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BuyAmericanIron

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  • Name
    Rick
  • Location
    East Peoria, IL
  • Gender
    Male
  • Drives
    2016 Sierra Denali 6.2L, Frost White

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Community Answers

  1. My vote goes to ARH. Perfect fit, never a leak and high resale value when you take them off to trade vehicles. There is always someone looking for a used set.
  2. Guess I am an old hot rod guy. Got to have headers on my vehicles.
  3. 5RWill, my truck has AR Headers with cats running the OE exhaust. It is quiet when cruising and has a nice growl when starting and accelerating. The headers took it from electric motor quiet to sounding like a sport truck. I tried both a Magnaflow and Corsa exhaust systems with headers and went back to the OE exhaust. I did have the flapper valve removed due to the substantial exhaust restriction it causes, even when open. With headers, the Magnaflow volume was too high for my taste and didn't care for the tone. The Corsa was just plain too damn loud. It was loud with manifolds and OE cats, but with headers the volume was about three times higher. I knew from the first start up that it was not going to work. Yes, those were both expensive lessons. My truck also has an MIT, ported throttle body and BlackBear tune. I really enjoy how it sounds. For me, it is a great combination. I know there is some HP loss with OE exhaust. At WOT (which my truck rarely sees) it has 5 lbs of backpressure which should equate to about 6 ~ 10 HP. Don't like it, but I can deal with it to have the sound both my wife and I like. Correction, she can live with it, I like it. Did I notice any MPG gain? No, don't think so. On a nice road trip with the cruise set at 75 mph, I can get as high as 19.8 mpg. Driving 10 miles to work with some city driving it usually gets 15 ~ 17 mpg. I don't drive like an old lady, but not like a teenager either. Just moderate/aggressive.
  4. JWAD, here are my thoughts. Choose your tuner carefully. Without question on this forum, BlackBear is the most popular. After problems with another tuner, I spent the money and bought an Autocal and later a BlackBear tune. I highly recommend them. Excellent work. Engine and Transmission performance is substantially improved over OE. Yes, I would delete V4 mode. It caused my transmission to shift erratically and clunk at low speeds. Saw no difference in fuel economy running as a V8 all the time. Can't speak for the others, but I am on my fourth set of AR Headers. Have never had a leak, rattle or blown gasket. They are top quality and 100% Made in America. Plus, they have great resale value when it is time for a new vehicle. There is always a buyer looking for high quality used headers. Good luck with your choice.
  5. Been watching this topic for a while and decided to comment. I had my 2016 Sierra Denali 6.2 tuned by another tuner who will not be named. He had done my 2008 Sierra Denali 6.2 and my 2010 C6 Corvette. I feel like he did a good job with both tunes. He assured me the new 8 speed transmission would be no problem. After six weeks, much frustration, numerous phone calls and a transmission that was much worse than OE (yes it is possible), I went back to the factory tune. Fast Forward a couple of weeks. I found a used Blackbear Autocal listed on this website for sale and purchased it. Contacted Blackbear, submitted payment and sent in my OE tune. A few days later, received the initial tune. Drove a few days and submitted a data log for review. A few days later had a new tune. Drove it as directed and submitted a data log for review and got a message back from Jarrad I was good to go. From initial contact to completed tune was about two ~ three weeks and several of those days were my not having time to work on it. Blackbear did a great job and I am very pleased with the outcome. Like so many others, I would highly recommend this company and their services. Rating: Engine 10/10, Transmission 9/10.
  6. The rear diff cover gasket is reusable. It is a rubber coated steel gasket. There is no drain on the rear. No RTV needed on these trucks. The front diff has a drain plug. I found what looked like white assembly grease inside the fill plug on the front diff and the oil had a white tint to it. Looked like water contamination, but I am certain it was the grease. The transfer case has a simple drain and fill plug. Very easy. Like a few others, I refilled front and rear with Amsoil Severe Gear and the transfer case with Dex VI. A lot of people never change these fluids and don't have any problems, but it gives me piece of mind considering the cost of the investment.
