[Mordis]

Small update since I haven't really posted anything.

The PCV valve I put in ended up coming apart cause it's plastic.. on a trip up north and the plunger and spring inside ended up on the freeway somewhere I ended up temp gluing it back together temporarily until I could get a new one which was annoying because it was dumping oil into the catch can and I would have to stop and empty it every 45 min. of driving cause it would fill up. I got another PCV Valve and added some extra glue around where it was pressed together and did another trip up north and only got about 2.5oz of oil in catch can in 400 miles of towing which is about where it should be.

Because of the oil control problem It ended up fouling the plugs pretty bad so it gave me an excuse to take the NGK TR7's out cause they were too cold anyway and put the TR6's in, I also did a BG intake treatment to the engine to get any excess carbon/oil out of the supercharger and cylinders.

The other issue I had was with the Thermostat I put in, It worked fine however the rubber seal that seals the housing shrunk up and ended up leaking so I had to take it out and put the stock thermostat back in for now until I can find something that opens at the temp I want and will actually stay sealed.

 

[smokeshow]

Just came across this thread. Our trucks are oddly similar lol. I don't work at CTC anymore but if I'm ever in the Auburn Hills area in the Colorado you can expect me to give you a run for your money

 

[TurboAl]

SLP sells T-Stats that fit our trucks.
How did you work out the VVT tables ?
I think mine are off from the Comp
phazer kit install.

 

[Mordis]

Just came across this thread. Our trucks are oddly similar lol. I don't work at CTC anymore but if I'm ever in the Auburn Hills area in the Colorado you can expect me to give you a run for your money

Hey Smoke, yeah I've seen your thread as well and it is some nice work. Sounds like a plan however I hardly drive it so finding me out and about might be the biggest problem

SLP sells T-Stats that fit our trucks.
How did you work out the VVT tables ?
I think mine are off from the Comp
phazer kit install.

Thanks Al, I'll look into SLP and as far as VVT we did add some timing in on the Dyno but it ended up making less power due to the GM phasers being too slow to react so at the moment the tables are at 0 across the board and in hindsight I should have put a 3 bolt cam in but I ain't taking it apart again unless it breaks and if it does I'll probably build a 6.2 or 416 depending how far I want to take it.

 

[Mordis]

Ok so been awhile since i've done much to the truck so here's a little update.

Ever since I put the cam in when I measured push rod length evreything I found on the "internet" said that preload should be .050 well that was wrong for my application for my engine it was suggested to be at least .070 of preload. Katech made a video on the subject here:

ever since I had them in I had two lifters that would tap while cold. So the length that I had in there were 7.200" and I changed them out to 7.225 and the tapping is gone.

So on to a few pics:

Coils undone.

Coils off.

Valve cover off.

Rockers off of number 1.

Didn't really take many pics after that since it's all rinse and repeat at this point. All of the rockers looked fine and all of the CHE bushings were showing no signs of wear and all of the valve tips still looked new.

Next we moved on to the brakes, They were still working fine but the Hawk Pads being a racing compound were dusty as hell. So I took all of the Hawk pads out and cleaned up the rotors then installed new PFC street compound pads. Didn't take too many pics of the process since it was just a brake job but here are a few.

Here are the part numbers for the front and rears.

Old Hawk fronts.

Old Hawk rears.

And last I installed the Aeroforce gauge that i've had for a bit.

And here is something that will be upcoming in the future.

 

[Mordis]

Small update, Had a crack randomly appear on the drivers door panel by the A pillar. It's been there for about a month now and hasn't gotten any worse gotta figure out what I want to do to fix it... in other news I've been collecting parts for a rear end upgrade, Pics will be coming when ever start the project. Hopefully that will be soon.

 

[FrEaK_aCcIdEnT]

Do you have window tint? Wondering if that's something I will have to watch for or not. Almost like UV damage weakening it so it cracked.

 

[Mordis]

Do you have window tint? Wondering if that's something I will have to watch for or not. Almost like UV damage weakening it so it cracked.

I do have tint, I got it installed right after I got the truck in '15 but it spent the first fist four years without it so who knows.

 

[rshadd]

That's a weird place for a crack to form. It sucks that it is in such a noticeable spot too. I'd be curious to see if there's anything under crack that may have stressed it.

Unfortunately, I can't think of any great way to fix it other than replacing the door panel.

 

[Mordis]

That's a weird place for a crack to form. It sucks that it is in such a noticeable spot too. I'd be curious to see if there's anything under crack that may have stressed it.

Unfortunately, I can't think of any great way to fix it other than replacing the door panel.

I agree, when I first seen it I was like how the hell does it crack there? But yeah I'm most likely going to look for a new panel because any kind of plastic/epoxy fix will probably still be noticeable.

 

[rshadd]

Well at least you can still get replacement from GM... Interior parts are usually the first to go. A new one is less than $200.

