silentbravo's 2001 GMC Sierra 2500HD

Subd for follow up. Great work man you've got some clever mods going

I wonder if this would work for other NBS...like a 2006. I hate the auto-on function. It's killed one ballast on me already.

Bought a cheap ($20) ebay catch can and will mod the internals to actually work. Just a few pics of the can itself, you've seen them before nothing special.







I will say the tubing smells horrible. I was trying to figure out what smelled so bad downstairs where I had it the stuff laid out, and I knew the tubing smelled bad from the package but didn't realize at first it would stink up a whole room like that. I tossed it outside and the smell left pretty soon after that...

The can itself is fairly heavy duty, took the cap off to see what was going on inside. The bottom lid is glued on with a simple hole tapped in it with a stop. The top lid has the allen bolts around the rim that hold it and the lid actually has a rubber o-ring gasket on it that seals pretty tightly. I'll have more pics when I get around to modding it, so far I have a general shopping list made up but need to go to some stores to browse for some materials.

Catch can is about 80% complete, need to find a pipe tap to rethread the drain hole and get a drain valve for it. Was trying to keep this thing pretty cheap, not really wanting to spend a lot on a pipe tap that I'll only ever use once... so that project is on hold for a bit til I decide where to buy or borrow one.

Got rained out on Sunday when I was going to install speakers so I did them this morning..

Replaced front speakers with Polk DB+ 652 coaxial speakers 6/5/2017
Since I have owned the truck only the passenger speaker/tweeter worked, and driver side only the tweeter worked. I will put matching Polk DB+ 6.5" components in the front later but for now I have bought 6.5" coax speakers which I was going to put in the back doors anyway. I bought these from Crutchfield, they came with a Metra wiring harness that plugged straight into factory wiring so that was nice.

Polk DB+ 652 6.5" coaxial speakers box


Polk DB+ 652 6.5" coaxial speakers unboxed


Metra harness model 72-4568, for connecting from speakers (spade connector) to NBS front door factory speaker wire connector


Speaker close ups



On to the Install
Here is what factory passenger speaker looks like. Has a nifty plastic clip built into the speaker, just pops right in or out in this case.


Driver's door, removed the door panel and the speaker


I disassembled the factory speaker from the plastic ring and the fake mounting holes in the factory ring matched the Polk adapter/holes perfectly so I used it as template and drilled holes



Plugged everything together, ready to mount


Mounted.


If someone were doing this same thing, they should probably orient the adapter plate opposite of what I have. If you notice there are 3 large ears on the plate that stick out, one is vertical and the other 2 are pointing down to left/right. You might want to orient it with the long tab facing toward bottom of door instead. I didn't have any problems with the door panel on the driver's side but I think the passenger side was hanging up on that little ear pointing up. Either that or it just wasn't wanting to play along...

They sound pretty good, maybe a bit weak but that's to be expected as they are severely underpowered from stock HU. Have only listened to scratchy FM radio, which is all I listen to anyway but I may try a CD and see how they really sound. Amp and dynamat (or similar) treatment will hopefully be in the future, there is a long list of mods before that though. At least I will have more than 1 speaker to listen to until then

I replaced one of the rear door checks (need to do the other still) with a Dorman replacement (model 924-145). Not really impressed with the design, and almost tempted to see if I could refurbish the factory ones. I'll have to keep them around and see how these end up. It was actually worse than the factory one when I first installed it, some liberal use of lithium grease got it to work much smoother.

The GM/OEM branded replacements look the same as these, using the same type of mechanism at least so I don't know how much better they may be, if at all.

6/26/2017 Replaced Driver's Side Front Window Sweep/Scraper/Outer Belt (and rust repair).

This ended up quite the job with rust discovery. The driver's side scraper was 90% deteriorated on the outside, and the window would actually rattle when it was down, super annoying. I ordered the wrong Fairchild kit first on ebay, it ended up being the OBS style replacement. Luckily it was a good seller, returned no problem. Then I found the correct replacements which were cheaper anyway. Model is Fairchild KG2089 for the NBS front door outer window scraper/sweep/belt. The inner scraper/sweep/belt is actually built into the molding around the door.

So I figured this would be a nice and easy repair, pop off old, pop on new. I can whip off the door panels in no time now lol

When I finally got the driver's side off I found this.




So... without ever doing rust repair before, I did a little research, found some paint that looked like it would work and went to town.

