Just Fishing's 09 Tahoe Build thread

[iamdub]

Time to do my suspension.
Yesterday I slapped on new rear shocks, I kept the PN from some research i did a while back.
Plan is to keep the "premium ride", so I sourced the OEM components.
Rear shocks are easy, and I had some help finding/confirming the correct PN for the front struts.

Codes I have,
PREMIUM SMOOTH RIDE CHAS PKG(ZW7)
6PB COMPONENT FRT LH COMPTR SEL SUSP(6PB)
7PB COMPONENT FRT RH COMPTR SEL SUSP(7PB)


Rear shocks resolve to: 25871225 aka 540-433

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KSA28Q

$69 each (went up by $1 )

Front Struts
20765171 aka 540-460

ACDelco GM Original Equipment 540-460 Shock Absorber | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for ACDelco GM Original Equipment 540-460 Shock Absorber at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Price went up since I ordered them, I paid $86 each

@S1W99

 

[Just Fishing]

Got one side done last night.

I started by pulling the brakes apart to get more space, plus i know the spindle needs to drop out of the way.

Top ball joint popped really quickly.

Bottom joint, my fork got stuck.
So I used my old air hammer and one of the bits to slap on the side of the spindle a little.

Then i noticed i could easily slap the bottom of the ball joint shaft.

And that did the trick.

From there, i pulled the drive shaft for room to press the ball joint out.

I used the air hammer and one of the bits that came with my old air hammer, meant to remove tile etc.

Used that to remove the top plate/holder from the ball joint.
Knowing the ball joint needs to be pressed down.

Then the same thing on the bottom seal to make room for the press support tube.

Then after fiddling around with my astro press i had something that would work.

Heated tue control arm up a bit with my mapp gas plumbers torch, then out with the impact to remove it.


Removal, i needed my big air cat nitro impact!

It needed some pressure.

Once out the fun of trying to figure out what attachments i need to reinstall.

Some youtube needed for both removal and reinstall.

One i had the attachments figured out, i heated the control arm up after cleaning the control arm up so it installs cleanly.

Again, a bit of pressure was needed to install the ball joint, but i didn't need the max setting on the big impact.

 

[Just Fishing]

For upper control arm,

I started by cleaning up the alignment parts, then using a nice paint marker i marked where the alignment was.

And marked each adjuster as 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
Just incase things got confusing

Size was 21mm.

The front control arm bolt did not want to budge.

Lots of cleaning and wd40, and finally i was able to get it out by squeezing my compact impact in between the control arm bolts.

Back and forth, until the bolt started coming out.


Then i caused a problem.

In the frame there are these little pins that the alignment plates use..

Well one decided to come out.

Looking at the pin, i assume its pressed in.

And i was able to seat it using a punch.
But it kept falling out on me.

I got it to stay there, and used some black rtv to hold it...

I think there should be a clip on the pin to help retain it, but i can't find anything in the pile of ball joint scraps it probably fell into.

I'll do some searching to see if i can find the missing piece/replacement.

But the alignment place that i use shouldn't have any issues fixing it.

These guys know their shit, and they are the only shop that i trust 100%.


Anyways, the upper is installed, bolted in, and the alignment marks are pretty much right where they were.

I reinstalled the bolt and the plate coated in some brake caliper grease to prevent future corrosion.

 

[Just Fishing]

With this, i also replaced the strut.

This was the driver side, and the one that had a clear ball joint failure/slop.

The hoe also had a driver side lean.


I was planning to use a 2in leveling lift, the type that mounts to the top of the strut.

While preparing to cut off the top of the strut retaining bolts to clearance the frame after the lift spacer is installed.

I noticed something...

The top of the strut has a bevel to it.
And the frame has a matching bevel.

Almost like the frame is meant to support the top of the strut and to center it in the frame.

The lifting spacer does not have any such provisions.

So I'm not going to use that spacer.

I'm going with the one that sits on the bottom of the strut instead.


Nice part is i can drive the hoe a little until next weekend when I'm planning to do the other side.

On all 4 wheels, the lean is gone.

And I didn't do the springs...

Looking at the factory service manual, you just need to pop the tire rod from the spindle, and from there the strut can be removed straight down.

Originally i was planning to do the springs because of the lean.

So it's good to know, ball joints will affect how the hoe sits.


And both upper snd lower ball joints look original.
Gm part numbers and all.

Boots were good, but both of the non greaseable ball joints were toast.

