Yukon Down, AWD delete, headers, converter etc...

[01ssreda4]

So here she is, 2004 Yukon XL, family hauler, Camaro hauler, been my daily driver for the last two years.

I want something that can tow my car with ease, tow other stuff, and generally be usefull. I already have a good tune, efan conversion, and cold air intake.

I figured this conversion may take a while so I bought another daily driver to cover me while the yukon was down.

I figured, I could get a little performance by deleting awd, and by selling the components could offset the price. Once I assembled all the parts, I jacked her up.

First things first we must remove all awd components....this is the non-electronic transfer case. It splits power 70/30 rear/front at all times.

And it weighs about 70lbs.

4wd 4l60e. Looks to be original.

Here's the stock setup.

 

[01ssreda4]

The stock torque converter.

And it weighs about 52lbs.

Front diff about 80lbs.

Front axles.

Lot's of room under here now.


Lots of people say/think you cannot run a 4wd/awd hub on a 2wd truck. They say if the axle is not there clamping it together the hub will fall apart. After inspection it appears that what the axle clamps in the front and rear is the same solid piece, meaning it cannot come apart.


Also if you notice by looking at the axle end there is no abs, meaning everything will function normally with it removed. The abs is in the hub itself.

I also thought this truck had a bad head gasket. Looky looky, a certain stain going down the cylinder head of a leaky steam port. Winning!!!

Some goodies, a built 2wd 4l60e from my buddy Tim Frost @ Pro1 Transmission in Texarkana.

And this pretty thing right here. Its a 2800/3k unit from Circle D.



Smaller then stock.

 

[01ssreda4]

Lighter then stock.

Not gonna hunt down a 2wd crossmember, so I made my 4wd work. The 2wd trans sits about 3 inches higher so I made a small bracket and welded it to the 4wd crossmember.

So here it is mounted up, using a $10 2wd Anchor mount.



The last piece of the 2wd puzzle. An aluminum shaft, 4 inch, .125 wall and 69 3/8th" center to center. I bought this from a driveshaft place in California but you can get a used one off a 2wd version off a wrecked truck, but beware they are hard to come by. Can for size reference.

Another little treat. These are 1 3/4 from Speed engineering. Fit was ok, nothing to get upset about...I did clearance them a bit to get the clearance I wanted.

Trying to get headers on by yourself isnt fun. I made two studs, inserted them so the headers and gaskets had something to hang on. I used the wire to hold the collectors up. I went with GM MLS gaskets to seal em up.

Here's a picture of the muffler and merge. Dynomax bullet and Magnaflow merge. I had it on the truck before and it sounded loud but with a nice tone.

Now that she's back on the ground and running I will give some driving impressions. The converter foot breaks to 26/2800 and flashes from a stop to 3k. To get moving you spin about 2k rpms. The converter feels nice and pulls good on the top end. The headers perked up the midrange and you can especially feel it over 4k, where the stock setup seemed flat and out of steam. And no my front tires didnt fall off even though the internet said they would! I will be pulling the intake soon and fixing the coolant leak and freshening up the top end. Questions/comments???

 

[shakedown067]

Weight reduction bro! Love it, i'm sure she moves down the road way better now. Have you totaled up the weight savings?

 

[Flexx]

Dude that's a hell of a build and write up. Should be bullet proof. Headers are definitely on my to do list.

You didn't buy that camaro near Austin did you? Friend had and sold one that was identical too that.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

 

[01ssreda4]

Weight reduction bro! Love it, i'm sure she moves down the road way better now. Have you totaled up the weight savings?

I actually didnt add it up but just guessing I'd say it was around 250lbs of savings.....give or take. I dont expect to feel that small amount in such a big truck, but with my tune already done, then the headers, then the converter, then the little bit of weight savings, yeah you can tell a difference for sure.

Dude that's a hell of a build and write up. Should be bullet proof. Headers are definitely on my to do list.

You didn't buy that camaro near Austin did you? Friend had and sold one that was identical too that.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

I believe thats an LA Camaro, I know the previous owner ran back and forth to south Louisiana but traded it in up towards me. Before that Im not sure. Ive owned it for 8 years now.

 

[Flexx]

I actually didnt add it up but just guessing I'd say it was around 250lbs of savings.....give or take. I dont expect to feel that small amount in such a big truck, but with my tune already done, then the headers, then the converter, then the little bit of weight savings, yeah you can tell a difference for sure.



I believe thats an LA Camaro, I know the previous owner ran back and forth to south Louisiana but traded it in up towards me. Before that Im not sure. Ive owned it for 8 years now.

Oh Ok, my friend is from LA but lives JK Austin now. He just sold his recently. Looks identical.

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[bottomline2000]

Nice setup. I'm running the same converter and I like it too.The only weird part is when it goes into lockup and the rpms drop real quick. May as well throw a cam in it to take advantage of the higher stall. I was going to say do the rear main seal, but u were done before we even saw this lol.

The only thing that will happen on the hub is the splines may rust, but they definitely won't fall apart..the nut just hold the axle in the hub not the whole assembly together..

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[01ssreda4]

Rear main seal was dry as a bone, win some lose some right.

 

[01ssreda4]

Wanted to give this thread an update....I needed to fix the leaking coolant from the crossover line. So I jumped into intake gaskets and whatnot also. Here it is, cold air, efans, and stock otherwise. Also removed the wide Denali engine cover. I dont like everything covered up.



This thing is filthy. Its not so much a leak as it is just weeping from all the seals just a tiny bit over a 200k mile course.



Got the intake removed in about a hour, pretty simple stuff.



A little purple power and elbow grease goes long way.



Showing my fbody roots, I decided to do a throttle body coolant bypass, I had this brass barb in the tool box so I plugged it into the line going to the throttle body. Here you can also see the valve covers which I spent about an hour cleaning.



Since these trucks are known for having rear knock sensor issues due to moisture I decided to do a new ac delco rear sensor, new Dorman harness, valve cover gaskets, intake gaskets just to kind of freshen things up. My stock sensor appeared fine.



We had some kinda crappy weather, but I caught this guy hanging out behind the shop for about half an hour.



On order from Jegs, to quiet things down some. I am gonna install it inline with the bullet muffler.



And a couple of random pics, this is a 4wd/awd transmission mount.



Manifolds.



Front drive axles.



Stock down pipes with Magnaflow cats.