Quote:
Originally Posted by MAC67
Nice Truck .
I wonder how many of the 98's were made in the ext cab v8 model with a 5spd and manual shift. Cant be many of them . Ill tell you this , I looked and looked and looked for that exact truck for my dad , wasnt quite sure if they made them or not but eventually one popped up on ebay 30 miles from my house so we got it for my dad.
Funny thing is it could pass for a twin to the truck you have , Green and gold 98 z71 ext cab 5spd with the manual shift tcase. I mean identicle when we first got it , he added a topper on it . I will say yours is the only other one ive ever seen . Ill get the last few digits of the old mans vin and see if by anychance we have the same truck . I know its a long shot but there cant be many of them. We got his about 2 years ago when i found it . It also didnt have a cd player , just the cubby hole . Had a ft jackson sticker int he windshield .
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Yeah, there weren’t many. I doubt it is the same truck being mine was Indigo blue instead of the Emerald green. When I bought the ’98 we lived in Detroit and GM was giving a smok’in deals on them to GM employees to help get rid of the old body style extended cabs before the new GMT800 1999 Silverado’s started showing up. I absolutely had to have a 5 speed but none could be found in MI, IN, IL, OH, or PA. I ended up calling my dealer buddy back home here in Pueblo and he had two in stock with 5 speeds. I chose the Indigo blue one, as it had bucket seats. My wife and I then flew to CO to pick it up and drive it back home to MI. Funny thing was it was built at Pontiac East assembly which was only like 5 miles from our house. Flat land people aren’t big on manual transmissions I guess. The dealer locator at that time showed several in CO, WY and MT. The closest to MI was in Northern WI but it was a plan jane 1SA peg group work truck with a 5.0L instead of 5.7L.
I actually didn’t care much for the ’98 Z71. The transmission was only a NV3500 where you can go practically 35 MPH in first gear. It also had the notorious frame beam shake that was like riding a bucking bull when cruising on the concrete highways of Detroit and a horrible idle flare when stepping on the clutch while up shifting. The idle would shoot up about 150 to 300 RPM’s depending on the ambient temperature. Your dad’s probably does it as well when it is hot outside. The reason for the flare was in the calibrations to reduce hydrocarbon emissions, which is ultimately why the manual transmissions behind V8 engines in pick up went away. Damn emissions regulations!
That truck did great on fuel though! With 285 tires, I could pull a consistant 18 to 20 MPG cruising at 65 MPH on I-75. I remember the best tank was 22 MPG going from Detroit to Cincinnati. The best tank on the 2001 HD going from Pueblo to Albuquerque with an 8.1L has only been 13 MPG!
Good catch on the missing CD player. CD players weren’t available with manual transmissions nor was the 3rd door.