[silentbravo]

Replaced Fuel Pump 12/9/2017

This went about well as expected, probably about 4 hours to do it but it could be done in 2 with a bit better conditions and if you get after it. With an engine hoist this can be simply done with 2 people, but 3 is nicer to keep the bed from banging into cab. No muscles required this way.

Here is the pump ACDelco MU1614 new from ebay. Apparently the filter socks on the revised pumps are internal to the pump bucket now. I was a bit concerned about that when I saw different pictures of the same model pumps.

There are 2 ACDelco pumps available for these year trucks, the MU1613 has an additional emissions sensor on the top of the pump and probably used for most 1500 series trucks. I couldn't find any good way to tell which mine had so I started out with a small mirror and a flashlight to try and see if It had the extra sensor but the space is to tight. The easiest way to tell this is by feeling. If you look closely at the top of this pump you see 2 barbs sticking up (above the 4 pin connector with 3 sharpie marks on it). You can feel those pins pretty easily, and if you're truck has a blocky sensor in that spot it uses the other pump.

Here is the original pump. This also uncovered another problem I was hoping my truck escaped. Rusty brake lines. There isn't much but surface rust on the bottom of the truck but this one line going above tank (which is notorious for being a tough one to change), looks pretty crusty. That's going to have to wait till summer at least as it's not a fun job at all from what I've read. At least the lines themselves are dirt cheap though. I just have to decide on stainless steel set or nylon coated steel (that they use in all new trucks).

Here is the slick way my dad rigged the bed. 2 chains to each corner of bed (my truck has loops in the bottom corners) and then some smaller chains adjusted to find the "center". Lifted up easy with just 2 others keeping it from banging cab.

Didn't get any more pics of the finished pump install sadly. Soldered the new 4 pin connector and wires to the factory wires (colors matched too) and put it back in the wire loom looked real good. Maybe I can get a picture of it when the bed comes off for brake line install LOL.

The roads are to nasty to go WOT for any useful amount but I got in one tiny WOT blast before the ice/snow came and it seems to be back to its rowdy self. Dang exhaust roaring so loud, couldn't hear any pinging but it was very short run too, a few seconds, felt real strong. The datalog looked good to, so I'm going to say its fixed. Starts up real quick every time now even in the 20s and teens (Fahrenheit) that we have been in.

Steering wheel controls update
I bought the rest of the electrical knick knacks to finish the video tutorial. Just needed an "add a fuse" to hook up the lights for the switches themselves. Hooked everything up as it "should" be and the lights don't work. Not sure if they are all burnt out or what, it's kind of hard to diagnose because they were used when I got them and my wiring is different than what I've read to make this work, yet they do work perfectly.... I don't want to take the switches apart when it's so cold out as plastic is more brittle now, and I'm not sure I could even get them apart while installed to the wheel anyhow.

From what I've read they can burn a small inline fuse that is hidden in the OEM wiring but I don't have that fuse on my install, and the other option is to take the switches apart and see if the bulbs are burnt out. I could replace them with LED if I get that far. I guess the How to and video on the install are on hold until it warms up. I don't really want to make a 2nd part of the video but I suppose I could (not that a ton of people need to know this info lol).

Also looks like its back to single digit MPG for me as well, with extended warm ups and running around in 4wd most of the time. Watching the fuelly chart nose dive now haha. Maintenance list is getting shorter at least :lol:

 

[silentbravo]

Well I wasn't expecting the rain today, but it cleared the roads enough to make 2 WOT runs. Would be interesting to run it up to about 80 mph somewhere but nowhere around me to do that. Fuel pump definitely doing right, truck is a screamer again. Didn't even spin the tires, although I started about 10mph and probably 500lbs of snow/water in the back of the truck.

Datalog of the moment for those interested Check that solid flat line on O2 where it dumps in as much fuel as it can.

Not a good way to start off a fresh tank of gas, probably down 1mpg overall for this tank now :lol:

 

[Iridium15]

Just wanted to say Great job fixing ,working on ,upgrading the truck yourself.

