Kbuskill's 2008 Burb LTZ "MOD" Thread

[Rocket Man]

Its Fed Ex... but they evidently don't know their butt from a hole in the ground.

They delivered the first three wheels on Tuesday the 2nd. My wife called to inquire about the 4th wheel being missing and they told her it would be delivered between 1-6 PM on Wednesday the 3rd. I called to see what was up and they informed me that it was lost and they put out a trace on it. Needless to say it never showed up and they don't deliver on the 4th so I called them back on Friday the 5th to figure out what was going on. They updated the tracking at 9:20 AM on the 4th to say that it was still in Ellenwood, GA and the barcode was unreadable and a new label had been attached.


Since then I have talked to them several times. I reiterated how imperative it was that I get the wheel by Saturday because I was scheduled to have them put on and how my wife had already wasted 2 days waiting to sign for a package that never arrived. I even offered to pick it up from the warehouse in Jacksonville, FL if they would just get it there... all to no avail.

The updated tracking was showing scheduled delivery of Monday the 8th... Now it says Tuesday the 9th...

Who knows... it may never show up.

I spoke with the place I bought the wheels from. They said if it doesn't show up they will send me another rim and tire and lugnuts.

I asked about being reimbursed for some or all of my shipping and they said they will have to file a claim with Fed Ex... given their track record that should only take a few years to resolve... lol

I hate FedEx. They’re the UPS wannabes but it’s like they don’t even care.

 

[mikeyss]

X2, I can't stand FedEx. I could ride my bicycle to pick up my own parts across the country faster than what they can do on a normal day.

 

[iamdub]

Since you're probably the most experienced with this, I'll ask you:

I'm considering cutting out my cats. I'd remove the whole Y-pipe, make a quick and simple jig (likely out of 2x4s) to locate the tail and both bank flanges, then slice out and replace the cats with pieces of straight pipe. I considered using pipe that's one step smaller than the factory pipe since (A) I already have 2.5" on hand and (B) it'd be a half-assed way of mimicking the small reduction in flow of the cats so as to not lose low-end TQ.

This is more of a hare-brained idea spawned out of boredom and the itch to do SOMETHING to my Tahoe. The rear O2s have already been tuned out in preparation for headers and the only other exhaust mod is a Magnaflow 12259 knock-off, 18" x 4.5" body. I really like the way it sounds now outside and inside and could tolerate a little more volume, but do not want any drone. I'm not opposed to replacing the cats with 8"L, 2.5"ID glasspacks for sound control if deleted cats makes that much of a difference.

Your thoughts?

 

[kbuskill]

Since you're probably the most experienced with this, I'll ask you:

I'm considering cutting out my cats. I'd remove the whole Y-pipe, make a quick and simple jig (likely out of 2x4s) to locate the tail and both bank flanges, then slice out and replace the cats with pieces of straight pipe. I considered using pipe that's one step smaller than the factory pipe since (A) I already have 2.5" on hand and (B) it'd be a half-assed way of mimicking the small reduction in flow of the cats so as to not lose low-end TQ.

This is more of a hare-brained idea spawned out of boredom and the itch to do SOMETHING to my Tahoe. The rear O2s have already been tuned out in preparation for headers and the only other exhaust mod is a Magnaflow 12259 knock-off, 18" x 4.5" body. I really like the way it sounds now outside and inside and could tolerate a little more volume, but do not want any drone. I'm not opposed to replacing the cats with 8"L, 2.5"ID glasspacks for sound control if deleted cats makes that much of a difference.

Your thoughts?

I was absolutely shocked at how much louder my truck was after deleting the cats... I was also displeased with how much torque I lost which is why I ended up having the exhaust shop build me the 2 1/4" custom Y-pipe which brought back the bottom end power but it was still obnoxiously loud which is why I went with such a huge muffler.

I think your idea of using 2x4s for a jig is a good idea but just keep in mind that removing the cats will make it MUCH MUCH louder and you will loose torque so just be prepared to either live with it or fix it... lol

The glass packs might help to tone it down a bit.

 

[kbuskill]

Double post....

Am I the only one having problems with this site today???

Seems excruciatingly slow.

 

[iamdub]

Double post....

Am I the only one having problems with this site today???

Seems excruciatingly slow.

I was JUST fighting making a new post before I saw your reply here. It's been slow since at least ~16:00. It has a few times where it runs fast but quickly goes to shit again. Actually just got an error page like we were getting a few months back (or almost a year ago?).

 

[iamdub]

Lemme see if I can get this reply in again before it freezes...

I was absolutely shocked at how much louder my truck was after deleting the cats... I was also displeased with how much torque I lost which is why I ended up having the exhaust shop build me the 2 1/4" custom Y-pipe which brought back the bottom end power but it was still obnoxiously loud which is why I went with such a huge muffler.

I think your idea of using 2x4s for a jig is a good idea but just keep in mind that removing the cats will make it MUCH MUCH louder and you will loose torque so just be prepared to either live with it or fix it... lol

The glass packs might help to tone it down a bit.

I don't have any torque below 5,000 RPM to spare, so it sounds like I should just leave it alone and focus my efforts elsewhere, maybe towards something more constructive.

 

[kbuskill]

Lemme see if I can get this reply in again before it freezes...




I don't have any torque below 5,000 RPM to spare, so it sounds like I should just leave it alone and focus my efforts elsewhere, maybe towards something more constructive.

As long as your cats are in good shape and not plugged up then it is pretty pointless to remove them unless you just want A LOT more sound. This is the lesson I feel I learned from my exercise in playing with the exhaust.

I do feel like the JBA headers helped over all but I kind of wish I would have left the rest of my exhaust alone until I had a chance to drive it more and have the tune updated for the headers by themselves.

That is the problem with what I did. I installed the headers and then before I had a chance to really get a good feel for what they did or didn't do I went and chopped off the cats and you know the rest of the story from there so it makes it very difficult to tell what mod did what when you change everything at once.

Overall though I am happy with the final sound and performance.

 

[iamdub]

As long as your cats are in good shape and not plugged up then it is pretty pointless to remove them unless you just want A LOT more sound. This is the lesson I feel I learned from my exercise in playing with the exhaust.

I'm gonna learn from you and avoid the hassle. I can tolerate a little more volume, but I don't NEED it and it sounds like removing the cats would be more noise than I'm willing to tolerate. My cats are fine and I was just gonna cut 'em out since they're not needed and the rear O2s are tuned out and I could sell them to someone that needed good OEM cats on a budget or to a recycler. Not worth it if I'll have to spend a bunch to fix the loss in torque and excessive bump in volume. Thanks again for being the martyr in this stuff!

 

[kbuskill]

Finally got the other wheel and lugnuts in on Tuesday.

Today the other two got put on with the new chrome lugnuts instead of the black ones I had on there temporarily...

 

[07Burb]

Looking good!!!