Rocket Man's 02 Denali Build Thread AKA "THE BEAST"

[Rocket Man]

I removed all labels from the core support cover and the new used air box I bought from @reedal, repainted them and reinstalled them. I think they look a lot better. My air box was damaged, a couple of the screws that hold the top on had broken tabs and the mounts holding the base to the truck were broken. Never mind the dirty engine bay, I don’t want to wash it while the trans is out and the electrical connectors are hanging.

 

[Bear77]

Am I next in line for you to paint mines up? Lol


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[Rocket Man]

Am I next in line for you to paint mines up? Lol


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Sure, come on by!

 

[Rocket Man]

I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with converter lockup. I haven’t dealt with this before and I’m unschooled on the subject so I’ve reached out to @randeez to answer some questions. From what I’ve read lockup is controlled by the pcm on the 4l60 which would mean I need to talk to Blackbear who did the tune. But Randy was talking about the converter itself being built to not fully lock up. Which would mean talking to FTI. But I bought the converter through Performabuilt. And it’s due to arrive at FTI on Thursday so they can cut it open, inspect and clean and reweld it. I went on FTI’s website to see exactly what they sold me and it’s a 10.5” Drag Race converter, triple disc billet, rated for 1400 HP. It seems a bit much. It was $1500 also. Anyway, I’m calling a Performabuilt tomorrow and discussing this with them. I’m out of my comfort zone on this.

 

[Sam Harris]

I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with converter lockup. I haven’t dealt with this before and I’m unschooled on the subject so I’ve reached out to @randeez to answer some questions. From what I’ve read lockup is controlled by the pcm on the 4l60 which would mean I need to talk to Blackbear who did the tune. But Randy was talking about the converter itself being built to not fully lock up. Which would mean talking to FTI. But I bought the converter through Performabuilt. And it’s due to arrive at FTI on Thursday so they can cut it open, inspect and clean and reweld it. I went on FTI’s website to see exactly what they sold me and it’s a 10.5” Drag Race converter, triple disc billet, rated for 1400 HP. It seems a bit much. It was $1500 also. Anyway, I’m calling a Performabuilt tomorrow and discussing this with them. I’m out of my comfort zone on this.

Holy shit. That’s one hell of a converter!!

 

[randeez]

I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with converter lockup. I haven’t dealt with this before and I’m unschooled on the subject so I’ve reached out to @randeez to answer some questions. From what I’ve read lockup is controlled by the pcm on the 4l60 which would mean I need to talk to Blackbear who did the tune. But Randy was talking about the converter itself being built to not fully lock up. Which would mean talking to FTI. But I bought the converter through Performabuilt. And it’s due to arrive at FTI on Thursday so they can cut it open, inspect and clean and reweld it. I went on FTI’s website to see exactly what they sold me and it’s a 10.5” Drag Race converter, triple disc billet, rated for 1400 HP. It seems a bit much. It was $1500 also. Anyway, I’m calling a Performabuilt tomorrow and discussing this with them. I’m out of my comfort zone on this.

just to clarify...theres no in between with the converter it's locked or not by the pcm. yours is built to handle WOT lock up but it gets expensive finding everything else that isnt up to the task

you want it locked up for cruising it helps mpg, keep trans cooler. should be able to come up with a strategy to lock up a few mph into each gear and unlock at the shift and back into it a few mph into the next. just takes some time to sort it all out. i would talk with FTI either way and let em know what youre doing with it. they can probably build it to where the little bit of gain you'll get from locking it up isnt worth breaking parts every other month

 

[Rocket Man]

just to clarify...theres no in between with the converter it's locked or not by the pcm. yours is built to handle WOT lock up but it gets expensive finding everything else that isnt up to the task

you want it locked up for cruising it helps mpg, keep trans cooler. should be able to come up with a strategy to lock up a few mph into each gear and unlock at the shift and back into it a few mph into the next. just takes some time to sort it all out. i would talk with FTI either way and let em know what youre doing with it. they can probably build it to where the little bit of gain you'll get from locking it up isnt worth breaking parts every other month

I don’t understand- if lockup is controlled by the tune, what would FTI do different in the build? And I didn’t ask Blackbear to lock it through shifts so I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t do that, correct?

 

[Rocket Man]

I talked to Performabuilt and FTI today. Performabuilt can’t get parts for the Black Edition right now and besides they don’t think that’s what my problem is, the Level 3 should be plenty enough for my application and something else like converter lockup through shifts is most likely the cause. FTI agreed and said there isn’t anything they can do with the converter, it’s the transmission telling it to lock up or not. And I still haven’t heard back from @BlackBearPerf regarding the tune but it looks like I need to work with them to solve this issue. I’m having the trans rebuilt to the Level 3 and I think they’re going to cover it. Possibly. They didn’t discuss money today when we decided on the work. It’s weird that both times it’s broke it has been at WOT on a 1-2 shift. Hmmm.

 

[BlackBearPerf]

I talked to Performabuilt and FTI today. Performabuilt can’t get parts for the Black Edition right now and besides they don’t think that’s what my problem is, the Level 3 should be plenty enough for my application and something else like converter lockup through shifts is most likely the cause. FTI agreed and said there isn’t anything they can do with the converter, it’s the transmission telling it to lock up or not. And I still haven’t heard back from @BlackBearPerf regarding the tune but it looks like I need to work with them to solve this issue. I’m having the trans rebuilt to the Level 3 and I think they’re going to cover it. Possibly. They didn’t discuss money today when we decided on the work. It’s weird that both times it’s broke it has been at WOT on a 1-2 shift. Hmmm.

Hello Mark, it looks like Justin just emailed you in regards to this.

 

[Rocket Man]

Hello Mark, it looks like Justin just emailed you in regards to this.

Yes he did, thanks. Unfortunately the tune doesn’t reveal any silver bullets, the converter isn’t locked up during shifts. So it looks like the only thing we can do is increase torque management which currently is at 25% of the factory level. I have contacted Performabuilt to ask for a suggestion. Justin mentioned the servo is pretty much in control of how hard the 1-2 shift is; they use the Sonnax billet 2nd gear servo and they utilize their own proprietary shift kit. Hope we can figure this out. Breaking the output shaft hitting second is pretty hard core shifting. Sure is fun to drive though.