 

[silentbravo]

Thanks. It's like all the kids who modded their junk in highschool, except I skipped that, because why mod junk that you aren't keeping? lol

 

[jmoore19]

Looking good. Keep the updates coming.

 

[silentbravo]

Catch can Update 12/30/2017
Looks pretty typical after about 600 miles.

Tailgate anti-theft device! 12/30/2017

Built a tailgate lock inspired by the "GateKeeper" from Jimmijammer. If you want to build one I attached a diagram of the measurements. It needs to be fairly thin metal like slightly less than an 1/8" or around 11 gauge, aluminum will be easiest to bend.

I had to work with it quite a while to get all the bends right. Still wouldn't take much to break it and remove the gate but it would take a few minutes to do that and would be noticeable, rather than 30 seconds to steal a tailgate with nothing there. Easily removed by the 1 bolt.

Starting with a paper mockup

First hard mockup, some aluminum diamond plate (cut it out on wrong side so I had to grind off the diamond to make it flat)

Started some bends to see how it would work out

Made a new paper mockup for what final piece would model after

Version 2 on left, original on right. I got the bend for the ear wrong and aluminum isn't forgiving for multiple hard bends so I started over on 2nd piece (left).

Here are measurements of my final piece. Diagram below has some improvements if this was to be made again.

You may notice above the bent curve on the right side is shorter here, ended up having to take off about a 1/8" there to clearance for tailgate

Here is where it sits, done

On this picture you can see why there is a 45 degree (approx) bend at the bottom of the left ear, that touches the lower bolt head that holds the tailgate bracket on. So the left ear basically butts up to the bed and the ear hits the bolt, so the whole piece can't be twisted back, it's locked.

Here is diagram with some improvements.

I had to warp the longer right side ear shown above, so that it would contact the bolt head, if you widen that section another 1/8" or so (as I did in diagram) it should be able to contact that head without twisting the whole piece. There is a relief cut I noted on that wider section that may help with bending the tab where the bolt goes through. This piece took a lot of back and forth fiddling and the hole didn't line up perfect. I didn't put dimensions for the hole on the diagram because the bracket that I put the bolt through has some slop to it, and yours may be different, so that hole placement is up to you. Do try to put the hole as low as possible on the tab, which I did try to do, there is a very slight rub on my bracket to the round part of the tailgate that should wear in (self clearance lol).

Obviously this can be easily defeated with a pair of pliers or socket/wrench or pry bar but that would take a few minutes at least and be noticeable. Even the simple method of using a stainless hoseclamp would be a decent protection since it would also take a little longer to defeat that protection than simply lifting off the tailgate and running.

Anyhow, It didn't cost anything but time, and I wanted to tinker on something.

 

[nealinator]

Nice little project. I enjoy the detailed pictures and info. Looks like it is chilly out there with all that ice in the bed.

 

[silentbravo]

Ya in an ideal environment this would have been a much faster project. But working outside where the driveway is a sheet of ice, and running back and forth between the vice/sander, and fitting against truck took a while lol.

It's not that cold here, but snow is sticking around a bit. Been in the 30s lately, and now it's raining....

Just did another WOT run to test an update to my tune from Black Bear Performance. The 1-2 WOT shift seemed dramatic to me, has been that way all along and decided to ask about it, now it is far less harsh with new tune. The truck is running and shifting excellent again :mrgreen:

 

[BadChevyZ-71]

Just read through all 7 pages. Awesome build! Love all the detailed pictures and information with all the updates. Keep up the great work, I'll definitely be checking back for updates.

 

[silentbravo]

May as well post a quick update. Changed the oil, "fixed" a loose plastic trim piece that rattled around 55mph lol

Looks like a water pump will be replaced in the near future. It has a very slow leak, I think from one of the gaskets and the pump itself is probably fine. I could replace gaskets for probably $30 including coolant, but i would still be left with a 120k+ WP and if it didn't fix it, well that would mean doing the job twice, so may as well change it all out.

I can't see exactly where it's leaking from but there are some lines on passenger side below starter that are all wet, as well as the oil pan on that side, so it seeps down from somewhere on passenger side around where the water pump is so I'm guessing it's that gasket. I didn't see anything from the weep hole when i checked it before so I don't think it's leaking there.

