Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Feel free to post about anything here, just keep it work safe.
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ifixalot
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Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by ifixalot »

Nice truck. A lot of nice touches you've added. It's not too loud like some guys do.
That Impala reminds me of the 72 Caprice wagon I used to have. The 400 BBC engine
from it, is what is in my 68 Camaro now. All stock.
I wish I had your energy. I'd like to put TBI on the 400.
Nice touch with the muffler clamps too. But don't they rust kinda fast?
It seems all my muffler clamps rust really fast.
I don't know nothing about why you did the differential mod but I've done ring and pinion changes.
It's nice you don't have to shim.
I did one and didn't get it right, it would howl when I let off the gas.


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woody90gtz
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Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by woody90gtz »

The truck came with an open diff, so it only put power to one tire. So even in 4WD there's only 2 spinning. The helical diff puts power to both wheels like a clutch limited slip. So 2WD is 2 wheels spinning and 4WD will be 3 wheels spinning.

That wagon had a 400 originally. My bro-in-law is weeks into the 6.0 rebuild without any real progress...keeps running into issues.


91 "SS" - WOT 3400/5spd - 13.29@101.6 - World's fastest N/A FWD Beretta
96 "T56" LS/6spd/8.8 RWD swap - 13.45@104.7 lol
GEARHEAD dezign youtube
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woody90gtz
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Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by woody90gtz »

Bro-in-law's wagon still isn't running. That cheap LS swap has turned into thousands and problem after problem. I actually towed a new beater home for him recently since he needed a plan B. haha 96 Accord. Blah

I've been getting the truck ready for winter little by little. I don't have pics, but I welded some permanent mounts for the plastic fender liners. Also hacked off the tailpipe tip and rewelded the hangar. You can probably see in the earlier pictures that the stock tailpipe hung really low and looked ugly. Now it's basically an invisible turndown after the axle for better ground clearance, and it sounds better bouncing off the ground too! Win/win.

Tried to haul the FIL's camper from the campground a couple weeks ago but it blew a hydraulic hose before we could even hook it up. Cost about $1000 to fix it. I guess the more crap you got, the more crap you gotta take care of. Glad it wasn't my problem.
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Last edited by woody90gtz on Tue Oct 06, 2020 9:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.


91 "SS" - WOT 3400/5spd - 13.29@101.6 - World's fastest N/A FWD Beretta
96 "T56" LS/6spd/8.8 RWD swap - 13.45@104.7 lol
GEARHEAD dezign youtube
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ifixalot
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Location: Deerfield Illinois

Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by ifixalot »

Yes my old station wagon had a th400 in it but it was the long-shaft so I couldn't use it in my 68 Camaro. Sorry I didn't see your comment until now.
That is an appropriate name form a camping trailer. It brings to mind wide open spaces and countryside to spend time in.
On the other hand, I was joking with the wife while on the road about the trailers that are named, "Raptor", "Avenger" and for the faint of heart,
the Minnie. LOL, Who comes up with these some of these names?


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woody90gtz
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Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by woody90gtz »

Few things to catch up on...I took the headlights apart and added LED DRL strips from ebay. Turned out pretty nice. Did them as long term testing to see if the quality is decent for me to use red ones in my Camaro tails.
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Finished up my wheel well liner project to add more plastic to block salt and water from washing away the Fluid Film rust prevention. Welded some tabs on the bed struts and used j-nuts to keep the Tahoe liners in place better than last year's zipties. haha
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Added 2in BORA spacers to give the rear liners some more room and to help the aesthetics a little. Trucks look dumb if the wheels aren't flush with the fenders.Good ol USA-made BORA actually machined them incorrectly, so I had to "lathe" my axles with an air belt sander. FYI, idling in 4th gear on jackstands is about 30mph.
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91 "SS" - WOT 3400/5spd - 13.29@101.6 - World's fastest N/A FWD Beretta
96 "T56" LS/6spd/8.8 RWD swap - 13.45@104.7 lol
GEARHEAD dezign youtube
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Rettax3
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Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by Rettax3 »

Looks good! Nice touch on the LED headlights -I've almost done a similar mod to the 'old' Z-26, but with the 'louvers' (cut egg-crate grills) over the lights, the effect would be somewhat wasted. The Yellow Indy is waiting for me to transplant a set of E36 lights sans the outer lens, like the GTU has -I just have to cut the outer lenses off and fab the brackets up. That will leave exactly zero stock headlights on any of my Berettas... Huh.

