2002 Denali Camping Build

[Buggdave]

So here is my project, 2002 Denali. I Purchased from my work with 167,000 miles. Have all maintenance records since day one. All work was completed at the dealership up untill the last few years prior to me buying it. This will be our Camping Truck. With four boys, we will get good use out of it.

so off camping we went....

Got it home and did an oil change as well as replaced the rear glass gas shocks.

Brakes sucked! Investigated and found this on the rear rotors.

Obviously, the rear brakes were neglected. The rear calipers had got stuck.

 

[Buggdave]

Upgrade time, and I can’t leave well enough alone. Thanks to TYF, I upgraded the front to AC Delco NNBS police calipers and did NBS police calipers in the rear and new ACdelco rotors all the way around. New GoodRidge stainless steel flex brake lines while I was in there. The rear Nivomat Z55 shock had a tear, so upgrade the shock all the way around with Procomp shocks for 3” lift, delete Z55, install 2” spacer in the rear, New Moog Z71 Coil Springs and leveling keys upfront. I also installed longer front and rear swaybar links with poly bushings. Added a 1” poly bushing upfront so the Jounce stops site correct. Had my boys help me with the change out so they can learn how to maintain their own cars in the future.

Looks much better and stops good as well.

 

[Buggdave]

The steering wandered and was loose, so after some investigation, my next project was the front steering components. So while I was in there, I changed the Idler Arm, Idler Arm Bracket, Pitman arm. This lead to Tie rods and then to upper and lower control arms, all AC Delco. I went with Timken front wheel hubs and bearings. I rebuilt the power steering gear, retrofitted a rebuilt hydro boos set up with new power steering pump with the return feed for the hydroboost. All new hoses for the hydroboost and power steering pump and gear.

After new Cooper Discover 285/70/17 tires and an alignment, it drives great and stops fast!

 

[Buggdave]

And off camping we went

 

[Buggdave]

Now I wanted a little more out on my LQ4 so a Black Bear Autocal was next. I can tell you, best performance upgrade to date to the old beast. It breathed new life into the old girl.

Now with the Autocal EFANS were next. I purchased an OEM harness from Scottyboy. Purchased new Dorman Fans from amazon and after a little research, I decided to go a different route to trigger the Fan#2. Instead of intercepting the AC compressor trigger and using an interposing relay, I found that I could remove the auto recirculate function and use Pin 33 for the fan#2 control. Below is the settings from EFI Live and the wiring diagram I used.

Possible settings

Custom settings, 2005 truck,

My wiring changes

I also upgraded the stock intake tube to an Airaid MIT. I now have great throttle response and it no longer feels like a dog going up the mountain passes. Big shout out to Black Bear Performance!

 

[Buggdave]

As I said, I can't leave well enough alone so my next planned mod was Corvette Servo & Sonnex Super 4th Servo, TBSS intake and TBSS throttle body and TBSS fuel injectors. I found the full intake, TB & Injectors locally for $75. Because my Denali is a 2002, I do not need the expensive x-link, just some wiring changes for the TAC.

Because i wanted to use the TBSS fuel injectors, I needed to convert my connectors from the Multec II to EV6. They do make pre-wired adapters, but I did not want to go that route. I had all the tools to re-wire the EV6 connectors that came with the TBSS.

To save as much length of the original cables, i cut off the terminals after removing them from the Multec II connector.

I added new dust jackets and then new terminals.

Then into the new EV6 terminal. I followed a similar process for the new TBSS TB.

 

[Buggdave]

I did not want to convert to a return-less fuel rail. I happened to locate a Flex Fuel cross over fuel rail that did not have the extra hump it that prevented it from fitting on the TBSS intake but had the connection to connect to the black fuel rails with my fuel pressure regulator. With just a little trimming of the brackets it fit fine and I kept my return fuel system.

 

[Fless]

Nice work! Should serve you well; enjoy the time you have with your boys. Note that your OE Z55 rear shocks were not Nivomats.

 

[Tonyrodz]

Glad you got your boys involved in the repair work. Some quality father/son(s) bonding time right there.

 

[Buggdave]

After installing the throttle body, I would get a reduced engine power code. I pulled out my TechII and noticed that the APP and the TP sensors were not matching at WOT. The percentage would follow each other up until 95%. The REP code would be set when the difference was larger than 3%.

I opened up the TB and noticed that the internal gear for the throttle blade had a hard stop preventing it from reaching 100%.

After a little filling I was able to get the black gear to turn till the TP sensor read 100%. Finally the APP and TP sensor match all the way to 100%.