To bad I didn't have an extra $300, I would do a electric fan swap too and clear up that whole front of the engine bay. That one is definitely at the top of the list for performance/mods when I get a chance.

 

[silentbravo]

Bled brakes (mostly), installed Speed Bleeders 4/15/2018

I bought Russell Speed Bleeders for front/back from ebay. Part numbers: 639560 and 639580 as the Russell website showed for my truck. Also bought 4x 32oz bottles of Prestone AS401 DOT 3 Synthetic Brake Fluid and used 3 of them.

I didn't take to many pics but these are the 2 wrenches I used. 10mm is for stock bleeder screws, 7/16th fit the Russell bleeders. Picture shows the bleeders that did NOT fit (PN 639560) and the stock ones I replaced.

Russell Speed Bleeder installed in rear caliper with the dust(mud) cap

Front stock bleeder in the front caliper, you can just barely see it's coarse thread also.

I used a large syringe to remove most of the super nasty fluid from the reservoir. It was blackish/green and tons of floating scum particles in it. It used about 70% of a 32oz bottle to refill it from near empty.

Started at Rear passenger's side, removed and replaced the bleeder screw and with a bit of hose, directed it into a container. Just ended up pumping away and I assume the speed bleeders worked, at least the pedal did firm up quite a bit. The fluid was nasty black at this corner as well.

Moved to Rear driver's side, replaced the screw and pumped it out also. The fluid was a bit better and cleaned up faster but still pretty bad. Then I moved to Front passenger, and started removing the bleeder screw where I discovered it was also coarse thread. The rear caliper's (according to Russell) are supposed to be fine thread, but it used the coarse, and then the front use coarse 1.5mm thread also. So I ended up only flushing that front passenger side with another method and no fancy speed bleeder lol

At that point I had used 3x 32oz bottles and decided to do a test drive to make sure I could still stop and didn't mess up this seemingly simple job somehow Ran up and down a dirt road a few times and pedal was much firmer, everything seemed good and no leaks when I got back so I called it good. Will get another set of coarse bleeders and rebleed the front's with my remaining bottle of fluid at some point but for now it's much better.

The reservoir still has tons of nasty floaters and I would have to remove it to actually clean it, so this is all just an initial bleed anyway as none of the fluid coming out of each corner was truly clear and clean but still many times better than what was in there.

Water pump status
I ordered an AC Delco water pump, thermostat and gaskets and they are waiting in the box until nicer weather. I went on vacation for over a week and came back with a small wet area of coolant, so the leak isn't pressure related, but a constant leak. Also saw an oil spot that comes off the back of the pain by the drain bolt, but I think it leaks from higher up and not at the drain. Not sure where that's from but it's minimal and I'm not ready to do any major surgery to fix it.

I also got the idea to check the battery after sitting over a week without moving. It was down to 12.2v or maybe 12.4v can't remember now but either isn't that great. After I drove it and came home the next day it was charged up to 12.7v which is where it should be. It didn't act strange at all starting, fired right up as usual, so it didn't seem to matter to much.

Anyone know if that's fairly typical for a battery to run down that much over that period of time? I know the computer and some other things have a tiny parasitic draw when the vehicle is off. Battery is pretty new, about 1.5yrs old since I bought it. I guess looking at the date code P106R, that means it was manufactured October, 2016, so was basically a year old when I got it...

 

[silentbravo]

Changed rear passenger side door check 5/26/18
Nothing to exciting here, I bought this before and decided to change it out now. Dorman 924-145

Changed Water Pump 7/22/2018
Last winter I noticed my coolant was a bit low, and also found it was wet along some lines below the A/C Compressor. So it had a small leak at the least. It took about 5 hours to do it, from start till everything put away and cleaned up. If I had a huge pan to just dump coolant everywhere and replace that would have shaved some time off. People seem to have issues removing the mechanical fan from the pump, and at first it wasn't coming off with the huge crescent wrench and hammer smack method. I started with a big rubber mallet, but the real trick was to just use a regular hammer, for the abrupt breaking force. Came off easy then. Used the info from the 1A Auto video as my resource, very good instructional video you can watch it here.

