My New 03 1500HD

[69gmcc10]

Originally Posted by nekkidhillbilly

may the wheel bearing and brake gods be with you.

...and also with you!

quick update, the truck is running awesome, transfercase is getting used and working awesome in the snowy weather we have been getting.

Also picked up an 05 and newer GM truck e-fan for cheap. So, I got a wiring harness for it from ls1fans.com and since it was a black friday sale I also got a larger alternator jump box wire and alternator over drive pulley all for $100.

[69gmcc10]

Almost forgot! I got this little bad boy in the mail the other day and soon I will be mailing off my ECM to get my tune form Justin and the boys at Black Bear Performance!

[69gmcc10]

No picture of the ECM because it looks like any other ECM, but with a small black bear sticker on it. Initial report is that it is much faster and more powerful, time will tell on the MPG.

The entire process was simple, I hooked up my laptop to the truck using the cable and adapter box in the picture in post #26, took it for a 2 20 min drives and sent the info collected off to Black Bear Performance. They reviewed the data, told me to mail in my ECU (you can also be sent a new ecu so your truck has no down time, but I wanted to save $100) and they mailed it back all within 7 days.

They adjusted for tire size, removed the Engine Torque Management, reduced the Transmission Torque Management, slightly increased the shift firmness, shift points, set the ECM to run on 91 octane and I am sure they sprinkled some magic on it. It really made a big difference in drive-ability because the throttle response is quicker, downshifts are much more intuitive and when you want all the power and torque you paid for to be available to you when you want it, it is there.

What sucks now is knowing how much better it is and that every truck I own in the future must have its ECM tuned. Knowing how well Black Bear Performance treated me and happily answered my millions of questions I will certainly go back.

I will keep you posted on mileage in the coming months.

[69gmcc10]

So, it has been a while since I have updated this page.

To catch everyone up I replaced the cluster with a dorman unit. It has a lifetime warranty and works great. I went through summit and if i had to do it again I would go straight to dorman to try and speed up the time frame. Through summit the refund took a few days longer than I thought necessary.

I also got around to installing the electric fans they literally bolted right in a couple of existing threaded holes in the cross member and they work great! they are hardly ever on, but with the summer heat they keep my engine temp at a constant 200ish degrees. I have not noticed any significant increase in throttle response or mileage increases like some claim but I guess every little bit helps. The engine also gets up to temp quicker.

For MPG numbers after the fans, exhaust, Intake and most importantly the computer tune are as followed:
In town at varying speeds 13 mpg (up 2 mpg) is the norm, on the Highway at 65 mph it is around 18 mpg (up 4 mpg) and on the interstate at 75 mph it drops to about 16-17 mpg depending on the day (up 3 almost 3 mpg).

I am thoroughly impressed with the efficiency numbers and love everything about this truck.

Next project is to upgrade the trans cooler! on the 4th of July towing a toy hauler the trans got a little warmer than I am comfortable with pulling some of the mountain passes. I will post pictures when i get it done.

Pics of the fans and all the room it made under the hood.

[69gmcc10]

So...About that transmission temp issue.

One of the biggest reasons I sold the green truck and bought this truck was because I wanted the tough and robust 4L80E for towing heavier loads. I have been towing quite a few vehicles on my car hauler and a few utility trailers, but nothing over 6000 lbs, and truck seems to handle it just fine, but every time I tow over one of the passes (where I live I cant go more than 100 miles without needing to go over a pass) I would inevitably get some trans heat and see some numbers push 230 deg. Depending on who you talk to safe trans temps range from the high end of 240 to "you should never let your trans temp exceed 200," but regardless of max safe temps they all agree that cooler is better.

On the week surrounding the 4th of July the wife and I loaded up a toy hauler with a side by side and headed on a 6 hr drive to go camping. Over that week temps here were hot, hot for Montana (high 90's) and we had to go over 3 passes of about 2000 ft of elevation change. We were loaded right close to the max gcwr for the truck, not that the magical 14,000 lb number would have stopped me form adding more if needed, but I was not over. Trans temps ran high all day long and when we went over the passes it was getting hot! On the flats the trans temps didn't drop below 190 and on the passes even slowing down significantly to try and keep temps down it would climb to 240, not good.

