Increasing torque/horsepower in Chevy Colorado

[yardsale]

Hi Folks,
Wish the in line 5 cylinder in our 2012 Colorado had a little more punch for heading West against headwinds and up mountain passes while towing our Escape. Internet search reveals dozens of options. Anyone have experience with a mod that actually works?
Thanks

[cpaharley2008]

add 3 more cylinders----

[steve dunham]

Your truck is 6 or 7 years old depending how you look at it . I don’ t know if I would be willing to put a bunch of money into modifying a 7 year old truck
It may make more sense as Jim said to add 3 cylinder and upgrade to a new truck .
There has been a lot of vehicle improvements over the last 7 years

We have a 2014 Ram . We just looked at a 2019 Ram at the dealers . BIG DIFFERENCE

[AKCamper]

I wouldn’t want to buy the first year production model, but Chevy is coming out with a turbocharged 4 cylinder in their full size Silverado pickup that develops more HP and tourque than their 2013 V-8. It’s peak tourque kicks in at 1500 RPM, almost like a diesel. Towing and fuel economy specs aren’t out yet. It looks promising to me.

[cpaharley2008]

It is interesting how things go around and come back. during the gas crunch in early 70's when gas went from cheap to rationing, turbo's were introduced as a way to make the car drive like a v-8 but sip gas like a 4 cylinder. These early turbo's were loud and you could cook a 2 minute egg waiting for the turbo lag. Failures were common and expensive. Then things settled down and everyone had compacts and the big engines were becoming extinct. Then it seems with computers and the modern electronic age, mid sized engines like the Ford 5.0 had a rebirth (Ford never stopped making them) but now they were producing a lot more power than the smog equipped ones in the 70's. Now, it seems we are returning to the smaller v-6 motors with turbo's for efficiency reasons. Interesting....

[deange]

Originally Posted by yardsale

Hi Folks,
Wish the in line 5 cylinder in our 2012 Colorado had a little more punch for heading West against headwinds and up mountain passes while towing our Escape. Internet search reveals dozens of options. Anyone have experience with a mod that actually works?
Thanks

I use a SuperChips Flashpaq for my 2003 Chev. They make them for all makes and models. It has a tow mode, which is really nice and makes a huge difference in the transmission shift points when towing, but requires you run 91 octane. What I find is that it is smoother shifting and none of that dropping down a gear and screaming next to the red line when going up a river valley or mountain side. When you're not towing there are a few other modes you can use including a gas saver and the general 87 octane setting just programs a very nice (better than stock) experience overall. The cost is a bit much in my opinion, I bought mine used for about $200 CDN. You simply plug it in under the dash, follow the on-screen prompts and it does all the work. If you want, buy it from Walmart or Amazon and make sure it has 30 day return on it, at least then you don't have to experience any buyers remorse if it doesn't work the way you want to.

[jxoco]

Originally Posted by yardsale

Hi Folks,
Wish the in line 5 cylinder in our 2012 Colorado had a little more punch for heading West against headwinds and up mountain passes while towing our Escape. Internet search reveals dozens of options. Anyone have experience with a mod that actually works?
Thanks

Almost free compared to the price of a new vehicle;
Silicon based engine oil.
Good engine air cleaner.
Proper inflation of tires and/or road type tires rather than off-road tires.
Silicon based differential fluid.
Turn off the air conditioning when going up hills.

I found that the cap on the truck bed smoothed out the air flow and helped mileage so probably saved some power. I don't know if you have a cap for your truck but mine was constantly off and on depending on what I was doing with the truck and after seeing the gas mileage improvement I always put it back on when going out with the trailer.

Other than that I just had to come to grip with the fact that the truck was towing maybe 10 days a year and so I could just be a bit slow those days because the rest of the year when I wasn't pulling the truck was just fine.

[salmo7000]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

Your truck is 6 or 7 years old depending how you look at it . I don’ t know if I would be willing to put a bunch of money into modifying a 7 year old truck
It may make more sense as Jim said to add 3 cylinder and upgrade to a new truck .
There has been a lot of vehicle improvements over the last 7 years

We have a 2014 Ram . We just looked at a 2019 Ram at the dealers . BIG DIFFERENCE

Agreed! My 2017 4X4 Colorado with a Duramax, which we bought to tow our 19, is an amazing feat of engineering, at least as far as I can tell. Plenty of zip and torque to spare climbing mountain grades in central Idaho, and my last tank I got 31 mpg... not towing of course but still, that was averaging 65 mph up and down a bunch of grades. Up until then, I was getting something like 28 mpg, I figured the truck was liking the new summer blend diesel! I really like the old gas engine Colorados too, but this new diesel is just amazing, so comfortable, and really fun to drive. I think it would be a dream to tow a 17 with it.

[yardsale]

Salmo 7000,

That is impressive mileage. Is that Salmo BC? Kootenay Pass is one of our favorite places to ski.

[War Eagle]

Originally Posted by yardsale

Hi Folks, Wish the in line 5 cylinder in our 2012 Colorado had a little more punch for heading West against headwinds and up mountain passes while towing our Escape. Internet search reveals dozens of options. Anyone have experience with a mod that actually works? Thanks

Nick, You just need to hang around your local high school parking lot for awhile - you know, the back corner where all the cool kids congregate with their tricked-out monster 4x4's. They know every trick in the book to squeeze out every last ounce of horsepower and engine rumble (on a teenager's budget). The three things I always hear them brag about are: 1) a larger, high performance cold air intake (less resistance for air going into the carburetor), 2) a larger diameter, less resistance "cat-back" exhaust system (everything from the catalytic converter back; bonus - choose your favorite cackle/rumble sound) and 3) the latest, greatest engine computer "chip." Just talking about it makes me wish I was young again...

[salmo7000]

Originally Posted by yardsale

Salmo 7000,

That is impressive mileage. Is that Salmo BC? Kootenay Pass is one of our favorite places to ski.

No, short for my favorite fish!! Or the genus name for the atlantic version, and brown trout

But you are right, Salmo BC has a great ski area ! We like the one in Nelson as well, although we haven't been to either in quite some time.

[AnJ]

We had a 2011 Ranger 4.0L... we had gotten a smaller truck at the time for gas mileage. We also looked at the Frontiers and Colorados, but the Rangers were selling at half the price of the others new in the last model year they made them. However, when we did upgraded to a 5.3L 2015 Silverado crew cab (and were dreading the increase in fuel usage and $$), we were surprised to find that the gas mileage was almost the same, and we have the power we need to when towing... just some food for thought if you were avoiding a bigger truck for gas mileage.

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by War Eagle

Nick, You just need to hang around your local high school parking lot for awhile - you know, the back corner where all the cool kids congregate with their tricked-out monster 4x4's. They know every trick in the book to squeeze out every last ounce of horsepower and engine rumble (on a teenager's budget). The three things I always hear them brag about are: 1) a larger, high performance cold air intake (less resistance for air going into the carburetor), 2) a larger diameter, less resistance "cat-back" exhaust system (everything from the catalytic converter back; bonus - choose your favorite cackle/rumble sound) and 3) the latest, greatest engine computer "chip." Just talking about it makes me wish I was young again...

The CAI or cold air intakes are easy to install, the exhaust mod a little harder and the tunes I leave to the mechanics. Just installed a CAI in my Ram 1500 and trying to find one now for the Mustang that does not require a tune.

[Bobnjudy]

Many You Tube reviews for this device. Works with gas or diesel.
https://youtu.be/7GW4YyWNx-Q