 

[Just Fishing]

Engine break-in is still going very well, as is the transmission break-in.

I already removed transmission cooler line filter and cut it open to see whats inside.
Looks like things seating, and nothing odd yet.
I'll probably drop the pan this weekend if I have the motivation after doing the passenger sides ball joints and strut.

Otherwise, I need to remove another 5 thousands from my rocker shims/add more preload.
I also would love to dump those lifters.
I hate them.

Extra oiling feature sucks ass.
and the preload requirements are confusing.

but I'm not wanting to touch anything again until next winter if I can wait.
+ I would need to source another head gasket.
I hear I can reuse my head gasket, but I'm not about to mess around with it.


brings me to this thing.

Pardon Our Interruption

Breather for the valley cover!
Seems deliberate to pick up air from the center and not pick up oil from the camshaft slinging it around.
It might help, assuming the lifters are just pumping and spraying the top of the valve covers with oil.

 

[Just Fishing]

Better view of it.

 

[iamdub]

brings me to this thing.

Pardon Our Interruption

View attachment 373100

Breather for the valley cover!
Seems deliberate to pick up air from the center and not pick up oil from the camshaft slinging it around.
It might help, assuming the lifters are just pumping and spraying the top of the valve covers with oil.

Git it. Git it now.

 

[swathdiver]

Then i caused a problem.

In the frame there are these little pins that the alignment plates use..

Well one decided to come out.

Looking at the pin, i assume its pressed in.

And i was able to seat it using a punch.
But it kept falling out on me.

You shoulda stopped by and grabbed some from my garage! I bought a bunch in case we needed them.

 

[Just Fishing]

So far everything is going decently well, I'm at about 900 miles since i started keeping track.
so, it's really close to 1,000 on the new engine and rebuilt transmission.

I'm still seeing a little material in the filter, so I'm keeping an eye on it.
I think I kept this last oil a bit longer than I should have, opting to change filters instead.

I'm using VR1 and it's not cheap...

I suspect much of the material I'm seeing is because I honed the cylinders lower than I should have, meaning the skirt is probably being "polished"...
I also ran a half can of seafoam in the oil before this oil change.

Did some driving and some engine deceleration to help suck that oil up the cylinder walls to help flush it out.

I read that it's a good idea to help get the crud out during and after engine break-in.



I also had two catch cans running, one for the inlet side and the outlet side.
both cans sitting right next to each other on the driver side.

I wanted to confirm that oil was not coming in through the throttle body.
And so far it looks great.

So last night I changed the catch can setup around.
Since I'm still getting a bit of oil through the driver side valve cover, I connected the two catch cans inline to be sure oil isn't making it past the catch can.

the intake side catch can, I set it up so it was pretty much even on both sides, so flipping the inlet and outlet shouldn't make much of a difference.
This works for my needs right now, so I'll continue to monitor.


When i had my engine apart, I noticed signs that a little trash made it to the rear cam bearing.
It wasn't Terrible but I could have probably caught my nail on it
the rest of the bearing looked great, and still silver in color so I opted to just run with it.

Me now thinking I should have just replaced the cam bearings.
but it will be the second place I look after the piston skirts if I keep seeing material.

Anyways, I keep going on.
So far it's going great.
and the transmission hasn't given me any headaches yet.
(*knocks on wood*)

I also love the new height with the 2in lift in the front.
I can actually get my fat ass under the tahoe, and I didn't need to jack it up to change the oil and filter.
I'll get some pictures of the new height soon.

Planning to do some driving this weekend.

 

[Just Fishing]

And i received my lumbar support gears about a week ago.
I haven't yet dug into the seat to start the replacement, but I plan on doing that soon.
But probably not this weekend.

I was sort of hoping they would send a new "Ring" or outer gear with the kit since mine has a split in it.
but no such luck.
I think I'll glue it and toss it in the passenger side when I get around to it.

 

[Just Fishing]

So power lumbar...

this was really easy.
First thing is you need to pull the seat back off.

Covered in this video: @ about 22.22

Once you have the back off.
you're going to have something like this.

Screws to that cover are those weird square bit that every dewalt toolbit set has had a bunch of, but I never find any actual use since most things are torqx now.

https://www.gruvenparts.com/ replacement gears,

Cover removed,

Green thing removed,

There were little bits of white gears sitting in here, but I already cleaned it out last time i had this apart.


