Project---------------Tahoe

[M Hankel]

Got the inspection cover made for the T56. Then realized I'm missing the vehicle speed sensor.

Will try to get some pics of the head porting posted up... I scored a set of 243 heads this weekend. One of the chambers has some damage but should clean up nicely. I'm now contemplating porting the 243 heads so I can get a bump in compression. Decisions decisions....

Mike

 

[07Burb]

That's a nice looking cover

 

[M Hankel]

That's a nice looking cover

Thanks, it was easy. Just had an extra piece of carbon fiber laying around for the better part of 10 years. Decided to put it to use since I couldn't find a piece of metal to cut out.

So I decided to use a Monster LT1-S twin disk clutch setup which is good for 650rwhp. I wanted a clutch that would hold some power but still drive like stock. I was really concerned about the overall weight of the vehicle more so than the actual power output of the engine. After talking to Steve at Monster Clutch about the setup, weight of the vehicle etc he convinced me this is the clutch to go with. It basically uses the pressure plate and disk setup from the new Chevy LT1 C7 Corvette, but with a Monster billet steel flywheel designed for it. It's also upgradable to more aggressive disks to hold up to 1000hp later on if that's the direction I go. Heres some clutch ****.........

Mike

 

[M Hankel]

Sorry for jumping around on topics, but I promised some pics of the cylinder head porting. These are just some 317 heads, very common and fairly cheap to purchase. I was going to use these on my 6.0 for this project but I just scored some 243 heads that have some chamber damage from a valve that wanted to play ping pong with the piston.... So,,, I might port the 243's and gain a little bit of compression in the process. I wasn't exactly happy with my flow numbers after port work anyway so I'll do things a bit different if the 243's get ported. On to the pics....

Here's the stock chamber, getting ready for unshrouding the valves. Those are some old junk valves sitting in there so I don't need to worry about nicking them with the porting burs.

After a few minutes of clean up, the valve has been unshrouded as much as I can for this bore size.

Here's the intake bowl, getting worked. This one still needs finishing work but the general shape is there.

Intake runner being worked. Again, still needs finishing work but the shape is pretty much done.

Here is the head on the flow bench.

I ended up with almost 280 cfm on the intake @ .600" lift. The exhaust flowed about 200 cfm @ .600" lift. Flowed at 28" depression. Not exactly stellar numbers. I've ported some 5.3 heads that flowed nearly 300 so these were a bit of a disappointment. Oh well, on to the 243's I guess.

Mike

 

[redemn93]

awesome project and great progress. what drop are you running? 22" wheels?

 

[M Hankel]

awesome project and great progress. what drop are you running? 22" wheels?

Thanks bud. Right now its rolling on 22's, 3/5 drop with DJM front arms and Belltech 5305 rear coils with Billstein shocks all around. After all the drivetrain mods are sorted out I'd love to drop it another 1" to 2".

Received the Nelson efan harness this week so I'll be doing the efan swap this weekend. I was lucky and already had a 34" radiator in the rig so I picked up a set of 05+ fans off a low mileage Tahoe locally. I had replaced my clutch fan last year when the water pump got replaced. Ever since then when its cold or hot outside, the damn clutch fan takes FOREVER to kick off. So when it takes off from a dead stop the thing roars like a damn semi truck and sucks all the damn power from the stock little 5.3. It's SOOOO obnoxious!

Mike

 

[02TahoeSS]

Going to be a sick build!

 

[M Hankel]

I got the eFans installed this weekend. It was pretty straight forward install and I'm very happy with it so far. No more loud fan clutch when I take off from a stop and I can actually hear my exhaust note now.

Got these fans locally from a low mileage Tahoe.

Nelson Performance eFan harness for 99-02 trucks.

All installed,,,, so much more room now!

After realizing how much more room there was between the throttle body and new fan shroud it got me thinking. Then I started fabbing up a custom DIY cold air intake from some extra 4" bends and 4" K&N filter I had leftover from the Z28.

I soon realized I didn't quite have enough bends to complete it. So, ordering up another 45 degree bend. Once it's finished I'll finish up a cover to isolate the filter down in the hole.

That's about it for now.

