Last month we showed you how we brought home a Chevy army truck we found on the Government Liquidation Web site (www.govliquidation.com). After some suspension and tire work, we were that much closer to having a quality daily-driven wheeler. Now the plans for this truck are to make it a happy, healthy work truck that can also take us exploring in the backwoods and local trails.
In this episode we address a few more issues of the truck. Some of these parts are definitely overkill, and others are just insurance. When building a daily driver and weekend wheeler, it is often important that you not only make it down the trail, but also make it home, and still have a running vehicle to drive to work on Monday. As such, we wanted parts that could help the truck out of tricky situations, almost insure against breakage, safely store tools (in case we need to help out our buddies), and make our truck a little nicer to cruise down the road.
Gale Banks Sidewinder Turbo
After cruising the truck in L.A. traffic, we felt the 6.2 diesel was way underpowered. Since we desired to at least be able to pass some of the guys from VW Trends, we looked into some more mojo for the oil burner. Gale Banks Engineering was contacted and with the help of the guys from All Time Gas & Diesel Repair, we soon had a Sidewinder Turbo system installed. Truth be told, it was like driving a new truck. The power was noticeable, and we could finally cruise with traffic. This is a great choice if you plan on keeping the diesel because it makes the truck much more livable. On the other hand, if you want gobs of tire-spinning torque and insane horsepower, then you should just plan on an engine swap, since the 6.2, even with the turbo, is still quite a few horses short of a big-block.