06 Silverado Crew Cab Build

[drdave81]

I guess I'll make one of these for this truck too, since it's become more of my focal point than my Yukon right now. A couple months ago I picked up an 06 Silverado crew cab with a 5.3 4WD. Got it for $5200, big thing being no rust (I'm in Michigan, this is a big deal lol). It had just under 274k miles on it when I got it. Right away I knew it would need some work, which is part of the reason I bought it, I can't stay away from projects.

First thing I did when I got it home was gut the interior. Previous owner(s) smoked in it. It also came from a dusty area in Texas, so a lot of that reddish dust was all over everything. Over time, things got wet, turned to mud, etc etc. I pulled the carpet, padding, headliner, everything but the dash out of it. I cleaned up everything pretty well. There were some spots in that carpet that just weren't coming out, but it doesn't smell anymore.

Before reassembling the interior, I also found a center console out of an Avalanche at a local U-Pull-It. That needed as much cleaning as the rest of the truck. I think every spill was just left there. And it seemed they liked to roll blunts in that console, lots of residue, tobacco, burn marks, wrappers, etc. I do need to find new inserts (cubbys, cup holder pieces) and new rubber pieces. The main body of the console was good though. It cleaned up well. It also has the Bose amp/sub in it. For now I just pulled it out, but if I ever decide to try and use it, I've got it.

 

[drdave81]

I also pulled the headliner since it was sagging in a bunch of spots and had some good burn marks in it. The local fabric stores were all out of headliner material. They said this time of year, its hard to keep in stock since everyone has projects going on. So, since it's a cheap truck, cheap material. Yes, that's fleece lol. Overall, it didn't turn out too bad, a few spots with some small wrinkles, but way better than it was.

I'll update more on the LQ9 swap and trans I just finished up over the weekend once I get the pics. I'll also go over what my other plans for this truck are.

 

[drdave81]

When I bought the truck, I noticed there was some smoke on first start up, looked white so I figured head gasket, not a big deal. Turns out, even though it looked white, it wasn't coolant. The valve guides had left the chat. I was going through oil like crazy. First start up of the day, I could fog my whole yard. With 274k miles, leaking from most gaskets and the guides, plus unknowns internally, I decided to get a 6.0 instead. I found one with 145k miles on it, from a good running Escalade. Previous owner took great care of it, but got T-***** so it was totaled. I was going to tear it down, but I could tell the heads had recently been off it, cleaned up, etc so I just did the oil pan, valley cover.

I also noticed there were some odd little shifting issues, mainly in 2nd gear around 2000RPMs, I would get a stutter. The seller told me the trans was rebuilt a year ago, but since half the work was going to be done by pulling the engine, I decided to pull the trans too. I got the trans to the shop I had to the one in my Yukon. He looked it over and found most parts had been replaced, everything done correctly, but for some reason used the wrong valve body gasket. It already had the sunshell upgraded, corvette servo, all the typical goodies. So he went through just a couple other things, made sure all the gaskets were correct and slapped it back together with a Trailblazer torque converter.

I dropped the engine back in last Thursday over the 4th. Got the trans put back in over the weekend. I fired it up on Sunday and it idled like absolute crap. Popped a P0300, misfire monitor showed all cylinders were misfiring randomly all over the place. I couldn't get back to it until yesterday, so I pulled the intake back off, since I heard a bit of a hissing sound, implying a vacuum leak. I couldn't find any issues. I reinstalled the intake, fired it up again, and ran perfectly. I'll take it!!!

Now I'm waiting to hear back from Blackbear Performance, I've sent a couple emails and our conversation suddenly went quiet, for a week now. So, we'll see. I was hoping to get their sale on a tune over the 4th, but that came and went and never heard from them.

