01 Yukon Denali Build Thread

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drdave81

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I suppose it's time to do one of these. It's a 2001 Yukon Denali and had 194,700 miles on it. I bought it back in Oct 2020. I got it off someone who had picked it up in Colorado so it was almost rust free. Two little spots around the rear wheel wells. Mechanically it was in pretty good shape, you could tell a previous owner had kids judging by the stains in the carpets though. Some of the first things I did were to pull the seats and clean the carpets as best I could...... still not great though. Changed all the lights to LEDs, added a double din radio so I had a back up camera for hooking up our camper, and get rid of a tape deck lol. There were lots of little things before letting it sit for that first winter. I had picked it up before my lease on my 19 Ram was up so I'd have time to get it where I wanted it. Also, ended up being one less MI winter on the salty roads.
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The following spring, I had the two rust spots fixed and dropped it 2/4 with the belltech kit with helper bags.
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That summer I did the 07+ brake upgrade which was a big improvement over the old brakes, poly sway bar bushings front and rear. I picked up the DJM rear sway bar links, but ended up having to go back to the stock ones after many rounds of emails and phone calls with DJM. I could not get the right side to not contact the shock. DJM determined it was likely the brand of shock I had installed, which was Belltech. They said they hadn't tested it with that so assumed it was too wide. So I'm still sitting with the rear sway bar at a horrible angle.
 
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drdave81

drdave81

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I also changed out the taillights and headlights, blacked out the grille and changed the "Denail" badges to black. I was back and forth on whether I color match the grille or black it out. With the headlights having a black housing, and seeing the new Rams with the all black front end, I decided to pick up another grille from the junkyard and plastidip it to see if I like it. Ultimately it's going to stay black. I am not a fan of chrome so it had to go. The stock wheels got the quick plastidip treatment as well, until I could decide on which wheels I ultimately wanted to go with.
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drdave81

drdave81

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There have been lots of other odds and ends, clean up, etc. Nothing too major to really bring up other than finally deciding on going with black TBSS replicas for my wheels.
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Now on to the upcoming plans. I have a massive pile of parts in the garage for the engine. It will be getting a BTR stage 2 truck cam, 799 heads, American Racing long tubes, bigger injectors (size TBD), rocker trunnion upgrade, all new timing chain, oil pump, water pump, motor mounts, balancer, E-fan conversion, etc, etc, etc.
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I also need to get both bumpers and running boards repainted at some point. The previous owner didnt know how to properly judge distance from objects. The roof has some oxidization, so that needs attention as well.

I'm hoping to start tear down on the engine in the next couple weeks, I have a couple other small things to get taken care of in the garage first though.
 
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drdave81

drdave81

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Had a bit of time over the long weekend to start some tear down. So far everything looks really good. Could still see crosshatch in the cylinder walls yet. Just a lot of small seeps from many gaskets made for a nice mess all over everything. Lots of cleaning in my future! I keep finding more of those "while I'm in here" things. Like, it's easy to get to the cam sensor and oil pressure sensor, might as well.
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drdave81

drdave81

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Completely disassembled, waiting on a few extra parts to show up and the cleaning........ oh the cleaning!!!! It seems every gasket was seeping just enough to make a mess everywhere. I couldn't find a couple bolts to the front cover until I scraped the chunks off lol. I still need to get the back side of the block and the bell housing to the trans cleaned off somehow. I should start reassembly today, get the oil pan back on, front axle back up and in place now that the new oil pump is on. This engine has been really well maintained by previous owners as indicated by how well everything looks internally. I can still see the cross hatch in the cylinder walls, cam bearings look good, no signs of wear anywhere.
 

Tonyrodz

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Completely disassembled, waiting on a few extra parts to show up and the cleaning........ oh the cleaning!!!! It seems every gasket was seeping just enough to make a mess everywhere. I couldn't find a couple bolts to the front cover until I scraped the chunks off lol. I still need to get the back side of the block and the bell housing to the trans cleaned off somehow. I should start reassembly today, get the oil pan back on, front axle back up and in place now that the new oil pump is on. This engine has been really well maintained by previous owners as indicated by how well everything looks internally. I can still see the cross hatch in the cylinder walls, cam bearings look good, no signs of wear anywhere.
You really lucked out.
 
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drdave81

drdave81

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Well this got dragged out longer than I anticipated........ like these always do. So, I got everything apart, took forever to clean. Got some other parts replaced, painted and reinstalled. I got the pass side head bolted on, installed pushrods and rockers, and found the #8 intake rocker arm bolt hole was stripped out. These were heads I bought off someone on FB marketplace. He had paperwork showing they were pressure tested, so I guess I assumed they were good to go. Don't do that lol. Never really thought to check that, wish I had though. So I pulled the head back off and sent it out to get a helicoil put in, machine shop was backed up over 2 weeks, but I've dealt with him forever so I trust him over another shop. Just IMed ScottyBoy about a wire harness for the e-fan conversion, because I kind of forgot about that. Intake will probably go back on in the next day or so along with the down tubes for the exhaust. I need to power back up and get the files off the PCM for blackbear to have them get an initial tune set up for me and then should be good to go soon..... hopefully.
There were some other parts I wanted to replace/clean up but it was just really dragging on and getting more and more expensive. Down the line maybe.......
 

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