[nealinator]

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.

 

[silentbravo]

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.

 

[nealinator]

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.

 

[silentbravo]

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...

 

[silentbravo]

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...

 

[aliasbane]

Dude! Where did you find steering wheel controls!

 

[Jasen]

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.

A penny found is a penny earned

 

[silentbravo]

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

Dude! Where did you find steering wheel controls!

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.

 

[aliasbane]

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?

 

[silentbravo]

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.

 

[silentbravo]

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

 

[Tinbender59]

Nice work so far sir

P.S. I have an LQ4 setting on a cart needing a new home??

 

[silentbravo]

LQ4 is worth some $$, you could sell it or save for a swap.

Next on the to-do list for me, change fuel filter and test fuel pressure. Justin at BBP says most likely issue right now is weak fuel delivery causing KR, so either of those 2. I've actually wanted to test the fuel pressure for quite a while now, been leery of the way the truck starts sometimes (usually when cold out) but it could be normal..

 

[silentbravo]

I replaced the fuel filter (10/15/2017), haven't checked fuel pressure yet.

On Saturday (10/21/2017) I decided to dismantle the spare wiring that came with my replacement cruise control stalk (used). All sorts of electrical goodies in this :lol:

Here is the whole harness before dismantling

Unexpected bonus! This connector will fit into the SEO slot in the MBEC. I was planning to buy one of these to use for wiring auxiliary items anyway, but now I have one with some heavy duty wires already precrimped. WINNING

Some random inline fuses

Part of a aftermarket alarm system I think? Some of this wiring was pretty sad when I took it apart, probably an aftermarket install.

Some micro relays and fuse

Spare relay

This doesn't seem like a factory wiring job to me... but the relays/fuse should be salvageable.

Here's everything I kept out, all the tape removed. Bonus points to who knows what the WD-40 was used for.

 

[nealinator]

I am guessing it helped with the sticky residue from the tape.

Did your old cruise control stalk break?

Looks like you did get some extras...was this an eBay purchase?

 

[silentbravo]

Yes on all accounts.

WD-40 works very nicely to get rid of the stickiness. Of course it replaces it with a bit of oiliness, but it can be wiped off or ignored at that point.
Since I bought the truck the blinker switch part of the stalk was broken, it still worked but it was just really loose between L/R blinker positions.
I bought a used cruise/blinker switch along with the steering wheel controls and clock spring all from same guy for quite a steal I think. Pretty sure it was less than $100 for all 3.

 

[silentbravo]

Differential fluids changed 11/12/2017

Unknown when if ever the diffs have been changed so I got some Mobil 1 on sale. I only used 4 of the 6 quarts (still need to recheck after driving to make sure they are topped off right). What I drained didn't look that bad really. The back was greyish/black but didn't look super dirty or anything. The front was actually clear and the magnet on the drain plug just had typical metal splinters.

I also bought the front diff vent breather plug. Over on the Duramax forums this update came up quite a bit and there was a TSB on it to change to the white version if you were to use synthetic in the front differential. For whatever reason this cap didn't fit and I fought it for probably over an hour, since it is just plastic I didn't want to screw up the threads on it. Finally I compared it very closely to the original and the threaded part is a larger diameter, so impossible to fit. I'm pretty sure this is the same front axle as the Duramax. The only info I could find against that is that around 2001 there may have been a change in axle manufacture, but its the same thing, although the case may be very slightly different. I did find one other person post that their vent wouldn't fit either, they had it taken to the shop or dealer who tried 2 or 3 different ones so there must be some difference. Not really sure but I'll just watch for leaks and if it leaks I'll swap the O ring from the white part to the original part which is probably the only difference as far as the synthetic compatibility goes.

I was going to pop off the rear diff cover and inspect the gears but wasted to much time on the vent so I ended up just changing the fluid. Very handy that both front and rear have drain and fill plugs.

Fuel Pump diagnosis 11/17/2018
The pump is in bad shape, just as Justin said (Black Bear Performance). Spent Saturday messing with some hoses and gauges to test the fuel pressure. The pressure testing set my dad has, the first gauge didn't work, showed about 38 psi max while running. So I ended up testing another gauge against a tire gauge vs my tire (lol) and it showed to be correct so I swapped to that one. Once I got it setup, running was at 50psi and these should really be at 55-62psi (58 ideal) at all times. I knew there was a problem earlier this year when going wide open throttle I could hear nasty pinging/detonation and earlier in the summer it seemed to be down on power a bit + datalogs were showing plenty of knock retard which didn't seem right.

So I tested WOT with the gauges and recorded them, after maybe 2-3 seconds of WOT the pressure just plummets and made it down to about 35 psi where I lifted. No telling if it's original pump until I get in there but I'd say for the mpg this truck gets and the age (17 yrs old in couple months), even with the relatively low mileage of 120k, this pump has done some work. Going to get an ACDELCO pump from ebay here pretty soon, hopefully there is a coupon popping up for Black Friday, and then hopefully the I can get a nice day to change it. I'm thinking to either remove the bed or tilt it up to change it.

Just a few things left to do for fluid maintenance on the truck. Transfer case, brakes and power steering fluid, then everything will be done. Transmission was flushed at a dealer around 100k miles by previous owner so that should be good to go for a while.

Catch Can update 11/18/2017

Drained again, this was after about 500 miles (110 miles into the new fuel up from 11/6/2017)

Looks like that fixed orifice PCV valve did wonders. This looks mostly like condensation/mud like most people post picture of and not just tons of oil like I was getting. I'll be very happy if it stays like this. The last drain I was at about 1 ounce per 100 miles of mostly oil being drained which is way to much to circulate through PCV valve I think.

 

[chevynewbie2017]

Lotta work you've put into this truck, mad respect. be sure to takes lots of pics with the fuel pump replacement and throw em up! I'd like to do a fuel pressure test on mine too soon but never done it before. Nice thread, gonna be watching it

 

[nealinator]

Well just ordered 5 qts of Mobil One gear lube and a rear gasket from Amazon(mine does not have a drain hole on the rear that I can see).

 

[silentbravo]

I don't think the 1/2 ton axles have the drain, but mine was on the very bottom, kind of hidden/protected.

I'll get a few pics of the pump install, but it's well documented everywhere so probably won't get to involved. If it's the original pump then I will have to rewire the plug, so it won't be a drop in and go deal.