need help , so many questions, so little knowledge on my part

hello , i have a 1994 chevy k2500 5.7 tbi , mostly stock except a k/n cold air intake , i have been looking for a way to get a little more out of my engine so i can tow my 19 foot travel trailer with out my automatic tranny shifting into first gear on the mountain passes in b.c. , i have looked at many possibilities from headers and catback exhaust to a jet performance 6 pack system , i dont want to waste my money on something that might work, any ideas anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated , the motor only has 170 000 km on it and the rest of the truck is mint. thank you

A better flowing intake and exhaust system will help improve performance. Tuning a performance chip yourself will add performance also. More than likely, a performance chip you do for yourself will out perform any readily available aftermarket performance chip. It's also likely a performance chip you do yourself will provide more performance than simple intake and exhaust system modifications. A good place to start the learning process of tuning a performance chip yourself, would be data logging with TunerPro RT.

dave w

If you need to drop to 1st gear then you need a significant power boost, with the emphasis on lower end power. I expect you'll need 100ft-lbs more toque through the low-mid range for it to be a meaningful result. So, I think you're looking at heads, cam, intake and long tube headers to get where you want to be. Or, a swap to a bigger engine.