Here are the new parts, Water pump GM 12681176 (ACDELCO 251-743)

New thermostat, ACDELCO 1511057 (15-11057) Had to buy this too, couldn't re-use the original if I even wanted to as supposedly they are different sizes.

Gaskets, ACDELCO 251663 (251-663) The pump came with some paper type gaskets, which I wasn't planning to use...

Found some green grease in the new water pump, and wiped it out. It was around the heater vent barbs on the inside. Probably an assembly lube for the press fit. I hope...

Here is what I rigged up to capture some of the coolant for re-use. It's only been 2 yrs or less since I changed it, and it looked fine. Ended up capturing about 1 gallon to put back in. The rest went into a dirty catch pan. The plastic bags directed the coolant down to a bucket, worked good only a little bit of dirt/debris was in it that I filtered out before using again.

Here it is all buttoned back up (minus fan and shroud)

Here is the old pump, clearly old gaskets had failed which I expected.

Original thermostat

Wasn't to bad of a job, just messy with draining coolant which is probably one of my least favorite things to do without a good large catch pan. I was planning to save the pump as it had no play in it that I could tell, and figured the leak was only from the gaskets. My dad picked it up and turned it over, I noticed the weep hole poured out some residual coolant, and upon closer inspection you could see a trail below the hole where it was leaking. So it made it just about 130k

I have a couple misc projects I have been collecting parts for, will probably be documenting that next.

 

[nealinator]

Nicely done! Love the nice clear pictures.

 

[JB Long]

I did the same thing two years ago, with the clutch fan, using a softer mallet before breaking out the solid hammer. Nice work here. I need to break out the pics from when I did this exact same job and add to my own build topic

 

[silentbravo]

Bought a Coverking window shade for my truck. Ridiculous heat build up when it sits downtown in 100+ It has really nice coverage (better have it wasn't that cheap :lol: ) Hopefully it helps some...

It fits pretty tight to all edges, and only the notch for the mirror lets light in. Has a strap to keep it rolled up. Part Number CSSZ65GM7105

Don't worry about the missing dash bezel, other projects were in the works here...

Here's a teaser pic for one project that should be completed tonight, probably follow up with pics and video in next day or 2.

The 2nd mod is a bit more intensive, and need to pick up some more material to finish, so that may be a bit, but you can start imagining things

 

[nealinator]

Hmmm...video whatnots?

I am sure the thickness of that shade helps a lot. I have the super thin ones that are reflective silver on one side and a wire hoop though the perimeter (two separate pcs) that you have to be skilled in origami to fold up! haha

 

[silentbravo]

The Quest for Auxiliary Input on a Factory Delco Radio
It started with a simple idea. Something almost every aftermarket head unit (HU), and probably most new HU's have standard. Auxiliary
sound input. So I started the google search!

I found some tutorials on how to modify the factory HU to tap into the CD player audio channels and bypass them into a 3.5mm jack. So I scavenged a 3.5mm jack from an old PC board and added some wires. Red for Right Channel, Gray for Left Channel, Black, for Ground. This was intended for testing so it wasn't a beautiful job by any means....

The first tutorial sounded just about perfect, EXCEPT it required a CD to be playing, to allow for the bypass to work. I wasn't really thrilled about wearing out the CD player, so I continued my search. I found another tutorial which was a similar bypass as the first, except it claimed to disable the CD player and retain auxiliary input, PERFECT (https://ls1tech.com/forums/stereo-elect ... ethod.html)

First a few pics of my bench setup and wiring. Rear of the factory Delco HU

Snipped end from an ATX power supply from a PC. Square style Molex pin, fits into the pins very nicely for bench testing. I put some
loose shrink tube over these to avoid shorts.

Here is the head unit with the necessary leads. Power, Ground (coming from ATX PSU), left/right audio channels. Used some stripped wire insulation on the other bare pins to also protect from shorting anything.

Power and Ground alligators clipped on. Ground has green boot/black wire, and 12v has yellow boot/red wire.

Powered up!

