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You got an accusump or c6 pan or rear sump pan at least? I would worry about keeping oil pressure in a roadcourse with a truck. You could do one of rat raceway's remote oil filter kit with accusump tank, give you a 3-4 extra quarts of capacity and help keep from starving oil when need the most, and pressurized system to before startup is nice.
I would run a 275 square setup with 18's if you can, not sure what you have now. That way can rotate easily, and keep enough front grip from plowing but just enough rubber in the rear to grip but still able to make it rotate around if needed.
Now that you have suspension getting power down to all "4" tires would be a goal imo, upgrade the driveline and nice eaton diffs to compliment. Also, start looking at moving as much weight to back as you can, radiator, fluids, coolers, batttery, and get that thing on corner weight scale, with your but in there too.
Yea heavier springs will certainly help with that body roll. Sweet pics though!
Thanks man, it was a blast!! It figures, the parts that I want to show up the fastest just got shipped Friday (my heavier rate springs).. Looks like I am going to tear into the cooling system this weekend and start replacing all the hoses, the thermostat and 34" radiator. Then it's eFan install and PCM reflash with the EFILive.. I started to think that my cooling system is 14 years old and I want to beat the **** out of this truck this year, better do some preventative maintenance.
Again Atomic, thanks for offering the front end parts that you sell. I can now hurdle the truck off into a corner and not worry about cracking the frame or having the shock horn detach from the frame. When I bought this truck I knew what I wanted to do with it, the problem was always the front end and your parts solved the 'missing link' issue for me, even if it did take 3+ years to install them ;-)
Originally Posted by thewrx
cool to see some different for a change.
Thanks man, I appreciate it.. I guess I am kinda backwards, I have a C6 Corvette for my daily driver and I autocross a 4WD truck... My priorities are all messed up..
Originally Posted by thewrx
You got an accusump or c6 pan or rear sump pan at least? I would worry about keeping oil pressure in a roadcourse with a truck. You could do one of rat raceway's remote oil filter kit with accusump tank, give you a 3-4 extra quarts of capacity and help keep from starving oil when need the most, and pressurized system to before startup is nice.
Ya know it's funny you mention it, I often wondered about this and I really know very little about how all this works.. Engine and driveline wise my truck is 100% stock, 4.8L with stock pan, pick-up, capacity etc. I considered watching the gauge going into a corner to see what happened but damn, at this track I hit one of the corners at over 70+ MPH not a time to be looking away..
I understand the benefits of it during engine running conditions, but I dont really understand how the system works on start up.. I mean its 100% mechanical right ? How does the system know to dump pressure during start up? I've never understood this operation, I understand the operation during normal usage (i.e. engine running).
Do you have any information on how to plumb an LS engine and what/where to connect? I guess I need to do more research and see if it's feasible for my application.
Originally Posted by thewrx
I would run a 275 square setup with 18's if you can, not sure what you have now. That way can rotate easily, and keep enough front grip from plowing but just enough rubber in the rear to grip but still able to make it rotate around if needed.
LOL. I guess by dumb luck I managed to hit on a very balanced combo in terms of tire sizing.. I actually have exactly the tires you are recommending. I have 275/55/18s on an 18x9 wheel. I was playing with tire pressure a little when I was a the autocross.. I went down 6 psi in the front and 8 in the rear.. I was in fear of rolling the bead off the tires.. As you can see in this video, it gave the sidewalls a workout, but it never rolled over on to the sidewalls like I have had happen on my BMW.
Now that you have suspension getting power down to all "4" tires would be a goal imo, upgrade the driveline and nice eaton diffs to compliment. Also, start looking at moving as much weight to back as you can, radiator, fluids, coolers, battery, and get that thing on corner weight scale, with your but in there too.
Sadly, I don't have enough power for a bigger course, I can get the fury that a 4.8L can dish out to the ground as it currently sits.. About 3 years ago I installed a TruTrac in the rear, in 2WD it can put enough throttle in to break the rear end loose, once I go 4WD, it all changes. To be honest, I was dumbfounded how much it changed the trucks characteristics, at least on this course. It added a huge amount of stability entering and exiting the corners and virtually all the tirespin was gone unless I drove it in waaaay too hard and thats just driver error that no vehicle can make up for.
As far as moving things around, in all honesty I don't plan to do much. This truck isn't going to go full race mode. I will probably borrow a page out of Steve-O-08's playbook and move the battery when the current one expires, and I'd like to borrow his idea about the half height rollbar that would let me install 4 point harnesses. I mean it's always going to be a fat lady at the track, you can move the weight around, but she'll never hang with a Miata or Mini on a tight course.
My goals for this truck are: street truck first, race truck second. I still want to use the truck as a truck so I can't fill the bed up with all the underhood bits. Unless I lose my mind, this truck will probably retain the full interior as GM delivered it.
However, with that said I do see mods coming for the engine and transmission. I'd like a built 6L with a turbo or LSA blower, and I eventually will switch over to the Silverado SS AWD (NP149) T-case I have in the shed.... Dammit.. gotta add researching an Accusump system to the list...
Hydroboost, CTS-V brakes up front and SUV brakes in the rear will come too, probably sooner than the engine/transmission .
And I already have a quick ratio steering box that I keep forgetting about... Damn need to get that in place.. LOL
All these things take money and patience.. Getting the truck setup as it currently is hasn't been cheap.. I'm not complaining, I just need to settle down a bit on the spending :-D
I really appreciate the input from everyone, it seems people all around have very good advice (although my wife and my wallet may disagree with that).
Shameless plug, I don't know if you have seen the seat brackets I make but it lets you install aftermarket seats directly in your truck. The advantage is to hold you tighter and be able to use a 4 or 5pt harness with mounting points on the bracket, although a roll bar is never a bad idea. I also do tuning as well and I don't think you are that far from me.
