And to bring it up to today, got my new muffler installed.

Bought a Magnaflow 12219 3in/3out muffler, 14in body and 20in long overall with 9.5in of extra pipe added to make up the difference from the stock muffler.

My half assed welds, then coated in engine enamel to protect the welds. I hacked off the "L" behind the rear tire aswell, so it's just tipless and I prefer that.

 

Awesome deal! You really went to town on that. It looks great!

 

I've done a few things thats for sure.

I still got more to do. Mainly just finish up the rear drop and then it needs new knock sensor's and intake gaskets. Also I have 2 broken studs on the drivers side manifold, but atleast the stud is still sticking out and I should be able to heat it tiny bit and use some vise grips to get em out. Then the exhaust leak will be gone.

 

Rear drop in. New shackles, DJM 6º shims and new drop shocks.

We had to take the leaf springs off the truck one at a time and support it with a screw jack and tranny jack because the top shackle bolts would not come out. Took atleast 2 minutes of straight air hammering to get the bolts to push out of the bushing.

Good times.

 

Looking good man! Any plans for performance mods?

 

Yeah, there will be plans but I am just not sure what I really want to do first.

Likely I will put a cam in it and someday maybe a turbo with a 80e, though turbo won't happen for a while and I won't do it at the parents house haha.

A guy on here has a cam thats like a 212/218 or 214/218 with a 112 LSA that I like but I forget the name off hand, seems to perform well for a smaller cam and sounds good. I don't want a huge lumpy cammed truck.


I also want to find a stock y-pipe, my truck has a aftermarket y-pipe with cats. I'm sure because it was a company truck they went a cheaper route when one of the cats failed. I'll gut the cats on the stock y and have a better flow Y pipe instead of the crush bent pipes and smaller exhaust size on this aftermarket unit.

 

Gmpartsdirect has a factory fog light kit with the switch. Get the bow tie center caps replaced with gmc ones.

Converter and a tune before the cam.

Nice project. Really surprised to see the body in that good of condition. Our company trucks get the **** kicked out of them.

 

Details details lol.

I plan to get new overlays for the center caps, just havent yet. I don't think I'll add fog lights as it doesnt bother me.

I have HP tuners and will tune it fully once I get another wideband, I don't want to rip my AEM out of my grand prix.

And not sure I want a stall yet, not sure I want to spend the money on one for this transmission if I want to upgrade to a 80e someday. The 60e with 165k on it might go boom with more power.

 

6* shims? Seems like overkill. What made you put such a large shim?

 

I had vibrations when I did just the hangers under heavy throttle and at odd speeds.

I figured with going another 2in lower and with the pinion already pointing mildy upwards I would need either a 4-6º shim atleast without doing any measuring. I bought the 6º shims on a whim and it seems to be right. I havent been above 60-65 mph since I installed them but I get nothing under heavy throttle.

Plus I researched alot and even though every vehicle is different, most guys ran between a 4-6º shim anyways. And nobody talks about long beds either, those were all short bed trucks.