 

[Mordis]

Well at least you can still get replacement from GM... Interior parts are usually the first to go. A new one is less than $200.

Oh good to know, I havent looked into it yet. Thanks for the info.

 

[Mordis]

Hey all, Got some time to do some minor things to the truck so here we go..

First pic is the before with the damaged insulation blanket and all from the thrown belt awhile back.

Next I drove down to the dealer and picked up my new hood and then installed it, didn't get any pics of the install but here it is without the gas shocks installed.

Gas Shocks installed.

Next these are the DRL covers from Badland I didn't really care how they were fitting so here was what they looked like as they were shipped.

And of course the ugly.

Cardboard template.

Transferred to metal.

After a lot of cutting and grinding.

Comparison of modified and unmodified.

Hole drilled for the speed nut.

In Place with the speed nut and screw.

Fresh coat of paint and installed.

Right Side.

Both done.

Next up was the god damn re-circulation door that I have replaced 3 times now because it keeps breaking teeth off of the gear inside.

Glove box and XM box out of the way.

Location of the motor.

Old motor.

Broken tooth yet again..

 

[Mordis]

Posts can I guess only have 20 pics now so here is the rest of today's project.

And last project was the new drivers door panel.

The reason for replacing it, the crack as mentioned before and the fabric separation that has been there since I bought the truck.

Handle trim ring and control panel out.

Old panel off.

New panel on.

Done.

For reference here is the backside of the old panel, no real obvious reason the crack.

And finally the new hood.

 

[Mordis]

Hey Folks been awhile.. So it's time for what will most likely be my last major upgrade for the truck. I wasn't really happy with the carrier in the truck in what should be a "sport" vehicle so figured I'd change it out with something better.

Anyway on with the pic's

To Start with this is the gear before REM treatment It's a Richmond 3.73 for the GM 10 Bolt.

Truck back in the shop

Rear brakes off

Rear cover off

Axles out

Drive shaft undone

U Bolts off

Trans Jack

Rear axle out

Axle up on work stand that was originally made for the quick change axle for the race car.

Removing carrier, bolts cracked loose

Pinion out

All removed

Cleaned up

Removing ABS sensors

New ring and pinion after REM treatment

 

[Mordis]

Part 2

New pinion races

Checking bearings ground out

Pinion in with checking bearings

Checking and setting pinion depth

Pressing carrier bearings on the new Truetrac

Mounting ring on the Truetrac

ARP ring bolts

Ring mounted

Checking and setting backlash

Final setting .008, spec was .007 to .009

Everything taken back out

Cleaned it up a bit then threw some primer on it

Then some satin black

Everything ready to be assembled

Pinion seal installed

Pinion installed and the tool we used to torque the crush washer

Truetrac installed

Checking Pattern

 

[Mordis]

Part 3

Axles installed

Axle washer

Retaining plug & C-Clip

Axle ready to go back in with new Moser cover

Axle back in

Axle fluid I'm using Since the Delvac does not have any Limited Slip additives but is still a synthetic.

 

[Mordis]

After the rear was done turned the truck around to do some minor things with the belt drive. Ever since it was installed the power steering pulley has had a very light rub on the electric fans since its an 8 rib setup as opposed to the 6 rib from factory, Also for awhile I've had the smell of radiator fluid when I park it so we had to check that out as well. So on with the pics.

Truck flipped around

Grill off

Radiator & Condenser out

This is the afore mentioned rub on the power steering pulley & fan

I could not really get a good pic of it but the leak is up in the top corner of the radiator which was a result of the belt drive as well I'll explain more further on but the leak was fixed with Bar's Liquid Aluminum, never really had much luck in the past but this stuff did actually work for the leak I had Here is a link to the stuff I used: Bar's Liquid Aluminum

And here is how we fixed the rub on the fan we drilled out the 3 spot welds on the fan motor bracket and moved it ~1/4" closer to the radiator which gave me the clearance I needed for the pulley and still had plenty of clearance between the fan blades and fins/tubes of the radiator.

Fan reassembled

Radiator and Condenser re-installed

Also one other minor thing we did was replace the AC bracket bolts on the ATI damper because I was never really a fan of the bolts that came in the original kit they just gave a cheap brass washer with the ARP bolt, while it did work it just seemed kind of meh to me so I had ATI send me the correct washers and you can see the difference between the two in the picture.

And Finally the cause for the radiator leak was the upper bracket was modified to gain the clearance needed for the pulley and ended causing the radiator tube to crack over time. So now that the fan was physically moved I no longer needed the modified bracket and the pictures below are of the modified one and a new replacement installed to ease some of the tension on the upper radiator tank.

 

[FrEaK_aCcIdEnT]

You need to be closer. 😆 love seeing updates!

 

[Mordis]

You need to be closer. 😆 love seeing updates!

lol, Thanks for following along.