problem with them. My 454 did it but it was working it pretty hard. Flat beds weren't a problem but it worked really hard with the 28 foot loaded to about 10,000 lbs.
So I bought a Duramax. Now it pulls that same trailer up the mountains and passing cars while I'm doing it. No comparison.
Even if you guys tow 3-4 times a year, you're better off with a better truck and bigger engine. There are so many decent trucks to choose from with price ranges that suite anybody, I can't see wanting a 350 truck, Chevy or Pontiac, for any kind of a tow rig. I especially can't comprehend or condone going through a ton of work shoving a Pontiac 350 in an 84 pickup to make a tow rig out of it, after all the work, it's still a 350. If dead set on Pontiacs I would at least be looking at a 455 minimum so that I felt like I improved and accomplished something. But frankly there is no reason a chevy can't get the job done and do it reliably, Just as Cliff said. I've towed with them for decades.
If you want cool factor and nostalgia, a better option would be to build an old cab over and shove a Pontiac in that instead. Even an old ramp truck would be Nostalgia. Now THAT'S cool  |
Well said! Mom’s ‘80 Suburban had a 350 and a TH350C. It didn’t last one trip towing her 5,800 lbs travel trailer before the check valve in the torque converter lock the transmission in 3rd gear, burning up the third gear clutch packs. The 350 was the 175hp version. It ate the camshaft ( flippin’ GM cost cutting....inadequate hardening of the lobes) within 15,000 of her purchase. After this, I deduced that smaller, short stroke engines weren’t up to towing. When I get around to building the LS based engine for my ‘03 Silverado, it will be based on a 4” stroke crank. I think a 382 ought to work nicely.