Used these 2 paints, the Grey one as a primer/base and the White as top coat/finish.


Some of the tools used. Missing from here, is painters tape, some plastic sheet used as masking, various other hand tools


I started off with the air sander, it was taking a long time to take off material, probably spent about 1 and a half hours with it. Ended up with this






The air sander wasn't getting deep enough so I busted out the dremel which I had originally wanted to use but this is such a technical area to sand I didn't start with it. I put a die grinder on the dremel which let me work into the tight spots a lot better and came up with this.





Basically 95% of visible rust was knocked off, I think I went over a few more spots a little more after those pics but it was getting way to hot outside so I had to give up after 3-4 hrs of grinding/sanding.

On to paint, laid a base coat with the Epoxy Rust-Mate, 2-3 light coats of that which dried almost instantly, then let it sit for an hour and put 2-3 coats of the Rust-Oleum Stops Rust Gloss Protective Enamel. These are just what were in the garage.... and looked decent enough lol

Door masked off *


And finished painted product






Everything put back together here


* 2 small bits of grey overspray you can see but the paint has a million chips and missing spots, plus its dirty all the time... those are my excuses. Plus I don't know a safe way to remove it and not hurt the white :lol: There was actually some overspray on the window itself, since I had only covered it about halfway down into the door panel, but that cleaned off easy with mineral spirits. So if you do this, mask the whole window off.


Here is factory passenger side door belt for comparison. The scraper is quite a bit taller on the outside, almost all of that ripped off on my driver's side.


BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE (still reading this?)

Comparison between the factory trim piece and Fairchild KG2089 weather belt. This is driver's side only.





Review:
The Fairchild replacement is a lot lighter piece and has a matte colored plastic texture. The factory piece is definitely bulkier and the outer visible trim is more shiny. So if you are really OCD you will probably want to replace in pairs or all 4 if needed. I tried to take a comparison shot (front/rear doors) that day but it was to dark.

Both installed the same way, it just seems to be a simple clamp fit. I couldn't see any special lip or anything holding on the factory one, but it was really stuck on there, possibly because the rust had bulged out the metal. The replacement fits real snug and seems perfectly fine so far, and no more window rattling.

Now I have to decide if I dare replace the passenger side and discover another rust heaven. So far I'm thinking not since that one is in decent shape still...

Disclaimer: This was my first rust repair, and I'm sure something is wrong with it, but it has to be better than what was in there so go research your own methods I did notice some of the paint was trying to scrape off when installing it, hopefully it didn't take off to much if any paint. That's about my only concern with my job done.

A claybar should take that overspray right off those doors. Idk how much I trust "rust stopping paint" but it looks like you did what you could.

Replaced rear brake pads 7/22/2017

I just used AC DELCO 17D785CH Professional Ceramic pads, OEM. Supposedly these pads last a really long time, and the truck has strong stopping power so I see no reason to upgrade at the moment.

The fluid is nasty and definitely needs to be changed though, that in itself would probably help a lot. Now I'm considering some speed bleeders, to go with the fluid change. Actually going to refocus on changing the rest of the fluids to get a good baseline. Front/Rear diffs, brakes and power steering should be about it, maybe transfer case too.

I do have my catch can ready to be assembled, and installed, whenever I get around to it... Probably the last mod for a while. Then one other maintenance item, broken manifold bolts on driver side need to be fixed.... when it gets cooler out lol.

I can highly recco Russel Speed Bleeders. $12-$16 for each, front and back. I put 3/8" tubing over the whole thing right up to the caliper and it fit tight and made the pedal firm in 5 pumps.

I think I had read about your recommendation/experience with them the other day, which gave me the idea to get some.

Installed Custom Catch Can 8/5/2017

This took a long while to come together :lol: Bought the ebay can back in April, and just got it installed. But it was a mix of waiting for a tool to finish it and accumulating parts for it. This was supposed to be a cheap modded can.. ended up being a bit more than cheap which is partially why it took so long lol.

Here it is, the typical $20 ebay catch can (and included parts) in all its glory.




Here is where it gets interesting....
I based the inside design and mods from another design on this website, http://forum.grrrr8.net/showthread.php?t=38308 They provided a handy template for download that I used.


