Living in a Van Down by the River
 

Hi!

I participated in the forum while owning a 1996 Pontiac Firebird, then a 2002 Madza Protege5.

I just bought a 2009 Chevy Express 2500, with a 4.8 L Gen IV V8 and 4L60E. It has 100k mi, part of a nearby municipality's fleet - it looks like it was babied.

While I'm not expecting miracles, I'm going to do what I can make this a little less of a hog. I'd love the community's input!

Paint Freak_Andy on the side? :)

Over-drive. or change the rear end ratio.
Tune. Econo cam.
Narrower, taller, over-inflated tires and/or LRR tires. Lighter wheels.
Aero mods. Boat tail, under-tray.
Weight reduction. (not going to have that much impact)
Alternator/accessory delete, under-drive, whatever.
Block heater, grill block, warm air intake.
Plug-in hybridize it?

More importantly...will you be camperizing it? daily driver? work vehicle? Off-road beast?

LMAO, took me a second. I was daydreaming of springing for a Matt Foley graphic https://townsquare.media/site/295/fi...jpg?w=980&q=75

All great ideas Stubby, most I'm open to.

Part of me wishes I had sprung for a 2013 on the lot because by then they had a 6-speed trans and variable valve timing. That being said, while I don't necessarily care to break even on mods vs fuel-cost savings, it was hard to justify an extra $2k and +20k mi on the odo for those things, especially since I don't have a clear picture as to how much/often I'll actually use this thing.

I might be inviting wiring-gremlins, but I'm seriously interested in the idea of a 6 speed manual conversion. Although my old Firebird was a Gen II small block (and a whole lot lighter), I quite liked the T56 it had.

As for use, it's neither a daily driver or work vehicle. I'm a travel nurse, so my commute is potentially different every 12 weeks.

It would best be described as a camper/weekender - I've never been one to off-road, so that's not much of a concern either.

My thought process is to first do some simple aero mods like grill block, front air dam, etc. I'm going to refrain from things like a belly pan until I get far enough along with camperizing it: I think I'll mount grey-water and/or fresh-water tanks underneath.

I do plan to spec-out some wheel & tire combos like you described, so when it's time to replace them that decision won't be rushed. Hopefully, before then, I'll have a better idea as to the vehicle's final weight and use-case by then as well.

I'll probably look at tune, cam, and final drive after a few thousand miles' use. I feel as though I should approach it's final weight first, to get a better idea of how much I can get away with.

As for weight - I'm going to start pricing out weight-savings options from day one. Since, sadly, the van as a camper will all but certainly end up weighing more than it does now - I'll be looking at weight-gain-avoided alongside lightweighting the vehicle in more typical ways. But yes, I agree, it's a lot harder to realize efficiency gains from lightweighting a vehicle of this size (rotational mass excluded).

Thanks again for your input!

Thanks now I can be serious. I made this for another van owner:

https://ecomodder.com/forum/member-f...-1224-copy.jpg

The headlight covers were design to make a bellmouth to the radiator opening, but your model has severely rounded front corners so it needn't apply.

The swan-neck mirrors, air curtains and skirts and whatever that spoiler/Kammback/airfoil ring was intended to be may apply.

This is so cool! Thanks for sharing

Isn't there any version of the Silverado fitted with this very same engine and a manual transmission? Could render the MT swap much easier even regarding the wiring issues.

I just referred to Wikipedia and you're right! It looks as though it wasn't sold to the USA market, only in Mexico. I'm not sure if this still introduces any concerns related to wiring or the ECM - these are parts of modding cars that I've always steered clear of in the past, but I'd be willing to learn.

I definitely plan to look into this further though!

I've always preferred driving MT; If I were to optimize things with the auto, I'd have to teach myself all about torque-converter lockups, tune and/or mods to change shift points. It sounds interesting I would probably enjoy figuring all that stuff out, but at the end of the day I would still have an automatic transmission.

Just remember there were different versions of the Vortec 4800, so I'm not sure if the one fitted to your van had ever featured a manual even in Mexico. IIRC the latest Silverados fitted with a manual in Mexico had either the 4.3L V6 or the 6.0L heavy-duty V8.


Sure it might be challenging to some extent, but not exactly rocket-science.


For me it's quite surprising to see so many Americans actually enjoying the manuals, while automatics have been prevalent there.

Yeah, I have the LY2 - I'll have to check if what was used in Mexico during those model-years.

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I think dealerships, (who are automakers' real customers), did a really good job selling Americans on automatics in the 20th century. More reasons for the car owner to come back to the dealer for services.

A less cynical explanation may be with our 'lazy liters'/large displacement motors, it's flatter power-band meant it's less critical if you're in the optimal gear. Also, since they're generally revving lower, with deeper/lower-pitched intake and exhaust noise, I think it's less unpleasant. That's completely subjective, but my old Firebird sounded fantastic humming along at 1800 rpm on the highway. Driving smaller displacements engines at similar engine and road speeds, I appreciate good sound deadening lol.

Another explanation may have to do with American car enthusiasts' preference for drag racing. Once you begin to modify a large V8, you're likely going to exceed the transmission's torque capacity. Once you get some good and bitey tires, you're probably going to ruin your rear differential. That gets expensive quickly - I think it's generally easier to find/build a beefy automatic.

Nonetheless, I always try to get a manual transmission in my cars when I can.

