Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted (edited)

Back in August, we bought a new Pacifica, so now that the Silverado is no longer the long-distance family truckster, I don't feel bad about some slight mods at the expense of fuel mileage.

 

So, on went 1" Motofab leveling blocks this past Tuesday.  I'd noticed the occasional "tink" sound, so decided to replace the sway bar bushings and end links at the same time.  The frame bushings were ovalled, and one of the end links turned out to be sheared when I removed it.  I went with Moog frame bushings for the 24mm sway bar and Duralast gold end links.  I'd also noticed the bottoms of the shocks were rotted, so I replaced the rears with Bilstein 4600s and the fronts with loaded Monroe coilovers (the fronts, having to support the truck weight, were becoming a safety issue, and I didn't feel like dealing with disassembling the coilovers).  Once in there, I noticed my UCA bushings were completely smoked, so I ran up to AZ for duralast gold loaded upper control arms (bushings and ball joint) for both sides.  I made sure to mark the UCA prior to removal so that the alignment could be good enough to get me to the dealer for an alignment (they give me 30% off on alignments).  Despite the clean condition of the rest of the truck, I'm shocked at the condition of the bushings; my mid '80s GMC and Oldsmobile have better original upper bushings!

 

My appointment was yesterday (the immediately following Saturday from the suspension work, and I hadn't planned to drive the truck; Friday afternoon had other plans.  My trusty 185k '08 BMW had a crank-no-start issue trying to leave work, so the wife had to make the daycare run and then pick me up.  While waiting, I reserved a uhaul trailer; once home, I had my brother in law meet me at my house to follow me in my '84 S15 back to the Bimmer, picking up the trailer along the way.  Why two trucks?  I needed the S15 as a pusher to get the Bimmer up onto the trailer.  Dragged it home, then brought the trailer back.  I live 15 miles from work, and I get the trailer a couple miles from work, so there was a lot of back-and-forth.  Once home, I quickly diagnosed a bad fuel pump on the Bimmer; no big deal.  A flat tow would have been over $300, the trailer rental $60.  With the ATF pill flipped, the highest temp recorded on the ATF was 140*, and that was at the beginning of the 15 mile trip with 6000+ lbs of trailer and car, which included several stop signs, lights, and upstate-NY hills.

 

With most of the suspension refreshed, the truck rides muuuchhhh better!  The pogo stick effect over bumps is gone, and the rear judders less over broken pavement.

 

 

 

66121078103__1C85FF70-19D7-4169-812F-A798DAA5CBFC.jpg

66121102726__128148E5-06A6-43D3-B483-EFCF0C65A32C.jpg

IMG_0518.jpg

IMG_0519.jpg

IMG_0520.jpg

IMG_0523.jpg

IMG_0527.jpg

IMG_0528.jpg

IMG_0530.jpg

Edited by 16LT4
  • Like 3
Posted
13 hours ago, 16LT4 said:

Back in August, we bought a new Pacifica, so no that the Silverado is no longer the long-distance family truckster, I don't feel bad about some slight mods at the expense of fuel mileage.

 

So, on went 1" Motofab leveling blocks this past Tuesday.  I'd noticed the occasional "tink" sound, so decided to replace the sway bar bushings and end links at the same time.  The frame bushings were ovalled, and one of the end links turned out to be sheared when I removed it.  I went with Moog frame bushings for the 24mm sway bar and Duralast gold end links.  I'd also noticed the bottoms of the shocks were rotted, so I replaced the rears with Bilstein 4600s and the fronts with loaded Monroe coilovers (the fronts, having to support the truck weight, were becoming a safety issue, and I didn't feel like dealing with disassembling the coilvers).  Once in there, I noticed my UCA bushings were completely smoked, so I ran up to AZ for duralast gold loaded upper control arms (bushings and ball joint) for both sides.  I made sure to mark the UCA prior to removal so that the alignment could be good enough to get me to the dealer for an alignment (they give me 30% off on alignments).  Despite the clean condition of the rest of the truck, I'm shocked at the condition of the bushings; my mid '80s GMC and Oldsmobile have better original upper bushings!

