Newbie looking to make my 02 Yukon my personality.

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ijhubert

TYF Newbie
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Phoenix, Arizona
Hey all!

I’m a newbie to this forum and to trucks in general. Got this 02 Yukon SLE 4WD from my father-in-law’s brother for a deal that was too good to pass up.

8690D741-B5E7-4169-8445-D677BECC6A4F.jpeg

It came to me bone stock was bought brand new and he’s been it’s only owner. It’s seen some salt in CO winters but was primarily used as a grocery getter as he already had a work truck. So she’s been sitting in the garage for the better part of 20 years and only has 130k miles on her!

I plan to use her as my do all truck. I’d like to be able to daily drive her , and take her on some moderate trails, as well as taking her on hunting and camping trips, perhaps in an overland type fashion. Going to try to do it on a bit of a budget where it makes sense. I also plan to upgrade the cosmetics to make her look a bit more modern by doing a chrome delete and doing black trim.

She does have some issues I’ll need to address:
Needed new tires as the Contis on there were down to 3/16. I wanted to get some new wheels anyway. Put on some Black Rock 997 Type 8 16”x8” wheels on some Trailfinder All Terrain 285/75/R16.
The big 24” wheels with chrome aren’t quite my style, and I like the look of the gloss black Black Rock wheels. Luckily in this respect I quite like the look of these more budget wheels and tires. Just a bit of rubbing right now at full lock. Have to do some trimming.

She’ll need some new ball joints, and I’m planning to do a full refresh of the front suspension. Steering isn’t too bad right now, but I’m afraid with the bigger tires the notorious steering slop will start to creep in. I want to do the Kryptonite Death Grip steering kit as well as a Kryptonite UCA 1”-3” lift kit. Just want to have something that I know will be sturdy.

I want to do a turbo and a fuel system upgrade eventually to give her some more power.

I’d love to hear any suggestions, success, or horror stories with any of these upgrades, or products. Glad to be on the journey to GMT800 nirvana!
 

Rocket Man

Mark
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Welcome to the forum from Oregon. I’d say you can check out my build thread on my 02 Denali but mines geared toward a lowered street version as opposed to an over lander. I’m running a Whipple and a cam for power adders. If you’d like to check it out, the link is in my signature at the bottom of this post.
 

OR VietVet

Multnomah Falls
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Welcome to the forum and good luck on the upgrades. You might want to get with Black Bear performance, in our vendors section, to see about a tune for the ECM. That alone can wake up the power without bolting on other parts.
 
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ijhubert

ijhubert

TYF Newbie
Joined
Feb 23, 2023
Posts
8
Reaction score
29
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Welcome to the forum from Oregon. I’d say you can check out my build thread on my 02 Denali but mines geared toward a lowered street version as opposed to an over lander. I’m running a Whipple and a cam for power adders. If you’d like to check it out, the link is in my signature at the bottom of this post.
I’ll check it out! Thanks!
 

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