Just can't get a good basic truck, like the old days!

[RB5]

The low factory horsepower on those 70s and 80s chevy's is why we always used to mod them. I had 2 with MSD ignition, blaster coil, Edlebrock performer intake, a more free flowing exhaust, and I can't recall which slightly higher flow carb than my stock quadrajet. I think one was an Edlebrock. It really made those 350s come alive. Most of my friends did some sort of mods. I had an old E150 van that I did the same thing to. Swapped out the gears fro 2.70 to 3.55 and my friend added a shift kit. The 302 was rebuilt, bored out, higher torque cam, MSD, and new intake. It went from barely able to move to I could not feel my 18' bass boat behind it. It was still not fast, but i would pull anything I wanted. It used to set off my coworkers car alarm every morning as i drove into the parking garage. I often wondered what that motor would have done in a Mustang.

I prefer the newer more modern trucks for performance and reliability. The only problem I have is the government requlations add things like cyllindar deactivation and start stop technology. I also do not want a giant touch screen. Every time I reach for something on one and I hit a slight bump I press the wrong thing. Then I have to look at the screen to see what I did. The old knobs and buttons I can feel and use easily. Plus for those of us that learned how to control skids and drive in snow in an empty parking lot, it's really weird to have the truck do things you don't expect or sometime don't want. I love my electric windows, electric mirrors controls, and other things, but I do not need $10k worth of things that I do not want. There is the problem. I'm not buying a truck to impress anyone. I'm buying it to drive and do work.

 

[WinterDeere]

... really made those 350s come alive.

Trucks were always more of a struggle than cars, as most of the old tricks that improve horsepower tend to wreck the low-end torque. Headers, free-flowing exhaust, high-rise intakes... all great for building big horsepower numbers at higher rev's, but they also remove all the back-pressure required to provide low-rev torque. Guys cared less about maintaining low-end torque in their Camaro or Cuda, than their K10 pickup.

We used to figure 1.0 hp/cid was a good mark for a "streetable" motor, when talking about modding those various small blocks. But by the late 1990's, the DOHC guys were already pushing above 1.5 hp/cid, and today it's common to see 2.0 hp/cid from even the most mild OEM turbos.

Active exhaust is a game-changer, when it comes to building more horsepower without loss of low-end grunt. My sedan has this, and it works great, achieving 1.24 hp/cid while maintaining above 1.2 ft-lb/cid from a totally stock and mild naturally-aspirated pushrod motor. But other than the Dodge 8.3L SRT-10 and the Chevy 6.2L Sierra, has anyone else even offered this in a pickup truck?