Rocket Man's 02 Denali Build Thread AKA "THE BEAST"

[about20ninj45]

Let's go Cleveland!!!

 

[Tonyrodz]

Took a break the other day and went for a ride.

View attachment 83629

Nice bike, beautiful scenery. My daughter just moved to Oregon.

 

[Rocket Man]

Today I screwed my courage up to about a 9 and jumped into the valve train upgrade. New chrome moly dual valve springs, Vitron seals, Comp Cams rocker trunion upgrade and hardened pushrods. It was a helluva undertaking for me and took 10 hours total. I used the air compressor method to keep the valves in the closed position and it worked great except a couple times that I freaked myself out, when I accidentally forced open a couple valves as I was compressing a spring and had to quickly remove the spring compressor and pull up on the valve stem to close the valve and regain full air pressure before the valve dropped. Whew! And even though I tried my best not to, I dropped 2 valve spring keepers and luckily they went all the way to the ground. I had no extras in the kit. The compressor tool worked good except the dual springs were a ***** to keep lined up as I compressed them and I had a hard time getting the keepers in. I finally got pretty good by the time I was on #15 lol. The trunion upgrade gave me a bit of trouble as far as removing the old bearings but rebuilding was pretty straightforward. Here's some shots of me replacing the first spring and seal.

 

[Rocket Man]

here's some shots of the pushrods I used and the trunion upgrade process.

 

[67RS427]

Looks good man, great work... you certainly have courage and skill if you attempted this with the heads on the truck. I pulled my heads and don't think I'm even replacing springs, just seals. I decided to buy a set of LS7 lifters however and will need pushrods too... Who's did you go with?

Any new videos? Love the build man. Hopefully mine will be driving next week, I'm jealous.

 

[Rocket Man]

And here's the finished product in all it's beautiful glory. Don't those springs and rockers look badass? I'm glad I did this, peace of mind accomplished. No worries about sucking a valve now! Now for that camshaft...I'm still thinking I'll pay to have that done.

 

[Rocket Man]

Looks good man, great work... you certainly have courage and skill if you attempted this with the heads on the truck. I pulled my heads and don't think I'm even replacing springs, just seals. I decided to buy a set of LS7 lifters however and will need pushrods too... Who's did you go with?

Any new videos? Love the build man. Hopefully mine will be driving next week, I'm jealous.

I went with Vinci High Performance for this and my cam. Their "trucker" cam is the best-selling GM truck/ suv cam on the market. That's the one I went with.

 

[Rocket Man]

I'm also currently shopping for American Racing long tubes, anybody know who has the best price? List on the 1 3/4" with catted Y pipe is $1700 plus shipping. I'm reaching out to BlackBear to see if they'll give me a good price. So far it looks like Texas Speed has the best price.

 

[67RS427]

I'm also currently shopping for American Racing long tubes, anybody know who has the best price? List on the 1 3/4" with catted Y pipe is $1700 plus shipping. I'm reaching out to BlackBear to see if they'll give me a good price. So far it looks like Texas Speed has the best price.

I went with Kooks. Found a seller on eBay willing to make a deal... I can find the seller if your interested. Should be a little less than 1700 for both.

 

[95escahoe]

I'm also currently shopping for American Racing long tubes, anybody know who has the best price? List on the 1 3/4" with catted Y pipe is $1700 plus shipping. I'm reaching out to BlackBear to see if they'll give me a good price. So far it looks like Texas Speed has the best price.

I'm pretty sure Tony aka NorcalSS can get those long tubes


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