misterp

Do you still have the rubber grommets that are between the brake booster and vacuum pump? If so I'd be interested in them! - Mr. P.

Yeah you're talking my next mod - breaking the 12-psi fuel starvation problem! I was toying with the idea of cutting my own stainless "rings" & using Buna gaskets, so that I could drop in a second stock pump bucket (!) that activated when the motor went into boost... But the external pump idea isn't a bad one. Make sure that you use isolator bushings to quiet that pump! Mr. P.

If you are delicate you can reuse the band; there are two tiny metal "teeth" that you can straighten with a screwdriver, then wiggle the screwdriver between the "loop" to create some slack in the band, and you should then be able to gently pry up the open end of the band. To reinstall, clamp the band so that the "teeth" are engaged, then fold over the teeth to lock the band in place, finally use a pair of pliers or diagonal cutters to squish the "loop" and remove any slack. Mr. P.

How much do you want for the actuators?

Congrats! Your work speaks for itself, I see more great things coming from your shop. Mr. P.

LS lifter internals are notorious for sticking, which causes slack in the valvetrain, which is the clattering you hear. In my own judgment, I think it's caused by dirty oil - but I have no proof on that. Only correction is replacement, which means the engine heads have to come off Mr. P.

What are your ATF temps with that converter? Mr. P.

A larger filter means that the "filtration area" is much larger - in other words, you can run a finer, denser filtration media (takes more contaminants out of the oil) without registering a drop in pressure. If you can get a filter that "scrubs" well enough, then yes the oil stays cleaner longer. Filtration is CRITICAL on LS-engines, because of the oil pump bypass valve and secondarily the lifters; if there is any microscopic piece of lint in the oil at all that bypass will hang open, necessitating replacement of the pump because you will have 0-5 psi on the oil pressure gauge. (Been there, done that with 8 UR HMI's truck). This is also why you SHOULD NOT run an oil with a lot of wax in it (Penzoil) in an LS-motor, more chance of gunk getting into that bypass valve years later. And if you take off the valve cover and it's got a waxy buildup I would not run engine cleaner/detergent through it, or else you risk fouling that bypass valve as the detergent washes all the dirty wax into the oil pan. My two-cents. Your question about longer life - to do this you want the most oil in the crankcase possible. In stock form, the pump will move all 6-quarts through the engine in about 30-seconds; if you increase the oil system to run 8-quarts, that increases that time to about 38-seconds... which might not seem like much, but doing so decreases the "working interval" of the oil by 25% (38 is 25% more than 30!). Meaning that it will last 25% longer, plus it gets an extra 8-seconds to "rest" in the pan and shed heat before it is cycled again... "Working interval" is also why if one lets the oil level get 1/2-quart low it will KILL the oil in the motor in less than a couple thousand miles, as the oil in the crankcase will be circulated through the engine more cycles per hour. Keeping the motor's oil level FULL is critical (I run my own engine 1/2-quart over-full). The two most important features for a filter are (1) dense filtration, (2) anti-drainback valve. The only filters I would run on an LS-motor are Mobil-1, K&N, AMSOil, Purolator Pure One. Size matters, get the tallest one you can fit on the engine! And the anti-drainback valve is critical to eliminating wear at startup and keeping the lifters from making noise later in life. Picking the right oil gets a bit tougher, because of engine power level (stock, or do you have a power adder?) and climate. Stock I ran Mobil-1 0W30 in the truck and I think I remember getting 4000-4500 miles from a single change, but in the Texas summertime I had to go to 5W40 and it cost a little MPG but it was needed given the heat load. With the blower installed the oil life was easily cut by 1/3rd (!) so I switched to Rotella T6 5W40 and I get 4000 miles before needing a change; if you are forced induction I *highly* recommend Rotella T6 5W40. The thought I've used since I bought the truck new is to use the thinnest possible oil that still maintains good pressure and eliminating noise, and with super-thin oil you can run a very dense filter without affecting volume or pressure. The truck has 120K-miles on it now, still hits 80-psi at 4500+ RPM, and sounds brand new at startup. Mr. P.

And you've never fried the viscous coupling? I'm on my second transfer case, I smoked the viscous coupling in the second case on day #3.... Mr. P.

SICKNESS.

Goodyear LS2 are so bad they're dangerous, especially in the wet weather. I wouldn't buy them at any price. Had a set of Pirelli's, they perform well but ride really rough. And are barely affordable. Was forced to switch to Yokohama's (Pirelli stopped making tires in my size) and have LOVED them, ride great, price is ok, traction is good especially wet weather. Wear could be better but that might just be my aggressive driving style. Mr. P.

Interrupt the relays for the fuel pump and (optionally) starter; that way you are not dealing with high amperage circuits. You are giving me inspiration, I think I am going to look into this using a keyfob.... These wires are buried deep in the underhood electrical center. Mr. P.