 

[Buggdave]

Thanks for the kind words, over the years we have had fun working on the Denali together. We have also been some cool places with the Yukon as well.

 

[Rocket Man]

Nice work. I love my 02 Denali, I’ve put a lot of work into it. If you get bored you can check out my build thread. There’s a link at the bottom of this post, if you don’t see it just rotate your device. Looking forward to more here. Maybe one day this will thread will run 380-something pages too…

 

[Buggdave]

After about 20k of dirt roads later, my tie rods were shot. So I got some Kryptonite rods, wow, these things were beefy!

Easy install too.

 

[Buggdave]

Thanks Mark, I have read your thread and have used it for reference on a few of my mods. I have been workin gon this Yukon for 5 years now and I am trying to finally document a few of them here in hope that they will help others.

 

[Rocket Man]

After about 20k of dirt roads later, my tie rods were shot. So I got some Kryptonite rods, wow, these things were beefy!
View attachment 353832
Easy install too.

If you don’t mind me asking, what did those Kryptonites run you?

 

[Buggdave]

Beside the tie rods taking a beating, the procomp shocks did not like me driving 70 mph down desert roads. They were shot. I had been eying the AFP coil over conversion for years and finally Black Friday rolled around and I pulled the trigger.

I went with the double adjustable Viking c205 shocks with 750lb springs for the front and d215 shocks for the rear. I also replaced the z71 springs in the rear and did a standard spring with an airbag for towing.
the install was not that complicated with the instructions provided.

 

[Buggdave]

@Rocket Man, I think I paid about $300 at the time for the tie rods.

 

[Buggdave]

The coilover shocks were a game changer for my handling and adjustability. I wanted to find some FOX or Kings (for off road cycling) but because I am trying to stay about stock height, I was never able to find a pair that would work. The smallest I could locate was 6" travel but this would put my CV axles at a larger angle than I wanted. With my CV axles parallel to the ground, my measurements from upper shock mount to lower control arm was about 16" with out the adapters from AFP. The top reinforcement and bottom adapters take up about 3.75", so I wanted to find a shock that had a ride height of about 12". This had to have and an extended body height of 14.5" and compressed body height of 9." with 5" of travel if I wanted to have equal down and up travel in the shock. I found a spreadsheet calculator created by Richard from AFP that helped me calculate my spring rates and compare a few different shock manufactures. I have been running the viking shocks now for two years and they have held up reasonably well. I have had to replace one shock because the rebound was no longer functioning and finding a rebuild kit for the warrior line of viking shocks was not an option. All in all, i would do the conversion again because of how much better the Yukon handles.

 

[Rocket Man]

The coilover shocks were a game changer for my handling and adjustability. I wanted to find some FOX or Kings (for off road cycling) but because I am trying to stay about stock height, I was never able to find a pair that would work. The smallest I could locate was 6" travel but this would put my CV axles at a larger angle than I wanted. With my CV axles parallel to the ground, my measurements from upper shock mount to lower control arm was about 16" with out the adapters from AFP. The top reinforcement and bottom adapters take up about 3.75", so I wanted to find a shock that had a ride height of about 12". This had to have and an extended body height of 14.5" and compressed body height of 9." with 5" of travel if I wanted to have equal down and up travel in the shock. I found a spreadsheet calculator created by Richard from AFP that helped me calculate my spring rates and compare a few different shock manufactures. I have been running the viking shocks now for two years and they have held up reasonably well. I have had to replace one shock because the rebound was no longer functioning and finding a rebuild kit for the warrior line of viking shocks was not an option. All in all, i would do the conversion again because of how much better the Yukon handles.

I have considered a coil over conversion for mine and probably will one day. I just about bought a used setup from a member here but they had 1-2” of drop from stock and I’m running drop spindles already so I need a stock height setup. And they’re not cheap brand new. It’s good to hear someone else with good results. The torsion bars on these trucks is one of their drawbacks.

 

[Buggdave]

I regularly adjust my settings on the shocks depending on if I am towing, offroading or daily driving. This feature is why i like the double adjustable Viking shocks. The the other area that has helped handling was the addition of the Hellwig swaybar for the front. I noticed that my OEM sway bar was not performing as well as I expected when traveling some road construction on my daily commute. I adjusted my shock settings (Rebound and Compression) but this did not produce satisfactory results. After installing the Hellwig product, I can say i noticed improved stability when traveling over the uneven portions of the road. The roll and pitch of the vehicle as I hit the uneven areas of the road surface, was drastically improved. I will update the rear sway bar in the future but right now the need is not as imediate as the front was.