[nealinator]

I count like 5 old chevys in that last picture!

 

[silentbravo]

Pretty close to half of them on the property that you can see haha. I have 2 GMC's up on the hill, then my 1940 Chevy up behind the boat, and my dad's 01 truck to the left.... also my mom's 01 Tahoe not in the shot which is usually where I am standing. We are GM rich... or old iron rich maybe....

 

[silentbravo]

I promise I don't have an addiction to white NBS Truck/SUV's... even though I just brought this one home.

267k miles, super bad exhaust leak, starter works most of the time. Cheap. Full SLT interior though, leather, BOSE, auto climate. Everything seems to work pretty good inside, few minor things that I noticed didn't work but nothing serious. Decent oil pressure. Engine seems pretty strong, transmission shifts a little funky but seems to work OK, it would probably be daily worthy.

So... this one I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing with yet. It's definitely worth its weight in parts, could clean it up a little, fix exhaust and just drive it. I'm kind of thinking to pull the engine and use for supercharger mockup and/or rebuild for something else. This summer is going to be a busy one...

 

[silentbravo]

Received cleaned and inspected Injectors 2/21/23

I sent out 16 injectors to Eric Derr. 8 of the injectors from the TBSS intake, and the 8 injectors from my LSA supercharger just to get them all checked out.

Here is what he does:

Check injectors as delivered
Dynamic flow rate
Static flow rate
Check pattern
Check for leaks
Clean injectors
Redo all previous tests
Check coil resistance
Replace all o rings filters and such
Record all results in report
All injectors will be numbered 1-x
Package everything very nicely

Eric was very nice to work with, gets $12.50 per injector + $10 return shipping (prices as of 1/25/2023). Here is all his information. Call or email him for fast response.

Eric Derr
Derr Injector Service
2220 Windrow Court
Bowling Green, KY 42104

Phone: 502 381 4678
Email: derrmain@twc.com

Here is what I got back from him.

TBSS Injectors model 12594512

LSA Injectors model 280158187

So both sets turned out to be just fine, very good actually. To me it was well worth it for peace of mind and to eliminate them as a problem from future tuning/troubleshooting.

 

[silentbravo]

Heater Core Quick Disconnect "attempted" fix 2/25/23

OK I bought the Dorman 800-409HP Coolant Connector, which looks pretty robust. Stainless steel, I don't see any issue with it and actually seems like it is better than the OEM plastic connector.

Since I had one of these fittings fail on me before, probably the OEM plastic one, I decided I might as well replace the other one with the new Dorman part. I took off the one part and replaced with the Dorman and put it back together with the original hose clamp, and it leaked at the hose. The hose clamp is one of the self tightening style and probably to weak so it couldn't clamp hard enough to keep fluid from pushing around the barb.

For this to work I think I would have to replace the hose and clamp, or maybe just a stronger clamp but the hose is probably due for changing anyhow... I ended up just putting the plastic one back on as it seemed fine, not brittle at all and it didn't leak. Some day when I pull this engine for replacement or rebuild I will just replace all the hoses and deal with it then.

The "temporary" fix from when my last connector failed, which is to just push the heater hose over the heater core barb itself, is working just fine. The hose looks a little bit split at the end, since technically it's to small for the heater core barb but I doubt it will fail.

 

[silentbravo]

Dodge Ram steering gear box mockup and testing

My steering gear has been leaking for quite a while and I have been researching replacements since last year... I had found a thread on one of the Duramax or diesel forums for 2500HD trucks like mine and sometime around 2020 or 21 there was a new steering gear box available which was pretty much identical to the PSC replacement box. The PSC box looks like a beast, and they charge for it to.. about $900. SG039 - XD-GM Steering Gear Box for 1999-2010 GM 2500/3500 4X4 So there was a replica of this box, either Chinese knock off or clone for about $300 at the lowest it was available. A few people managed to get them, then Covid hit and production got screwed up and they disappeared for a while. It was rumored on that thread that the box was some type of Dodge Ram design so I started looking for a used dodge box to test fit on my truck. I took a chance for about $140 to be a guinea pig and came up with this beast.

