Upgrading old truck vs buying a new one?
Posted by nohki01@reddit | askcarguys | View on Reddit | 26 comments
I have a 2003 Chevy tahoe with about 280,000 on the engine. The truck has treated me well for years and it was my brother's truck before it was mine. The maintenance has all been generally well taken care of. However, I was involved in an accident last year that has caused some decently severe damage. The front end is unaligned as well as tire rods needing replaced and a few other things. It'll be about $3500 to get it all repaired and back up and running to where it was. I've always wanted a faster vehicle and I'm curious if it's worth it but upgrade the engine and supercharge this old of a vehicle or if I should keep this unmodified as a daily driver and see if I can find a cheaper vehicle at some point to upgrade?
Strange_Produce5601@reddit
if it is your only vehicle, never modify it! I would get it back up and running as 3500 is a lot cheaper then a new truck.
If it is your second vehicle, go ham!
nohki01@reddit (OP)
Do you think it would benefit from a super charger? I'm not actually too familiar with how older vehicles handle them and the benefits or downsides it brings
quik916@reddit
It would benifit from a supercharger... it will have more power. But plan to buy a new engine and/or transmission shortly after you install a supercharger in a vehicle with nearly 300k miles. The new added power will FOR SURE smoke the old nearly worn out transmission in short order!! So NO its not a good idea to add a supercharger to this vehicle. Its old, fix the issues and drive it until it no longer goes.
Coyote_Tex@reddit
Modifying your engine will hasten it demise. Leave it alone and just continue regular fluid changes. Look around for a decent later model used vehicle that may well have more power.
Downtown_Reward_6339@reddit
Power to weight ratio matters; and a Tahoe is heavy. You can make a fast Tahoe out of it; making it actually fast is much harder
nohki01@reddit (OP)
I don't need a race car, but I would like it to have a little more push behind it. I know it's not going to go out and win any races or anything but it'd be nice to cruise a little faster than it does.
Strange_Produce5601@reddit
I will assume it has a 350 in it? Oh yeah, you can do all sorts of things to those engines. Lots of choices for power levels too. How much power depends greatly on your wallet!
nohki01@reddit (OP)
Do you think it's worth swapping the engine to a new one since this one's on 200,000+ before I choose to do anything to it?
H0SS_AGAINST@reddit
At the very least I would pull the engine and do a complete refresh. It's often not much more expensive to just get a remanufactured long block but if youre into DIY you can add some upgrades to help it handle the power so you have more safety margin. It's better to make 500hp on a build that can handle 800+ than 500hp on a completely stock engine that one guy totally swears it will "handle it".
EuroCanadian2@reddit
Considering what it would cost to do this right so it is still reliable enough to use daily, no.
You can probably get a reasonably fast used car for less.
pizzaanarchy@reddit
Sometimes you have to let go. It sounds like your truck is pretty much used up. Set it free!
SpaceCat72@reddit
Don't do the mods to a daily. That's for a weekender. I'd do the repairs(yourself) to bring it back to spec. That is a better truck than what's being sold now, I promise you.
New-Cry-5427@reddit
Just fix the Tahoe. The GMT400/800 platform is the best thing GM/Chevy has made in the last 30 years. That thing will last forever. Nice thing is, it has the iron block LQ 5.3(LS based). Drive the truck and save for a rebuilt motor. Once rebuilt motor is acquired. Rebuild the old one and find the smallest, lightest car you can afford to cram it into. Now you have a reliable daily still and a fast car to put the smiles on.
Awkward_Ostrich_4275@reddit
If you really need a truck and you want a fast car then get an electric. Rivian R1T, Chevy Silverado EV, or F150 Lightning (discontinued).
Beneficial_Try9602@reddit
If you spend $3500 to fix the accident damage and $5-10k on the engine upgrades, you are still left with a 23 year old 280k truck suspension, brakes, transmission, rear end etc.
Upgrading them to handle 200 additional HP will be a mot more money.
Consider just fixing and driving it. These are desirable vehicles and good long term dailies if you maintain them and keep the rust away. Also super easy to work on compared to modern computerized trucks.
whatdoido8383@reddit
Fix the Tahoe and keep driving it. I bet it has another 200k left in it and they don't make them like that anymore. Super simple and cheap to repair.
nohki01@reddit (OP)
I've loved it so far, I'm the second owner and the first was my brother. Id love to upgrade it to be where I want it to be, I'm just curious if anyone has a guess on the roi of putting something like a supercharger in it.
Fancy_Strawberry7137@reddit
ROI? Your truck being faster would give you quite literally zero return. Why do you want to modify it?
whatdoido8383@reddit
I'd honestly just leave it stock unless you want to dump money you'll never see back into it. The engines are pretty tough but from what I've read, the 4L60E transmission doesn't like more power.
Those are actually becoming pretty desirable trucks if they're rust free. I'm up in the north rust belt and have my eyes out for a rust free example if I can get my hands on one.
TerranceBaggz@reddit
Honest question. If gas is $6-8/gallon, do you want to have a single digit gas mileage daily?
Mad_Scientist_420@reddit
Cam, valve springs, and tune will up the power some(BTR stage 1 or 2 unless doing a stall convertor too)..... Until you break the trans and gov-loc diff. Broke a few rear driveshafts too.
If you really want a sleeper, try a cam, turbo, built trans, NV140 or BW4485(needs threaded for VSS) transfer case(AWD swap, unplug the TCCM to stop errors), and better axles and locker with 4.56 gears in the rear..... I've done things like this on the GMT800, GMT900, and now I'm working on a K2XX. There's a lot of info on everything except the AWD swaps. Most people just launch in 4hi though.
Inner-Chemistry2576@reddit
Is it significantly cheaper to keep the truck , but if it has severe front-end damage, causing alignment issues it might be better to sell it and move up to a slightly better vehicle.
PracticableSolution@reddit
$3500 is cheaper than the sales tax on a new truck. Aldo a wrecked truck is worth nothing. Any running truck that isn’t insufferably disgusting and can pass inspection is worth $5k
EuroCanadian2@reddit
Boosting the power will put stress on old parts and create issues.
Making a relatively large heavy vehicle like a pickup fast is harder than doing the same thing with a small light car.
nohki01@reddit (OP)
I understand it'll be more difficult, I'm just curious if it would benefit a reasonable amount from trying to make it faster.
EuroCanadian2@reddit
I think the reward in speed for the time, money and effort spent won't be worth it.