So, I came to the forum under the Engine and Drivetrain section and started asking questions. I got some good answers and Clinebarger pointed me in the direction of the the Tru-Cool Max trans cooler as an upgrade to keep those temps down. It appears to be the answer to my problems so I ordered it up.

This cooler is big! It is 3x the size of the stock cooler and since I live in a place that can see some real cold temps at times I also got a trans cooler thermostat that bypasses the radiator until trans temps get up to 180ish.

[69gmcc10]

I have had the cooler on the truck for about a week now and I have been constantly checking the trans, it's temps and how the thermostat has been working. I have not pulled anything with it, but thanks to my handy-dandy temp gun everything seems to be running perfectly. The cooler came with almost everything I needed, hose, hose clams, brackets, adapters and bolts to mount it with. The parts that I elected to pick up were a pair of 3/8 transmission line quick connect adapters (stock replacement) that tread right into the cooler and connect to the existing trans lines and some black paint.

I lightly painted the Cooler black for 3 reasons, first it would look goofy to look through the grill and see raw a aluminum color, second to protect it from corrosion and finally the black helps dissipate heat. The black paint does insulate the cooler from transferring heat as air is drawn across it which is the coolers primary function, but it decreases that efficiency just slightly, hence the light coat to minimize those effects. Where the black paint helps is in radiation of heat sitting in traffic with little to no air flow and in this aspect it has a significant benefit.

I am not a huge fan of using rubber line and hose clamps, but it is the easiest, most economical and apparently acceptable to Tru-Cools standards way to connect the thermostat to the lines. I did use as little rubber hose as possible and flared all of the hard line ends to create as positive of a clamping location for the clamp as possible so I am satisfied with it.

I mounted the cooler in front of the rad and the a/c condenser with the original crossbar that mounts to the bottom of the stock trans cooler, I just turned the bar around so I had a flat surface to blot to and tapped into the latch support structure on the top.

Sorry, no pics of the thermostat, it is in a horrible location for a photo. It is installed in front of the forward cross member after it goes through the radiator to take advantage of the heat the radiator can provide the trans to prevent shifting issues on those cold winter days.

Did I mention this cooler is big!

[gldevall]

Talk about deja vu!!!!

My old truck... before


after...


New truck...before


after...

[69gmcc10]

Nice trucks, I am sorry to see the carnage on that x-cab. What are your plans for the HD?

[69gmcc10]

It has been a while since I have reported progress or follow ups on this truck so I figured I would update for anyone who is interested.

To start off, I needed to reapply the night shades after 1 year. I faded and wore off from the elements. When I reapplied it I clear coated over it to see if it would last longer and it has been better, but again the darkness is fading away but it might last 2 years.

I have a squeak up front from the lower control arm bushing and I think it was caused by me tightening up the torsion bars, but I am speculating. I have polly parts to replace them, but have not got around to replacing them yet. I also figured I would replace the ball joints while I was there, not because they are bad, but after 170K miles I may as well while I am there.

The oiled air filter sucks! I have always felt that these GM trucks live and die by the MAF sensor and the second it gets oily you can feel the performance decrease and see the mileage fall off, so I Replaced just the filter with an washable AFE Dry filter and it works real well. It has good mid and top end response and power from the system. I have another truck I using an AFE dry filters in the stock box and it is awesome! I would recommend only changing out the air filter and keeping the stock bock over a Intake system any day.

The 4" Magmaflow certainly moves the air, but it is raspy when you stand on the street and hear it drive by under throttle. It also has a drone around 1600 RPM that is annoying when sitting in the back seat. I have a 3.5" tailpipe I am going to change it out with and see if that helps.

The transfer-case is running flawlessly after the rebuild after the pump rub was discovered and repaired.

The Computer tune is still the most significant upgrade. Trans shifting and drivability make it worth it alone. Mileage has been good in the summer, city is still just over 13 mpg and I often get 18 mpg if I can keep it at 69 mph or below. In Missoula we are force fed Ethanol and when that happens my city mileage will drop to about 9 mpg and the best I can do on the highway is about 14 mpg. I hate winter Fuel.

The electric fans have have proven of little benefit fore economy if any, but the coll factor and the extra room under the hood is nice.

My other favorite mod after the computer has to be the Huge trans cooler I installed. My trans temps never get above 200* even pulling long steep grades at 7000 ft elevations in triple digit temps hauling 8,000 lb loads.

