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Project Caddy - 03 Escalade Build

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Russell

Russell

3/4 ton status
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Rocky View County, AB
Russell submitted a new Build:

Project Caddy - 03 Escalade Build

As some of ya'll know, I daily drive a 2003 Chevy Tahoe Z71. I picked this truck up off my folks a couple years ago because my old 2012 Duramax was constantly at the dealership getting fixed and I needed something to drive while it was there. Despite having a new 2014 to replace that truck after it burnt to the ground which far more reliable than it's predecessor I've come to really like the little Z71 and actually drive it far more often than the truck. It's a very comfortable luxury vehicle with heated seats and a kickin' sound system in it.

My parents bought this truck brand new in 2003 and it was my mom's daily driver. She decided that she wanted to be more green and was going to start driving the car more often so it pretty much just sat in the garage. It only had around 80k on it when I bought it from them and have around 117k on it now.

For the most part the truck is totally stock. The truck is fully loaded with every option available in 03, except for the rear DVD player and the sunroof, because Dad didn't want to spent the money on those two particular useless features :haha:Being unable to leave anything stock for long I modified an ARB bumper intended for a Toyota 100 series Land Cruiser and installed it earlier this year as the front bumper was getting rotten and was starting to fall off.

That's about to change.

I've recently acquired a 2007 F350 Dana 60 high pinion axle. It came complete with the full suspension including the frame side mounts (actually came with the whole front frame chopped off just behind the radius arm mounts :pimp:), all the steering including the steering box, the brake lines etc.

I'm not sure how many folks here are familiar with the newer Ford D60 stuff, but it is incredibly beefy. Like, it makes an old Chevy D60 look like a Jeep TJ D30 kind of beefy. They come stock with 3.75" axle tubes which are 1/2" thick and 35 spline axle shafts. The knuckles are big enough to fit 1550 axle shaft u-joints which allow for an impressive 45 degrees of steering if you feel so inclined as to cut down and re-spline a set of F450-550 Super D60 axle shafts. They run ball joints and unit bearings but both are massive and are far more reliable than the older stuff was. This axle has a 7000lb weight capacity which is far beyond the 4 or 5k the older D60s are rated for and as a result full on mechanical breakage is rare. The unit bearings are equipped with wheel speed sensors which play nice with Chevy ABS to boot. Warn has...
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Read more about this build here...

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Well, given that Penny's end is coming far sooner than later I'm starting to look at getting this project on the go.

I wound up using my credit at Brink Fab to have him start putting together a 4500 class race toy for me. I broke off with the guys at True North Racing and their buyout of my portion was the 98 Jeep ZJ we'd started building and all the parts that we'd bought together for it. I'll post some progress pictures of that in a separate build thread when it starts coming together. Just a hint though:

L18 8.1L / 4L80e / Atlas 3.2 with fabricated 9" housings, F450 outers, ARB lockers, 37s, coils, fox bypasses & air bumps ;)

Anyways, a couple minor changes in my plan:

The front axle is going to be a narrowed Ford balljoint D60 instead of the newer D60. I'm still going to run coils, shocks and radius arms however. I got the front diff including all the rebuild parts and 4.88 gears with the ZJ but didn't have a home for it after switching to the 9" diffs for that rig. It's a perfect candidate for the SAS and will keep my tires inside the fenders for pavement pounding.

I'm actually quite looking forward to putting this toy together and enjoying a mild lifted truck on 35s that can go adventuring, tow a little bit and still be used for daily driving.

My front end is really getting sloppy now, so the time to get things done is near.
 
Damn just as I sell my Tahoe you have to go and do something like this and make me incredibly jealous. Sub'ed for the awesomeness that will ensue. :bow: :popcorn:
 
Deuling said:
Bitchin. I'm sad about penny though.
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Me too.

Her frame is pretty badly messed up now. My driver's side door doesn't open anymore :doah: :haha: I guess jumping it was a bad idea? :whistle:

The biggest glaring issue is that front suspension. I need to rip that clean out and replace it. I just don't want to do that much work to a frame that's already junk. I have a bone stock 97 replacement 2 door but I don't think I want to build the exact same thing again.

So far the engine and transmission are spoken for, the t-case will be cannibalized for the Z71, the rear axle is going to Rene, front axle and suspension parts are spoken for, rear bumper is going on the Z71, front is going to Riley. All the electrical accessories will go into the Z71. Basically just be left with the frame, tub, glass and the entire interior.
 
Well that's not much left of Penny....:haha:

Atleast we all got lots of pictures of it!
I will miss the lb7 in a rig that should t have one in it though! That was for me the coolest part! :waytogo:
 
Russell said:
Me too.

