New Member Intro: Southeast Michigan - Just bought an 02 Z71 Tahoe

[unt0uchable]

Alright, let's see if the photos work now. I updated all of the links to see if it changes things.

Trans was acting up more this weekend. I've been driving it to work and back and around town but it's not been TOO bad. This weekend, I decided to take it out to my mom's place about 40 miles away. Driving in 3rd on e-way for about 10 minutes, then the freeway ends and it can't downshift fast enough when I come up to a light. It made some awful grinding/gurgling noises. Kept it in 3rd and carried on. I'm sure it'll shit the bed here soon. Thankfully I only work 1.5 miles from my house so it won't be a big deal when it does.

I didn't get around to pulling anything this weekend. I might hold off for 2 weeks and have my buddy come give me a hand getting the 6.0 and all that out and on a pallet so I can dig into the knock sensors and exhaust manifolds....

Found this last weekend:

So now I am debating on getting some stock manifolds or spending an extra $100 or so on some shorty headers that will bolt up to the stock exhaust setup. Decisions, decisions!

 

[Countryboy07]

Just catching this thread, Super clean Tahoe for being up in MI and good price too. IMO, since your going to have the motor out, I would do a complete refresh on the motor since it has that many miles on it, then cam, long tubes, tune, and a converter in the transmission along with Vette Servo. Could do all of that on a pretty decent budget. Sub'd for progress

 

[unt0uchable]

Not gonna be able to get that deep on the engine. My pockets aren't deep enough at the moment, lol. It ran very well when I bought the parts truck, drove flawlessly 200 miles home, hardly used half a tank with no exhaust, a cracked manifold, and knock sensor codes. Once those things are sorted, I'll be in good shape.

Engine is out of the parts truck and on a pallet for me to do the following to it:

Knock Sensors/Harness
Intake Gaskets
Oil Pan Gasket
Exhaust Manifold Studs/Gaskets
Removing the dumb ass throttle body spacer.

I think that covers it. Then she'll be ready to go into the Tahoe.

I'm not breaking the trans/engine apart because I simply don't want to deal with that. There is no evidence of a rear main leak so I'm leaving it alone.

Here are some photos of the parts truck and engine removal:

It did fit in my garage, barely...

It fits!!!

Comin' out...

Time for some surgery to happen...

 

[#1taho]

Nice. But you will have an extremely hard time getting the engine and tranny in the taho together. It can be done but it's real hard to do it and not break anything.

 

[unt0uchable]

Nice. But you will have an extremely hard time getting the engine and tranny in the taho together. It can be done but it's real hard to do it and not break anything.

I plan on removing the entire front end besides the fenders. Still no chance it can be done as a unit? I really don't want to separate if I don't have to... My cherry picker won't go up and over the core support anyway so all of that has to move...

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[Boxdgm]

Wow thats a clean truck, makes me wish mine was white.

 

[#1taho]

There is a plate under the oil pan that will have to come off and you will have to take out the bolts for the front diff. You will need about 3" more clearance. To be honest I would seperate it and do it that way. It is a lot less work. I did it the way you want to do it just a few months ago. I didn't think it would be so hard. I learned the hard why. Just trying to save you some time.

 

[unt0uchable]

Wow thats a clean truck, makes me wish mine was white.

Looks can be deceiving. The rear pass door is starting to come through from behind the plastics. Not sure how I'm going to tackle this yet. I'm thinking I'll just do some truck bed coating for the bottom few inches and paint it to match the best I can. Wire wheel things clean, POR 15 or Chassis saver over the bare metal, then bed liner and paint to match. We'll see how ambitious I get after the LQ4/80e are in. Thank you though!

There is a plate under the oil pan that will have to come off and you will have to take out the bolts for the front diff. You will need about 3" more clearance. To be honest I would separate it and do it that way. It is a lot less work. I did it the way you want to do it just a few months ago. I didn't think it would be so hard. I learned the hard why. Just trying to save you some time.

The entire front end will be coming off except fenders. I know exactly the plate you're talking about and I have no problem undoing it from the carrier and then axles to get it to drop down a bit. The problem won't be removing the 5.3 though. I will separate that since the trans needs to go to get rebuilt before it's used again anyway. But I'm still going to do my best to get the 6.0/80e in there as one unit. I do not want to separate those and I'll remove what I can to get it in as a unit. If there's a will, there's a way!

I just ordered all my seals and gaskets for the intake removal/knock sensor job. Also got exhaust manifold gaskets and a trans mount since the bolts broke when I was pulling the 80e.

Doing the following before it goes in:

Intake Gaskets
Valve Cover Gaskets
Knock Sensors/Harness (OE Parts)
Oil Pan Gasket
Exhaust Gaskets
Exhaust Studs (Stainless)
Used Exhaust Manifolds
Injectors are going out to be rebuilt

Also removing the throttle body spacer that was put on before my ownership.

Going to clean things up a bit too while I can get to the block, not going crazy on it though.

Waiting on the gaskets to come and I'll be diggin' into it. More pictures to come!

 

[05Single]

Wow subscribed . Tons of potential here and wanna see where this goes. Looking to do a swap in the near future myself.

 

[unt0uchable]

The main reason for switching to an entire HD driveline rather than rebuilding a 4L60e trans...

Going to be a weekend warrior towing this baby. Dry weight is just under 6,000lbs. I brought it home with my FIL's 2014 RAM 1500. Those things suck for towing, bouncy as hell. They ride like a car otherwise, but any truck capabilities are lost. I've read TON's of forum threads from people towing with Yukon's and Tahoe's (shorties) who LOVE it, especially with airbags and a proper hitch/sway setup. I have a 1000# rated WD hitch with dual sway controls along with a Prodigy brake controller. We're not towing long distances (250 miles or less) and I'm not an idiot driver. I can handle 60-65mph and just taking our time.

My buddy is going to tune the LQ4 with HP Tuners for me to get a little more power out of it also. That will help a bit with the loaded situations and help me enjoy the go pedal more so when unloaded.

Going to tear into the knock sensors this weekend and see if I can't get the exhaust manifolds off also. Wish me luck! More updates to come. Just thought I'd fill in the blanks for people saying "Why's he going this deep if he only needs a trans??"