New brass gears installed; I added some lube, so they functioned smoothly.

It took some work to get the gears to mesh and for everything to go back in, I used a small pick to rotate the gears until it was wanting to line up.

 

[Just Fishing]

I'll also add that this the "Ring" or outside white gear in the image has a split in it.
Like it had too much pressure at one time, and it cracked under the strain, then likely turned the little white gears into powder/goo.

I reused that gear.
So far, I don't see any negative effects, and the lumbar seems to be working just fine.

 

[Just Fishing]

This weekend I had a great time with the tahoe.
New suspension worked out great while doing some decent speed down the dirt roads on the way to the ol' property/my little piece of desert.

2in lift on the front is working out fantastic.
I love the new stance.
Almost a tiny bit lower on the rear than the front when loaded down with a couple hundred lbs of gear.

I picked up a somewhat cheap canopy that's meant to partially suppprt off the back or the side of a vehicle

It worked ok for the most part, but it did have some difficulty with wind later in the day.

The setup,

Overall, I like it, and I'm thinking I'll keep the canopy.
but i'll probably add one of those easy up canopy things later on.

the last one i had was much easier to deal with, especially when taking it back down.

You can't really make it out in the image, but here are two of my targets out in the distance.

A good day overall.
I had a nice selection of antiques out with me that have very limited trigger time, and I'm a history nerd when it comes to pews.

I brought white and red spray paint to touch up the targets.
That day, Red seemed to be the color.
White ran too much into the background for my liking.


And speaking of Red, I am a lobster today.

 

[Just Fishing]

So, one of the things that keeps annoying me, my freaking lifters.
Doing some reading on the subject, it suggests that standard LS7 lifters can have issues with "Race" springs.
Such as my Pac double springs that came with my AFR heads.

one solution would be to change them to something like "Morel #7717" lifters.
Much tighter clearances, and lowers that preload range from .050 - .100 to something like .050 - .080
Summit seems to offer them under their branding.

Pardon Our Interruption

Anyways,
continuing down the "add more preload"
I'll probably just swap out the springs in the end.

 

[Just Fishing]

Ok so a decision has been made...
I tried adding thicker oil to see if it helped the lifters, and that's a "sort of".
Now I think it's acting like I have too much preload...


So, I'm going with the lifter change out option using the ones above.


Fun little thing about these lifters, they are still LS7 lifters in the bottom, but they are identical to the original non dod lifters in every way.
I discovered this while cleaning the new lifters to prepare for install later when I'm motivated to tear into things again.
One of the retaining clips came off and went into the void in my office, so I went hunting for a replacement and found it with the original high mileage lifters!

Example,
Original lifter on the left, and a lifter identical to to the ones i have currently installed.

Main differences is the oil feed hole.
On the original lifters, the feed hole is lined up with the roller

Then the pushrod feed hole is on a solid machined piece, the oil feed hole being on the side

From my Original lifters + the new lifters, this should be pointed away from the oil feed hole in the lifter body.

 

[Just Fishing]

Then the current lifters,
Feed hole is on the side of the roller.

Oil feed comes from this little restrictor plate.

New lifter,

Identical to the originals, even down to the retaining clip!
And just like the originals, the fitting is very tight.
it takes a little effort to get everything to come apart and slide back together again.
Clearances seem a bit tighter throughout the whole set.

I also read that your supposed to line that lifter body oil feed hole directly into the oil gally.

Something I got from the corvette forum, and as long as they are installed correctly, they should hopefully quiet my valvetrain down.

 

[Just Fishing]

I'm slowly planning out the next task of swapping out my lifters for different ones.
Things have stabled out a bit using 15w40 big rig oil

I have this camshaft now.

Pardon Our Interruption

www.summitracing.com

Using 1.8ratio full rollers, I'm happy with it at low rpm.
that in turn grants me some pretty decent gas mileage I can idle everywhere pretty much.

I'm increasing my quench from .040 to .050, that lowers my static compression ratio from like 10.3 down to about 10.1.
Part of that is the lack of a headgasket being available + that should let me get a little looser on the fuel requirements.

My last drive i had to top off in the middle of nowhere.
I paid a premium price for premium fuel.
but the Tahoe let me know that was not premium.

So, this would be a fantastic time to slap in a different camshaft.
I find reference to this "Truck Norris camshaft"

Brian Tooley Racing TRUCKNORRIS BTR Camshafts | Summit Racing

Free Shipping - BTR Camshafts with qualifying orders of $99. Shop Camshafts at Summit Racing.

www.summitracing.com

But it doesn't seem like much of an upgrade, it even has lower lift!