This thing must weigh close to 40 lbs, it is the upgraded heavy duty steering gear box available on 2500/3500 Dodge Ram trucks, even up to 2020+ they are using this design.

I have a suburban frame that I used to mock it up on (same 3 bolt pattern as my truck)

First problem, 2 bolt holes lined up ok but 1 was about half a hole off.

Second problem, (ultimate deal breaker problem), The splined shaft for pitman arm is massive and there is no aftermarket arm that I could find to work with GM, even though it does line up in basically the same position as factory steering gear. Also it is a 4 spline shaft.

Third problem, the intermediate shaft hole is slightly to small, I had to die grind it out a bit to fit, but it does fit and secures with the factory clamp bolt

Fourth problem, the feed or return line on the box itself is larger than factory hoses, although I did find a replacement Mopar hose that could be modified to work.

So the pitman arm pretty much stopped me from messing with this box any further. At first I thought the aftermarket 4 spline pitman arms would work on it, then researching further, all the 4 spline arms are the same size as the stock box, just differently splined. I would have to build a custom pitman arm which I am not interested in doing since this has to do with steering.... If I could have got a pitman arm, I would have just filled that off center mounting hole and redrilled it correctly to my pattern and had a basically indestructible looking box for "cheap".

I started looking again for steering boxes and found the original box was available again through Cardone for close to $500, model Cardone 97-7621GB. So I started deal hunting for the Cardone box and then came across the China unbranded/knockoff on ebay for $280 and scooped that up. Even if I went for a rebuilt Redhead or Blue top box it would be around $400, so I took a chance again because this looks exactly like that $900 PSC box which looks quite beefy.

I took tons of comparison pictures but will just show a few here.

Here is the new China box, 6 bolt top. Compare it to the PSC box, they look exactly the same.

Here is a comparison of the 2 boxes, China 6 bolt steering gear box on left, Dodge 6 bolt on right. The Dodge box is larger in almost every dimension.

Dodge 6 bolt steering gear box on left, China 6 bolt on right here.

If you are building a custom rock crawler or something, you probably should source this Dodge box as it is incredibly stout.

 

[silentbravo]

Cleaned Starting battery top 3/18/2023
Rinsed the top with baking soda and water, got a lot of acid corrosion off the top post terminal and on the top of the battery.

Flushed power steering fluid 3/18/2023
I installed a Magnefine filter to start "cleaning" my power steering fluid before I installed the new gear box. I also drained and refilled with Lucas Power Steering fluid.

I just put the filter in line from the stock return hose to a bit of 3/8" line to the nipple on the hydroboost. For the actual flush I disconnected the stock line and added the clear hose to the filter, down to the drain pan.

I put 3 qts of new fluid through it and it started becoming pretty clear at that point. You can see in the drain pan it was really amber colored, and this is even after I have been adding fluid to it over the months. I put over 1 qt of fluid into it over the past year or however long it has been leaking.

Flushing the fluid makes a big difference on braking feel for hydroboost trucks, my brake pedal is a lot more firm after flush and they feel stronger. Definitely recommend to flush it yearly or every other year for sure. It's so easy and costs little to do it.

Installed New Steering Gear Box 3/19/2023

Here you can see all the oil at the steering shaft end of the steering gear. It had a pretty good leak from here... leaving spots everywhere I went.

Some comparison pictures of the new 6 bolt steering gear box and the OEM probably original 4 bolt box

They are similar in size but some of the internals are definitely larger in the 6 bolt box, like the splined shaft and probably the bearings that hold that shaft are likely much larger.

Finished Install

Install went pretty good, just some fiddling with getting the pitman arm off and back on again took some time. It's also really tight and awkward to get to the line nuts on the hoses to the gear box. This box has a 3 splined shaft which matched my Kryptonite pitman arm (and is the more common spline count) so that was nice. The PSC box is a 4 spline shaft and you have to buy a 4 spline pitman arm which if I wanted to stay heavy duty was going to be at least $150.

I did have to take a die grinder to my intermediate shaft and clearance it a little bit for the shaft to slip onto the new gear box input shaft. This was mentioned on the forum I had read previously by someone who installed one of these boxes. Now I wish I would have remembered that while installing, as I could have pulled the shaft and test fit it on the bench, but instead had the whole box installed and had to pull the shaft and test fit it while installed to the frame. I didn't have to remove a lot of material, so it should be fine.

