Well finally got the last of the pieces I was waiting on from powder coating; the LS9 valve covers and t-bolt clamps for the intake.

When I dropped the valve covers off, I only wanted them cleared, so they wouldn't oxidize, because I liked the look of the bright, freshly bead blasted aluminum. I was warned they would darken, but didn't think much of it. Unfortunately the finish didn't come out exactly how I wanted it. I'm not disappointed or unhappy, just wish they looked more like they did when new. To me they look more grey/silver than raw aluminum a shade darker.

But c'est la vie, as we say. I'm sure they'll look great when installed.



Compared to how they come:





I liked how the stock ones look almost like metal flake, and have shadows and darker areas:





T-bolt clamps powder coated flat black to match the intake pipe and throttle body:

 

This always annoyed me how there's 5 studs on the firewall, but only 4 clamps holding the positive cable from the battery to the fuse box, since it makes kink down:



So being a fan of parallel lines, I set out to fix this problem. You can't buy these black clamps individually from GM, so I found an identical one on one of the valve covers:



I used Krylon Fusion to paint it:



Mucho mejor:



Started assembling all the minor stuff, here's the anodized hose separators:











There's a pretty noticeable difference in weight without the steel coil bracket:



TB on with ARP stainless bolts:







Airbox and intake tube installed:





Only had to trim a small piece off the bumper bracket, which served no purpose to clear the heat exchanger:

 

Got the truck rolling this weekend, still had half a tank of old gas to get rid of so I've been driving it pretty gingerly till I get some new stuff in. Haven't data logged anything yet, just wanted to see how it drove.

I'm back to getting p0171 and p0174 Lean bank 1 and 2 codes, but much less often than I did with the other MAF and K&N filter. I'm starting to think a cone filter disrupts the airflow at low speed giving erratic MAF readings. Dealing with this before, I know what to expect and what to test for, so I'll do the same tests I did before. I have a 5:1 airflow straightener which I'm going to put in front of the MAF to see if there's any benefit. If that fails, I'll recalibrate the MAF for the intake and hopefully be done.

Went for ice cream with the GF on sunday night, was driving slowly cause le wifey doesn't like when LaBlackSilverado goes vroom vroom, and still got a $110 ticket for improper muffler. So I've got a new muffler coming tomorrow.

 

Wow all kinds of goodies.

 

Take that cone filter off the oil filler tube and I bet the lean codes go away...

 

Considering the fact that he is running the MAF that could be a good bet.

 

I'm pretty sure I tried that before and that wasn't it. Last time I had these codes, I just took the K&N cone filter off the intake tube and STFTs dropped to near zero instantly. Put it back on and they came back. That's when I put the stock air box and the intake tube that Magnusson sent, used the same MAF and had the same filtered breather cap and had no lean codes at all.

I'll do this again maybe tomorrow and see what the STFTs show.

 

What happened to the Katech valve covers? Those are awesome. I love your attention to detail, good job

I might be interested in your old plug wires

 

I still have them, I just felt there was way too much engine bay clutter to obscure them on this setup. Stuff like the heater core lines and main wiring harness seem like a real PITA to re-route. I'll keep them for the next project I put together.

I sold those longer plug wires a little while back, sorry. Even the 'normal' LS length is a little too long now with these valve covers, they have a LS9 length that's .75" shorter than the ones I have, which would have been a better fit but I'm getting tired of sending money to MTI!

 

Now you guys have me wondering