TheGameGoat

Okay, I tried a few things yesterday. Took apart the intake tube and cleaned everything up and made sure everything was making a seal, my MAF also looks like it needs to be cleaned. I also put air to the intake by way of connecting an air line through one of the vacuum ports, I couldn't hear air leaking out anywhere except through the intake tube. This morning I had a guy from work (a gearhead) listen as I goosed the throttle while parked and aside from hearing a lot of air coming in through the tube, he wasn't sure where the squeal was coming from. So I had him goose her and I listened, it sounded to me like the squeal was coming from the intake tube, so he listened again and we both agreed it is almost certainly coming from the air filter. I'm wondering if the intake is simply pulling so much air that as it's going through the TB it's making that noise because it's moving too fast for that small of a TB or my 4-3 bolt adapter is causing a problem as the air goes past it. We're gonna try a couple more things after work and see if we can pin it down. On a side note, I had a DI/DO muffler on the truck for a while, and two weeks ago we removed that and installed an X pipe and two Dynomax race bullets, I doubt the increased flow would cause this to happen, but if air is able to move through faster than it was before, maybe? I'm sure the X pipe is helping with scavenging a lot more than the DI/DO muffler was. Is it possible that with the increased scavenging that the engine is actually pulling more air on the front side as it's pushing it out faster on the back? I looked into doing a DBW to DBC conversion and determined that will be a winter project haha I only started doing a bunch of wrenching in February when I installed my cam, so most of the things I've done and am doing are first times for me, but I refuse to let someone do any of it for me.

Good suggestion, I didn't think about pressurising the intake. I should be able to screw a line into one of the vacuum ports on the back of the elbow and give it a little air. As far as making it happen while parked, the only way I can get it to make any noise is if I goose the throttle then I can hear what sounds more like air being sucked in through the TB, kinda like the sound you get from a factory intake manifold with CAI but more pronounced and a little squeakier. But the sound is definitely not belt squeal, too bad, would be easier to diagnose. Last night I removed the spacer and installed the isolator plate. This netted me the exact same results I achieved the night before. It's probably worth mentioning that I realized the sound isn't really tied to rpms but rather throttle position I think. I can hold my foot at about 35-45% throttle and hear the noise through nearly the whole rpm range while driving. I'm thinking there might be a leak at my TB somewhere but the thing that's strange about this whole thing is that it doesn't exhibit a leak while idling, normally if there is an intake leak you'll lose vacuum at idle if you give it throttle, I believe. So if I were to give it some throttle while idling it would rev way too high them come down slowly as it builds the vacuum back, but I'm not getting that behavior at all. With that being said, it kinda makes me think the leak may be before the TB. Maybe I should rework my intake tube and see if that helps. Maybe that's not the way it happens, but it seems like that's what happened when I installed the intake to begin with. Looks like I have some things to try now, if nothing else I can always convert to cable driven and get a 4 barrel TB with an air cleaner. That's my plan eventually anyway ?

Heyo all! A few months ago I modified my intake manifold, meaning I installed a different one, and rather than going with the TBSS manifold like many do, I decided to go with a Holley spider manifold, very similar to the Victor (I know these are best on FI setups which I am not, but they look d*** cool). It's basically a spider manifold, single plane, with a Holley 105 mm elbow, factory TB (still shopping for aftermarket) with an adapter plate cuz elbow is 4 bolt, and a CAI tube going to the typical corner. After I got everything bolted on and literal days of chasing vacuum leaks she ran/runs great, really good power, my cam has the power band starting around 2800 rpm and the intake is around the same area so you can definitely feel when things start to click. Btw, the cam is a Comp Cams XR275HR 222/224 @ 0.050, .566/.568 lift, and 112° LSA with LS6 springs. Overall it's a good setup for me, the truck is a DD so I didn't wanna get too wild. Here's what the setup looks like: So, the problem is this, when I finally got everything finished, there was this shrieking noise at around 2000 rpms and I'm about 98% sure it's the intake somewhere, I figured out eventually it was the elbow, the back side houses the vacuum ports and doesn't quite line up with the manifold flange. I bought a 1" spacer to try to fill in the gap and it worked, no more squeals, then after about a month it started coming back, and eventually it got worse so last night I started digging and put gaskets in differently and got everything back together again. I fired it up and it sounded amazing, hit the throttle a little and I could hear that baby suck the air. So, I pulled her out of the shop and started heading home, got on the road and WOW the shrieking is worse than ever, now rather than being at a specific rpm, it's across a range of rpms, roughly 1800 to 3000 yields a shriek of varying tones and decibels. I'm almost certain it's the intake, just not quite sure where. The intake tube, throttle body, elbow and spacer are all secured and sealed, I'm sure of that. I'm nearly certain all the vacuum ports are sealed, but I don't know where to look next. My dad (lifelong gearhead) took a look and gave me a different spacer, actually an isolator plate, to try so I'm gonna give that a shot tonight, and see what it yields, but I have a hard time believing it's coming from the elbow or flange area. Does anyone here have any ideas? Hoping to get it sorted fairly soon, the wife is tired of me being away playing with my toys ?