Also this steering gear box came with 3 thick washers that spaced it out from the frame, so whatever, I put them on.

As far as how it works? LIKE A DREAM BABY! When you see people saying after they replaced their box, that it only takes 1 finger to steer, they aren't joking. The wheel is so easy to move now and 0 dead zone. I can't quite tell but it may have a very slightly quicker ratio than the old box. Steering has definitely never been this easy or precise on my truck. This was pretty much the last piece of steering parts to fix/upgrade and the whole front end should be very tough for a long time unless this steering box craps out because it is a Chinese clone or whatever. For now it is really good though. Definitely glad to not be leaking anymore either. Leaking oil is one thing, but leaking power steering fluid was annoying.

 

[shakenfake]

I need to replace my steering box on the 99. It has a nice dead zone and is so loosey goosey.

Good writeup.

 

[nealinator]

Nice! So rewarding to do a bunch of work and have an outcome like that. Looks like a good bit of leaking on the front cover of the engine there. And has been for a while.

 

[silentbravo]

Engine and front of trans are drenched in oil, I'm suspecting valve cover gaskets and have some to replace, should get to it this summer. If it's to involving like rear main seal it's just going to have to wait til the engine comes out for forged rebuild

 

[silentbravo]

Well it's sort of related to my truck, but I fixed the exhaust leak in that Tahoe I bought so it is pretty quiet now. $18 gasket for under the exhaust manifold, good to go. So now I intend to start driving the Tahoe for my commuter and if it seems to be reliable then I can really start pulling things apart on my truck and it can be "down" for a while.

The activities that need to happen under the bed are growing... will need to do a lot of exhaust work under it but hopefully I can wait til we get our lift put up for that. I do need to get to the gas tank though and mockup my new fuel pump assembly to see if it will work. That's kind of the main thing that has to happen before any other performance mods.

Now I'm thinking I might want to paint or coat my frame somehow, especially if I get the bed off... that will be later in the summer for sure though and probably better with the lift as well.

Hopefully the brake/fuel lines are in good shape, I really don't want to mess with those.

 

[nealinator]

With a lift and the bed off, the brake and fuel lines should be much easier. My life’s goal is to someday have one myself! Haha

 

[silentbravo]

Finished updating to stainless brake lines and full brake fluid flush 6/3/2023

I started this job like 2+ years ago I think. I installed the front stainless brake lines with new calipers and pads all around at that time, but I never finished flushing and installing the rear set of stainless lines.

Here's the rest of the package and about 2 quarts worth of Prestone Dot 3 Synthetic brake fluid which was not enough for a complete all around flush.

My reservoir was super nasty, all black, the fluid was black and the sides were coated in scum. I thought I had watched a video where someone removed one of these and cleaned it but couldn't find that. So I took a chance and removed mine, not sure if it would cause some issues with the hydroboost, but a small amount of fluid was left on top of the hydroboost master cylinder when I removed this, so no air could really enter from there.

Here it is pulled out and also what I drained from it that I couldn't suck out with a syringe.

Here it is after I cleaned it best I could. I put some dish soap and water in and shook it for a while to start, then rinsed it out. After that I used most of a can of brakleen to blast out some of it. Let it dry thoroughly before reinstalling.

Here are the final lines installed. Caliper to hard lines on both sides of rear. There is also a frame to center section line that feeds both sides. 3 lines in total.

I put Russell Speed bleeders on all 4 corners so bleeding was super simple. The only issue I had with install was overtightening the banjo bolts. The Haynes/Chilton book says they are 33 ft lbs spec and so does a quick google search. There is no way these hollow bolts will take that spec. I got to about 22 or 24 ft lbs on my torque wrench and I could feel them getting looser... which means stripping out or stretching bolts.

I ended up buying 2 new GM banjo's and replacing them both. Here are the new bolts.

Here is one of the bolts I overtightened. You can see the threads were flattening/stripping.

So after I had messed up both of them initially I remembered this happening the first time I changed the lines on the front. Of course I didn't think of that this time since it was about 3 years ago... I made some notes in my maintenance document about this so hopefully next time I will catch it....