I upgraded the Shocks all around. KYBs in the front did not survive long after a raised the nose, too much travel. The fronts are Bilstines and they are perfect, they ride smooth handle holes in the road real well, and are the only shock that was made to work without a spacer for the shock on a torsion lifted truck. The rear is outfited with Monroe OESpectrum shocks and they are a big improvement over the KYBs they replaced, more robust parts than the kybs (i am told that is good for heat transfer) and more adaptive to changing terrain (KYBs would hop along in rhythm with washboards and concrete seams in the road, frustrating!)

Still, all in all, I love this truck does 90% of everything I need it to do and I don't think you can ask for more from a truck because if it was 100% of everything all the time it would be multiple vehicles.

Thanks for thanks for reading, I plan to continue to add to this as needs and time and money permit.

[69gmcc10]

old KYB shock, New side by side, and part number. I wanted to purchase Monroe Sens-a-Track but I think they changed the name to OESpectrum because the part number is the same. I have the Sens-a-Trac on my 69 GMC and I love those shocks as much as these!

[69gmcc10]

2 updates!

Ever since I installed the electric fans I have had an A/C issue that hasn't been a problem until recently. The problem is that on Max A/C the truck blows warm air through the vents because the second fan doesn't kick on. This hasn't been a problem until now because I don't usually run the A/C in town, I just cruse with the windows cracked, and when I do run it I am at speed down the highway where there is enough air running through the rad that the fans aren't on. The second fan does kick on when it needs the extra flow when sitting in traffic and the engine is real hot, but not when the A/C is cranked. So, I went back to the mechanical fan set up I kept because with a new child I definitely want to keep both him and the wife from screaming at me because it is so hot sitting in traffic.

I have noticed a little less off the line power, but everything else seems the same...except the Hydro Boost brakes seem to be more firm now and when coming to a stop the the rpms drop below 500 for about 1-2 seconds and pick back up. Go figure!

The other thing I did was get sick of the Bow-tie o the grill of my truck falling off so like a new Camaro Z/28 I grabbed a die grinder and cut out the emblem leaving the negative space behind as a black back drop. Glancing at it it just looks like black emblem.

[picklito]

Nice thread. Which rear axle does a 1500HD get?

[69gmcc10]

Originally Posted by picklito

Nice thread. Which rear axle does a 1500HD get?

1500HDs came with both 3.73 and 4.10, but like my truck, the overwhelming majority were 3.73.

[picklito]

Thx, but I actually meant which axle not which ratio!

[69gmcc10]

Originally Posted by picklito

Thx, but I actually meant which axle not which ratio!

Semi-float Corporate 14 bolt with lugs.

[69gmcc10]

New additions!

At the end of June I become a father for the first time, to a baby boy none the less! May the gods of internal combustion please be with me! With this addition to my life I have learned that what I thought I once had figured out just changed and adjustments need to be made.

Apparently, with kids comes allot of stuff, I mean lots of stuff!... and crap, but we are taking about the stuff! So, when we travel there is a car seat, and a base to the seat (permanently mounted in the truck) and a bag 5 times the size of the kid (in case aforementioned crap appears), and a huge jogger (like a stroller is no longer good enough, it is like 50 time the size of the stroller of my youth, and I refuse to believe that the vast majority of these things get used at full pace! Also I am 100 times more likely to stroll with this thing than try to kill myself push this thing during a jog!). Not to mention if we go over night somewhere, then there is a pack and play (portable crib) and a rocker (which is the only thing he sleeps in, so I don't know what the pack and play is for other than showing off), a changes of cloths (his mom packs him more cloths than she dose for herself and I still just have a small backpack form my early 20s), bedding, and toiletries. Like I said, stuff.

Even though this is a 4 door truck I cant get all this stuff in the cab and my wife wont let me leave the truck anywhere with stuff in the bed, least of all the beloved jogger, so I began the search for a tonneau cover fore some out of sight out of mind safety. Just when I thought I had the perfect cover picked out, my brother-in-law decided to sell me his fiberglass leer truck cap, shell, topper, or whatever you want to call it, for almost nothing! Did I mention that his truck is the same color as mine and that the topper was already color matched, it is in good shape, looks sharp, and I couldn't pass it up.