 

[Just Fishing]

I spent some time opening up my old/orignal tourque converter to see what kind of condition it was in, plus I wanted this fancy little part for a wall hanging or clock.

One thing I learned, cut the weld.
I opted to do that after watching some youtube videos.
I went through 3 cutting discs with my die grinder before I broke out the Sawzall.
Once I drained my three Dewalt standard 20v batteries, I migrated to the airsaw.

Getting that weld out is important as the two outer halves are sandwiched together and fit with some pretty tight precision.

I cut through the weld, and through the inner wall.
Left with just a ring that I had to remove in order to pull the part out above.


Here is the original clutch.
Has some material left!

Overall everything was in pretty good shape.
Meaning I don't believe the trash I found in the cooler lines came from this converter..


Another part that sits between the two turbine halfs rides on a bearing on both sides.

I pulled the cover off of it to show the inner one-way clutch/sprag thing it has.

interesting setup, I haven't fully wrapped my head around how the lockup clutch applies, however on the back of the clutch disc, there is a billet looking piston thing that the input shaft appears to seal on.

Without the transmission apart I can't see how it actually functions, but it seems pretty simple.

The converter body half has some pretty cool looking splines, but I tossed that, it's too big and heavy to do anything with.

 

[Sparksalot]

I spent some time opening up my old/orignal tourque converter to see what kind of condition it was in, plus I wanted this fancy little part for a wall hanging or clock.

View attachment 382613

One thing I learned, cut the weld.
I opted to do that after watching some youtube videos.
I went through 3 cutting discs with my die grinder before I broke out the Sawzall.
Once I drained my three Dewalt standard 20v batteries, I migrated to the airsaw.

Getting that weld out is important as the two outer halves are sandwiched together and fit with some pretty tight precision.

I cut through the weld, and through the inner wall.
Left with just a ring that I had to remove in order to pull the part out above.


Here is the original clutch.
Has some material left!
View attachment 382614


Overall everything was in pretty good shape.
Meaning I don't believe the trash I found in the cooler lines came from this converter..


Another part that sits between the two turbine halfs rides on a bearing on both sides.

View attachment 382615

I pulled the cover off of it to show the inner one-way clutch/sprag thing it has.

interesting setup, I haven't fully wrapped my head around how the lockup clutch applies, however on the back of the clutch disc, there is a billet looking piston thing that the input shaft appears to seal on.

Without the transmission apart I can't see how it actually functions, but it seems pretty simple.

The converter body half has some pretty cool looking splines, but I tossed that, it's too big and heavy to do anything with.

That's going to make a killer clock!

Add a pendulum for fun.

 

[Just Fishing]

Not much going on other than I have racked up some miles on the new transmission and engine setup.

also due to air conditioning issues in the garage I had lined the walls with the reflective bubble insulation that they sell at Home Depot & lowes.
It really helped with the AC, especially after I lined the back wall behind my ********* toolbox.
Sun beats down on that wall and really heats it up.
I still have dreams of lining the ceiling and completing the walls.


For my garage heater use, it really made a difference.
Garage heats much faster, and it's easy to keep it comfortable in the cold weather.

More of a difference than I thought, I figured I would need to coat the ceiling before I saw much difference.
I also added a ceiling fan above my work bench, that sits pretty much in front of the heater outlet.


Anyways, I'm hoping to begin work on the Tahoe soon.

I'm planning to lower the compression from something like 10.3:1 to 10.1:1 using head gasket with the thickness of .040 vs the .030 I have now.
I believe that should allow me to get away with regular fuel...

New lifters going in with that, plus I'm changing the PCV setup to that of one for a corvette that pulls gasses from the valley vs the current valve cover.
I'm planning to allow air to suck through both sides of the valve cover vs just the passenger side.
I'm hoping that will help with oil flow back into the pan, plus keeping the rockers nice and clean looking.

My dual catch can setup I currently have has shown it's worth this winter.
Limited driving since I don't commute adds moisture into the engine.

More than I thought it would!

first catch can always catches the oil, and I never see anything in the second can.
this winter I saw milky oil as expected in the first catch can, and then somewhat clean water in the second!
Only a tiny bit of oil made it past the first, but I'm going with this as being a good idea at this point.