I wouldn't worry too much about the oil starvation on a truck because the pan is so deep compared to the cars. Much less likely to have issues.
Yeah taking o two projects at the same time isn't advised haha.
Don't write off your 4.8 yet. Claudia's truck is a 4.8 and she can still hang with my truck. The power will help you, but maxing out what you have now would be easier in my opinion. Gearing would be one of the best upgrades before power.
As for the sway bar. I had always wanted the Hotchkis Bar. I had gotten a rear bar when I first got my truck and I'd been looking for a matching front ever since. The Hotchkis bar is 1 1/2" where the Belltech bar was the same diameter as stock but it was solid. (heavier). I am still working to get our bars back in to production. I actually work for Hotchkis and getting them back isn't as easy as ordering a couple sets.
The only reason I got away from the Rivals was sizing (Diameter) I would love to go as wide as possible, but not at the cost of ground clearance. The 315's are only 25.5" tall. And to be drive-able I need at least something in the 27-28" range. If you don't mind swapping them you could always do a track only set, but swapping tires when you get to the track will get old.
Both trucks will have a lot coming soon (hopefully) So keep an eye on the thread.
Steve, If they still won't do it, Any chance you would let me borrow your 2wd Front bar for a few days?
Alright guys, I'm sorry got the slow updates.. I've been busy though I looked at all of the events I want to participate this year and I questioned whether or not the 14 year old cooling system was upto the task of keeping me on the road. So I started to research parts and I wanted to upgrade the radiator anyhow since I have had an e-fan harness and some chinese e-fans now for like 2+ years..
Anyhow, I ordered the following:
every rubber hose under the hood that contained coolant including upper/lower rad hose, heater hoses and throttle body coolant hoses.
160* Lingenfelter Thermostat (nothing more than a re-boxed MOTORAD unit).
New Coolant Recovery tank and Cap.
New temp sensor for the driver's side cylinder head.
34" AC Delco Radiator.
Anyhow, I started ripping parts off last weekend, and finished it up this weekend complete with an PCM reflash to set the efans settings so the PCM controls them.
I finished up the coolant system yesterday, and turned my attention to the spring issue.. For those of you who have been paying attention, you probably remember I was rolling on 650# springs on the front, which are, ironically, about half of what they should be.. I ran the first event (above) with those springs but the ride was miserable and there was less than 2" of travel before the truck rolled onto the bump stops. I got under the truck and measured the clearance between the lowest point on the front end and the ground.. LOL WOW !! It was the front crossmember and it was less than 4" off the pavement, probably in part why it drove well around the track, but rode like *** !!
As you can imagine this spells bad news for CV Shaft angles in the front, this is event with McGaughy's 2" drop spindles... :EEK:
So I started the hunt for the correct (better) spring rate springs.. As it turns out, not every vendor has +1000# or higher springs on the shelf. LOL I guess not everyone is racing a fat bitch 4WD Silverado, who knew ??
Anyhow I did find a place in Cali that could actually access Eibach's inventory and tell me for certain that they could get and drop ship 1200# springs, so I ordered them and some softer springs (225#) for the rear as well.. Purple Santa brought me these:
So today, I got to switching the 650# springs over (left side) for the bigger stiffer beefier Eibach 1200# springs (right side):
So with all those swapped in place, the truck is done and I am a lot happier with the spring situation:
Here's the truck at the current ride height, I ~think~ the front is pretty well sorted in terms of ride height, we'll see.. I still need to put the softer springs in the rear and lower it to match the front and I'll be ready for the next event:
Next weekend, I plan on a transmission flush/fill, replace the smurf juice in the transfer case and top off all the fluids.
Maybe a trip to the local scrapyard to hunt down a set of SUV brakes for the rear and maybe a hydroboost setup? Who knows.
The next autocross is set for the weekend of 3-11 / 3-12 and I plan on introducing the truck to the Misssissippi SCCA crew, I'm hopeful they will be as accepting as the Tennessee guys are, I'll follow it up with more video for sure.
If you are feeling froggy one day you are about 3hr from me so we could meet in the middle or something for some live tuning.
LOL.. Why didn't you send me that when I needed them? LOL like last weekend. LOL
I have EFILive, I've already made the changes in the PCM for the fans.. I just gotta read up on the fix and settings..
Right now, the fans run all the time on low with a cold engine. I can disable them with the bi-directional controls in EFILive so I know that the PCM wiring and harness is correct and functional.
The problem I am having now is they run when they shouldn't I've read a zillion things and none of what I have done has netted the expected results. I'm sure its operator error, I'll get it ironed out, I'm thinking of flashing in a 2005+ calibration to see if that helps, but not sure I can find one that is compatible with my OS... I guess I could always just reflash the whole PCM... LOL It's been about 6-7 years since I messed with tuning, I've forgotten a lot.
So I got the rear coils swapped out for the Eibachs.. Out went the 12" Hypercoil 350# springs, and in went the 10" Eibach 225# springs, dropped the truck right where I wanted it.. Pretty simple swap, 4 bolts, a couple of spanners and an hour or so time.. It sits level now front to rear and I think it looks pretty awesome.. The ride is improved immeasurably as well !
Not too shabby for a 4WD truck thats still 4WD eh ??
I also got a chance to tidy up a few things also, I bought this double din radio from Wal-Mart for like $100 3 years ago.. It's nothing special, but better than what was in it and it has more options to load music into it than the previous one. Just waiting on the mounting kit to come in, it's wired up and functional.
The next SCCA event is next weekend, I'll try to get some 'action shots' of it in action.. Also gonna charge up my GoPro...
02-18-2017, 01:24 AM
