My "Official" Stepside Restoration Thread and LS Swap 2021

[Chevy305]

Yesterday was a beautiful day and I got some tuning time in!
The engine idles smoother and returns to idle pretty well now without any stumbling. My VE table still needs work, as I've only worked the idle to 4k area under the curve. I finally got my wideband hooked up to a serial port and enabled in HP Tuners so soon I'll start doing WOT pulls.




Of course nothing is perfect and I think the alternator is wining a bit, the radiator has a small pin hole somewhere, and my catch can was full already. I think I'll replace the driver side valve cover with the updated PCV setup. Hopefully that clears it up and the engine stops drinking it's own oil.

 

[Wes Harden]

Im going to try my 1st mod. Turn ses lamp for evap, egr , air inj, and adjust speedo calibration

 

[6872xtc]

Did you drill extra holes in your existing valve cover? After watching a couple of videos on YT, I drilled extra holes in mine. (''01 6.0) . While it isn't perfect, it seems much better than before. I still haven't gotten around to adding a catch can.

Would you please tell me what can you are using?

 

[Chevy305]

Im going to try my 1st mod. Turn ses lamp for evap, egr , air inj, and adjust speedo calibration

Watch out tuning gets addicting. Check out Goat Rope Garage on YouTube in his channel playlists he's got a ton of HP Tuners how to content.

Did you drill extra holes in your existing valve cover? After watching a couple of videos on YT, I drilled extra holes in mine. (''01 6.0) . While it isn't perfect, it seems much better than before. I still haven't gotten around to adding a catch can.

Would you please tell me what can you are using?

I didn't drill the valve cover. Although you did just remind me that that's an option.

The catch can is a cheaper Evil Energy Amazon special. The name brand ones going for several hundred dollars are only marginally better than this one. I have had the same one on my '12 Silverado for 7-8 years with good results. On that it goes 5-7k miles before I need to empty it, so basically at oil changes.

EVIL ENERGY Baffled Oil Catch Can,Oil Separator Catch Can 300ml Universal Aluminum Black https://a.co/d/hpe9IAn

 

[centexk5]

Watch out tuning gets addicting. Check out Goat Rope Garage on YouTube in his channel playlists he's got a ton of HP Tuners how to content.

I didn't drill the valve cover. Although you did just remind me that that's an option.

The catch can is a cheaper Evil Energy Amazon special. The name brand ones going for several hundred dollars are only marginally better than this one. I have had the same one on my '12 Silverado for 7-8 years with good results. On that it goes 5-7k miles before I need to empty it, so basically at oil changes.

EVIL ENERGY Baffled Oil Catch Can,Oil Separator Catch Can 300ml Universal Aluminum Black https://a.co/d/hpe9IAn

I have one of those on the Durango. It works just fine. Catch cans are nothing more than beer cans with steel wool in them. The internet has just made people dumb enough to think a $300 chunk of aluminum is better than a $20 chunk.

 

[Chevy305]

New valve cover going on. The newer style should suck less oil although it's hardly any different. Of course I had to paint it Chevy Orange.



While the coils are off might as well swap to the billet ICT coil brackets that I have had kicking around for a couple years. Unfortunately I can't justify new coils are this time so I had to put the old crusty ones back on the shiny billet brackets.

 

[Blue85]

You could always clean up the coils and re-paint them.

 

[76zimmer]

Glen, you gotta slap some new paint on those crusty coil packs!

 

[Chevy305]

Haven't done a whole lot to the truck since last update except take it for a cruise on July 4th. I hit a few bumps and the feather light throttle pedal was a bit of a problem. Just the weight of my foot hitting a bump would make the pedal move which would make the truck lurch, which would make my foot move, which would change the throttle again, making the truck lurch again, and so on and so forth. The GMT400 diesel electric pedal is a common swap as it bolts into our trucks but the draw back is needing a conversion harness (or swapping some pins) and the spring in the pedal is super light. I saw some others with this issue as well and took inspiration from their solutions.

I had a piece of aluminum flat bar and some carb throttle return springs that I adapted onto the pedal. The added springs definitely help and make the weight of the throttle pedal feel much closer to that of the old cable throttle. I haven't tried that same bumpy road yet but I'm sure this will help.

 

[max 02]

The solution for Light peddle on The first generation Duramaxs was a heavier spring.
My 02 was fine stock my Father in laws 05 was horrible for it. So bad I hated driving it. Never did change it.
But that was the fix according to the Diesel Place way back when those truck were new.

 

[Chevy305]

Finally fill the gas tank since it had the SBC, ya it's been awhile...

But maybe I'm paranoid but there seems to be some higher frequency ticking sound that has recently developed. What are we thinking, loose rockers or just header noise? It seems to follow rpm.

 

[CharlesC83]

Finally fill the gas tank since it had the SBC, ya it's been awhile...