The tire spacing looks right on that. Totally agree on the too-narrow-for-cool stock look. Also not a fan of 'hill-billy hang-out', so I gotta say you spaced those just about perfect. Any more than that and you might be obligated to install a gun-rack in the back window, any less and why bother? :good: Keep posting, some day I might grow up and need a truck too! Nice to see some good ideas floating around... :D


1989 SuperCharged 3800 Srs-II (First)Six-Speed GTU
1990 Turbo 3.4 5-Speed T-Type
1990 4.0L 4-Cam 32-Valve V-8 5-Speed Indy GTi (Project)
1990 Stock(!) 3.1 MPFI Auto Indy
1995 LA1/L82 4T60E Z-26
1995 3.4 DOHC Turbo 5-Speed Z-26
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woody90gtz
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Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by woody90gtz »

Apparently my plumb bob lies, because 2in should have been perfectly flush like the front, but it appears 1.75 would have been better. Optical illusion maybe?

More stuff done now too. Was working on a cut down Tahoe roof rack, so I improved the paint on the roof first. Used 2k rattle cans for a total cost of $120. It aint perfect, but it's pretty good...and more importantly DONE. Quickly. I was worried about the SEM clear blending solvent on 2001 paint, but it melted in pretty well.
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Also saw a post where the half ton guys put Tahoe rear bars on their pickups. Modified their plan a bit and made it work with the 11.5 by using 92+ Beretta FE& endlinks with some angle iron brackets and exhaust clamps. It's absolutely amazing how much better it handles with the rear bar. Similar to the improvement in the Beretta when I added the Addco. Night and day...and for under $100 total.
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91 "SS" - WOT 3400/5spd - 13.29@101.6 - World's fastest N/A FWD Beretta
96 "T56" LS/6spd/8.8 RWD swap - 13.45@104.7 lol
GEARHEAD dezign youtube
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Rettax3
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Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by Rettax3 »

That would be cool just with the upgraded performance, but the fact that you used Beretta parts (and rare ones at that!) to do it? Priceless! :D


1989 SuperCharged 3800 Srs-II (First)Six-Speed GTU
1990 Turbo 3.4 5-Speed T-Type
1990 4.0L 4-Cam 32-Valve V-8 5-Speed Indy GTi (Project)
1990 Stock(!) 3.1 MPFI Auto Indy
1995 LA1/L82 4T60E Z-26
1995 3.4 DOHC Turbo 5-Speed Z-26
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woody90gtz
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Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by woody90gtz »

We had 6-10 inches in the forecast this week and got 30. haha.
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Wifey works in the ER and the plow hadn't been through yet at 7am, but didn't want to wake the baby up for me to drive her to work...so she tried it in the Subaru. Should have known better... It's a slight downhill grade and I thought it might make it if she gave it hell and got some good momentum, but I think the traction control kicked in. New stuff sucks. So I got to pull her out and blaze a trail for her. Truck was a champ. Check out the video.
https://youtu.be/XmU8Bj3KHzg
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A few days later, I finally got a chance to play in the snow with the dogs. They didn't really have any room to run at the park, so I made some room. The sun had compacted the 30 to maybe 18in of heavy stuff and I think the truck had to work harder in that than it did the fluffy 30. A rear LSD and good tires really work wonders though.
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I priced snow tires for the Sube and the cheapest stuff available was $960 with steelies and sensors. Ouch. Blizzaks and generic aluminum wheels were closer to $1500. And for how often you'd actually want them it seems pretty steep. Have to figure out how to turn off the traction control when needed and retest.

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We have 2-3 inches of rain in the forecast and it's been cold, so most of that snow is still there even though it's sun-compacted. So for the first time ever, I borrowed a roof rake to get some weight off. When I replaced the roof I used 5/8ply with the double-U clips between all the sheets so I've never worried about weight. But that's HEAVY snow up there now that will just soak up the rain and then supposed to re-freeze right after the rain. So I figure an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Used the truck as my step ladder and it worked pretty well. Funny how the daytime running lights look better at night than daytime. And there was some facebook hero lecturing about how LED bulbs in reflector housings are just as severe as murder...so I got a picture of the cutoff with the LEDs. These are 2-chip Sealight LED bulbs that are supposedly the same focal point as halogens...and they work pretty damn well. I know Jon and Chris bought the same ones...and I just put a set in the Beretta too.
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91 "SS" - WOT 3400/5spd - 13.29@101.6 - World's fastest N/A FWD Beretta
96 "T56" LS/6spd/8.8 RWD swap - 13.45@104.7 lol
GEARHEAD dezign youtube
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woody90gtz
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Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by woody90gtz »