But, I ran into another issue when I put the topper on the truck, now it looked like a giant Suburban and I am not a soccer mom or dad, yet...please lord don't let him like soccer, I would much prefer hockey! I figured the best way to undomesticate it with out going off the deep end and keep it respectable at the same time was to add some tow mirrors and a roof rack. I picked up a set of Fit systems factory replacement extendable mirrors off Amazon (part #62076g) which bolted right up and had most of the features my current mirrors had like electric adjustment, blinkers, and heat. These mirrors are huge, perfect for hauling stuff and I use the fish eyes on the bottom 1/3 all the time! The only issue I have with the mirrors are that they don't work with dual driver position settings nor do any after market mirrors I looked at so I had to turn that function off in the trucks setting, but since I am the only person that drives this truck its no big deal.

I have not figured out the roof rack yet because the topper has bolt on rain gutter mounts and I don't know what configuration i want to go with. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

And there you go, Kid, Topper, Mirrors, Stuff that goes with kid...new additions! I think it is looking good and coming right along.

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

Trucks looking good keep up the good work. I have the big brother to that one no topper on it yet though. I to have a kiddo and another on the way been looking for a cover for my bed because just like you it seems like their is always so much baby crap and stuff in the the truck I have no room for anything else haha.

[izzy_Britton]

Originally Posted by 69gmcc10

I have not figured out the roof rack yet because the topper has bolt on rain gutter mounts and I don't know what configuration i want to go with. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

what do you mean by the 'the topper has rain gutter mounts'?

got pics?

[69gmcc10]

Originally Posted by izzy_Britton

what do you mean by the 'the topper has rain gutter mounts'?

got pics?

if you have a roof rack and it mounts to a rain gutter and you dont have rain gutters on your vehicle companies like Thule make a mount you drill and bolt on to your roof that is about 4 or 5" that looks like a mini rain gutter so you can mount the rack to your vehicle.

[TooTall]

nice truck build. They will last. I have a gasser wit 275K on it

I have an 04 non HD 2500 4 door 4wd that I regularly beat the snot out of every day.
70 on the freeway is the sweet spot for the best gas mileage however.

If you ever get the slip and bump while trying to take off from a stop, as if it's in 2nd gear, there's a valve fix for it in the valve body for the trans.

For the exhaust drone, . . . here's your fix
http://www.performancetrucks.net/for...-drone-489463/

[69gmcc10]

Originally Posted by TooTall

nice truck build. They will last. I have a gasser wit 275K on it

I have an 04 non HD 2500 4 door 4wd that I regularly beat the snot out of every day.
70 on the freeway is the sweet spot for the best gas mileage however.

If you ever get the slip and bump while trying to take off from a stop, as if it's in 2nd gear, there's a valve fix for it in the valve body for the trans.

For the exhaust drone, . . . here's your fix
http://www.performancetrucks.net/for...-drone-489463/

Thanks for the read and the suggestions! The link you supplied is something I found a few years ago, but I just don't want to go through the trouble of making a 24 or so inch ling 4 inch round j tube to hang off the exhaust. If it was physically shorter and I didn't have any other projects on my plate I would probably tackle it, but ever since the shell was installed it quieted way way down. What is the valve body mod you speak of?

Thanks again

[TooTall]

Originally Posted by 69gmcc10

Thanks for the read and the suggestions! The link you supplied is something I found a few years ago, but I just don't want to go through the trouble of making a 24 or so inch ling 4 inch round j tube to hang off the exhaust. If it was physically shorter and I didn't have any other projects on my plate I would probably tackle it, but ever since the shell was installed it quieted way way down. What is the valve body mod you speak of?

Thanks again

this is the kit that I used. It fixed my wrong gear starts. If I was sitting at a stand still stop or a rolling quick stop, if I tried taking off, the trans would be in another gear besides 1st gear. This kit fixed the "hunt for 1st gear" issue that I was having. It was always at random, never at the same times or conditions.
http://www.transgo.com/products.php?...dcountview=Yes

I also have the TransGoHD2 kit. All kinds of fun to have any gear selection at any RPM.

I've done a few cam swaps in it over the years along with a LS3/L92 top end (heads and intake) and it made a huge difference in power.