 

My appointment was yesterday (the immediately following Satruday from the suspension work, and I hadn't planned to drive the truck; Friday afternoon had other plans.  My trusty 185k '08 BMW had a crank-no-start issue trying to leave work, so the wife had to make the daycare run and then pick me up.  While waiting, I reserved a uhaul trailer; once home, I had my brother in law meet me at my house to follow me in my '84 S15 back to the Bimmer, picking up the trailer along the way.  Why two trucks?  I needed the S15 as a pusher to get the Bimmer up onto the trailer.  Dragged it home, then brought the trailer back.  I live 15 miles from work, and I get the trailer a couple miles from work, so there was a lot of back-and-forth.  Once home, I quickly diagnosed a bad fuel pump on the Bimmer; no big deal.  A flat tow would have been over $300, the trailer rental $60.  With the ATF pill flipped, the highest temp recorded on the ATF was 140*, and that was at the beginning of the 15 mile trip with 6000+ lbs of trailer and car, which included several stop signs, lights, and upstate-NY hills.

 

With most of the suspension refreshed, the truck rides muuuchhhh better!  The pogo stick effect over bumps is gone, and the rear judders less over broken pavement.

 

 

 

66121078103__1C85FF70-19D7-4169-812F-A798DAA5CBFC.jpg

66121102726__128148E5-06A6-43D3-B483-EFCF0C65A32C.jpg

IMG_0518.jpg

IMG_0519.jpg

IMG_0520.jpg

IMG_0523.jpg

IMG_0527.jpg

IMG_0528.jpg

IMG_0530.jpg

 

Salt in the air cause the corrosion? 

Posted (edited)
34 minutes ago, M1ck3y said:

 

Salt in the air cause the corrosion? 

Yes, it will. Have 2 vacation rentals on the Washington coast (Long Beach Peninsula), it is amazing what anything metal looks like in less than 5 years. You don't notice it, air just smells so much cleaner than it does in the Seattle area, but when you start looking at light fixtures, faucet bibs, and so on, it dawns on you real fast. I have to change the screws on our license plates once a year (it just bugs me, nothing wrong with them) because they rust so fast.

Edited by JimCost2014
  • Like 2
Posted

got a package, hopefully i can get them on before another week of stormy weather hits again

ss3.jpg

  • Like 3
Posted
10 hours ago, M1ck3y said:

 

Salt in the air cause the corrosion? 

Certainly will, but my other vehicles live in the same environment as the truck and don't exhibit the same corrosion.  The truck's frame and underside are virtually spotless (still full coverage of the factory undercoating, and most fasteners are not corroded), which is why the condition of only the UCA bushings being so horrible was surprising; only those bushings show such intensive corrosion.  The truck seldom gets driven in the snow/salt and lives most of its life away from the coast, unlike the other vehicles.

Posted
6 minutes ago, 16LT4 said:

Certainly will, but my other vehicles live in the same environment as the truck and don't exhibit the same corrosion.  The truck's frame and underside are virtually spotless (still full coverage of the factory undercoating, and most fasteners are not corroded), which is why the condition of only the UCA bushings being so horrible was surprising; only those bushings show such intensive corrosion.  The truck seldom gets driven in the snow/salt and lives most of its life away from the coast, unlike the other vehicles.

 

Thanks guys, I wasn't questioning it. I just wanted to confirm that's what caused it. 

 

I thought I had it bad living in the salt belt 🙄

Posted
8 hours ago, doubeleive said:

got a package, hopefully i can get them on before another week of stormy weather hits again

ss3.jpg

 

Looking forward to seeing the output! Don't forget to aim them 😆

IMG_5598.JPG

  • Like 2
Posted (edited)

I know a few of us are watching the topic of dash backlights being out (particularly in the hvac controls block) in this thread.  to update you guys, i have ordered a bunch of LEDs that get here tomorrow and i'll try replacing the ones that are out (or all of them if there is a color mismatch with the new leds and the oem.)

 

in the meantime i did some google searching and found a profile on here (and i hope he doesn't mind me linking his build thread here,) but bc-chris has a how-to on pulling apart most of the panels in the cabin that have the tiny LEDs in them when he changed the color of his by putting a gel over them. but the disassembly descriptions he gives are awesome!  (so thanks Chris!) the one for the hvac controls is about halfway down page 4 in the below link.

 

 

Edited by slide187
  • Like 2
Posted
5 hours ago, boettcher40 said:

 

Looking forward to seeing the output! Don't forget to aim them 😆

IMG_5598.JPG

Ya I tend to aim mine a "smidge" high but not much really depends on the light output pattern I don't purposely try to blind people

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

Bought myself a Christmas present. Morimoto XB LED tail lights,
More pics to come at night time... probably tomorrow as I'm having dinner on Christmas with a retired IBM CEO - I'm so going to geek out! :)

IMG_0612.jpg

IMG_0611.jpg

IMG_0610.jpg

Edited by MikeBMW
  • Like 6
Posted
1 minute ago, MikeBMW said:

Bought myself a Christmas present. Morimoto XB LED tail lights,
More pics to come at night time... probably tomorrow as I'm having dinner with a retired IBM CEO - I'm so going to geek out! :)

IMG_0612.jpg

IMG_0611.jpg

IMG_0610.jpg

Merry Christmas!!!

