What kind of mods would I be looking at if I was looking more for torque versus horsepower? I want this truck to get decent mileage and still be able to pull anything without even knowing it's back there.

I currently have dual exhaust from the owner before me and have heard that's better for upper end power versus single exhaust. Some of the things I was thinking of were as follows:

- Electric fans
- transmission cooler
- port/polishing the heads
- 318 throttle body
- headers or polishing the stock ones
- potentially rockers/internal upgrades later down the line

What do you think of these mods in accordance with my goal? Or what do you think of my goal in general?
I'm kind of a mileage freak, so I'm always looking to improve power/efficiency not at the expense of mileage

 

HP and TQ go together. We could get all technical of the differentiations but basically what ever you do to the HP the TQ will increase. What you will want to do for towing is keep the HP/TQ at the lower RPM range. The stock style intake and cam keeps its low.

But if you do things to raise the power up the RPM range you will still increase the HP and TQ numbers.

All your ideas will help. Expect the rockers, the 1.7 rockers move it up the RPM range. I installed them and you can feel a slight loss at the lower end, and a good gain at the higher end.

You might want to add in High performance coil, cap+rotor, plugs, plug wires.

Not to be a smart a$$ but if you want good MPG get the 4cly or a car!

 

The problem for most is that most mods that increase HP and Torque also move the torque curve up in the RPM band, so it feels like low end torque is LOST even though the over-all torque is increased.

Low end torque is actually supplied by back-pressure, which is actually inefficiency! Mods to gain HP/Torque and fuel economy like headers, CAI, etc. will increase torque, but also move the entire torque curve UP. So you may have a gain of say 30 lb/ft of torque but feel like you can't get away from a stop sign with a trailer in tow!

Anything you do to get the engine "breathing" better for added MPG with performance gains will unfortunately do this.

The single best mod you could do for an INCREASE in "felt" torque would be to re-gear IMO. You'll get up into the power band faster on take off, so it will launch you better and also require less throttle on take offs, whether towing or not.
Most report MPG gains in city driving conditions and no loss on the interstate until around 75 mph or so...

 

Yeah crazy... I know about the 4 cylinder/car deal. I'm not trying to get 35 mpg and 200+ horsepower with a truck. I'm just very aware of everything I do regarding mileage... because every snowflake is responsible for the avalanche.

Thats good to know though, I guess i should go about my business increasing overall power but not sacrificing low end too much and then afterwords if i feel that towing isn't up to snuff... just re-gear.

 

I agree with everything you said execpt this sentence! It only seems like backpressure creates low end torque because to get the engine breathing efficiently at low rpms means setting up the intake an exhaust in such a way that its very restrictive at higher rpms. In reality, the smaller intake port and exhaust diameters keep the velocity of the intake air and exhaust gasses higher in the lower rpm range when less overall air is being moved. There really isn't as much backpressure there as you may think! That is until you try to get the rpms up and the engine is choked off by the restrictions... then there is massive backpressure and power is lost.

The truth is, an engine needs a very specific amount of exhaust backpressure for the intake to work efficiently. Too little and the intake velocity slows down too much... too high and the engine is choked off. The idea that an engine needs lots of backpressure to create low end torque is nothing but a myth formed by people who don't understand thermodynamics and flow properties of fluid and air through pipes.

And while I'm being all technical, the end forumla from the long and drawn out unit conversion of torque (in ft*lbs) to horsepower is:

HP = Torque * (RPM/5252)

In other words, if you look at a dyno sheet, at all rpms under 5,252, the torque curve will be above the horsepower curve. The two curves cross at 5,252 rpms, and everything above 5,252 rpms, the horsepower curve is above the torque curve. Like Crazy said, the two are related and you can't change one without changing the other.