layne

I have an '02 Tahoe w/ 40,000 miles, and it's time to kick it up a notch.
Any reccomendations for starters?
Chip, Filter, ect.
Would like some relitivly simple bolt on stuff to 'wake her up' a little.

NCHEVYHEVN

Supercharger is the way to go

ZX1100F1

The simple bolt-on stuff is 100% ineffective with many actually causing a loss in performance or a negligible improvement at best.

A quality blower and professional install is the best way to kick it up a notch.

NCHEVYHEVN

Wow do you just pull this stuff straight out of your *** or something?

Not all easy bolt on hurt your performance. Granted their are some out their like throttle body spacers are fuel injected vehicles are pretty much crap.

What you should have said was just about all of the bolt on stuff cost alot more than what kind of power you get out of them like cold air intakes and stuff.

Next time think before you type.

ZX1100F1

Thanks for telling me what I should have said. but I said exactly what I meant!

I have yet to see any (so called) "bolt on mod" do much other than maybe kick up the noise level, although some associate noise with power.

73shark

I agree about the throttle spacers and the devices that supposedly induce swirls/turbulence are also a joke. None of these devices have ever shown any documented hp/torque improvements. As to the gauze air filters aka K&N, Airaid, etc, I suggest you look at trueflow.com for another possibility. For the record, I've tried none of these. I like the idea of supercharger best. Probably should free up the exhaust and also get one with an intercooler. Two Guys Garage (Spike TV) had an episode several months ago where they installed a supercharger on a Tahoe. Since it was 4WD, it was an E85 truck and therefore had the hi-capacity fuel pump (according to them) and therefore didn't require a new fuel pump. Don't recall the numbers but it provided an significant hp boost.

Personally I prefer hi-compression, big cubes, and low restriction exhaust for more hp.

NCHEVYHEVN

Where do you get your information from? Do have some sort of a dyno and you have tested every single available bolt on for this vehicle and every vehicle. Your statements are rather vague and over generalized.

ZX1100F1

I work for a company that has a dyno.
We have tested several (bolt-on) items over the course of the years:
Recently on a 2005 Tahoe 5.3L we tested a device called the Tornado at the request of a local Television station that slips into the intake track, the device caused a 4hp loss along with an almost 1 mpg reduction in fuel economy even though the manufacturer claims an up to "28% increase in fuel economy and 13 more horsepower."

We also tested the K&N drop-in replacement filter element in a similar vehicle with a 5.3L, the K&N filter produced virtually no detectable difference in power over a stock high capacity AC/Delco element. We then tested the K&N FPIK on the same truck and found that it provided slightly better power in the upper rpm (4k+) range but slightly less in the lower range.
GM recommends against the use of oil coated filters as the MAP sensor can be damaged from oil mist coking on the sensor element

We have not tested the throttle body spacers because there is no need.

We actually got some pretty decent results from a set of under drive pulleys (Power Pulleys) on a 2004 5.3L of about +5hp across the rpm range but since the new 5.3L has gone to electric fans this mod would probably lose all of its effectiveness on the 2007 Tahoe, we did notice some side effects from the use of the pulleys, the A/C would go noticeably warmer at idle and the alternator would not hold the load up on its own if the headlights were on at idle.

We've tested numerous pre-fab cat back exhaust systems on various GM SUV's and trucks as well with most of them providing no measurable hp increase, the few that did were less than +3 hp in the upper rpm range but typically lost a few ponies in the lower rpm range.
GM's performance exhaust systems are manufactured by a very well known and respectable company and you'll notice that they make no claim to improve performance.
The trouble with freeing up the exhaust is that the cat(s) are the bottle-neck but also required by law and also to maintain your manufacturer’s warranty.

The days of installing a high performance ignition, set of 1.6 roller rockers or large bore 4-barrell on the weekend and enjoying the end result are gone I'm afraid with respect to modern day automobiles.

Nomad76lj

i know the old school way when bilding a 350 you can do most anything to them short of pulling apart the bottum end and still consider it a "bolt on" project so to speak.(i think the term is getting overused nowdays) with new comuter controled cars and trucks its getting harder and harrder to do things yourself. it takes me a few hours just to chang the plugs in my 99 blazer cuse you have to drop the inner fender to get to 1 or 2 of the plugs if i want to do it myself. i tend to lissen to ppl who have to be trained for years to work on the new cars when they say what does and dosent work. i dont know the hsitory ither of you have working on cars and trucks (zx1100f1 or nchevyhevn) the origan ? was what works to hop up his truck if you both have an opinion then great but dont judge by what you think is right or wrong. sorry for the long story.

ZX1100F1

Please tell me that you're "just joking", you are joking right???
Otherwise would you please explain your definition of the word "opinion"?