 

Very nice, those look Great!!! You have good taste in picking out gifts for yourself😁

  • Thanks 1
Posted
2 minutes ago, JimCost2014 said:

Merry Christmas!!!

 

Very nice, those look Great!!! You have good taste in picking out gifts for yourself😁

Thanks, Jim! Merry Christmas to you and all of our great contributors!
This site has brought me a wealth of knowledge and cost me thousands as I find new ideas from awesome people sharing their incredible mods!  :D

  • Thanks 1
Posted

Not really a "mod", but a huge improvement.

 

Started getting the TC shudder, after 44000 miles. Took it in for the TSB, that flushes, and then replaces the transmission fluid with the new Mobil 1 Blue Label. It is going through the relearn now but feels like a new truck!

  • Like 7

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

  • Latest Articles

  • Posts

    • Can it still be Assembled I?    Stribeck says that we need a certain amount of viscosity under conditions of load and velocity to prevent two surfaces of a know roughness from tearing each other asunder. And we have marketing trying to tell the masses that those two surfaced require less of that commodity due to more exact limits being placed on the same old clearances. We also know that there are limits to how hard something can before it becomes to brittle to be viable and to smooth to 'wet' the surface and that both of those conditions have been known and met since about the Second World War.    That viscosity value shook out at 10 centistokes at 212 F just under a hundred years ago.  Give this a look: [Anton Parr]     What is advertised is the Kinematic viscosity (mm2/s) or that which has been density adjusted but the value we are after is the dynamic viscosity (mPa.s) or true viscosity. You can see that this number is dependent on density thus base stock and temperature. You can also see that an SAE 30 doesn't reach that value in this example. However an SAE 30 that is at the upper end of the SAE 30 range; 12.5 cSt (mm2/s), might. 12.5 * .83 = 10.375 (mm2/s). If you could find an SAE 30 at the upper end these days.   Then there is the complication of viscosity modifiers or VII or VM, whatever you wish to call them. Polymers added to very thin base oils, perhaps 3 to 6 cP oils, that will meet the SAE *W30 spec at 'tested' shear rates and 100 C/212F  target temperature. So a polymer fortified base that is a fraction of the 10 cP requirement Stribeck insist upon.   This could be all well and good if those polymers didn't have two very problematic 'features'. They shear or loose viscosity both 1.) permanently and 2.) temporality. And they do both omitted in the advertised data with the distinct  purpose of deceiving the consumer of the actual operating state of the fluid. I've shown the example of Warren Oils COSTCO 10.91 cSt 5W30 formuation several times where the 100 C HTHS value is 6.9 cP!! That's the temporary shear down and with and SSI or shear stability index of 9.4 cSt. Note the intentional deception in using mixed units?    After a short while that 9.4 cSt oil has a viscosity corrected dynamic value of 7.8 cP. But as the SSI is still within the range of an SAE *W30 whose lower value is 9.3 cSt.    This allows them to continue to call this SAE 16 weight oil a 30 weight, the cake, and still meet the API requirements for fuel efficiency IMPROVEMENT mandated by the EPA. The eating of the cake. By the time you've worn out your motor doing the responsible thing by adhering to the warranty requirements, (the stick), you get deprived of the carrot, wear control. So sad, to bad.   So what can be done? Do I need actually say? [Anton Parr]       Even this must be monitored if the oil is on the low side and the VII an organic or you opt for a 0W40 with an even lighter base oil and more / higher MW VII. (Note the lower density of the 40 weight versus the SAE 30 mono-weight?)    There is another workaround. Temperature. An SAE *W30 run at a bulk temperature of between 180 and 195 F.    Being the belt and suspenders sort I am I do both. Run it cook and run it heavy.    In Part II I'll work the AW package. 
    • So, do I go elbow-deep on this thing or list it for sale and play dumb? Seems to "runs good."   I'm about $1200 away from having: -a rebuilt injector ($300) -a new cat ($250) -a new cat back exhaust (OE style) ($300) -a new AC compressor ($200) -AC refrigerant charge ($150)   In theory, this should rectify the obvious detracting issues from its value and operability. Cold AC with a non-squeaking AC pulley both sounds and feels good. An exhaust that isn't cut/hacked in 17 different places and doesn't vibrate on a crossmember would make it sound and feel less janky. A working cat would help the stink, and will save the earth, but *if and only if* the fuel system is working properly, which would also address the intermittent "rich" CEL.   Heard a good one... CEL for "Rich condition" means you haven't spent enough money on the truck lately, and it's letting you know.   