Hot Garbage

Wizard Smokey · Dec 24, 2022

Okay, this build is pretty stupid, so buckle up.

This first section is all stuff that happened over the past few months, so this is going to be a quick summary at first. If you're a bit weird and like what you see here, more detailed posts can be found on my instagram, @squonkwerkzgarage, or on youtube, also SquonkwerkzGarage.

The quick summary: This is a 2001 GMC Yukon Denali. Over a quarter million miles, not treated nicely by the previous owners, rusted all to hell, doesn't run that well, very suspicious paperwork.

I got this truck to just hack on, beat around, experiment, and just generally have some irresponsible fun without tearing up our nicer cars.

Step 1: Chop top.

We cut about 7 or 8 inches out of the roof, and got another 3 or 4 inches in a suspension drop. This thing is low.

Other early mods: rollbar, detachable steering wheel, gutted the back half of the interior, 2" primary long tube headers, side dump exhaust, and removed the AWD system.

Then, the most important thing:

Paint.

Wizard Smokey · Dec 24, 2022

Our first objective was the burnout competition at the Cleetus and Cars event, down in Florida. (Hence the smaller rear wheels.)

I'll save you the gory details, but long story short, a buddy of mine sold me a nitrous kit the morning of the competition, and we installed it and went right into the comp, no tuning or anything. 20 seconds into the burnout, the predictable happened:

That is what remains of piston #6. Completely shattered, gravel in the oil pan, the whole nine yards.

Now, keep in mind this engine was already on it's last leg and slated for a rebuild. As of now, we're slowly pulling the engine and planning the rebuild. 3 months from now, there's another burnout competition down in Florida at the Freedom Factory, and the plan is to be there with Hot Garbage.

Hopefully, the block is good and we can rebuild it instead of having to get a whole new engine. The plan for the new build is mostly stock long block, maybe a cam, but potentially with a full standalone ECU, and definitely keeping the nitrous kit (but tuning for it properly this time.)

The key thing here is that neither myself nor my buddy that's doing this with me have any real experience with LS engines. Hell, we're not even GM fans. (we mostly dislike them, in all honesty). I did used to work at a GM dealership for a time, but that was for about a year and a half and about a decade ago, and I didn't really work on LS's much, it was mostly the dogshit 4 and 6 cylinder engines and transmissions.

This is a learning experience for us, in multiple ways. Learning the LS, the GMT800 platform, and nitrous. While we're well experienced in engine swaps and car modification in general, we like to intentionally find the things we don't know too well and dive headlong into.

So stay tuned, this is gonna be fun.

iamdub · Dec 24, 2022

Subbed for the stupidity!

Tonyrodz · Dec 24, 2022

iamdub said:
Subbed for the stupidity!

X2!

Sam Harris · Dec 25, 2022

wjburken · Dec 25, 2022

iamdub said:
Subbed for the stupidity!

What on earth could go wrong here?

George B · Dec 25, 2022

Sounds like success in meeting the objective of hack on, beat around, experiment, and just generally have some irresponsible fun without tearing up our nicer cars.

Mudsport96 · Dec 25, 2022

Wizard Smokey said:
Our first objective was the burnout competition at the Cleetus and Cars event, down in Florida. (Hence the smaller rear wheels.)

I'll save you the gory details, but long story short, a buddy of mine sold me a nitrous kit the morning of the competition, and we installed it and went right into the comp, no tuning or anything. 20 seconds into the burnout, the predictable happened:

View attachment 388057

That is what remains of piston #6. Completely shattered, gravel in the oil pan, the whole nine yards.

Now, keep in mind this engine was already on it's last leg and slated for a rebuild. As of now, we're slowly pulling the engine and planning the rebuild. 3 months from now, there's another burnout competition down in Florida at the Freedom Factory, and the plan is to be there with Hot Garbage.

Hopefully, the block is good and we can rebuild it instead of having to get a whole new engine. The plan for the new build is mostly stock long block, maybe a cam, but potentially with a full standalone ECU, and definitely keeping the nitrous kit (but tuning for it properly this time.)

The key thing here is that neither myself nor my buddy that's doing this with me have any real experience with LS engines. Hell, we're not even GM fans. (we mostly dislike them, in all honesty). I did used to work at a GM dealership for a time, but that was for about a year and a half and about a decade ago, and I didn't really work on LS's much, it was mostly the dogshit 4 and 6 cylinder engines and transmissions.

This is a learning experience for us, in multiple ways. Learning the LS, the GMT800 platform, and nitrous. While we're well experienced in engine swaps and car modification in general, we like to intentionally find the things we don't know too well and dive headlong into.

So stay tuned, this is gonna be fun.

Dont need a standalone setup man. Look up the driveway engineer on YouTube. He has videos on lsdroid and tunerpro. Hell goat rope garage on YouTube as well for hptuners. The stock computer is totally compatible of running " a cam and nitrous". For the people saying holley or fast is "self tuning" it isnt it is more copy and paste than hp tuners but use what you have man.

Wizard Smokey · Dec 26, 2022

Mudsport96 said:
Dont need a standalone setup man. Look up the driveway engineer on YouTube. He has videos on lsdroid and tunerpro. Hell goat rope garage on YouTube as well for hptuners. The stock computer is totally compatible of running " a cam and nitrous". For the people saying holley or fast is "self tuning" it isnt it is more copy and paste than hp tuners but use what you have man.

Thanks, I'll look into that! I know the stock computer is more than capable of handling what we're planning on in the near future, the standalone is more is a 'future proof' kinda thing (as well as being able to completely gut the truck of all the other crap that just gets in the way). No matter where we go in the future, it'll be able to handle it. But I'll definitely check out those channels!

iamdub · Dec 26, 2022

wjburken said:
What on earth could go wrong here?

When a build (or un-build?) is based on "let's see what happens" and minimal expectations- pretty much nothing! That's the awesomeness here, IMO.

Hot Garbage

Wizard Smokey

TYF Newbie

Wizard Smokey

TYF Newbie

iamdub

Full Access Member

Tonyrodz

Resident Resident

Sam Harris

wjburken

George B

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mudsport96

Full Access Member

Wizard Smokey

TYF Newbie

iamdub

Full Access Member

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