I cut out the paper template then transferred to card board for a stiffer design to test fit



This will create a baffle between the two ports up top, you can see the cardboard inside


Another "borrowed" design element, Filtrete Basic air cleaning filter. Recommended by BigBlueLB756 on this forum, found in his mega thread which inspired me Cheap Catch Can Option Bought this from Lowes, they started offering free shipping no minimum which is crazy (and awesome).

Needless to say I have a ton extra, only used about 6" x 2" worth of this stuff lol.

Here is where I started deviating from the original baffle mod I was copying. Adding a 2nd oil shield baffle to outgoing side, and also a shelf for 2nd layer of Filtrete filter on top of that.


Here is the rough cut of the new baffle. Some really thin Aluminum got from Home Depot for an exorbitant price as far as I'm concerned.. Wanted thicker aluminum but this actually turned out really nice, could bend it by hand to make adjustments and plenty sturdy.





This is how it went together, and shows the capacity of the can with baffle if I were to let it fill up.






Pics from top with baffle in place




With scrubber added to intake side


Stainless scrubber on intake side, Filtrete on exhaust side



Final Filtrete filter on both sides


On to the mounting bracket, this is thicker aluminum I had on hand.


My bracket in top middle, bottom left is the one that came with it. The right side is the bolt through side of my bracket.


Used some carriage bolts and smashed them into the aluminum plate so they "locked", this will pass through to my bracket as seen below


Looking around for a place to mount, I didn't want the can in the way of anything, found a nifty spot right next to ECM, so this is where it goes.. for now..


Carriage bolt bracket on inside of the ECM cover, covered it with some tape in case it could contact anything in there, but shouldn't.





Painted it up for final install


This part of the build was completed fairly quickly, and then I spent about 3 months waiting and deciding what to do about the drain valve. This can came with a standard bolt in the bottom, which no valve would go into easily, so I wanted to tap it out for NPT. Seems like this must be the only tool my dad doesn't have, a larger sized NPT tap so I was trying to figure out the cheapest way to buy the one I needed since this build was already adding up in the $$ department and didn't necessarily want to be spending a lot on a tool that won't be used much. Ended up getting the cheapo Harbor Freight set, 1/4" through 1/2" NPT taps and used 1/4"

So this is the result of chucking up tap in drill press (to use by hand to keep the hole straight).


Went a bit overkill on the actual valve, was planning to buy a cheaper one on ebay but splurged for the Stainless Steel :roll: to ward off galvanic corrosion, as if that could be a concern for this lol. At any rate if I don't even use this can I should be able to recover the valve for something else...




I sealed the edges of the baffle down the sides with RTV, and also applied some to keep the Filtrete in, as well as all along the top of the baffle so hopefully it ended up air tight to about halfway down the can.



Completed Can!



Install Pics







Secured with some zipties


A bit of wireloom and a ziptie on that back hose so it doesn't rub on the fuel line locks to badly

Synopsis...

I wouldn't build this can again, at least not the same way. A better candidate for a similar mod to this would probably be those square cans with the 2 ports on top. They don't have a hole on the bottom at all and you have more choice to drill and tap your own size. I was forced to go with 1/4" NPT or bigger which is a fine size but it was kind of a one shot deal and aluminum is soft so not super forgiving for errors.

Another downfall of the ebay can is the 2 holes that you use for mounting. They included tiny allen bolts, with about 1/4" of thread on them that thread into the can. I almost lost those bolts a couple times, which was super annoying. I wanted to use some thread locker on them since the road I drive is so bad I may as well be offroading out in the sticks with the way the pavement is on my way to work. I got them tight and marked with sharpie to see if they back out... will have to watch that. The large ports on the top are not using NPT style thread either, just straight threads so you have to use their fittings, which wasn't a problem just don't loose them.

I really like the mounting location but it may not work out. As soon as I had attached it and was pulling it around I noticed that the cover is fairly loose and allowed a lot of movement. Clearly it isn't meant to hang a few pounds of metal off the end of it, so I ended up adding another zip tie to the bottom of the cover which stiffened it up a lot. The actual bracket attachment is on their nicely though. So we'll see how this all works out. I haven't checked it to drain yet, but I do see the viewing pipe is yellowed so oil is going through it to some extent.

