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Looking at a Tahoe to add to the stable...

Crankme69

Crankme69

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Been searching for months locally for a used Tahoe, 4wd 6.5, nothing to be found.

I have located a 96 Tahoe 5.7 gasser with 146K CLEAN NO RUST, the guy has owned it for the last 10yrs & put about 100K of the miles on it, garage kept. The front end has been totally rebuilt within the last 6 months, many other new parts & it has never towed anything more then a 18ft boat & NO plow ever. Steady diet of Mobile 1 syn oil 5K changes.

I really wanted a 6.5 but if I can pick this up for about $3K I am very tempted to do it. I only want it for the 4wd & will only drive it when we have heavy snows, about 100 mile round trip to work for me right next to Lake Michigan south side of Chicago.

So what do you 6.5 gents recommend? Will this 5.7 eat me out of house & home compared to my 19mpg avg I get with my 6.5? What kind of mpg will the 350 get, like maybe 15mpg or???

I know this is not really a 6.5 question, but I would really value all of your unbiased opinions.

TIA
69
 
$3000 is a good deal on a Tahoe, if its in the condition you say its in, my old man had a 4 door he bought new in 95 and had for 12 years, he averaged 16-17, 96 would be the vortec which may even do better on mileage and have a significant jump in power.
 
IIRC, '96 Tahoe had the "splash and hope" fuel inj (throttle body) and they were very underpowered. I had a '97 5.7 Vortec Tahoe and frequently got around 17 mpg highway if I was light footed but I think the '96s were more thirsty.

on edit since I read Nick's post. I'm pretty sure the Vortec wasn't until '97. But I could be wrong.
Edit again... I looked at wiki and it WAS first done in '96.
 
Yea I thought $3K was a good price also if it really checks out clean as described.

Dam 5mpg chit maybe I had better rethink this...:nonod:

Yea Mike 96 is the 1st year of the vortec 5.7 thanks!

Cowboy that 6.5 is purty but no way is it worth that...the picture of the back looks like dual exhaust...on a 6.5 hmmm?
 
Good luck finding one with a 6.5. About 120 -125,000 Tahoe's were built every year the 6.5 was made until '98, and only 1% of those actually came with the 6.5L, add in accidents and engine's failing, and other failures = even less. The one I have was first Tahoe that I've ever seen in my life, before it I've only seen a couple of Yukon's with 6.5. Had to pay 8 for it, the PO wouldn't come down anymore.
 
We would average around 15 MPG on a 350 2WD 1995 4 door Yukon 3.23 rear and lead foot. 4WD will suck more fuel. The parts you don't need for the 6.5 will offset the lower MPG some.

Check the trans for water and possibly replace the radiator due to pinhole leaks in the trans intercooler.

Edit I see you are looking at a 1996. OBDII VS old school OBDI with TBI, they had to shut off failed cylinders fuel for OBDII and no more TBI as it could not kill a single cylinder.
 
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5 mpg city?

I had an 89 eclb K1500 350 TBI 700r4 and I never saw anything nearly as low as 5 mpg.

On a really bad month of mostly nothing but city I would be around 10 mpg.

Anywhere from 15-18 highway.

3,000 sounds somewhat reasonable if it's rust free, a good runner and you only intend it for bad weather days.

If it's equipped with an engine oil cooler, make sure you check for weeaping lines at the swage, they have the same crap oil lines as the 6.5. And as always, the IFS is not the most durable front end in the world and subject to lots of wear...
 
Our 1989 K1500 gasser Suburban got considerably better Milage than out K1500 1997 Suburban. Never could figure out why. I fixed the problem by buying the 1996 6.5 Suburban.

Crankme, Where are you from?
I'm 90 miles from the loop. Clifton
 
I'm located down near Joliet.

Thanks for all the thoughts & info.

I plan to go look it over this Saturday...gonna look real close at the under carriage. Rust is absolutely a show stopper for me.

I had a 78 3/4 ton with 350 & stick 4.10 rearend that got 8~10mpg, towing loaded unloaded never mattered. It would pull a house down but the mpg was terrible. I was hoping this Vortec 5.7 would be better then that.

Thanks again all
 
We have a 97 Z71 3.73 350 vortec on the farm and it is a BEAST! It has dual flowmaster 3in outlaw series "mufflers" with 3.5in turn downs at the rear axle and no cats. It gets ~15 driving field to field checking irrigation, 20 miles between fields, 90 mile round trip. Gets ~10 with the foot in the floor. Its on its 2nd engine and 5 tranny burns 1qt of oil/1000 miles.

My 95 gasser doesn't have near the power but got 21MPG before it started having problems. Engine is good but wont stay timed.
 
There is a 4wd tahoe for sale down here in ATL... saw it on CL. They wanted $7k for 140,ooo miles on it. Looked really clean, but OUCH!
 
We bought our 95 in Kentucky quite a few years ago. Maybe 2001 or so for $5500

If anybody sees a no rust, green or green over gold drivers door for it I'd be very interested.

My daughter ruined the original, it was replaced with a used door and it's starting to rust.
 
I have an older (89) K5 which is abou8t the same size truck.
350 with TBI and it gets on average about 14 MPG town and 16 Hwy If I run it easy.

If you get one that is only doing 5 MPG there is something terribly wrong somewhere.

The 6.5 Tahoes did a lot better BUTTTTTT.

$3K is a good price for sure.


Missy
 
It was not meant to be, it was sold before I ever had a chance to look at it. :rolleyes5:

Thanks for the info, still looking, it's hard to find anything here in the snow belt that is well cared for & not full of rust, so I am not very hopeful, keeping an eye open...:eek:
 
My 97 LT1 350 in my camaro got like 25mpg before I meddled with it, but its a bit lighter, more aerodynamic and higher gearing. If it has a 4L60E run away! Well if it has the orignial it will fail shortly. If it has been replaced in the last several years with a new one, GM came out with a remedy for the issue that caused every single one to fail before 100,000 miles. I cannot believe GM used TBI so much, Ford did it for like 2 years, maybe 1.5 years. My 86 Camaro had multi-port fuel injection so why they didnt use it in all of their engines must have been to cut costs.

If someone has one that wont stay timed its probably an ignitoin module failing on the distributor, will cause engine failure eventually, been there done that.

Hold out for the 6.5 tahoe until something is too good to pass up.
 
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