Well don't do what I did. In my campervan conversion I lifted my Astro 2 inches, installed oversized tires, and put a rack on top to hold solar panels and carry a raft. (Picture below from yesterday while I was lifting the rear another inch)

I ended up lighter after the conversion than at start. My Astro was a passenger van and the rear bench seats, carpet, and pad are heavy. I pulled the interior, insulated with double-bubble foil insulation, and put in a plywood floor as a base. I don't have a toilet or grey water tank in mine. For the next campervan which will be for full-time RVing I going to use a Nature's Head composting toilet so I don't need a black water tank.

The biggest thing you can so is slow down. Even with the modifications for off-road use my Astro will still do 20 mpg on the highway at 65 mph. Increase that to 70 or 75 mph and the fuel economy plummets. I did a lot of research on expediter forums and there are people with your van getting 19 mpg fully loaded with 3 pallets running @ 65 mph.

Run your tire pressures on the high side - that is an easy 1-2 mpg. (I air down to 30 psi when I go offroad to reduce punctures and that drops my mileage on the return trip)

As to manuals - I'm a fan but not too sad that they are dying out. A reason for their demise you didn't mention is fuel economy. 5 to 6 speed manuals get lower fuel economy on the EPA tests than the 6 - 10 speed automatics.

Attachment 30360

Drag racers used to skip gears, because the drop-out in power during the shift became too large a fraction of the elapsed time.

Sure they're less dumbproof than manuals when it comes to maintenance procedures. I see many people claiming to prefer manuals because they can service it with fewer resources, and recently I even saw a man changing the clutch disc of a Peugeot 306 with improvised tools to lift the engine instead of jacking to lower the transmission.


Just look at how longer it took for automatics to become closer to mainstream in other regions, not only due to the inherent cost and technical complexity of an automatic but also due to the fuel costs and tax structures which favored smaller engines.


No wonder it's still quite usual to see the 2-speed PowerGlide retaining some cult-following among drag racers, even in other countries.

Another Vandweller! Yeah, having never off-roaded, I don't know what I'm missing but if I do any suspension mods, it would all but certainly involve lowering the van, not raising it. One of the first things I plan to do is remove the commercial roof rack - I'll hold onto it, at least for a little while, but I don't haul much gear so right now it's just an aero penalty.

Haha, I bought a composting toilet before I even bought the van! It's a Separett, roughly comparable to the offering by Nature's Head in design and price.

I agree that for more mixed use vehicles, it's smarter to have more gears like the late model 8 and 10 speed autos. But since I really won't tow/haul much, I'm thinking I'll have the most to gain from a manual because of fewer driveline/parasitic losses, and the ease of being able to P&G. But at the end of the day, if I do it it'll just be because I like a having a manual transmission.

Right, policy played a huge role.

Lifting or lowering an Express is difficult. The rear is simple - swap the axle over the leaf spring instead over it or use custom shackles. The front in the difficult part. All the lift kits use custom spindles - I suspect that is the only way to drop the front and keep the geometry. You could go with lower profile tires. That would drop the van but also raise RPMs which might require new gearing.

One of the reason I went with the Astro is because it is easy to lift. The front suspension, engine, and transmission in on a subframe that you can lift with just simple blocks. My lift kit was $225 and the same amount of lift on a full size van is about $2500. Before I lifted my Astro I was bottoming out the front bumper quite a bit offroad.

Those commercial ladder racks do catch a lot of air. I suspect you would have no trouble finding someone willing to buy it if you decided to get rid of it permanently. I decided to make my own low-profile rack with aluminum 80/20. I'll be adding a 3rd solar panel for a total of 300 watts shortly and shortening my 80/20 to fit. After that it will get a front spoiler. If I didn't need to carry rafts and boats I would have just mounted the panels to the roof directly.

Wow! Yeah, I hadn't looking into modifying the suspension yet. I doubt it'll ever become a priority.

I really don't know how I'm going to use the above roof space yet. Until then, it's coming off. But I can't lie: I'm seeing those roof rack mounted decks and I'm tempted!! :D

That's what most markets are all about. On a sidenote, I guess you might know automatic clutches used to be relatively popular in Europe, with systems such as the Saxomat being even available as a factory option on some models, while other systems entirely vacuum-operated (with a rudimentary electronic control) remained common among disabled drivers until some years ago. It's also worth to mention those single-clutch automated-manual transmissions, which in the U.S. are better known for their fitment to heavy-duty trucks while in Europe they used to be quite common on cars until at least 10 years ago instead of a conventional automatic or a dual-clutch AMT.

I did not know that! That's all very interesting.

I do know Ford brought over the AMT for their Focus starting around 2013. I've heard they've had to replace many while under warranty. I am curious if it said more about the manufacturing quality, or the way US residents tend to drive cars. All I know is that people I talk to here that have them really dislike the transmission.

My parents owned a 1964 Rambler 770 station wagon. It had the E-stick transmission that declutched when you touched the shift lever.

https://auto.howstuffworks.com/rambler-cars.htm

There was a little ball-headed pin in the steering column that snapped off twice while I was driving it. They blamed my skill shifting until it happened to them, too.

More than 90% of long-haul semi trucks are sold with an automated manual today.

Even in the highly-conservative Brazil, now it's quite common to see not only long-haul semi trucks with an AMT. Even urban transit buses, which BTW are still often front-engined, may be fitted with an AMT as it seems easier for the fleet managers to get used to.


But that was a DCT, not a single-clutch AMT.


This transmission was troublesome elsewhere too. When the 3rd-gen Focus got a facelift, the ones bound to Australia switched from the PowerShift DCT to a more conventional automatic with a torque converter, also being sourced from Thailand instead of South Africa.