But maybe I'm paranoid but there seems to be some higher frequency ticking sound that has recently developed. What are we thinking, loose rockers or just header noise? It seems to follow rpm.

I can read back through. But did you replace your rocker trunnions?

 

[Chevy305]

I can read back through. But did you replace your rocker trunnions?

No still factory rockers.


BTW maybe I was paranoid but I did get about 1 turn out of both my v bands at the header collectors. I started it up and no tapping. I guess it was a small exhaust leak.

In fact I felt confident enough to drive it to work today and had no issues. 36 miles each way. The longest journey it's seen in 2 years! Now The tune is still a work in progress but it'll get there with time.

 

[Babaganoosh]

No still factory rockers.


BTW maybe I was paranoid but I did get about 1 turn out of both my v bands at the header collectors. I started it up and no tapping. I guess it was a small exhaust leak.

In fact I felt confident enough to drive it to work today and had no issues. 36 miles each way. The longest journey it's seen in 2 years! Now The tune is still a work in progress but it'll get there with time.

I was going to post something along the lines of that, you should hear my 6.0 it sounds like it’s gonna blow up.

 

[CharlesC83]

No still factory rockers.


BTW maybe I was paranoid but I did get about 1 turn out of both my v bands at the header collectors. I started it up and no tapping. I guess it was a small exhaust leak.

In fact I felt confident enough to drive it to work today and had no issues. 36 miles each way. The longest journey it's seen in 2 years! Now The tune is still a work in progress but it'll get there with time.

Glad you got it figured out. The factory rockers have replaceable bearings and a trunnion they ride on and they wear and can be serviced easily. Yours are probably gtg.

 

[folkenheath]

I was going to post something along the lines of that, you should hear my 6.0 it sounds like it’s gonna blow up.

Just a heads up, exhaust leaks with self tuning EFI can cause all sorts of issues. If it tunes off of false oxygen readings it can make the tune worse over time. This is one of the reasons I shut off self learning once a tune is working very well.

No still factory rockers.


BTW maybe I was paranoid but I did get about 1 turn out of both my v bands at the header collectors. I started it up and no tapping. I guess it was a small exhaust leak.

In fact I felt confident enough to drive it to work today and had no issues. 36 miles each way. The longest journey it's seen in 2 years! Now The tune is still a work in progress but it'll get there with time.

It did sound louder under vs up top. It was difficult to hear via the camera up top. Glad you have it back out again!

 

[Babaganoosh]

Just a heads up, exhaust leaks with self tuning EFI can cause all sorts of issues. If it tunes off of false oxygen readings it can make the tune worse over time. This is one of the reasons I shut off self learning once a tune is working very well.


It did sound louder under vs up top. It was difficult to hear via the camera up top. Glad you have it back out again!

Agreed, mine is valve train noise up top, you can hear the valves closing cause of the springs.

Also doesn’t help I rev it to 7k, but that’s not the problem…

 

[Chevy305]

A little update since last summer.
The ticking I was complaining about last summer I'm still battling which is the v bands loosening up frequently. It's annoying, might try double nutting them.

I still haven't touched the tune since last year, just haven't had the time. VE table is pretty dialed but haven't touched the MAF tune yet, infact MAF sensor is still failed in the tune so currently kinda running speed density. PE is way too rich, needs some work. Spark table could use some optimizing and I need to reduce the rev hang between gear shifts. Realistically it's 90% of where it needs to be and perfectly streetable as is, it's just the fine tuning that takes the longest to fully dial in.

I also added a driveshaft safety loop over the winter that I had talked about last year.
The yoke also sticks out a little further that I'd like but it works for now. Over 80mph I get a slight drive line vibration which is probably the shaft vibrating on the spines or just angles or just ujoints wearing out. I either need to have my driveshaft lengthened slightly or get adjustable motor mounts and slide the engine back 1" to where the old SBC was.



Other than that, I've been just driving the hell out of the thing! Honestly the mileage I'm getting has completely blown me away!

Numbers don't lie! Not like I'm driving it easy or anything either. Mostly it's been averaging 17mpg but either way it's getting better mileage than the 14mpg my '12 Silverado gets. It's my new economy car!

 

[muddybuddy]

Maybe its the angle of photo but looks like it the bottom of hoop may interfere with driveshaft if you end up getting driveshaft lengthened. Looks like you already ground down a bit off the xmember, so I’m sure you are all over it.

Mileage is awesome!

 

[Chevy305]

Maybe its the angle of photo but looks like it the bottom of hoop may interfere with driveshaft if you end up getting driveshaft lengthened. Looks like you already ground down a bit off the xmember, so I’m sure you are all over it.

Mileage is awesome!

There's plenty of clearance there. If I change the driveshaft then who knows but cross that bridge if I ever get there. I'd rather try $40 on a set of mounts first lol