 

[drdave81]

While I was taking everything apart, I pulled the drain plug from the transfer case and about a shot glass worth of fluid came out. I found this one suffers from the infamous pump rub. There is a small crack along the pass side of the case. At this point, I started thinking about maybe swapping to an AWD system, like my Yukon Denali has. The only part holding me back is my gears are 3.42, the Denalis and Escalades come in 3.73. I'm not great, nor do I have the tools currently to rebuild an axle and set it up correctly.
After doing some research, I think I can get away with shifting the truck into 4WD, then remove everything, leaving the front axle in 4WD. I can just swap in the NP149 transfer case (and maybe the front driveshaft? haven't confirmed that is the same or different yet. Ive seen both) and I'll have AWD. It seems the only difference between the 2 front axles are the 1 piece vs 2 piece on the passenger side for shifting in and out of 4WD.
I tried JB weld as a temporary fix, just to keep some fluid in it, but that didn't work, it's dripping out around it at a pretty steady rate. So I'll have to make a decision pretty quickly in order to keep driving it. I was shocked it still held together having basically no fluid in it and I drove it for a couple thousand miles like that, plus how ever long the previous owner did too!!

 

[drdave81]

This chrome crap that someone installed is absolutely brutal to remove. The 3M tape is really holding on for dear life. Heat gun and a vise grip to get the cladding off, then an eraser wheel on a drill to remove the tape. I saw people suggest fishing line, so I got the strongest stuff I could find, it snapped within 2 minutes and barely got through any of it. Some paint pulled off in a couple small spots, which I'm not totally surprised. I HATE this stuff, more than any other lame AutoZone accessory you can possibly install on a vehicle. So far I got the pass fender, pass door and a the front corner of the box, in front of the wheel off. It'll be chipped away at here and there, god this stuff is awful. I need more eraser wheels to show up, I'm almost through the one I have.

 

[adventurenali92]

LQ9 build in a crew will be super fun to drive once it’s all squared away I bet haha.

 

[drdave81]

LQ9 build in a crew will be super fun to drive once it’s all squared away I bet haha.

Even without getting it tuned yet, just normal/light accel feels so much better. Down the line, it'll be getting a cam, long tubes, etc. But I just needed to get a good engine swapped into it and back on the road for now. So a big teardown and upgrades weren't going to happen just yet.

 

[drdave81]

Finally heard back from Blackbear about tuning, so that will get squared away soon. I have a guy pulling an AWD transfer case for me tonight, so I'll grab that this weekend. Still working on getting the front axle thing squared away. I have a test vehicle for work that I'm driving, so the truck isn't here for me to test and confirm if it will stay locked once the actuator is unplugged or not.

 

[drdave81]

I got the front axle figured out. Turns out, shifting to 4hi, and then unplugging the actuator will leave the front axle locked. I still will probably use a piece of PVC cut down to put in place, just in case the actuator would retract, I dont want to burn up my transfer case. The actuator is just plastic anyway, so a piece of PVC will be just fine in there. I'll be swapping the transfer case today and should be good to go with all wheel drive! Then quick pack up and off across the state for a mountain bike relay race tomorrow all day.

Blackbear should have my initial tune file ready next week, then I'll get data logs to them and some final tweaks, we should be good to go. I was pretty curious to find out how it would run on e85, so it was a bummer when blackbear told me the L59 injectors wouldn't be big enough to run e85 on that 6.0L. Maybe I'll look into bigger injectors for that down the line........ we'll see.

 

[adventurenali92]

I got the front axle figured out. Turns out, shifting to 4hi, and then unplugging the actuator will leave the front axle locked. I still will probably use a piece of PVC cut down to put in place, just in case the actuator would retract, I dont want to burn up my transfer case. The actuator is just plastic anyway, so a piece of PVC will be just fine in there. I'll be swapping the transfer case today and should be good to go with all wheel drive! Then quick pack up and off across the state for a mountain bike relay race tomorrow all day.

Blackbear should have my initial tune file ready next week, then I'll get data logs to them and some final tweaks, we should be good to go. I was pretty curious to find out how it would run on e85, so it was a bummer when blackbear told me the L59 injectors wouldn't be big enough to run e85 on that 6.0L. Maybe I'll look into bigger injectors for that down the line........ we'll see.

Glad to hear you’re fitting things sorted! Always a good feeling! Funny that you mentioned a mountain bike race. Tour de big bear annual bike race going on today here in big bear. Happens every year and creates all kinds of havoc for those of us that this is just an another normal work day lol. But brings a lot of tourists into town which is always good for business. Hopefully the drive goes well for you!