Her frame is pretty badly messed up now. My driver's side door doesn't open anymore :doah: :haha: I guess jumping it was a bad idea? :whistle:
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Not beefing it up was the bad idea. Jumping is never a bad idea!!!!!

Are your seats still decent. If your coming to blazer bash or just generally this direction. I would like the seats.

Excited to see how the new one ends up. When it's later in your 4x4 career things always get better cause you have a good idea of what ya want.
 
Every build I do is a whole magnitude better than the last.

This Z71 will quite likely wind up diesel at some point or another too. I'll leave it stock for the time being but if I want more power I'm definitely going to go with an LBZ / Allison.
 
I wound up selling this Z71 about a year ago or so. My best friend found himself in dire need of a reliable vehicle for his wife after they moved out into the country and discovered that only having one reliable and one super unreliable vehicle just wasn't working for them. With Penny falling apart, I knew I was going to be building one of these vehicles sooner than later.

I picked up a base model 03 Yukon a year or so ago and robbed the powertrain out of it for a Jeep. After some thinking, I decided to build my wheeler out of it, but found I was spending more time researching how to install all the creature comforts it was missing than suspension upgrades and came to the conclusion that it wasn't the right vehicle for the build. I wanted my heated seats and premium sound system! I started shopping on our local classifieds to try and find an optioned up vehicle like my old Z71 to use for the build. I found the right vehicle in an 03 Escalade I got on the cheap.

The Escalade was a total basket case. It has 320,000km on it (200k mi) and was worn right out. The previous owner had broken the front driver's side unit bearing and the wheel had some serious camber issues. The interior was permeated with by far the worst smell I've ever encountered in a vehicle. A combination of weed, wet dog and puke. I could hardly stand to sit in it. The LQ9 6.0L engine ran good, but had lean bank 1/2 codes. The transmission slipped in every gear I didn't care though, as I just planned to make it into a wheeler anyways.

Then the fire happened. 88,000 of my fellow Fort McMurrians were forced to evacuate on 10 minutes notice. When the ash settled and the smoke cleared, 2400 homes were lost. When I evacuated, I had a decision to make. Take my 2014 Sierra loaded with everything important to me, or take Penny. The Sierra had full replacement insurance coverage, but Penny just has basic liability insurance. The choice was clear. I left my pickup parked in my garage, hitched the trailer up to Penny and hauled what could have been the only possessions I'd might have at the end of the day down the highway with me.

Winds up that the fire was by far the safest thing I was around that day. Hauling a 12k trailer with Penny was a white knuckle drive at 45mph. I'm lucky that I didn't lose control of her and crash. We all figured we'd be out of our homes for a couple days, but it soon became apparent that it would be much longer. I knew I couldn't daily drive Penny, so my eyes turned to the clapped out, foul smelling Escalade I had sitting at my buddy's place in Edmonton.

I fixed the suspension, swapped out the seats, fixed the engine and band-aided the transmission with tuning to help it last. Then put it on the road, with many air fresheners inside. I've been slowly working on it here and there and making it nice again. I gutted the interior and swapped out the carpets, plastic bits etc with everything from the 03 Yukon I'd bought. I picked up a set of replacement front / rear leather seats from an Avalanche since the Yukon had manual cloth seats. I swapped the rear bucket seats with a rear bench. Fixed up all the error codes throughout and replaced the blown out speakers. I actually really enjoy driving the Escalade now!

Now, to the point of all this! I bought something today. Its a totaled 03 Yukon.

With some upgrades :) Jason Ginn put his Mother Lode build together last year and has been wheeling it throughout the mid-west since. His Yukon has a 79 D60 front and a full float 14 bolt rear. Both axles are fully trussed and fitted with the very best of axle shafts, brakes and other parts. It has a custom 3 link suspension front and rear. The steering is done properly with the box pushed forwards several inches. It has King 2.5 coilover shocks and air bumps. It was tuned at KOH by some of the best shock tuners in the business and proved itself one of the fastest grocery getters on the lake bed. When the Yukon was totaled, it was lawn darted into a sand dune and flipped onto it's lid. The body is toast, but the frame and suspension is unharmed.

I will pick the remains up and import them later this year as a for parts only rig. I can drop my Escalade body directly onto the Yukon frame and install my LQ9 powertrain. Months of work avoided and a known good rig that has excellent street manners and is an animal offroad as well.

I'll do my Duramax swap later on, I'm in no rush. I'm still deciding if I want to install it with a manual transmission or an Allison.

I can't wait to get working on this thing!!

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ive read that build on pirate when getting ideas for mine. nice buy! i might be asking for some front suspension pictures soon haha
 
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