2004 6.0 NV4500 Tahoe

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Dantheman1540

Dantheman1540

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Oil change at 265k tonight (actually 264,924). The drain plug had basically nothing, the oil filter looked spotless not even a hint of sparkle anywhere. I feel as though it was almost a waste to change it. Catch can had probably 3oz in it and I did notice what I think is either a rear main or upper tranny seal leak. The leak drops aren't even making it all the way to the bottom of the pan or bell housing so I'm not concerned.

Overall extremely happy, that was 5k exactly on whatever the cheapest full synthetic 5-30 was last time (Castrol GTX I think), with 1qt Lucas oil stabilizer added during the change. Probably added 1-2qts along the 5k.

This time is Mobile 1 10w-40 ($17.90 on prime last week) thicker oil cause summer is coming and added 1qt Lucas as well.

Here's to another 265k ole girl!

20210405_204903.jpg 20210405_211207.jpg
 
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Dantheman1540

Dantheman1540

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And summer where you’re at ain’t like summer here. I don’t bother with thicker oil. It rarely gets past 85.

I wouldn't bother with it if It wasn't regularly high 90*s and above here. Plus when it's that hot it sees more idle time and I can see the OP drop significantly. If the oil cooler lines weren't known to leak I'd consider installing an after-market cooler. Might play around with that on my Silverado whenever it comes back into the shop.
 
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Last night round 27 of "why my rear end feels overly stiff" went down. The Belltech springs feel a little better on smaller bumps in the road but the overall "Bottoming out too soon" feel is still there on big bumps. So I pulled out another set of bump stops I ordered some time ago, these are foam and very similar to the jounce stops that come factory on the front. Lucky for me the threads of all the bump stops have been the same so the hole I tapped from the start still works perfectly and the swap takes just a few seconds. Previously I had added a blob of grease to see if the poly bump "pad" had been making contact with the frame which is what it feels like however, the grease never transferred to the frame which is what had me thinking the spring was binding before the bump would make contact.

I added the new bump stops did the grease trick again and went for a drive to a known bump that gives the bottom out feeling. Unfortunately, there was no change in comfort, pulled back into the shop, and to my surprise, the 2" taller bump stops were still not making contact with the frame. So I decided to film stuff while I jumped up and down on the hitch.

The first video was to ensure the spring was not binding, hard to tell in the video but the top 4 or 5 coils are completely compressed to the point of touching just like the Eibach springs I used previously. The difference is this time I have the wider spread coils on the bottom where they are more visible.

Clearly, you can see the spring is not binding on the bottom coils like I suspected, so the next test was to see if the bump stop was making contact. My thinking was that maybe the grease was not sticking to the frame despite the fact the bump stop was being compressed.


So you can see that the bump stop is damn close to making contact but it doesn't. Finally, I caught a neighbor riding by and had him come jump up and down on the hitch while I stuck my head under there to see WTF was not allowing full suspension compression. Turns out the exhaust is getting hit by the axle right on the edge of the differential housing and as the exhaust is pushed up it catches the frame in a different spot and I believe that it is limiting the suspension travel.

Also, my diff has been leaking more and more so I tightened all the bolts which some needed 2 full turns, topped the fluid off as well which only needed about half a qt.
 

Sam Harris

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Last night round 27 of "why my rear end feels overly stiff" went down. The Belltech springs feel a little better on smaller bumps in the road but the overall "Bottoming out too soon" feel is still there on big bumps. So I pulled out another set of bump stops I ordered some time ago, these are foam and very similar to the jounce stops that come factory on the front. Lucky for me the threads of all the bump stops have been the same so the hole I tapped from the start still works perfectly and the swap takes just a few seconds. Previously I had added a blob of grease to see if the poly bump "pad" had been making contact with the frame which is what it feels like however, the grease never transferred to the frame which is what had me thinking the spring was binding before the bump would make contact.

I added the new bump stops did the grease trick again and went for a drive to a known bump that gives the bottom out feeling. Unfortunately, there was no change in comfort, pulled back into the shop, and to my surprise, the 2" taller bump stops were still not making contact with the frame. So I decided to film stuff while I jumped up and down on the hitch.

The first video was to ensure the spring was not binding, hard to tell in the video but the top 4 or 5 coils are completely compressed to the point of touching just like the Eibach springs I used previously. The difference is this time I have the wider spread coils on the bottom where they are more visible.

Clearly, you can see the spring is not binding on the bottom coils like I suspected, so the next test was to see if the bump stop was making contact. My thinking was that maybe the grease was not sticking to the frame despite the fact the bump stop was being compressed.


So you can see that the bump stop is damn close to making contact but it doesn't. Finally, I caught a neighbor riding by and had him come jump up and down on the hitch while I stuck my head under there to see WTF was not allowing full suspension compression. Turns out the exhaust is getting hit by the axle right on the edge of the differential housing and as the exhaust is pushed up it catches the frame in a different spot and I believe that it is limiting the suspension travel.

Also, my diff has been leaking more and more so I tightened all the bolts which some needed 2 full turns, topped the fluid off as well which only needed about half a qt.
Glad you finally figured it out!! Thanks to good neighbors.!
 

Rocket Man

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Last night round 27 of "why my rear end feels overly stiff" went down. The Belltech springs feel a little better on smaller bumps in the road but the overall "Bottoming out too soon" feel is still there on big bumps. So I pulled out another set of bump stops I ordered some time ago, these are foam and very similar to the jounce stops that come factory on the front. Lucky for me the threads of all the bump stops have been the same so the hole I tapped from the start still works perfectly and the swap takes just a few seconds. Previously I had added a blob of grease to see if the poly bump "pad" had been making contact with the frame which is what it feels like however, the grease never transferred to the frame which is what had me thinking the spring was binding before the bump would make contact.

I added the new bump stops did the grease trick again and went for a drive to a known bump that gives the bottom out feeling. Unfortunately, there was no change in comfort, pulled back into the shop, and to my surprise, the 2" taller bump stops were still not making contact with the frame. So I decided to film stuff while I jumped up and down on the hitch.

The first video was to ensure the spring was not binding, hard to tell in the video but the top 4 or 5 coils are completely compressed to the point of touching just like the Eibach springs I used previously. The difference is this time I have the wider spread coils on the bottom where they are more visible.

Clearly, you can see the spring is not binding on the bottom coils like I suspected, so the next test was to see if the bump stop was making contact. My thinking was that maybe the grease was not sticking to the frame despite the fact the bump stop was being compressed.


So you can see that the bump stop is damn close to making contact but it doesn't. Finally, I caught a neighbor riding by and had him come jump up and down on the hitch while I stuck my head under there to see WTF was not allowing full suspension compression. Turns out the exhaust is getting hit by the axle right on the edge of the differential housing and as the exhaust is pushed up it catches the frame in a different spot and I believe that it is limiting the suspension travel.

Also, my diff has been leaking more and more so I tightened all the bolts which some needed 2 full turns, topped the fluid off as well which only needed about half a qt.
Put a LubeLocker gasket on that diff.:)
 

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