It's been a while since I've been header shopping, so assuming nothing's changed in the last 3-years: I would recommend either a set of Pacesetters, or a set of ARH headers for the LQ9-equipped trucks. If you are keeping your truck long-term (as in, "I'm never selling it"!) then get the ARH's; if you are the type of person that will trade your truck in for something else in a few years, get the Pacesetters. Or, if you show your truck and require easily maintainable headers, get the ARH. If you drive every day in the northeastern US winters (road deicer) then the Pacesetters will be garbage in a few years without significant extra prep/hassles/costs. The Pacesetters can perform as well as the ARH headers, they run nearly identical track times (too close to tell a difference IMO). Their primary tube design is OK. The price is affordable. But where you sacrifice is in the actual metal used (read here: the cheapest import crap steel possible), thin flanges, and slip collectors. The cheap steel does not weather well, and the headers MUST be coated with *something* or they will rust/rot in months. The thin flanges are prone to warpage, although flange warpage on the LS-motors isn't nearly as bad a problem as it was for the original small block Chevy motors, but you gotta be careful upon install. And I personally *hate* slip collectors, more than 2/3rds of the time they have pin-hole leaks, requiring use of expensive Accuseal 4" long band clamps; and once you assemble a slip collector, months later when it has to come apart (and it will, for transmission service) it is a PITA to get apart, we've wrestled with them for an hour before... and then on subsequent reinstall they WILL leak, like a ba$tard.... I HATE slip collectors. Pacesetters make a good set of hot street race pipes. But you MUST coat them with *something* and since the point of this product is affordability I laugh at the guys who spend $200-300 to have these pipes jet hot coated, you get just as effective OR BETTER result applying a can of Eastwood header paint (the stuff is great!). ARH headers, as Dan said, are a $3000 set of pipes for less than half the cost. The are made from the BEST available stainless (not the crap 409 "stainless" that is cheaper but still turns color & rusts); they do not need coating, and have proven impervious to age and weather. Remember that not only is the stainless tubing material costs higher, but the welding supplies for this grade of stainless are more expensive, as is the labor/skill to weld it. The ARH are made with generous 3/8" thick flanges. The primary tube design is state of the art (circa 2003). The collector flanges are Ball/Socket type, they don't leak period no matter how many times you've had them apart, and are VERY forgiving on alignment during installation (I've had mine out of the truck 6 or 7 times now and they STILL are leak free). The ARH mandrel bending job is perfect - not just "nice" but perfect - they fit fantastic and all bends are perpendicular to the tubing centerline. The collector has a merge spike, and it is hand-blended. The welds on my set were top-notch, with perfect heat-affected zone and appearance. The ARH are VERY easy, I even say joyful to get in & out of the truck - simple and fast, no fighting them at all. And when I take them out of the truck, I use a single green scotchbrite pad with a half-can of Barkeeper's Friend cleanser ($2 walmart) and with gentle scrubbing they are BRAND NEW again - not just "clean" but brand-spanking-new. The only improvements I would add to the ARH headers are substitution of V-band clamps for the several slip joints present on the driver's crossover pipes... even at that, after 6 or 7 reinstalls there still isn't a leak (that I can tell). Oh last point - the Pacesetters have that usual header "ringing" because the primary tubing is super-thin cheap steel; the ARH have NO ringing, my 1-7/8" ARH's are no noisier than stock because the tubing material is denser as well as thicker wall primary tubing (this dampens the ringing a lot). Mr. P.

Glad to hear it!

Are they both on full-time? Or did you wire one to be boost-triggered? Mr. P.

As pictured, including valves, springs, hardware? What about pushrods & rocker arms? Mr. P.

LIKE IT!

Sorry to hear the output shaft exploded; been through that myself, several times. Very heartbreaking when it happens. Yup your warranty was not worth the paper it was written on. OTOH nobody will warranty a performance trans build. Converter - neither is my personal choice; however I would take my chances with the Circle-D before the Yank SS3200, we've had a truck gain 1/2-second by replacing that converter with a TCS. You can blame the US Congress (CAFE standards) for the 4L60 in these trucks, the fleet MPG with the 4L80 is too low to pass Congressional mandate, hence why they were never put in the half-ton trucks. Mr. P.

Sorry I live half-way across the country Those are beautiful.

Worth. Every. Penny. Mr. P.

Wait a minute, I see a flaw.... what's that RED grounded wire just above/left of the brake booster?! Shouldn't that be a BLACK wire? Mr. P.

Does the guage bezel/kit also come with matching chrome trim ring, like the A/C ducts?

Easy things a competent mechanical can spend a morning doing and ascertain exact condition of the motor, non-invasively with simple tools: Using an OBD-II tool, command the PCM to do both an ignition and injector kill test - this will pinpoint weak cylinders. Perform a cylinder leakdown test - this will tell you exactly the condition of the rings and valves. I am a BIG believer in cylinder leakdown testing. Listen to the valvetrain using a "mechanic's stethoscope" - put the tip of the probe in the roof of each intake port, you will hear literally the valvespring action, and valve seating... what you are listening for is any valve that sounds different from the others, this is how you easily find a broken spring, dampner, or even burned valve; you will also possibly hear the injector firing too. Repeat this putting the probe on each header tube, to listen to exhaust valvespring/valve action. If you've got broken valvetrain this will quickly pinpoint the affected cylinder. Remove the accessory belt and run the engine for 60-90 seconds, just to be sure the ticking isn't coming from the power steering pump, or A/C, or water pump. (Don't laugh, I've had it happen!!) Don't run the engine for long without a water pump, but you can idle it long enough to rule accessory drive as either a factor or not. "ticking" can be a split/cracked spark plug insulator (I've had it happen, MidnightRidr found it for me lol). It can also be the spark jumping inside the boot from the wire to the spark plug terminal/tip. Mr. P.

It's all about diminishing returns... for the same amount of $$$ that you would spend getting a decent 10-11 psi out of a Radix-equipped LQ9, you could put into a turbo or large centrifugal and get 15-psi or more. My point is, the Radix has it's limits, and your performance expectations (low-11s) are realistically beyond those limits. Air is 'stretchy stuff', and yes anything that helps a motor N/A also helps it under forced induction. So reworking heads/cam is never a bad idea, although it might not get you the ET gains you were hoping for. The problem is that usually the heads/cam are not the chokepoint, the compressor itself is! Mr. P.

Red is for Racing! Mr. P.