How did you get the pilot to be closer to the body? Did it come that way? I have an IHC Premier (Mehano) GG1 and it runs great, has two motors that draw very little current (I was able to wire both motors into one decoder with no problems) but the pilot sits too low (If the shell sat any lower, it would cover the drivers).
The GG1 you have is also the IHC GG1 (IHC and AHM are both companies owned by the same guy. After AHM went under, the guy stated IHC). IHC had a premier line in which the locos had can motors with flywheels and smooth drives. The regular IHC GG1 is the Rivarossi one, and the IHC Premier version was manufactured by Mehano.
I also replaced the pilot trucks with Reboxx wheels (36", one side insulated) as the pizza cutters kept hopping up on frogs and derailing (only at high speeds though). The drivers have large-ish flanges, but they aren't too bad.