Want a fast Denali AWD

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Kelly Steeves

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Congrats on your new YD AWD...I also picked up a 2011 YD AWD last month and joined this forum...So much to learn....So much help here...For peace of mind I changed and flushed every thing in the 1st week. With only 37,000 miles everything was black, from the tranny flush, power steering, diffs, and brake fluid. The rad was nice and clean but I flushed that as well... It might not run any better, but when I firer her up and head out I have smile on my face with no worries...
 

FrankU

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Kelly , Something isn't right there. At 37K miles the only fluid that should be dark is the oil.....if it wasn't changed.
 
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Jjdenali

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I just like the way a more aggressive cam sounds is all and would be willing to sacrifice low end for the big cam lopey idle. :D Bah-rohm...bah-Rohm..bah-rohm.
I kept the VVT and have a very lopey idle. We tried to tune as much of it out as we could because my wife keeps getting asked questions she doesnt know the answer to lol. Its a Gwatney performance stage 2 VVT cam. Ill post a video if i can find it.
 

swathdiver

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...I picked up a 2011 Denali 6.2 awd flex fuel and want more out of it. Its now got 106,*** miles? or really close. My question(s) is/are this. How do I start?

After changing the fluids and plugs and wires and such, the tune is the basis for all future mods, do this first. High dollar fluids like Red Line deliver better gas mileage which translates to more power to the pavement so consider that.

Then you'll have to decide how fast you want to go, how much driveability to sacrifice along with a budget. 3.73 gears will give you a nice hole shot advantage over another Denali, provided you have the right tires to hook up with!
 

ls1frc

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If you haven’t figured it out by now
“Speed cost money, how fast do you want to go?”
And it will snowball on you, build a good strong running engine and it will tear up your transmission, so you build a good strong transmission and that engine and transmission will rip your rear end apart. All the while you don’t get to enjoy your truck because it’s broke or you are working on it all the time and you are also broke. Been there done that! Enjoy your truck

This. I have to stop myself weekly from slapping a blower on. Will be cheaper in the long run to just have a faster car. B

I did a 6.2 swap, headers and vvt cam. Goes mid 5's 0-60 prob runs mid 13s in 1/4. Its a 6k lb vehicle, to go much faster than that with any reliability youre gonna pay.
 

91RS

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I kept the VVT and have a very lopey idle. We tried to tune as much of it out as we could because my wife keeps getting asked questions she doesnt know the answer to lol. Its a Gwatney performance stage 2 VVT cam. Ill post a video if i can find it.

I’d love to hear a video. I’ve been thinking about replacing the valve stem seals and springs on my Yukon since it has 185k miles and I didn’t think to do it when I deleted the AFM hardware but if I do all that work I was thinking about throwing a Gwatney stage 1 cam in it. I didn’t know about them when I originally deleted the AFM or I would have done it then. Texas Speed will only sell their VVT cams in a kit and I didn’t need their kit because I already had most of what I needed.
 

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