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Figured I would start off with a little bit about my truck. It's an 02 Extended cab 4.8 purchased beginning of 2012.
Started off pretty basic
Did the run of the mill drop with some 24's and HD front end swap.
Being my first v8 vehicle I figured it was time for a little performance to the 4.8. I did standard K&N intake, OBX long tubes, trutrac with 4.10's, had a local shop build the 60e with TB converter, and did a street tune. This was a fun time playing around with friends until about 5k miles in the built 60e decided to grenade itself. Had a warranty on trans so I brought it back to the shop who seemed very funny about things. Shop had my truck 6weeks and I finally got it back. 15 miles into the trip home and I hear a clunking and the truck just coasts. I crawl under the truck to find the rear part of the driveshaft dangling on the ground. As I start to look there are only 2 trans bolts holding crossmember neither of which are tight, big dent in the steel trans pan which is leaking (and not my $200 B&M pan I put on), and they never tightened the straps on driveshaft which is why I fell down and beat up the underside of my truck. I knew then I could trust nothing about that trans so off to a buddies speed shop it went.
After the truck sitting at my buddies shop for a week I decided to take it a little farther. We did a 4l80e swap with 3600 multi disk circle d converter, and a Nitrous Outlet 78mm plate kit. Truck was way faster after that.
Ended up running a 12.21 @ 109 1.68 60' just running clamped springs and 28x10 slicks on stocks.
Shortly after that I was HOOKED I wanted more! So I decided to call up tick performance and get a custom ground camshaft. Added the cam with a set of tooley 660 springs and pushrods, along with built a dedicated fuel cell with c16 for the nitrous.
Back on the rollers she went.
Unfortunately 200 miles in my bad luck was to strike again and the oil pump decided to take a dump and spin 2 rod bearings.
Wanted to go a little farther this time and picked up a lq4 core that was in rough shape so we decided to do a little work. Dropped it off at the machine shop along with an LS3 crank and rods from another built, a set of 4.030 diamond Pistons, arp heads and mains, katech rod bolts, and a set of 799 heads. The build of the 370 has started. Took 5mos but I got my call to pick it up. Motor looked great so I pulled out the poor baby motor and swapped it over to the new one and slapped her in. Added a tbss intake and tick ls2 Poluter v2 cam and she was ready for business.
This wasn't the last run of my bad luck though. 200 miles into breakin driving I heard the knock. Brought it back to the shop and yanked it back out furiously. Come to find out all 8 rod bearings were spun and 2 had stacked, so BACK to the machine shop it went. He said it was my fault, I said it was his, so I paid half the price for a rebuild. A month later I got the call to pick it back up. Got the motor back to the shop and on the stand and cut the plastic off to start assembly when I noticed an added amount of assembly grease and metal shavings still on the inside of the block. Figured it was time to go elsewhere for a second opinion.
I brought the motor to TPS Motorsports here in Louisiana for them to go through the motor and see what was up. Ofcorse with the luck I had they confirmed my biggest fears. Crank hadn't even been resurfaced just new bearings threw on that crank and the rods were trash said it look like he backyard mechanic them, they were resized and oversized with oem sized bearings stuck in. About ready to go set some houses on fire I gave him the OK to build me another motor...
At this time I was already hooked like crack and I can't leave anything alone I took it farther. Being rotating assembly was trash from the motor, I decided to step it up to a 408. Compstar crank and rods with wiseco nitrous Pistons. Thinking since I was this far keep going so I added a set of L92 heads with the LS3 hallow valves, a victor jr efi manifold topped with adaptor for accufab 4500 throttle body, and a NOS 4500 big shot plate using my valves from the nitrous outlet kit.
Here is where we are now. I got the motor in and running and it's a monster. I've been working on suspension setup I've added a set of smith race works assassin bars and along with relocating shocks to behind the axle, and just removing minor stuff from the truck to see about running some killer times.
I hate to say it, it always seems like there is shady dang people out there doing some kind of work. That's why everyone on here usually ends up doing all the work themselves. Glad you got it lined out. I'm in to see times out of the 408 and spray. How big of a shot now? 200?
Nice looking ride, man. Might I ask, where did you get the Assassins from? Been trying to get them on-line with no luck. Would calling them help or ?
Thanks.
Thanks everyone! Yeah I have found some shady workers for sure. 12.21 was ran on a .078 jet which was about a 200. I haven't tuned the nitrous yet but the plate currently has a 200 shot jet in it but once I send transmission out to get rebuilt I plan on doubling the shot size. Truck is about a 4/7 drop maybe a hair more, and the assassin bars were purchased directly from smith race works, I had to order them on the phone because the website wouldn't let me.
12-16-2015, 12:34 AM
Let's keep it street