 

[drdave81]

OK, I got the first mod tune file installed last night. I installed the NP149 driveshaft over lunch break, since the 246 driveshaft is about an inch too long to fit. I pulled the actuator and installed a 3/4" long piece of PVC to lock the front axle and no fear of the actuator backing out...... if it ever would. I drove it around the neighborhood and all seems good to go. I'll get it out on a better drive later on and get a data log to send back to Blackbear. Maybe take a cruise down Woodward, because this truck is such an attention grabber haha!!!

 

[adventurenali92]

OK, I got the first mod tune file installed last night. I installed the NP149 driveshaft over lunch break, since the 246 driveshaft is about an inch too long to fit. I pulled the actuator and installed a 3/4" long piece of PVC to lock the front axle and no fear of the actuator backing out...... if it ever would. I drove it around the neighborhood and all seems good to go. I'll get it out on a better drive later on and get a data log to send back to Blackbear. Maybe take a cruise down Woodward, because this truck is such an attention grabber haha!!!

Good to hear it’s rolling! Always puts a smile on when ya can see the progress lol

 

[drdave81]

I pulled the switch and the TCCM out, with the battery disconnected, reconnected everything and no more "Service 4WD" message anymore. Got the initial tune file from Blackbear, data logged it. They got back to me, I was running it on 87 Octane, they want a log of it on 91+ octane since it's a higher compression engine (LQ9 is 10:1). So once I run this tank down, I'll refill and log it again.

 

[drdave81]

Small updates.....
The NP149 I swapped in has a leak around the front seal on the transfer case, which is actually more of a bushing I guess. I talked to a couple places and it sounds like if that goes bad, there's more issues going on inside than just a worn out seal. So, I got lucky and found a guy who just swapped his Denali over to 2wd (and a bad ass turbo setup!!!). I was able to pick up the whole AWD setup off him for a few hundred bucks. The t case was already rebuilt, less than 40k miles on it. Has the pump rub kit installed and everything. So now I'll swap that one in, next year probably swap the right side axle tube so I have a 1 piece axle tube instead of the 2 piece with the locked actuator currently in the truck. I also got both CV axles which is nice because I have one with a torn boot on this truck and one with a torn boot on my Yukon. Both of them are pretty new yet as well, way newer than what I've got.

I also had to do the front brakes, so I did the 07+ brake upgrade. I was reading some and it sounds like this truck may have already had those brakes on it, since it was an 06 with rear drum brakes. Either way, at 275k miles, it got new calipers and hoses anyway.

 

[drdave81]

I also got all the chrome BS off finally. Once it started pulling paint off one panel, I got a little careless in removal of the rest since I decided......... now it'll need paint. I decided for a 2 tone look since it would be really hard to match the paint that's already on there since GM had so many variants of the same color. I remember working at the dealer back when these trucks were still new. You could have 2 with matching paint codes parked next to each other and they would be different shades. So I found a darker gray to go with, since I don't like the black, it always looks like those trucks when someone just tapes it off and spray paints over rust. I sanded everything out, prepped, primed, painted and cleared.
It turns out...... I am NOT a painter lmao. It's definitely good enough for this truck, since the whole rest of the body is a bit rough, but it will never be seen in any car shows any time soon (that's why I didn't fix dents, I'd be there forever with all of them). I had something off with the settings on the gun, plus weather that day, etc, but man the amount of orange peel in the paint, I make OEM paint jobs look good hahaha!!!

 

[Tonyv__]

I also got all the chrome BS off finally. Once it started pulling paint off one panel, I got a little careless in removal of the rest since I decided......... now it'll need paint. I decided for a 2 tone look since it would be really hard to match the paint that's already on there since GM had so many variants of the same color. I remember working at the dealer back when these trucks were still new. You could have 2 with matching paint codes parked next to each other and they would be different shades. So I found a darker gray to go with, since I don't like the black, it always looks like those trucks when someone just tapes it off and spray paints over rust. I sanded everything out, prepped, primed, painted and cleared.
It turns out...... I am NOT a painter lmao. It's definitely good enough for this truck, since the whole rest of the body is a bit rough, but it will never be seen in any car shows any time soon (that's why I didn't fix dents, I'd be there forever with all of them). I had something off with the settings on the gun, plus weather that day, etc, but man the amount of orange peel in the paint, I make OEM paint jobs look good hahaha!!!

