Increased power for Chevy 3500 Class C
We recently bought a 1999 20' Chateau on a Chevy 3500 cutaway chassis. We love everything about this RV. Just took it on a month-long trip out west and everything works as it should. The engine is ...
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Keep in mind it probably has the 4L60E transmission, vs the 4L80E that came mated to the big block. You might not want to increase power too much without addressing the transmission too.
There's lots of stuff available to make that motor more powerful, however none of it is van-specific, so it could involve some trial-and-error on your part.
I think a big-block swap could be really difficult to make work considering GM no longer manufacturers wiring harnesses for that generation van. Painless Performance might be able to build one, but I found that they don't like building full OBDII-compliant harnesses for some vehicles (in my case, I needed one for a '96 Chevy Impala-SS build, and ended up rebuilding a fire-damaged harness on my own). IF you found a donor van, if would make things much easier, except big-black vans were very rare.
There's lots of stuff available to make that motor more powerful, however none of it is van-specific, so it could involve some trial-and-error on your part.
I think a big-block swap could be really difficult to make work considering GM no longer manufacturers wiring harnesses for that generation van. Painless Performance might be able to build one, but I found that they don't like building full OBDII-compliant harnesses for some vehicles (in my case, I needed one for a '96 Chevy Impala-SS build, and ended up rebuilding a fire-damaged harness on my own). IF you found a donor van, if would make things much easier, except big-black vans were very rare.
