2019 Yukon Build

[Walkerfever]

Well, it's been nearly 3 months on the sway bars, so I messaged CSPRacing again and this time they came back with another 2 month extension saying that it won't ship until February. I cancelled the order. It's already been way to long, when it said the bars were in stock at the time of ordering. Now I hunt for Hellwigs! Anyone have any input on those?

 

[Walkerfever]

Well, as a little change of plans. I noticed a little bit of a belt chirp when I start the Yukon while cold, which I'm sure is the alternator pulley and\or the tensioner. I looked it up and a new pulley was ~$60 plus shipping...I didn't search very hard, there might be cheaper options out there. During that search, I found out that there is a bolt in 220a alternator from the 2500HD...part number 84143541. I currently have a 150a, so this would be a significant jump. I found one on eBay for $120 that was brand new, but the tip of the connector is broke. I figured I'd give it a shot, so it gets here on Monday. My son and I have already done the Big 3+, and I have a 250a weather proof megafuse holder on the way (I'll be bypassing the factory 175a fuse).

More good news, the color correct HUD Duct got here. Now I just need to find time between all the the Christmas band concerts to install it. Picture!

 

[Walkerfever]

Another project in the books, a 220a alternator upgrade, for less than $200. I stumbled onto a 220a 84143541 alternator, that bolts right in place of the stock 150a. It was significantly marked down because the connector had been broken on the voltage regulator. I went ahead and bought it, with plans to replace the broken plastic somehow, but when I received it I found this:


Slightly disheartening, but also familiar looking. Turns out this alternator has the same regulator as the stock 150a...as well as some of the plastic pieces, so I swapped them over. There was one connection to solder, but it works great! Sadly I didn't get any pictures of it, but you can see the normal connector in the finished picture. Since the stock fuse is only 175a, I needed to install a larger fuse and charge wire for the alternator. My son and I had previously done the Big 3 upgrade on this with 1\0 gauge wire, so I picked up a 250a Megafuse, designed a mount to clamp the fuse to a cross brace...and then realized I don't have any TPU filament to 3d Print it with. I went ahead and used PETG, I'll reprint it when I get some TPU. Once I knew where to mount the fuse, we just had to make a new wire to run to the fuse bank\terminal\distribution block thingy. Came out pretty good:



We also have the next few weeks off, so I picked up a reverse leveling kit to lower the rear end a few inches. More pics of that, soon!

 

[Walkerfever]

I went on quite the scenic road trip to Springdale, AR with my son today to pick up a Borla exhaust for $400. Yukon did great, and never skipped a beat. Average was 21 MPG for the trip and I wasn't driving with MPG in mind, so I can't complain. It was foggy and even more of the wonderful curvy roads of Arkansas, but we still made good time at 3 hours each way. I hope we can knock out the lowering kit and the exhaust all in one project tomorrow...weather permitting. If not, it should be this weekend.

Exhaust looks to be in great shape. Seller said that his uncle bought it for his Denali because his Grandson liked it, but then he sold the Denali shortly there after. I did a bit of polishing on the tips, but that's all I've done so far Pics!
During:

After:

 

[Walkerfever]

Well, Borla is installed. It took a bit of welding since I have the 5.3L and the catback was for the 6.2L, but it wasn't too bad. Sounds great! A little louder than I expected, but I'm already used to it. I definitely know when a downshift happens. I'm in the midst of finetuning the fuse holder, but weather hit before I could test fit it again. Currently 16*F with a wind chill of 1*F. On top of that, my wife has been sick, kids are home, (insert excuse for laziness here), etc. Not sure what is next at this point, I'll continue hunting for deals on sway bars and Escalade mirrors, that's about it. Here's a pic and quick vid of the exhaust:

 

[Walkerfever]

Well, after almost 2 weeks of waiting, my son and I drove up to Olathe Kansas to pick up some Eibach sway bars. The trip went great, we averaged 25.3 MPG on the way there since the wind was at out back...and 19 MPG on the way back since we were driving into the wind. I changed the transmission setting to 125% on the Diablo II, and that seems to be the sweet spot. We installed the rear bar today, using Moog's sizing chart the 31.75mm K7236 bushings fit the Eibach sway bar perfectly. There was a pretty big hiccup on the install though. One of the stock bushing bolts snapped, and I'll try to look at the bright side....I got to show my son the importance of drilling the hole in the center of the bolt, since I missed it entirely...

We chased what was left of the threads along with the other three holes, and replaced all four bolts. The ovaled hole's threads were too FUBAR'd to hold any kind of torque, so we ended up using a nut on the top side of the flange. Everything else bolted right in, and he was able to learn about greasing fittings, bushings, etc.


We have a specific curvy road that we have been using as a baseline and WHAT A DIFFERENCE. We only have the rear bar installed since I still need to source a set of bushings for the front, but WOW. Other than that, I emptied my catchcan. Thanks to winter months and short drives, it was full (10 oz) in 1800 miles vs 2 oz in 2915 miles during the warmer months. Also, my cheap Chinese headlights have moisture in them already so I found a set of used Morimoto headlights on eBay and ordered them. We are both pretty excited for those.