Rebuilding the injector would seem to be the most important part. Replacing the cat would be secondary. I don't think mine is plugged or overly restricted, but it might be a little restricted? I have no good way to tell other than seat of the pants feel. I hate the smell.   The current theory is I have a rich idle problem: A bad fuel pressure regulator, or a leaking injector(s) being the highest probabilities. I already replaced the FPR but that doesn't mean its replacement isn't also bad. It was a new part from Dorman, but the packaging looked like it had been sitting on a shelf for 20 years.   This is the (single) upstream O2 sensor shown at idle. I'm getting a lot of "rich" it seems. Sometimes it stays high like that and doesn't drop down. That makes me think it's processing injector leaks or a partially stuck open injector.     Other times it looks like this. Nice oscillations between rich and lean, which is what I think it should be. Under load and at speed, the oscillations are nice and tight and uniform looking, high and low.     Fuel trims suggest the PCM is compensating pretty hard at idle to pull fuel out. But it's not enough to trip a CEL. Something about slowing to a stop: brake vaccum booster, EGR, or the EVAP purge is delayed, or there's pooled fuel in the intake again that's draining into a cylinder is enough to set the CEL. Of course, in two days of driving, it hasn't set. I was hoping to actually look at the freeze-frame data when it sets. IAT is high because it's idling on an 83 degree day here.  
    • Have considered installing a DC to DC charger in your camper to replace your isolator?  
    • Common failure.  You need to replace the fuel door housing.   The painted cover transfers over to the new housing.  To remove the old one there is 4 spots where you poke the plastic to release it.  
    • No such thing as regenerative braking on a pure ICE vehicle.     Regenerative braking is the re-capture of energy from electric motors and stores it in the battery pack.  So hybrids, PHEV and EVs have regenerative braking.     What you are seeing is the charging system changing modes is all.  Its likely entering charge mode for some sort of reason is all.  All of the charging modes will be listed below.   As for L10 vs D.  L10 turns off automatic grade braking.  L10 puts you in control of grade downshifts where in D it will automatically do it based on brake pedal position and other factors.  Otherwise L10 and D drive exactly the same aside from that one aspect.    Battery Sulfation Mode The BCM will enter this mode when the interpreted Generator output voltage is less than 13.2 V for 45 minutes. When this condition exists the BCM will enter Charge Mode for 2–3 minutes. The BCM will then determine which mode to enter depending on voltage requirements.   Charge Mode The BCM will enter Charge Mode when ever one of the following conditions are met:   Windshield wipers are ON for more than 3 s. Climate Control Voltage Boost Mode Request is true, as sensed by the HVAC control module via serial data. High speed cooling fan, rear defogger, and HVAC high speed blower operation can cause the BCM to enter the Charge Mode. The estimated battery temperature is less than 0°C (32°F). Battery State of Charge is less than 80%. Vehicle speed is greater than 145 km/h (90 mph) A current sensor malfunction exists. System voltage is determined to be below 12.56 V When any one of these conditions is met, the system will set targeted generator output voltage to a charging voltage between 13.9–15.5 V, depending on the battery state of charge and estimated battery temperature.   Fuel Economy Mode The BCM will enter Fuel Economy Mode when the estimated battery temperature is at least 0°C (32°F) but less than or equal to 80°C (176°F), the calculated battery current is less than 15 A and greater than −8 A, and the battery state-of-charge is greater than or equal to 80%. Its targeted generator output voltage is the open circuit voltage of the battery and can be between 12.5–13.1 V. When fuel economy mode is active, the generator is not charging, only maintaining open circuit battery voltage. The BCM will exit this mode and enter Charge Mode when any of the conditions described above are present.   Headlamp Mode The BCM will enter Headlamp Mode when ever the head lamps are ON (high or low beams). Voltage will be regulated between 13.9–14.5 V.   Start Up Mode When the engine is started the BCM sets a targeted generator output voltage of 14.5 V for 30 s.   Tow/Haul Mode (if applicable) Pressing the Tow/Haul Mode button located on the center stack, the vehicle system voltage is raised and the remote (non-vehicle) battery will be charged. Having the headlamps on will raise the system voltage and if the Tow/Haul button is applied it will not serve any purpose. The voltage is regulated between 13.9-14.5 V.      
  • GM-Trucks.com Clubs

  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...