Brakes feel good, pedal seems even a bit harder than before but I never really had complaints about brakes on this truck. The only complaints I have is that the brake pedal squeaks and that the sensor for the brake lights comes on instantly when I push down the pedal, but I really have to push down about an inch or so before I am actually applying brake force. So If I am pushing the brake pedal just a little bit, in anticipation of coming to a stop or whatever, even just to keep close to the actual effective part of the pedal, my brake lights will be on and I'm not really using them. Some people following me down the hill probably think I am smoking the brakes most of the way down when I am barely using them actually.

Now I also tried some panic stops, like full slamming the brakes and on dry pavement it will actually kick on the ABS and screech the tires a bit coming to a quick stop. I don't remember that ever happening before so possibly they are working stronger now.

I ended up using 9 of those little bottles for the full flush (emptying reservoir completely) plus having to rebleed them for changing the banjo bolts again.

 

[davester3500]

Good job. When I replaced my brake lines, the MC was similarly filled with crude, I just replaced the MC rather than messing around trying to clean it, as I couldn't find a kit for rebuilding the MC myself.

I also happened to have used Russell lines, but IMHO, they are a cheap product. Front lines didn't have brackets in the middle to keep them from rubbing, rear lines didn't have the ends formed like the oem lines and weren't the right length (one was slightly short, but I could make it work, the other was too long and the tire rubbed through it in less than a month. I've since removed all of them except for the jounce line (frame to rear axle).

 

[silentbravo]

I don't think any of them are rubbing on mine, and for my fronts I re-used the factory brackets that bolt to the knuckle (that was very tedious to bend those brackets on/off). So far they haven't worn through, but they do chafe a little bit on those brackets. Doesn't seem to be enough to matter yet, I look at the brake stuff at least once a year when I swap summer/winter tires and haven't really noticed anything rubbing through on the lines.

I was hoping the reservoir would have cleaned out a bit better but the front has some dividers in it that you can't really hit with a nozzle or brush, so that stuff must be stuck pretty good.

 

[davester3500]

I did the same thing w the fronts (reusing the brackets, w some tape on the hose to cut down on chafing). It just came across as being a pennies-cheap product, including aluminum washers instead of copper, not bending the fittings like the oem ones. Even much cheaper Dorman lines had fittings formed like the oem ones (and brackets, and copper washers)...

 

[silentbravo]

Upgraded motor mounts to AFP poly mounts 7/4/2023

In preparation for full exhaust rebuild, I wanted to make sure my engine mounts were in good shape and engine in the correct position for when I build the exhaust. I bought the Atomic Fabrication and Performance poly motor mounts to replace mine. My factory mounts were just fine, saving them for future use. Hoping these will last a long time and stand up to abuse of supercharged power.

Link to AFP mounts, 99-06 GMT800 Poly Motor Mounts - Atomic Fabrication

Here they are, I painted them Chevy Orange for the first "bling" under the hood haha

Can't see much of them installed

So I think next on the list will be deciding on some traction bars or traction bar, since that could interfere with exhaust routing it will need to be decided or done beforehand also.

I don't particularly like the looks of the bars that come off the axle perch and run along up to the frame, they just hang down so much and also kind of a dead giveaway that your truck probably has some power behind it.

I'm more liking the single bar that attaches to the axle tube and leverages it from a more central point, while also tucking up into the frame. That seems like the most stealth and off road capable solution to me. The major con is that it uses up valuable space for exhaust tubing and mufflers under the bed area.

Here is an example of the traction bar I am talking about. (photo from Ruff Stuff Specialties Heavy Duty Antiwrap/Traction Bar Kit)

I won't be messing around with that until we get our 4 post lift setup, I'm really not interested in rolling in the dirt anymore.

So instead I am working on like 5 other projects for the truck.... full audio revamp, ordered an amp, head unit will be ordered soon, hoping to strip the whole cab, sound treat, run wiring, replace speakers, etc.

Have 2 gauges to install in my custom A pillar pod which will go down when interior gets stripped.

Still have mockup to do for fuel system replacement, when that is ready and installed then I can slap on the TBSS intake.

