Chevrolet has perfected a huge selling success with its Tahoe and Suburban SUV. With a wide array of trim packages and powertrain choices, there’s a little of everything for folks of all walks of life. But as gas prices start to climb and more people looking for more fuel efficient alternatives, owners are looking for cheap ways to enhance what they’ve got without going to the extreme of trading or downsizing into something less favorable. The aftermarket world for performance enhancing parts is huge with the Chevrolet Tahoe and is certainly worth the research to find the right products for your SUV. Here is a brief list of inexpensive do-it-yourself items you can buy and install in an afternoon.
First, an easy to find item is a higher flowing performance air filter. Manufactured by well known companies such as K&N, airaid and AEM, these products can be purchased at any auto retailer like Wal-Mart, AutoZone and Pep Boys. What a performance filter does is replace your existing restrictive stock filter with a higher flowing unit. The better the engine can breathe, the more horsepower and better gas mileage. Tests have shown a 8-10 HP increase and a 1-3 mpg upswing in a 5.3 V8 Tahoe. Aside from the gains, maintenance will be cut down as well as these filters are cleanable and reusable too. In essence, don’t leave this cheap part off your list, they only retail for $35-55!
Next, a performance exhaust system is another cheap way to free up some more of those HP’s and overall gas mileage in your old or new Tahoe. Kits are available from manufacturers like flowmaster, borla, and Bassani for all engine size Tahoes from the early 1995 models to the newer 2010’s. Kits come complete with all the hardware and instructions. All you have to supply are basic hand tools and an afternoon’s amount of time to get it all together. Your Tahoe will thank you because the engine will dispel all of the burnt gases easier and you will get that nice deep throaty sound once made popular in muscle cars. Gain more power and a few more mpg’s with this must have modification.
And lastly, no Chevrolet Tahoe or GMC Yukon will come complete without a performance chip from Hypertech or Superchips. Performance chips retail at around $80-100 and only take about 20 minutes to install using basic handtools. What a performance chip does for your ride is that it will enhance your transmission’s shift points for better efficiency and less wear and tear. A good performance chip will also enhance your truck or SUV’s fuel curve to gain more mpg’s too. A performance chip will compliment the other performance parts and won’t void any existing warranty.
And so, that is a brief list of some of the most popular and tested parts one must buy for their Tahoe or Yukon. Altogether, you should see about a 30-40 horsepower increase and about a 5-7 mpg gain with all the mods. With summer just around the corner, motorists could use more of their hard earned bucks toward more important activities. But if you want to take modifications a step further, drivers have been converting their truck and SUV into hybrid type vehicles. I’ve seen water/gas conversions and the popular electric/gas hybrid conversion made popular by Toyota and Honda. The IRS will even pay you tax credits for driving a clean fuel vehicle, nothing but positive money savings here. For more information on how you can convert your truck and SUV now, please feel free to visit my site below.