Also I was going to use hose clamps, it even came with them but they wouldn't fit on the 3/8" line, and I looked through a pile of clamps and didn't find any suitable so decided to leave it as is. The stock PCV system doesn't have any clamps either so I don't think they are in danger of blowing off. The hose to the barbs on the can are on their really tight, the hose to the other ends were on their tight as well. I have OEM hose in the truck just in case

Embarassing Parts List
Ebay can $19~
Stainless 1/4" NPT valve (ebay) $11.19
Gates 3/8 Fuel Hose, 8ft (only needed 6-7ft $14.33
Filtrete BASIC washable adjustable air filter (lowes) $6.33
Stainless Scotch Brite scrubber ~$2
1' x 1' Stainless 18 GA (I think, maybe 16GA) ~$12
Ultra Black RTV ~$6
Had these items:
Rivets, Scrap aluminum for bracket, Plumbers pipe thread tape, Zip ties...
Bonus item!
Harbor Freight 1/4" to 1/2" NPT pipe tap set, $15

Nifty write-up. Love all the pictures and detail. Very helpful and informative.

What did you use to punch the holes in the SS plate?

Wow, you get a little more involved with the filter, I've got the same can and I just jammed a coupe SS brillow pads in mine and added a tube to the inlet side.
Looks good though.

nealinator said:

Nifty write-up. Love all the pictures and detail. Very helpful and informative.

What did you use to punch the holes in the SS plate?

Click to expand...

SS as in stainless steel? Everything on the can is aluminum even the barbs I think, the only thing stainless is the valve and possibly the rivets. The bolts may be also but very doubtful. I used a drill press for all the holes in the baffle, mix of dremel work and tin snips for cutting the aluminum sheet out, and then a belt sander to sand the baffle pieces that fit the round shape of the can better.

Something like 50 pics for a little ol catch can, and about 2 hours to resize and create the post itself... just think if I do something interesting and document it (I did get a good laugh when I submitted the post, the scroll bar on the right side of the page just started shrinking down into the smallest size.)

Even if that scrubber loses some coils somehow, it shouldn't be able to make it through the can and into the intake, not through the upper oil baffle and the air filter media at least. Should be pretty safe that way.

My bad...AL...not SS...haha

I'm sure that did take some time to do. I use the attachment method and do some cropping and corrections as needed on my pc first. There is a limit of 10 pictures you can attach...which is a little limiting for a large project...but does sort of make you keep things focused which is good for a general update on a project.

Catch Can Update 8/20/17

Well the can seems to be working quite well, about 250 miles caught this.




That's the bottom of a 2 liter bottle, so guessing around 3-6 ounces. Looks mostly like oil, smelled a touch of gas.

Blower Motor Inspection 8/21/17
Also took my heater blower motor out to inspect, and the resistor for the fan control. I noticed the blower on 5 speed was vibrating pretty badly, and then once in the past month the fan speeds were only blowing at like half speed. Electrical gremlins...

The blower resistor looked OK not great though. I can see where it looked like it has heated up a bit and some of the outer layer of PCB was chipping off. These are notorious for burning up due to a poor design. It didn't look dangerous or ready for imminent failure so I put it back in, probably replace it some time. When I got the blower motor out, there was very little dirt built up on it, but what I found causing the vibration, a Penny was sitting inside it. That tiny bit of weight was enough to cause vibration. Installed everything back and good to go now.

Nice find on the penny!

That sure seems like a lot for only 250 miles. I don't think I have seen others collecting that much from what I recall.

It does seem like a lot, but I also suspect this engine isn't in that great of shape, even with its "lower" mileage around 115k. Has nasty piston slap which isn't helping and could probably contribute to this. When I replaced the plugs, driver's side looked pretty black and oily to me, either from PCV dumping in a lot or could be terrible blow by or maybe valve stems shot.

I'm third owner and the guy I bought it from said he thought the first owner abused it some. That was the only comment on that and the rest of the truck is in decent shape, so he could have been referring to engine. Uses around 2qt oil between 5k change.

Just going to have to count on the LS reliability until it decides to go or I rebuild/replace. Cranks right up and runs smooth, great oil pressure, so I don't expect it to die anytime soon. If it was really burning that much oil, it may run even better...

Fixed broken manifold bolts on Driver's side 9/2/2017

This side went so much better than passenger side, I even had 2 to fix and one being the far back "worst" one. I will attribute my success to watching the 1AAuto video here
If you still have the end of bolts sticking out (the bolt head just sheared off) then I suggest to try this method. Takes some time but worked well for me and I didn't have to even remove the manifold from the Y pipe.

Here is the mess of wiring you have to look through on Driver's side with fender well removed


Very front bolt was broken off, plenty of stud remaining to get pliers on.


