The KidWagon

[KidWgn]

Had a rotate and balance done recently. Finally got an alignment guy worth his weight.

I have Trekline "camber adding" upper control arms, which I was told were a necessity with a 4"+ drop. Turns out, they're adding TOO MUCH camber. They're maxed out negative at -0.6°L and +0.4°R.

THAT is why my front right wheel juts out from the arch.

I'll be going back to a stock control arm in the next couple weeks, and try to dial in around -0.7° to -1° up front. Probably going back to stock spindles, too, as I'm pretty sure the coilovers I have were sized for a 4" drop with stock, not with a 2" drop spindle. I have them maxed out on height at a 2" suspension drop.

Oh, and I got the wife's approval to order Stainless Works headers and true dual exhaust

After that, it's 4.11's, then a cam! Hopefully these OE lifters hold on that long

Or maybe I'll just build a 416 CI longblock?

 

[KidWgn]

Hey guys, fun fact: the rear wiper will stop spraying if the fluid is low, before the “low washer fluid” DIC notice pops up

Silver lining: it gave me a chance to put the Yukon garnish on!

 

[KidWgn]

Updates:
--Low washer fluid sensor has failed. Got a new one from Amazon. Will replace soon
--Acquired Kryptonite Death Grip outer tie rod ends & sleeves
--Acquired new inner tie rod ends
--Acquired OE-replacement upper control arms
--Acquired some DirtKing alignment cams and new alignment pins
--Got some new horns. I previously replaced the stock horns with Hella Supertones, and they sound so puny on this truck. I ordered some PIAA instead

Got some Hellwig sway bars coming, too!

The biggest update:

I ordered another trans cooler. The Derale 10-row just doesn't have enough surface area to cool down at lower speeds. On the highway with the cruise set at 80 mph, I maintain 167° constant, no matter the terrain; I just did a 450 mile road trip and it never budged. Around town, on the other hand, when the 3200 rpm stall is producing the most heat, the 10-row just cannot keep up, and I've seen temps jump as high as 230° for a couple minutes.

I'm still of the belief that the TruCool 40k is just too much cooling.

I've ordered a Derale 19 Row Hyper-Cool Dual Cool Remote Cooler. My plan is to mount it UNDER the truck, tucked up against a frame rail. That plan may change once it gets here, but that's the plan. With the built in fans and shroud, quick cooling should be no problem. I've also ordered a 200° thermostatic switch to kick the fans on, with a 180° shutoff temp.

Here's another fun bit! Prewired junction block upfitter
This allows you to snap this piece right into the junction block near the brake pedal, providing an accessory power! I'm going to send the acc 12v to a relay box to control a whole slew of things, but this will give you accessory power quite easily.

Oh yeah, might be some headers here soon too

 

[89Suburban]

Updates:
--Low washer fluid sensor has failed. Got a new one from Amazon. Will replace soon
--Acquired Kryptonite Death Grip outer tie rod ends & sleeves
--Acquired new inner tie rod ends
--Acquired OE-replacement upper control arms
--Acquired some DirtKing alignment cams and new alignment pins
--Got some new horns. I previously replaced the stock horns with Hella Supertones, and they sound so puny on this truck. I ordered some PIAA instead

Got some Hellwig sway bars coming, too!

The biggest update:

I ordered another trans cooler. The Derale 10-row just doesn't have enough surface area to cool down at lower speeds. On the highway with the cruise set at 80 mph, I maintain 167° constant, no matter the terrain; I just did a 450 mile road trip and it never budged. Around town, on the other hand, when the 3200 rpm stall is producing the most heat, the 10-row just cannot keep up, and I've seen temps jump as high as 230° for a couple minutes.

I'm still of the belief that the TruCool 40k is just too much cooling.

I've ordered a Derale 19 Row Hyper-Cool Dual Cool Remote Cooler. My plan is to mount it UNDER the truck, tucked up against a frame rail. That plan may change once it gets here, but that's the plan. With the built in fans and shroud, quick cooling should be no problem. I've also ordered a 200° thermostatic switch to kick the fans on, with a 180° shutoff temp.

Here's another fun bit! Prewired junction block upfitter
This allows you to snap this piece right into the junction block near the brake pedal, providing an accessory power! I'm going to send the acc 12v to a relay box to control a whole slew of things, but this will give you accessory power quite easily.

Oh yeah, might be some headers here soon too

Good stuff! Thanks for the links!

 

[KidWgn]

Good stuff! Thanks for the links!

I know I'm not as fun as Chris, but I'll have to do with his extended absense. He says "hi paw paw" by the way

 

[KidWgn]

Hellwig bars installed!

The weight difference is astounding. I literally threw my rear bar out from under the truck with one arm. It took me both arms and grunting to get the Hellwig installed

This 5500 lb truck handles HILARIOUSLY well now. Body roll is 99% eliminated. I took my normal exit for work, which is a 180° loop back, without turning my cruise control off—set at 70 mph. I’m not saying it wasn’t a little sketchy, but the truck did it.

All in all, I can’t believe I didn’t do this before now.

OH! And set at max stiffness, I was able to use Hellwig’s BEEFY endlink setup in the stock configuration, without any contacting the trac-bar.

The endlinks are about an inch too long, so I’ll be machining down both the male and female ends to resolve that problem.

Stay tuned!

https://imgur.com/a/XiVaBHU

 

[KidWgn]

Got the new tranny cooler installed.

I drove around probably 20 miles last night in 3rd gear womp-womp’ing on the pedal like a ricer who just got his first exhaust system.

Got it up to 208° with the 200° thermal switch, and the fans never kicked on. Spent probably 30 mins diagnosing before I decided to swap out the 180° switch.

Fans kicked on when the DIC read 185°, so I’ve now concluded that the DIC either reads temp at the bottom of the pan, or is wildly inaccurate. Or both.

The cooler system is temp mounted with self-drilling screws right into the core-support until I get my fabricator buddy to build me something





I need to find a better mounting solution. I just screwed it into the core support for now for testing purposes.

 

[KidWgn]

Welp…no more fun shtuff for me for a while. Had to buy the ole lady a new car. Her 250k mile 07 4Runner needs a transmission and rear end, and it just didn’t make sense to sink $6k into it right now. She has the kids FAR more than I do, so I dumped my fun-money-savings into a down-payment on a new car for her.

2025 CX5 Turbo. This little turd makes 320 lb-ft of torque at 2k rpm!

https://imgur.com/a/brl9QXT

 

[CMoore711]

I've read through your build thread and you've done some good work on your Tahoe; Good choices on the upgrades.

I've been in the process of slowly taking the parts from my K2XX Yukon XL Denali and throwing them on my '13 Escalade ESV which was my wife's old daily, now mine.

Nice pick up on the CX5. I'm sure 320 lb-ft of torque at 2k rpm feels pretty quick in that little thing. Happy wife happy life.

 

[KidWgn]

I've read through your build thread and you've done some good work on your Tahoe; Good choices on the upgrades.

I've been in the process of slowly taking the parts from my K2XX Yukon XL Denali and throwing them on my '13 Escalade ESV which was my wife's old daily, now mine.

Nice pick up on the CX5. I'm sure 320 lb-ft of torque at 2k rpm feels pretty quick in that little thing. Happy wife happy life.

Thank you for the kind words!

I’ve put a lot of effort and time (and money) into making my Tahoe a fun daily without going overboard. I’d love to come down another 2”, but that presents all kinds of problems that deter daily driving.

If I could start over, I’d 100% start with an Escalade ESV! Looking forward to seeing progress on that.

You definitely got the “happy wife happy life” part right