So I cracked open the Delco radio to investigate, and test if the aux bypass with disabled CD would work.
Here is the radio opened up from the bottom side. Comes apart easily by removing 7 screws.

This shows the 2 wires for left/right audio that come from the CD player built into the head unit. I probed them with sewing pins and wrapped wire around to see if these were correct (they were).

Here is what the work bench ended up looking like. Wiring info in the picture.

From here I attempted to copy the tutorial and cut 1 wire from the CD player harness (bundle of white wires) to see if that would disable the player and allow an auxiliary audio source. Unfortunately the head unit from the tutorial was different, and I knew it going in that the wire may be incorrect but I gave it a shot. Didn't work, so I gave up on this idea and didn't want to cut a bunch of wires to guess which one might work. I fixed the wire and put the head unit back together, and searched for another method.

Then I found where some people were doing a very similar mod, except with the slave unit (CD/Cassette deck) which looked more viable to me. My truck came with the center console and Cassette deck, so I was good to go to test this one. (link: https://www.gmfullsize.com/threads/hoor ... re.106394/ )

Here is the victim. OEM Delco Cassette tape deck

Now this was easier to test out disabling wires because I had a separate harness that I could remove the pins from and plug and play!
The end goal was still to have auxiliary in, and NOT have extra mechanical devices moving. Cassette decks are actually fairly loud, little motors whirring away so I was going to see if it was possible to disable it and keep auxiliary sound. To bypass the audio signals from the cassette deck is trivial, but to disable the tape player and keep aux in was not documented anywhere that I found.

Here is the pin out, schematic, wiring diagram for the remote slave unit. This info was copied from another source with slightly different wiring colors, but likely the same thing. Probably just different years/make/model of GM that account for the variation.

Here is how I set it up for bench testing. I used loose heatshrink tubes to cover the pins and keep them separated while testing.

I determined a method to disable the Cassette deck, and allow for auxiliary sound to work, by disconnecting the dark green and pink wires in order. I needed to be able to reconnect both of these wires in a toggle fashion, so I decided to try a DPST switch. There was a slight concern that the switch wouldn't work because while I was bench testing one wire had to be disabled before the other, and I wasn't sure if both being disabled simultaneously would work. I ordered some cheap switches from ebay to test it out.

Here is the cassette moved into the truck for final testing and wiring. The switch was hooked up temporarily for testing and it worked, I was very pleased

Here is the "final" wiring, everything heatshrinked and soldered. I extended the wiring for the DPST switch so it can be mounted somewhere. The test 3.5mm jack is still being used, but if I find a place to hard mount a jack I will buy one that can be permanently installed and redo that end. I capped off the audio wires from the cassette side and left them in the connector so technically I could splice everything back together as factory and have a working cassette again.

Will put together a video for the auxiliary input mod above also, but it's super easy and you should be able to tell from the pictures how to accomplish it. Basically it is taking the 3 wires for audio, Left/Right channels and Ground and going to your audio jack of choice. Then you break the pink/green wires which interrupts the Cassette deck from playing, but the head unit doesn't realize it and you can continue to play from your aux source. The only downfall is you need to have a cassette in the player and it will have to start playing for a few seconds to initialize it, then it can be disabled. Also the aux in source will not persist between key on/off (except for maybe during retained accessory power) so you have to toggle the switch each time you start the vehicle. Not a big deal though in my opinion.

You probably noticed part of my floor console is missing. That was a serious pain lol. I will have a video and a few pics of that up at some point. I am planning some mods to that portion of the console, so it is removed for now...

 

[nealinator]

Wowza that is a lot of fiddling to get your aux input! I dont even use mine!! Haha

 

[silentbravo]

Just a follow up with the videos.

How to add the auxiliary 3.5mm jack input to factory Delco head unit

I have the front section of console out to build a tablet tray, and modify it for easy access to an auxiliary fuse block I will install, and space to stuff my cassette deck. I made a post about the tablet tray over here, https://www.silveradosierra.com/interio ... 02392.html but will bring the main content and images back to this thread when I complete it.

 

[nealinator]

The embedded youtube links no longer function...for now. You can just post the link and not use the youtube tags and then we can at least click on them and view them.