[69gmcc10]

What a winter we are having her in western Montana! It has been cold, it has snowed allot compared to previous years, it has rained, it has snowed more. Because my 69 GMC project "George" is comfortably placed in the garage waiting for me to finish the LM7 swap, I have no place out of the elements to do any maintenance on the daily driver. But, the heavens opened up and I got a chance to replace the upper ball joints the other weekend on a balmy and sunny 40 degree day!

With all of the ice ruts in the roads and the frost heaves that have quickly turned to what feels like potholes holding hands I couldn't take the clunking of the upper ball joints any more. After 170 some thousand miles on the original ball joints it was just time for a change. It was still too cold to paint the arms while I had them out, but I did replace the bushings with prothane replacements while I was doing it because, well you know...While I was at it...

I replaced the joints with some excellent Moog parts and in order to remove the rubber bushings I used the ball joint C-clamp press and a bolt through a large washer to push them right out, as pictured below. It was a real smooth way of getting the bushings out in one piece, again pictured below, without needing to "burn them out" like Prothane recommends. That just sounds messy and sticky and I am still taken aback just a little every time I think about a company that advises you to take a torch to a vehicles suspension parts to get rid of them so there stuff can go in place of it. The only thing I can think of that I want the insides burnt out of is a whisky barrel.

when I was done the front end tightened right up, there was a noticeable lack of clunks coming from the suspension, and the steering wheel is defiantly communicating with me better about what is going on at the contact patch. I am still struggling to find an alignment shop that will do what I ask when it comes to aligning the truck as oppose to harass me about the torsion keys being turned up, but I continue to search for that magical shop. I am not asking any shop to align it outside acceptable factory ranges when they align it, but none of them want to give me the negative .25 deg camber that is within acceptable tolerances per GM spec. They all want to try and give me .5 degrees of positive camber and completely eliminate any steering confidence. My only saving grace is with the tightened keys you cant get anywhere near that positive in the adjustments, but they try despite any conversation I have with them before hand. I might start looking into purchasing an alignment kit for myself and be done with the shops.

I plan on replacing the lower ball joints and adding polly bushing to the lower arms later this spring. I might also get a new Idler arm and support at that time.

[69gmcc10]

Time for new tires and while I am at it I may as well get new wheels right?

While I honestly do like the design of the factory wheels, I think they are quite sharp for a factory aluminum truck wheel, I have always been disappointed on how skinny they are. They don't lend themselves to allow the tire to create presence in the wheel well or set close to flush with the side of the body work. If someone made it in a wider size I would buy it to keep the almost factory looks. American Racing does make a replica wheel, but only in factory width, so that option was out.

I did allot of looking at new and used wheels and every time I was interested in something I couldn't get past the fact that new wheels are expensive, used aftermarket wheels are usually beat up, and the simple fact that after market wheels in general are not as tough or have weight rating like a factory wheel. The more I searched the more frustrated I got until I ran across a Duramax with H2 wheels and realized that was the ticket! The H2 wheels are 17" x 8.5" and that is not only 1" taller, but are a whole 2 inches wider than my wimpy 6.5" wide baby wheels.

So, I scoured craigslist here and close surrounding areas, but since there are not allot of H2's here I had no luck so I called around to a few tire shops in town and found out that the first rule of owning an H2 regardless if you have 1 of the 7 in town is you must ditch the factory wheels and equip it with 20's, because they had a set of factory wheels that had been sitting around behind there warehouse for about 2 years from someone upgrading to 20's. I picked them up for $300 which I thought was a excellent deal because I have seen them listed for $500 in similar shape in places I wasn't willing to drive to or pay even more to have them shipped.

You can see even after I washed them that in the before pics they were in need of a little love, so I sanded them down, got rid of the corrosion and pitting on the lip of the front and the entire barrel of the back of the wheel, sprayed a catalyzed epoxy primer and silver paint on the rear, and cleared the entire wheel after treating the bare aluminum parts with a POR 15 prep wash with a 2K clear.

They are not perfect by a mile, nor was I going for it, but they are free of corrosion and will be a significant upgrade in the looks department of my daily driver.

Also, cant say enough good things about this rattle can 2K clear that I used. I have never had a clear look so good or lay down so well. I hope it holds up to the abuse of the Montana winters.

Before

[69gmcc10]

After