Kbuskill's 2008 Burb LTZ "MOD" Thread

Geotrash said:

Man, you guys are packing it in!

Last time I was at Devils Tower was in about ‘96, driving my old ‘82 Celica and the temperature was -20°F that evening.

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kbuskill said:

Pikes peak
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Day 12 in the bag.

Tomorrow I have nothing, zero, nada planned. Probably just rest and recuperate. We leave for St. Louis early Friday morning heading back home to Florida.

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kbuskill said:

Pikes peak
View attachment 475085View attachment 475086View attachment 475087View attachment 475088View attachment 475089

Day 12 in the bag.

Tomorrow I have nothing, zero, nada planned. Probably just rest and recuperate. We leave for St. Louis early Friday morning heading back home to Florida.

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Geotrash said:

Not much snow up there for this time of year. Wow.

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Fless said:

Did you have a hot chocolate and a high altitude donut?

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kbuskill said:

Nope, looked around at everything that could be seen from up there, ran through the gift shop quickly and back onto the train.

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kbuskill said:

Well the Phoenix Automotive Headunit arrived Thursday, May 15th, less than 2 full weeks from purchase date on the 3rd.

Got it installed today, now I have to learn how to use the stupid thing... lol

It is kind of like getting a new phone, I have to learn where everything is and how to get to it without going around my butt to get to my elbow.

Here are a few pics...

This is the before pic with the Kenwood
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Here is a pic showing the original bezel next to the new one to compare the "woodgrain" matchView attachment 457354

A night pic showing the side buttons that I color matched to the rest of the buttons in the truck. There is a menu to change colors, they are RGB LED and there are many options, you can even set it to cycle through the colors based on accelerator position. @Doubeleive would have red buttons constantly... lol
View attachment 457355

This is basically the same pic but with the flash on. You can see the Android Auto navigation and the music playing at the bottom right as well as the A/C controls.
View attachment 457356

Another color match comparison after install.
View attachment 457357

There are so many menus and settings and layers to this thing. I expect it to take a while.to really get used to it.

I will say there are Zero installation instructions, which isn't really a big deal if you have ever installed stereos before, but there is a lot of wires and options for plugging in different harnesses and what not depending on what you truck came with.

Rear seat screen is functional but it basically just mirrors the front screen on the tiny little useless screen in the back. Today was the first time I have opened that screen in many years and probably the last time for many more... lol I just wanted to see if it worked.

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pwtr02ss said:

Awesome trip. We've road tripped to nearly everyone of those places you've visited so far. Thank you for sharing!

You knocked out a ton of things along way!

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89Suburban said:

How is this unit holding up for you? Any thoughts or issues?

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kbuskill said:

It has been a busy 2 weeks for sure. Definitely one to remember.

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pwtr02ss said:

How many miles so far?

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kbuskill said:

Made it home yesterday about 17:00 (5pm) Eastern time.

Total miles traveled 7,086 miles.
The Burb now has 354,155 miles on her.
I probably should have kept track of the total gallons of gas used so I could get an average for the entire trip but I didn't. I did check the mpg at every fill up and it averaged between 16-22 mpg depending on terrain. Not too bad for a 2008 Burb with 350k+ miles and a 3:73 rear end running 75-85+ mph... IMO.

We had an absolutely great time. We crammed alot into a relatively short period of time.

I will say that getting to see the ineffable beauty in creation truly shows God's majesty in my opinion.

Romans 1:20 KJV
[20] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

The whole purpose of this trip for my family was to show my children some of the awe inspiring beauty that God created. I think it is fairly obvious that I believe in creation and not evolution, at least not macro evolution. With that being said I also believe the earth was destroyed by a flood. To me getting to see the beauty that God created, even out of destruction, is amazing. Beauty from ashes so to speak.

I know this may not align with everyone's world view, and that is ok. I'm not here to preach at anyone, just trying to share a little about how I feel and what the purpose and meaning of this trip was for my family.

I hope you guys enjoyed the pics along the way.

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swathdiver said:

Thanks for sharing Ken! Makes us want to finish our western vacation to many of the same places, this year!

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kbuskill said:

Forgot to post this when we did it a while back.

I replaced the rear sections of rubber hose going to the rear heater core as well as the plastic quick connect fittings at rear heater core.

I don't trust the plastic quick connects so I found some metal ones to replace them. I used a Fordham rotary tool to cut the crimps off of the factory lines where the metal meets the rubber and then removed the old rubber lines and replaced them with new hoses with a 90° bend at one end.

No picks of the work but it's just boring maintenance stuff.

Here are the parts I used to upgrade everything...


View attachment 474105
Gates 28471 90 Degree Molded Heater Hose 5/8"

Amazon.com: Gates 28471 90 Degree Molded Heater Hose : Automotive

Buy Gates 28471 90 Degree Molded Heater Hose: Heater - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

a.co

View attachment 474104
Dorman 800-409HP

https://a.co/d/ffCui4C

The factory plastic quick connects have a 90° bend in them and are crimped onto the rubber hose. I couldn't find a metal quick connect with a 90° bend. So my solution was to get the straight quick connects and get a hose with the 90° bend. This ended up working out great.

I will say that the 5/8" hose is slightly "loose" when slipped over the factory metal lines after cutting the crimps and removing the original hoses, but I just slipped the hose up over the "barb" that was left after cutting the crimp off and put a hose clamp on both sides of the "barb" and I haven't had any issues or leaks in the past month or so of running it like this. The cooling system is a relatively low pressure system at 15-20 psi so I don't forsee any issues and I don't have to worry about the plastic quick connects breaking and dumping all the coolant like the ones under the hood did.

I will also note that I don't think the plastic quick connects in the rear probably see as much of the extreme conditions that the ones under the hood do, since they aren't right over the top of the exhaust manifold like under the hood. The old plastic ones I removed from the rear didn't seem nearly as brittle as the ones up front, even with 350k miles on them.

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TheAutumnWind said:

thanks for sharing I am looking for more info on this

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kbuskill said:

I'm not sure what more info you are looking for. I listed the parts I used, if just forgot to take pictures... lol

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