Thanks guys! I put her in her first show a couple weeks ago, didn't place but to be fair my class had every modified truck from 1959 to 2009, pretty stupid classing imo. Oh well, it's not about the trophy to me, I just like to share my hard work. Also, I hadn't buffed it after the stripes were painted yet, that proved to be more difficult than I anticipated (first time buffing), wet sanding was necessary. Luckily he gave me plenty of clear to work with haha This is what she looks like now:

Welcome! There is definitely a wealth of knowledge on this site!

Thanks guys! Now that my appearance goals are accomplished, I'll have to start throwing some money under the hood!

Hey everyone! Since I've owned my truck, I've wanted it to have Hockey Stick stripes on it like the old Camaros, and like many of you have on your SS's. I am aware of the vinyl kit available, but I wanted my stripes to be somewhat unique, and I had a certain look in mind when considering the stripes. So, after consulting a friend of my Parents' who does a lot of body work on his own time in his personal paint booth, he tried to convince me that vinyls would look just as good as paint, and last just as long, but he wasn't convincing enough, and we decided to go with the paint route. He wasn't very confident in his ability to tape off the stripes, but I was confident because I've seen his work before, and he's painted the very same stripes on his '69 Camaro. So we began taping, I was sure to be very close by so I could give my two cents when necessary. After several hours of trial and error, mainly due to his own perfectionism, here's the driver's side taped. It would be 4 long days before I would see my truck finished as he does body work on the side, and is putting an LS1 in his '77 Formula as well (barely seen in the background of the photo above). On about the 3rd day I went to his paint booth after work to see how it was coming, and I showed up just as he was about to start painting the base coat, things got pretty hairy at that point. The driver's side had been wrecked long before I bought the truck, and had been painted. So, I stood and watched as he started painting on the driver's side, then stood and listened as he began getting irritated, apparently the paint from the repair was "lifting" as he applied the new paint for the stripe. For those who don't know (I certainly didn't), lifting is when you spray a coat on something that has been previously painted and the new paint reacts with the old paint and basically starts pulling the old paint off the panel. This was obviously very concerning for him, and certainly for me. He assured me that lifting can be worked around by simply painting it "dry" which I guess means painting several very light coats that must dry completely before applying the next coat. I guess if he was unable to manage painting it dry, the next option was to strip everything, new paint, old paint, back to bare metal. The driver's side turned out to be really difficult, aside from the lifting, he also had sagging and fisheyes, but I guess the passenger side went very smooth. But, after a few sleepless nights, and many nightmarish rides with my girlfriend, as my SS is my DD, this dream had finally been realized. Unable to be seen in the above photo, the reasoning for my desire to have the stripes painted rather than stuck on, is that I really wanted them to be a specific color, the base being white but the clear on the stripes being Pearl. The color in the sun is actually very close to the color of the racing stripes on my Dad's '72 Chevelle SS (also painted by the same guy) so that's kind of cool, in my opinion. Now, what about the gap? This was one of the most difficult decisions of my life, to be perfectly honest. I searched for hours upon hours on Google and websites trying to find ideas, and get the look that I really wanted, which was to be reminiscent of the '69 Camaro SS, but alas I was unable to find EXACTLY what I wanted. What I wanted was a displacement badge like the old plastic 350 badges, but it seems no one makes one that says 364, and obviously that was never a factory badge. I did consider having one custom made, but most websites require a minimum of a crazy number of emblems to be made, or they're really expensive for just one on other sites. Besides, I found a badge that I wanted to try before going the custom route, depending if I was happy with it or not. This being the badge I wanted to try, it is actually designed to be used on a '68 or '69 Camaro SS as an aftermarket badge and is cut from 0.09" stainless steel with 3M double-sided tape on the back. And I know, she's very dirty, but we've been getting a bit of snow here in South Dakota lately, and everything is a mess. Anyway, upon receiving the badges I became very worried. Prior to ordering them, it hadn't occurred to me that these might have a slight curve to them to fit the Camaro fenders, but they certainly do, it's definitely not an extreme curve but it did cause some concern. So, I went to the shop where I work and stuck them on, they don't sit completely flat on the fenders but it's pretty close and they seem to be stuck on very well. If they end up falling (or flying) off, I will just custom order the exact emblems I wanted in the first place, and be done with it. I also wanted to point out that the Pearl in the stripes can be seen pretty easily in the above photo. Here she is outside, I like the look of the badges much better outside, but I will say I didn't expect them to be quite so shiny/reflective when I bought them, although I should have known because the website clearly states that they're cut from mirror-polished stainless steel. So there she is, after all the time it took us (mostly him), the stripes are finally complete after the addition of the badges, which came one full week after the paint was finished. I hope you guys like the outcome, I'm very happy with how it looks, and now my truck is unique to the other SS's where I live. Thanks for checking her out!

