Past Contemplation, Bought a Full Size Expo rig. GMT400 Tahoe - ideas welcome

[justcuz]

Factory grounds are
1. Battery to engine
2. Firewall to studded bolt on upper transmission (The firewall has a threaded stud under the heater hoses)
3. Threaded stud on trans to chassis (Hole is in the top of the frame by passenger side exhaust dump).
Mine now go from the fire wall to back of trans, but I moved the other strap to the heat shield bolt from the rear two cylinders on the passenger side to the frame.
You do have the factory trans cooler.
Forget the cap if you replaced it but I clean mine once a year.
I would like to hear about the PCM change when you do it.

 

[tommyp]

Wow forgot about this thread. Done with work for the summer and headed out west in a couple weeks so will be updating alot.

I ended up ditching the 5.7 never could get it not to have a misfire code and they wouldnt pass it for inspection. Picked up a 5.3 from an 03 1500 and swapped that in. Along with an 5 speed NV3500 because i was having trouble with the 4l60e. Runs like a champ now. Love the 5.3. Was fun to wire but not horrendous.

The back brakes were giving me issues my mechanic wouldnt pass them so I swapped in the axle out of the 03 with discs and went to manual prop valve. Had to move the perches in to match the obs width and move the shock mounts but no big deal.

Been running it like that since october no problems.

So now the SAS begins. I picked up a semi floater 14 bolt for the rear in 4.10 for $100 off craigslist. Welded new brake mounts on it that are 60mm out from the old ones. Ruff stuff has these. They will allow me to bolt on the ten bolt discs off the 03 and rotors and allow me to keep the stock 03 parking brake. Most 14 bolt disc swaps you lose the parking brake or have to use eldorado calipers.

So that will beef up the rear substantially. I have a shackle flip coming from ORD and that will give me 4" hopefully i will be fine with 35's

For the front I picked up the front of a 99 ram 1500. Again off CL for $250 It is a unit bearing dana 44 with axle disconnect. Not the most beef out there but should be fine for 35's.

On pirate a guy i think lugnuts swapped this axle in his burb and basically did all the leg work on the swap. So next week the ifs is going bye bye and I will weld the ram coil buckets onto the tahoe frame. I will build my own radius arms using the radius arm mounts on the dana 44 and some ruffstuff outboard link hangers on the chevy frame.

The swap is an interesting one. The dodge axle is five lug but the chevy ifs unit bearings will bolt right up and that converts it to six lug to match the wheels that I have and the rear. If i was starting from scratch i would just do a regular full float 14 bolt and dodge dana 60 i think. They are so much cheaper than finding the older fords and they are all pre mounted for coils, shocks and arms. They also have the axle disconnect that hopefully I can adapt to my chevy with a vacuum switch and have it automatically lock when i shift in to 4wd like it does now. Otherwise i will ether use a cable or some other way to lock the 4wd.

Lots to do and not a ton of time to do it but should be fun trying.

 

[elpoffroad]

All I have to say is I love my excursion. Saying that I have always liked the tahoes though. Good luck on your search.

 

[mjmck]

Nice job on the rust repair!