SO MANY THINGS SO LITTLE TIME

 

[Quinc]

Tons of great info in this thread!

 

[silentbravo]

Towed another junker home last Saturday.

$500 for this "beauty". Supposedly 200k on it, engine seemed to run decent for the couple minutes I got it going. I'm pulling engine, all electrical, few misc things and seats. Sending most of this one to the scrapyard... maybe. I might convert it to a bed trailer and sell that separately, but the cab is definitely junk.

The engine I plan to throw on a stand and use it for supercharger mockup. I need to figure out the serpentine belt system, it would be nice to have that all done so when it's time to do the swap I can literally just bolt everything on and get a retune.

I really should try some lower tire pressure, this thing is bone jarring at higher PSI. I think I did 65 psi front and 70 or 75 psi rear. Total trailer and truck weight should have been mid 9000 lbs, basically max legal capacity of my truck.

Towing Story
It was a warm day, low to mid 90's all day. My A/C gave up about halfway on the trip to get it, which wasn't much of a load for the truck and highway driving. It was only 40 miles away but fairly grueling for a towing heavy day.

Truck did good on the way there empty, even up the one major hill, probably 4 miles uphill, a pretty good grade. On the way home, ended up putting it in first gear and kept it fairly slow down the grade, tried to keep braking to a minimum.

I got back into town and there is 2 ways to my house, one 6 miles and one about 10 miles. The 6 mile trip is straight up the mountain, about 3-4 miles of a pretty steep grade, maybe between 5-8% with really only one small breather about a 1/4 mile long which doesn't help much. This is south facing hill so it bakes in the sun, temp was about 92F or so by the mirror thermometer in the truck. I took this road home, as I wanted to see how the truck would do. I've never pulled a load that heavy up that hill before in my truck, and not in warm temps either so this was basically the maximum stress test.

So the short story is that it made it slowly and didn't overheat, barely.

The longer story is that I saw the hottest temps ever since I've owned the truck. I wish I would have datalogged that but by the gauges, transmission peaked around 220-240F, engine must have been somewhere around 240-250F because the "Check Coolant Temp" warning came up on the cluster. That's one step away from the "Engine Overheated" warning which must be somewhere around 260F and 2 steps away from the "Reduced Engine Power" which is basically a partial shutdown of the engine. I had the truck WOT (wide open throttle) basically from the start of the hill to the top, just one or 2 small breaks that I backed off. It would only do about 30 MPH at 3k RPM in first gear. That's all she got for this load, hill and temps outside. I have a thermometer under the hood and I saw highest temp of 178F on that one, which I had previously never saw it go above about 150F on the hottest days while traveling empty.

So it's good to know the limits, and I will try not to attempt that again with similar conditions unless I have made some powertrain changes. The good thing about that hill climb is at "the top" about 4.5 miles up it has a slight downhill and gets into the shady part of the mountain, it's almost an instant 5+ degrees drop in ambient temperature just cresting that hill and pretty much stays cooler for the rest of the mile or so to my house. Once I got to the flatter terrain there it cooled off to decent levels pretty quickly. Engine was back down to safe temps by the time I got home, trans was still 200+ and not coming down very fast but after I had the truck running for a few minutes at home while getting the trailer ready to unload, everything cooled down to normal levels.

Other comments
My flushed brake system is really nice, great stopping power. Now my steering, you really have to pay attention, it's super tight and responsive. At highway speeds it moves so easily, can't be drifting the wheel at all or daydreaming. One other thing I noticed with the new steering gear box is that my steering wheel is about 15 degrees off center now, probably should take it in for alignment at some point but it doesn't bother me much yet.

So I need to figure out what's up with A/C now.... maybe see about cleaning the radiator/condenser.

Got my amp from crutchfield, ordered some other audio goodies... I guess this thing is getting fully torn down and sound treated now lol. Prime Days got me! <shakes fist at Amazon>

 

[4silverado]

My AC had just gone out and I’d been putting it off. When I got into it, found the AC belt tensioner pulley had locked up and shredded the belt. I couldn’t turn the pulley. When I removed the pulley, 3 balls fell out. New belt, pulley, can of oil, and 2 1/2 cans of Freon and it’s blowing ice cold again.