Charlene is a truck I bought from my brother. 2004 ECSB fully loaded Silverado. Been doing stuff here and there and slowly collecting stuff and the work has begun!
The day my brother bought it, nosed up to my old 2500HD.
He wanted the front to be level with the rear so we put a leveling kit on it and wheels and tires. This is right after I bought it from him after he owned it for 2 years.
I pretty well immediately pulled the leveling kit off the front put some drop shackles in the rear. Did a little trading on Craigslist and traded for some Dubstar 20s. Not my first choice, but not bad. Put all new lights up front and did a Denali cluster swap. How it sits now. Eventually I plan on doing a 2/4 drop to get it a little lower but still usable. Its a truck and I still intend to use it as a truck and its fairly frequently down dirt roads and driving through cow shit filled pastures.
Now that I was happier with the way it looks, time to move on to the nitty gritty and get it ready for a little more power. I bought HP Tuners a few months ago and have been playing with it here and there. Slowly collecting parts here and there. I ordered and installed a Truetrac and replaced all the bearings in the rear end last weekend. If you're thinking of going with a Truetrac, do it. I picked mine up on Amazon for 460 shipped to my door. Found my bearing kits on there as well for around 60. Set up was easy, was able to reuse the stock shims. Decided to stick with the stock 3.73 gears for now, but will likely end up swapping in 4.30s or 4.56 gears in the furture.
Weekend before last, I installed new cross drilled/slotted rotors and carbon ceramic pads. Got those on Amazon for 150 shipped. I'm sure the rotor stock comes from China, but they are machined in Canada and so far seem to be a solid product. Truck stops in about half the time as before.
Going to be ordering more parts this week in addition to the parts I currently have. As of now, I have a 4L80E (HD2 kit installed couple weeks ago) waiting to be swapped in, Racetronix hot wire kit, AEM Wideband, and a few other odds and ends. This week, we're ordering the cam, lifters, springs, Circle D converter, and some other engine stuff. Ultimately I ended up going with a 228R .600 lift 110lsa for a cam. The shop I work at is a TSP dealer, so its a no brainer for me. Trying to do this build on a bit of a budget while maintaining daily driver status at the same time. I have a 5.3 gen 3.5 with castec 706 heads that is sludged up that will be the power plant. Soon as I get the 80 swapped in, I will start on the engine tear down and clean up. Truck currently has a 5.3 but with around 225K miles, the lifters are extremely tired and its a true gen 3 with the still stout, but weaker bottom end. Unless I come across a smoking deal on a set of 243 heads, I will likely end up going with some 317 heads and mill them around .030. These are pretty close to the 243 heads they just have a larger combustion chamber. I usually refer to milled 317 heads and a poor mans 243.
I'm doing this project mainly on the weekend and as time allows. I spend the majority of my time fixing other peoples shit but I usually try to squeeze in my own truck on the weekends. Shooting to have the bulk of everything done by late summer, early fall at the latest. Really wanted to have it done by June, but thats a bit ambitious. I will update as the progress continues!
PS, Sam is gay.
The day my brother bought it, nosed up to my old 2500HD.
He wanted the front to be level with the rear so we put a leveling kit on it and wheels and tires. This is right after I bought it from him after he owned it for 2 years.
I pretty well immediately pulled the leveling kit off the front put some drop shackles in the rear. Did a little trading on Craigslist and traded for some Dubstar 20s. Not my first choice, but not bad. Put all new lights up front and did a Denali cluster swap. How it sits now. Eventually I plan on doing a 2/4 drop to get it a little lower but still usable. Its a truck and I still intend to use it as a truck and its fairly frequently down dirt roads and driving through cow shit filled pastures.
Now that I was happier with the way it looks, time to move on to the nitty gritty and get it ready for a little more power. I bought HP Tuners a few months ago and have been playing with it here and there. Slowly collecting parts here and there. I ordered and installed a Truetrac and replaced all the bearings in the rear end last weekend. If you're thinking of going with a Truetrac, do it. I picked mine up on Amazon for 460 shipped to my door. Found my bearing kits on there as well for around 60. Set up was easy, was able to reuse the stock shims. Decided to stick with the stock 3.73 gears for now, but will likely end up swapping in 4.30s or 4.56 gears in the furture.
Weekend before last, I installed new cross drilled/slotted rotors and carbon ceramic pads. Got those on Amazon for 150 shipped. I'm sure the rotor stock comes from China, but they are machined in Canada and so far seem to be a solid product. Truck stops in about half the time as before.
Going to be ordering more parts this week in addition to the parts I currently have. As of now, I have a 4L80E (HD2 kit installed couple weeks ago) waiting to be swapped in, Racetronix hot wire kit, AEM Wideband, and a few other odds and ends. This week, we're ordering the cam, lifters, springs, Circle D converter, and some other engine stuff. Ultimately I ended up going with a 228R .600 lift 110lsa for a cam. The shop I work at is a TSP dealer, so its a no brainer for me. Trying to do this build on a bit of a budget while maintaining daily driver status at the same time. I have a 5.3 gen 3.5 with castec 706 heads that is sludged up that will be the power plant. Soon as I get the 80 swapped in, I will start on the engine tear down and clean up. Truck currently has a 5.3 but with around 225K miles, the lifters are extremely tired and its a true gen 3 with the still stout, but weaker bottom end. Unless I come across a smoking deal on a set of 243 heads, I will likely end up going with some 317 heads and mill them around .030. These are pretty close to the 243 heads they just have a larger combustion chamber. I usually refer to milled 317 heads and a poor mans 243.
I'm doing this project mainly on the weekend and as time allows. I spend the majority of my time fixing other peoples shit but I usually try to squeeze in my own truck on the weekends. Shooting to have the bulk of everything done by late summer, early fall at the latest. Really wanted to have it done by June, but thats a bit ambitious. I will update as the progress continues!
PS, Sam is gay.