2 tone is definitely a nice way to avoid a ton of headache.. since 2 tone was a common option it looks pretty natural. Looks good

 

[adventurenali92]

crazy how the same paint codes can be different shades. When I lived with my youth pastor from growing up and his family, his wife had a 2004 xl Denali, in silver birch metallic just like my 2006 truck. Hers and mine big had the same paint code. And then the older brother who I lived up above, had a 2005 ESV in quicksilver metallic, with the same paint code as our denalis. There was one day where all three trucks were parked in our driveway next to each other, and all three paints were different shades as you said. I found it so odd and yet kinda fascinating.

 

[drdave81]

Going to swap the old leaky NP149 out tomorrow with the one I picked up. Kind of excited, I get to try out one of those "rent a hoist" places. It's like $50/hr, which doesn't seem too terrible, considering they have all the tools, etc that you'd need. I so badly miss having access to a hoist, back in my dealership days. I also have to change out the rear diff fluid and do that CV shaft this weekend. Life always keeps getting in the way when I want to work on my stuff lol.

I got out the Dragy and made a couple runs with this current set up. The truck weighed in on the scale at 5200lbs, so add a buck 80 for me in it.

0-60: 6.61s
60': 2.23s
330': 6.15s
1/8 mile: 9.48s @ 73.88mph
1000': 12.37s @ 84.83mph
1/4 mile: 14.81s @ 91.68mph

Pretty decent I thought for a stock LQ9 (minus a tune) and AWD. My Yukon runs 14.56s @ 92.90mph. That's about 250lbs heavier, with a cam, long tubes, tuned, etc

That'll probably be about it for this truck for the winter, it'll become the daily once snow flies. I'm likely going to drop it 2/4 next spring when I rebuild the front end. Nothing is shot yet, but a lot of the boots are dry rotted, along with bushings, so it's all going to have to go soon. Oh, crap. I need to get some kind of fluid film or something sprayed in the rockers yet too. Add that to the list.

 

[adventurenali92]

Going to swap the old leaky NP149 out tomorrow with the one I picked up. Kind of excited, I get to try out one of those "rent a hoist" places. It's like $50/hr, which doesn't seem too terrible, considering they have all the tools, etc that you'd need. I so badly miss having access to a hoist, back in my dealership days. I also have to change out the rear diff fluid and do that CV shaft this weekend. Life always keeps getting in the way when I want to work on my stuff lol.

I got out the Dragy and made a couple runs with this current set up. The truck weighed in on the scale at 5200lbs, so add a buck 80 for me in it.

0-60: 6.61s
60': 2.23s
330': 6.15s
1/8 mile: 9.48s @ 73.88mph
1000': 12.37s @ 84.83mph
1/4 mile: 14.81s @ 91.68mph

Pretty decent I thought for a stock LQ9 (minus a tune) and AWD. My Yukon runs 14.56s @ 92.90mph. That's about 250lbs heavier, with a cam, long tubes, tuned, etc

That'll probably be about it for this truck for the winter, it'll become the daily once snow flies. I'm likely going to drop it 2/4 next spring when I rebuild the front end. Nothing is shot yet, but a lot of the boots are dry rotted, along with bushings, so it's all going to have to go soon. Oh, crap. I need to get some kind of fluid film or something sprayed in the rockers yet too. Add that to the list.

Having a lift would be nice for sure. I daydream about my perfect garage with a lift and all haha.

I did my drivers side CV axle a couple months ago as I had a torn outer CV boot. I have an intermittent popping sound happening during slow moving turns at more than half lock and I had read that in another thread that it could be caused by a torn CV boot. So I replaced the axle instead of disassembling and putting a new boot on and replacing the entire axle shaft was WAY easier than I thought it would be. You’d probably get it handled way quicker than I could haha.

 

[drdave81]

Oh I wish I could have a garage with a lift!!! I can't even fit this truck in my garage and close the door. I have to remove the rear bumper, hitch, tailgate and a brace on the door to get the door closed lol. If I pull my Yukon in there, I can close the door, but only have one way around it. I can either stay close to the door and have barely enough space in front to move, or way forward and barely enough space to move behind it.
Even if I didn't have my tool box, mountain bikes and motorcycles in there, my 2 car garage realistically isn't big enough for 2 cars and be able to function in there.