Little video showing off the truck and mods: https://youtu.be/LoIVAp3vnXc

And some 5th wheel towing action: https://youtu.be/EOCMIUlbJ6Y
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91 "SS" - WOT 3400/5spd - 13.29@101.6 - World's fastest N/A FWD Beretta
96 "T56" LS/6spd/8.8 RWD swap - 13.45@104.7 lol
GEARHEAD dezign youtube
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woody90gtz
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Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by woody90gtz »

The truck actually let me down...so the blazer had to pick up the slack. haha

https://youtu.be/Kuo9RUVoHCU


91 "SS" - WOT 3400/5spd - 13.29@101.6 - World's fastest N/A FWD Beretta
96 "T56" LS/6spd/8.8 RWD swap - 13.45@104.7 lol
GEARHEAD dezign youtube
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Rettax3
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Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by Rettax3 »

:D Nice. "I would rather drive a Chevy towing a Chevy than drive a... Never mind." :lol:

Z69 does look pretty good, rigs like that always look good after the proper mud-bath. Delco makes decent starters, alternators, brake parts. Not always the BEST, but for the value, hard to beat for sure. Our shop ended up with an 'in' with a distributor -the Office Manager and myself kept it going for a while too, getting better quality like that at a better price for the customers -kind always made my day a little brighter, like I was getting away with something good. I doubt the current staff at that shop is bothering though -just throwing in Crapa an O'Really? junk because it is easier to deal with them and some of their Commercial-side people were actually decent.

I can't believe how big Waverly is getting. Awesome she is having fun with you in the garage. :good:


1989 SuperCharged 3800 Srs-II (First)Six-Speed GTU
1990 Turbo 3.4 5-Speed T-Type
1990 4.0L 4-Cam 32-Valve V-8 5-Speed Indy GTi (Project)
1990 Stock(!) 3.1 MPFI Auto Indy
1995 LA1/L82 4T60E Z-26
1995 3.4 DOHC Turbo 5-Speed Z-26
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woody90gtz
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Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by woody90gtz »

Yeah, I took the Blazer to a charity car wash last week and it looks god awful clean. I'll be fixing that soon in another video. :wink:

I'm glad Waverly seems to like the garage. I was hoping to get me a little gearhead.


91 "SS" - WOT 3400/5spd - 13.29@101.6 - World's fastest N/A FWD Beretta
96 "T56" LS/6spd/8.8 RWD swap - 13.45@104.7 lol
GEARHEAD dezign youtube
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woody90gtz
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Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by woody90gtz »

Oh yeah, and I did some more hauling a little while back.

https://youtu.be/vbZVnEziYbM


91 "SS" - WOT 3400/5spd - 13.29@101.6 - World's fastest N/A FWD Beretta
96 "T56" LS/6spd/8.8 RWD swap - 13.45@104.7 lol
GEARHEAD dezign youtube
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woody90gtz
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Re: Silverado build 3.0...or should I say 8.1

Post by woody90gtz »

Been wanting to do some trailer burnies for quite a while now (figured I can use the trailer brakes as a line lock). I bought some junk tires not too long after I put the helical LSD in the truck and have never gotten around to playing with them.

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The good news: first test showed it doesn't wheel hop with street tires on blacktop (it can hop pretty bad in snow with knobby tires).

The bad news: the clutch does NOT like repeated clutch dumps, in 3rd or even 2nd. It was slipping pretty bad. Drove home ok, and this whole week it has been fine, but I definitely took some miles off it. It may be the original at 172k I'm not sure.

I'm going to look at the hydraulics and see if there's a restriction in them like 90-91 Berettas and 98-02 Camaros. Cause it breaks the tires loose fine when you punch it in gear. There's a brand of master cylinder (unlike the stock one) that's a pinlock attachment where I can use an AN adapter. I don't see one for the slave, but it looks like I can drill and tap it NPT for an AN adapter.

Check out the video...
https://youtu.be/ToRPnjugT1M


91 "SS" - WOT 3400/5spd - 13.29@101.6 - World's fastest N/A FWD Beretta
96 "T56" LS/6spd/8.8 RWD swap - 13.45@104.7 lol
GEARHEAD dezign youtube
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