As in the 1AAuto video, I only removed the remaining bolts from manifold and pried the manifold away from heads to access the broken bolts. Used a piece of wood to keep it pried apart


Strap was used to position the manifolds better, as well as a floor jack under the exhaust for fine tuning.


Here are the MVP's of the day, especially the mini pipe wrench. Some good soaking of PB Blaster probably had a "small" part in this success too


And done! GM Studs with nuts were used for replacement.



The pipe wrench was really useful. With the vice grips I could only get about a 1/8 of a turn per "grip" and clamping that down as tight as possible over and over totaled out my hands for the next couple days. I got the pipe wrench for the 2nd farther back bolt and could get about a 1/4 turn per clamp with it, so it went much better.

I couldn't really see that the exhaust was leaking much from either side, it wasn't apparent on head or the gasket, but there shouldn't be any leaks now.

------

On 9/4/2017 I took on another ambitious project, installing steering wheel radio controls. Took all day, and part of Tuesday morning to get everything buttoned up. It was partially successful.... and I took video for the whole install, but no pictures so I will have to edit that and post later.

The steering wheel controls do work just fine, and I replaced turn signal switch that works great also. The problems are the airbag light is now on, so the clockspring (SRS coil) may be bad and some of the plastic trim around the column is rubbing/squeaking, not quite right. I will probably be taking it all apart to mess with it again. Maybe I'll take pics since it should go much faster and not be concerned with taking video. I already looked up the airbag code, B0022, incorrect resistance for the wiring. I'm hoping I either plugged it in not quite right on the airbag side, or maybe some corrosion I can clean on the connector to fix it. It's strange to me that the radio buttons would work and only the 2 wires to airbag are broken or have an issue. I bought it used so you never know I guess...

Dude! Where did you find steering wheel controls!

silentbravo said:

Catch Can Update 8/20/17

It didn't look dangerous or ready for imminent failure so I put it back in, probably replace it some time. When I got the blower motor out, there was very little dirt built up on it, but what I found causing the vibration, a Penny was sitting inside it. That tiny bit of weight was enough to cause vibration. Installed everything back and good to go now.

Click to expand...

A penny found is a penny earned

I don't remember it vibrating before, so now I'm wondering who used the air vent as a coin slot

aliasbane said:

Dude! Where did you find steering wheel controls!

Click to expand...

Ebay, actually I bought the switches, clockspring and turn signal switch all from the same guy for cheap. This was quite a while ago, and they been sitting in a box... The clockspring is the real "rare" part, since you could only get these on the highest trim Yukon/Tahoe Denali's from around 2001-2002.. Junkyard shopping is about the best way to go to find them, or set up some searches on ebay and wait.

I suppose you could find a new clockspring from one of the GM parts websites, but expect $300+ for that part. They actually sell aftermarket replacement switches pretty cheap though.

Ah so you actually need the different clockspring, cant just get the switches and add them and run the switch wire separate to an aftermarket head unit?

Nope the switch wiring passes through the clockspring. Supposedly these should work with an aftermarket head unit, you have to buy one of those steering wheel control adapters though. PAC makes one I believe.

Catch Can Update 10/5/2017

About 630 miles since I emptied it last. Approximately 6-7 oz if my lines are somewhat accurate. (to help me calculate next cc update i'm 110 miles into new tank of gas from 9/27/2017)


Installed this today to see if that cuts it down. Fixed orifice PCV valve


Since I've been datalogging with my EFILive Flashscan over the summer and whenever I feel like, it seems KR has been a bit higher than it should be. I'm using a custom tune through Black Bear Performance, in discussion with them now on updates to the tune.

While that's happening I decided to try some snake oil in the next few gas tanks, Marvel Mystery Oil.

By their recommended application this should last about 8 tanks. Truck actually seemed to run a little tiny bit smoother since I put it in, but could be placebo or nothing at all lol.

Also got my Steering wheel controls sorted out, ended up totally removing it about 3 times to fix everything. Works great, only problems is for some reason the trim around the column by the ignition cylinder won't snap back together and stay together, and the controls don't work in RAP mode (15 or so minutes after you turn the truck off and still have power to items).

I will do a writeup with pictures and put in How To section. I also have a how to video started, about 75% completed but need to verify a few things with multimeter, which I don't have access to at the moment, and then I'll post that up.

Teaser pic