  7. Try Rockauto.com. They have a new line that is advertised as being very high quality. Like adamatic, I have used Moog for many years.
  8. My Sierra Denali came from the factory with the small steel black skid plate that protects the transfer case.
  9. Thanks for the info guys! ChevyRoofer, to answer your question, not necessarily. If you were to run over some debris in the road, it could potentially damage or ruin the plastic air deflector under the engine. The debris could then cause damage to your engine, hit the oil pan, throw a belt, etc. Though this is unlikely, it is possible. For me, we own a farm and a few times a year I drive around the property. Even a stick could damage the factory plastic, where it would just bounce off of this skid plate. Mostly piece of mind for me. Sold to BMG09!
  10. Factory Under Body Shield (Skid Plate) kit # 23176881 for sale. The front two pieces are .157 thickness solid aluminum and the transfer case shield is steel. The front pieces replace the cheap, thin plastic factory parts. It is brand new and was only removed from the box for the pictures below. I know it fits 14 ~ 16 crew cab four wheel drive trucks. Not sure about other models. The kit includes a three piece shield kit, mounting bolts and instructions. $175 plus $20 shipping. Thanks for looking.
  11. I agree with Jon A and Shu. One thing not mentioned is the vent tube and cap. Have the dealer make sure the vent tube is freely venting and the cap is in place and not restricted. If the vent is blocked, it will cause excess pressure to build when the differential heats up and the oil will vent from the weakest point which will most likely be an axle seal. I would lean towards a defect in the axle that is causing premature wear in the seal. Good luck with your repair.
  12. 1994Vmax is right. 5.3 and 6.2 use different diameter pipes. Cat back is not the same. Might have the same mounting points, but different exhaust. The headers are the same but the Y pipe is different. If you do what 1994Vmax said and order the 6.2 Y pipe with your headers and pick up the 6.2L exhaust locally, you will have a higher flowing exhaust which should be a good match for headers. That is what I would do. If you choose to go the other way, yes, the ball connector on the 5.3L is smaller than on the 6.2L. Factory exhaust will not fit unless you have a new connector welded onto your exhaust.
  13. Victory14red, that is a very interesting article and I have read it before. Great information and very relevant to this discussion. Here is something I thought about today to add. I own a 2010 Corvette with bi-mode exhaust. For those not familiar, the bi-mode has four exhaust pipes out the back, two on each muffler. One of the pipes has what looks like a throttle plate inside. When it is open, you have virtually a straight pipe from the engine to the tip of the tailpipe. When it is closed, the exhaust gases are forced to pass through the baffles of the muffler and exit out the other pipe on the muffler. In that series of Corvette, GM rated the HP at 430 with standard mufflers and 436 with bi-mode mufflers. Now this is just a guess, but if the standard exhaust has a comparable (to this discussion) 5 psi of back pressure and the bi-mode has near zero psi back pressure, it is good for six HP on a stock engine. I would have to again guess that if you install add on's like Jon A discussed above which improve volumetric efficiency and create additional air flow through the engine there would be a bigger effect.
  14. Agreed that even with the flapper bolted open, there is still a large piece of metal interrupting the exhaust flow. Another interesting point is the OE 6.2L exhaust. The pipe from Y pipe to muffler is 3 1/2 inch, pinched down to 3 inch right at the muffler inlet, 3 inch coming out of the muffler and through the flapper and then the tailpipe is 3 1/2 inch again to the resonator and then 3 inch from resonator to tip. Why the hell do they feed 3 1/2 inch pipe into a 3 inch muffler? It has to be for sound attenuation because in stock form it sounded like an electric car. Almost no exhaust sound at all. Now with catted AR Headers it has quite a bark through the stock exhaust and it sounds aggressive when accelerating and quiet when cruising. Kind of sounds like a big block with flowmasters. Most of my friends like the sound. I like it but hate the back pressure. Not sure how to make it better and keep it quiet. 07Softail, to answer your question, I purchased the back pressure gauge about 15 years ago from Snap On. It is a 10 lb gauge with an O2 sensor bung and a piece of high temp stainless covered flexible hose. All goes together with 1/8 inch pipe threads. Don't know if you can rent from auto parts store but I doubt it.
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