Thanks! I'm still have a ways to go but I'm making progress. Hopefully in 2-3 weeks I'll have the engine and exhaust mods done and the bumpers on.

Thanks man!! Your two rigs is kinda what got me thinking I need a cool tow rig to tow my truck with. And it gave me something else to drive and the other was down for the count. I woulda bought a CCSB Duramax but figured I could get a van and do it differently.

I also want to drop it a few inches but don't want to straight out lower it, when I get around to doing the suspension I want to figure out how to put it on air-ride so that I can raise and lower it depending on what I'm doing and where I am. Not even sure if I can do it but I'm gonna try and see.

Well...then you two should prepare to hate me!!
Most people read that it's a diesel but they don't really put two and two together and forget that with the tune, muffler and kitty delete that they sounds like this...

2005 LLY Duramax Straight Pipe Exhaust - YouTube


But it'll be in my Van!!

(DO IT, you know you want to!!)

I do too!! which kinda sucks because I was hoping to keep the miles down on this thing. I've already put 20K miles on it and I've only been home to drive it for about 3.5 months. If I keep this up I'm gonna be racking up alot of miles on this thing!

 

Just did a Down Pipe swap on my Van and made a little thread on the Diesel Forums to poke some fun at the Truck guys since their swap is alot more complicated to do than it is for the Van guys. Just gonna copy and paste it here, took me all of 40-45 minutes to do!

Step 1:

Remove Seat


Step 2:

Remove Glove box


Step 3:

Remove Dog House


Step 4:
Wipe down and Dustbust your ****!! (A clean Van is a happy Van)


Step 5:

Remove Heat Shield


Step 6:

Remove Down Pipe


Step 7:

Install Down Pipe


Step 8:

Put Dog House, Glove Box and Seat back in

Step 9:

Ask yourself why all Diesel truck guys complain about why it's so hard


Step 10:

Ask Truck guys if

 

I had some trouble with the EGR Delete though.

This is the EGR plate/blocker


Not sure if you can tell from that picture but the slots in the plate meant for the studs were too close together and would not line up with the ones on my Van.

So I cut them open a bit just to get it in there


But no matter how tight I got those nuts back on the studs the flange would leak. I think that also caused the plate to get mis-aligned but I think I got the wrong blocker plate, I'll check with the supplier tomorrow. No biggie since I don't have my tuned PCM yet anyways and that would just give me a check engine light right now anyways.

 

I understand the purpose of the EGR block off plate, but what is the benefit of the change in the down-pipe? Is it a more free flow design or does it offer other benefits? Sorry for the question, I am not up to speed on the diesel market stuff..

Thanks,

 

Yup, pretty much, just less kinks and hard 90 degree bends and the pipe isn't crushed in certain areas. To be honest I doubt it makes all that much difference but I'm redo'ing the whole exhaust next week and since I was doing that I thought that I might as well do the Downpipe while I was at it.

Here's a comparo of the two pipes.

 

So I finally got a new toy today!!!!



It's a bigger Nutsert Tool. I have a smaller one that I've used when building my Race Truck but needed a bigger one for some of the things I want to do with my Van.
So I decided to try it out with these Bike Cradles that a buddy of mine made for his van but no longer uses.



So I started drilling some holes in my floor with a 1/2 drill



Put two of the Riv-Nuts in the holes



And then Nut-serted that bitch down!!



Reason I'm doing it like this is so that when I'm not hauling my motorcycles around I can unbolt the cradles and there will be no attaching points sticking up out of the floor as a tripping hazard, as well as it's alot easier to install and remove the cradles without having to get under the van with a nut while someone inside the van tighten down on the bolts.

You can see how flush they are in this picture, there are two Riv-nuts up forward by the brown box, you can barely see them but they are there if you look.


You can see them better in this pic



So after all said and done I have two removable cradles...

 

Thats clean and well thought out. Keep it up!

 

thats a good idea but i think like a hood pin design of some sort would be cool cause you wouldnt need to unbolt it every time , just pull a pin or something . but good idea thou never seen a riv-nut lol

 

Thanks man! I keep trying to think of new and creative ways to make this thing useful and practical.

I think I know what your saying but I can't visualize how that would remain flush and not be a tripping hazzard when I don't use the cradles. I also have some Riv-bolts which essentially act as studs so I can do what your suggesting by getting some cotter-pins, but then I would have a stud sticking up through the floor when not using the cradles.

 

Got the correct LBZ blocker plate!!



I'm gonna wait until I get the SPADE controller before slipping this thing in that way I don't have to worry about the check engine light. Should be here tomorrow I hope.