Hey all! I'm from East Central South Dakota, currently work in the Ag Industry as a Custom Applicator, which means I get to drive the big monster truck looking things, and I've been lurking on the site for over a year now, absorbing as much of the wealth of knowledge as possible from everyone. This has been an excellent site for me in getting to know my truck better and the things it's capable of. I've had my Silverado SS since November 2015, always wanted one after my brother had an '03 many years ago, he's since gotten rid of his (what a mistake). Mine is an '05 AWD, the mods I've done so far are pretty minor, Airaid CAI, DI/DO catback exhaust w/dual tailpipes behind the tires, Black Bear mail-order tune for 91 Octane, 305/50-20 Nitto NT420S, 1.5 inch drop shackles just to level it out, I've also put in a Rockford sub/amp and a Pioneer 7" touchscreen radio (AVH-X4800BS), and I put in some Spyder smoked red tail lights, and blue LEDs in the DRLs at risk of attracting the attention of Police, but I've found out my 3% driver and passenger window tint already does that, $130 later, pulled over on the Interstate for window tint, can you believe that?! When I bought the truck it was sorta blacked out, which is a look that I like but don't prefer on my own vehicle, black grille inserts, black bowtie, black tail lights, but still has the factory chrome wheels and all the SS badging (thank god, I love these trucks and want to flaunt that it's an SS). Years before I bought it, it had been wrecked badly enough that it is a salvage title truck, but whomever did the repairs seem to have done a pretty good job, although the driver's side, where it had been wrecked, had a bit of orange peel in the paint, but a couple family friends who are body guys as a hobby and have schooling from Wyotech gave the physical repairs their stamp of approval (before and after pics provided). One of the guys buffed the hell out of it last summer, and made it much better but he wasn't able to get all the haziness out of the paint. The town I live in is a smaller town, about 12k population, but has by my count 5 Silverado SS's plus mine so 6 total, including 2 black, 1 blue, and 2 red, and mine is black also. So, with that in mind, my truck is going to one of the family friend's paint booth tomorrow to have Hockey stripes painted on it, 1. because I love that look and 2. to make it unique in my town at least, I thought a lot about going with AUTOGUY's website and doing it myself, but decided to have them painted so I get exactly what I want in terms of color, shape and length, and since I have a guy who can do it in his shop pretty easily and I can be with him when he tapes them, it seemed like the best option. They will be pearl white with a blue reflection, planning to have a gap left in the front of the stripe behind the headlight so I can put some emblems in there, reminiscent of the '67-'69 Camaros, the biggest problem I've had is finding the emblem I want, I hoped to find an emblem exactly like the '69 Camaro's 327, 350, 396, etc. but as a "364" and have had no luck finding this emblem as plastic, although I did find one in stainless steel it's not the same style, so I'll either have one custom made or go with a different emblem altogether. My dad has always had Classic Muscle cars for as long as I can remember and long before my time, he's had a '67 Chevelle SS ragtop, '65 Chevy II Nova that he drag raced, '71 Camaro SS, '72 Chevelle SS 402 that he built from nothing (this one is his baby), '75 Camaro, '70 Le Mans, and a '77 Camaro Z28 (I'm sure I've forgotten some). I was always in that group of people, my parent's friends were all car buffs too, who had similar Muscle cars and did lots of work making them "theirs". Many cars have come and gone over the years, some with lots of restoration and some with very little only to be sold, but the '72 Chevelle SS and the '75 Camaro are still in his shop. The '77 Camaro Z28 was actually my first car in High School, it was that brown color and just looked dreadful, but it was still cool to drive, I was later given a '97 Firebird Formula with a 5.7L to drive to school then Tech school, so I was fine with the brown Camaro going bye-bye. I seem to have gotten off topic, so with that said I have been around a lot of Muscle cars and that's why I prefer the Hockey stick look and wanted to have my truck be a sort of homage to that era. As for things I'm planning to do to my pickup after the stripes, I think I'll be done with appearance upgrades for a bit (although I want wheels) and would like to focus more on the engine and get some more power out of her. I would like to put a different cam in it with a 2800 stall(?) and LS6 springs, but really haven't researched that stuff much yet, long tube headers, true dual exhaust maybe with an X-pipe rather than the DI/DO single muffler I have now, FAST LSXrt intake, the truck is my daily driver, so I don't really want to put too much under the hood, but I would like to take it to the track someday. With only 87k miles on it, there should still be a lot of life left and a lot of time for me to do the upgrades I want to do, heck maybe someday I'll do some kind of forced induction. Currently this is my only vehicle, so I use it for everything, but when I get another vehicle, I plan to keep the SS as a toy, so then I can really do some upgrades. So, here's what it looked like after it was wrecked long before I ever owned it, we talked to the dealer I bought it from and were able to track down a few images of it: And here it is now: So anyway, sorry for the long winded introduction but I like to read other people's backgrounds, so I'm hoping some of you enjoy reading about me and my truck. Looking forward to learning more from all of you!