Mike

 

[M Hankel]

Tried out my buddies 22" tbss wheels on the Tahoe to see what they looked like. Not sure if I like them or not?

Mike

 

[SRTH8R]

Think you meant silverado ss wheels.

 

[M Hankel]

Yes I did haha. SSS wheels.

One friend said it looks like a cop vehicle now haha..

Mike

 

[bottomline2000]

so your fans are working like normal? No constant running or anything? I say that because I had that problem and it was a computer issue and we have the same model truck..

 

[Rosco]

 

[M Hankel]

so your fans are working like normal? No constant running or anything? I say that because I had that problem and it was a computer issue and we have the same model truck..

Fans work just fine. The pcm needs to be programmed to turn fans on at a certain temp. I have efilive tuning software so I just programmed it myself.

Mike

 

[M Hankel]

Update time again.

I'm currently waiting on some parts for the T56 swap. After talking with some people, it turns out the factory style master cylinder and clutch pedal has some issues when being used with an aftermarket clutch. The pedal brackets tend to crack/break under severe shifting and the added stiffness of the aftermarket pressure plates. So, I made the decision to use a Tilton 75 series master cylinder (same unit that Tick performance uses) with custom bracketry and I'm having a custom stainless line made to fit. I'm also fabbing up a custom shifter setup, stay tuned for this one. If it works it will still retain the "short shifter" feel instead of having a typical long truck style shift lever.

Also, having some issues with the Nelson fan harness for the efan swap. the 99-02 rigs usually get the low speed fans triggered by the pcm, then the high speed is tied into the AC compressor trigger. Weird setup and I wished I had done more research on this. But, the newer 03+ rigs have both the low speed and high speed controlled by the pcm by setting the on/off temps within the pcm. Not a big deal and very easy to do. After researching, it appears I can convert my 2000 to use the pcm for high speed trigger by will lose the auto-recirc function on the HVAC controls and will need to repin the PCM. Still researching this one but it seems like this is the way to go. As it is now, everytime the defrost is activated, the high speed fans come on. Not a very useful thing when trying to defrost your windows in colder climates.


Well the look of the black wheels (buddies wheels posted above) kinda grew on me so this weekend I set out to plasti-dip my own wheels. Kinda like the looks of them being black. Now I just need to get rid of some chrome on the rest of it...

Mike

 

[M Hankel]

I made some progress with the custom shifter mechanism this weekend.

So, one of the things that really bugged me about doing a T56 swap into a Tahoe/Silverado etc,,, was the fact that most everyone is just using a very long shift lever from the trans all the way up to the center of the console. That distance is roughly 18-19" total length. With having such a long shift lever, it makes the shift throw from gear to gear very long as well. I wanted more of a "car" shifter type feel so I came up with this idea. I've never seen this done before. On the bench it seems to work perfectly but here is my debut for the proto-type shifter. I took a vid with my phone, but it turned out tilted sideways. I'll try to get a better vid tonight showing it operating through the gears. It looks a bit goofy, but it will be fully contained and hidden from view. The only thing you'll see is the leather wrapped Hurst shift knob.

Almost forgot,,, it measures 19" from transmission shift mount to the top of the leather shift knob.

I found a 1/2" drive socket the same size as the shifter cup, bought two of them, machined a slot down the underside of the sockets, then tack welded it onto the cut down stock shifters. This has since been fully welded in place.

Mike

 

[Big Buttons]

Wonder how this will hold up when you're banging through the gears...

 

[07Burb]

That looks like quite the contraption

 

[M Hankel]

Wonder how this will hold up when you're banging through the gears...

You know I thought the same thing after I saw how small the 8mm all-thread looked. After it started coming together I realized that the center shifter actually became a structural brace. It's quite strong and I will have no problems banging gears all day long. I got a vid of shifting it through the gears. Will probably upload it in the morning.

---------- Post added at 08:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:04 PM ----------

That looks like quite the contraption

Wait till you see it in action Lol... there's alot going on.

 

[M Hankel]

OK, finally got some video of the custom shifter. Here goes.....

Custom T56 Shifter For 2000+ Tahoe: http://youtu.be/r0P__CtL1ZE

[yt]r0P__CtL1ZE[/yt]

Mike