Useless Information

[blackelky]

Someone is smiling...... ( yes, that's a smile )

It's good. I used to carry my glock 26 but it's too easy with these new micro pistols they came out with recently, plus it has the cut out for a red dot when I decide to put one on. Vedder holsters ftw

 

[swathdiver]

Cool weather and clear skies this week and I'm not in the hospital or recovering from surgery! Woohoo!

The other evening we put one of the 9.5s on saw horses and this afternoon I took the parking brake anchor off of one side to use on the other 9.5 that had both broken by the salvage yard. The inside of that axle looks pristine so we'll be keeping it for spares.

Cleaned off the work benches and beginning to stage parts. Tomorrow I'm going to swap the other 9.5 onto the saw horses and start taking it apart. If it is in great material condition, I'll replace as few hard parts as possible so as not to upset the measurements and need for shimming and such.

Going to baseline the truck at Orlando Speed World on Wednesday before the axle swap so I'll have something to compare it to. Think I'll bring up the red 6.2 pickup for some runs too.

I pray for strength and endurance to see these projects through. Late last week I cut wood for my bandsaw stand and today marked where all the holes will be in case I have a helper pre-drill the holes before screwing everything together. Been wanting one ever since I lost my shop decades ago, miss being to use one for this and that and special projects.

Not one to take detailed pictures or do write ups but will try and remember.

 

[Sparksalot]

Record the engine hours between fill ups and then divide the hours into the distance traveled on that tank of gas to get the average miles per hour driven on that tank. I bet you buys are below 22 mph, Sparksalot might be around 24 mph.

There's a formula to convert the average speed into a percentage of city and highway driving, the same way the EPA calculates mileage ratings for cars. If you post the numbers I can run the conversion.

I also use the Engine Hours and Fuel Used between fill ups to computer the fuel burn rate or gallons per hour. 34.75 mph equates to 50/50 city/hwy driving and my truck averages a fuel burn of 2.2 gallons per hour on gasoline (93).

I finally remembered to do this. I'm actually up around 47mph average. Also 2.2 gph.

 

[swathdiver]

I finally remembered to do this. I'm actually up around 47mph average. Also 2.2 gph.

47.0 mph is 95.2% highway driving and mine burns about 1/2 a gallon more than yours at that average speed!

Took the Yukon and the red Sierra to the track tonight. Both trucks ran their fastest times ever and gave us a good baseline for the mods we're about to do. 55 degree weather had something to do with it! Thankfully, few cars messed up the track and though we arrived late, we each made 4 passes, side by side the whole night.

We weighed the trucks at the CAT scales near the track so we could know their racing weight to do rear wheel horsepower calculations.

The Yukon XL ran a best of 16.27 @ 86.4 mph with a racing weight of 6,380 pounds. Her peak horsepower for the night was 318.3 and averaged 314.4.

The 6.2 Sierra ran a best of 14.93 @ 93.6 mph with a racing weight of 5,880 pounds. Her peak horsepower for the night was 373.36 and averaged 371.2.

My youngest daughter Jaime made all the runs in her Sierra and was so excited, she talked herself into exhaustion after breaking into the 14s and her boyfriend who was along to help me, had to drive her truck home! LOL Now she's talking about a tune, exhaust, air filters, etc.! LOL

The last time we ran the 6.2 Sierra it weighed 80 pounds less and had KO2s on it. With all that rolling weight, she could only put down 318 horsepower and her best mile an hour was just 90. Best short time back then was 2.341 and this time, on the 14-second pass it was 2.205 which I think is fantastic for a bone stock truck with Defenders on it.

I'll have some pictures and or video tomorrow of the runs and will probably put them up over the weekend. Clear skies for 2 more days, have lots more work to do on the 14-bolt axle still.

 

[iamdub]

47.0 mph is 95.2% highway driving and mine burns about 1/2 a gallon more than yours at that average speed!

Took the Yukon and the red Sierra to the track tonight. Both trucks ran their fastest times ever and gave us a good baseline for the mods we're about to do. 55 degree weather had something to do with it! Thankfully, few cars messed up the track and though we arrived late, we each made 4 passes, side by side the whole night.

We weighed the trucks at the CAT scales near the track so we could know their racing weight to do rear wheel horsepower calculations.

The Yukon XL ran a best of 16.27 @ 86.4 mph with a racing weight of 6,380 pounds. Her peak horsepower for the night was 318.3 and averaged 314.4.

The 6.2 Sierra ran a best of 14.93 @ 93.6 mph with a racing weight of 5,880 pounds. Her peak horsepower for the night was 373.36 and averaged 371.2.

My youngest daughter Jaime made all the runs in her Sierra and was so excited, she talked herself into exhaustion after breaking into the 14s and her boyfriend who was along to help me, had to drive her truck home! LOL Now she's talking about a tune, exhaust, air filters, etc.! LOL

The last time we ran the 6.2 Sierra it weighed 80 pounds less and had KO2s on it. With all that rolling weight, she could only put down 318 horsepower and her best mile an hour was just 90. Best short time back then was 2.341 and this time, on the 14-second pass it was 2.205 which I think is fantastic for a bone stock truck with Defenders on it.

I'll have some pictures and or video tomorrow of the runs and will probably put them up over the weekend. Clear skies for 2 more days, have lots more work to do on the 14-bolt axle still.

I made my stock (save for the MIT, AEM Dryflow and 18" straight-through muffler) baselines at 55° so all my follow-up runs are at that temp. I'm due for one on "E65". Watching the weather...

 

[swathdiver]

I made my stock (save for the MIT, AEM Dryflow and 18" straight-through muffler) baselines at 55° so all my follow-up runs are at that temp. I'm due for one on "E65". Watching the weather...

Lucky! Drag Racing in 55 degree weather is a real treat for us, the average is 78 degrees.

 

[swathdiver]

Well today was kinda disappointing. We pulled the axles out of the 9.5" and noticed some grooves in the metal where the seals would be. Then after they were removed, went to measure the rotational torque and as you turned the yoke it would bind in two places 180 degrees apart. The other 9.5" does not do this. What do you make of that?


The spider gears seemed to have more play in them and I opted to use this axle over the other because the holes for the control arms and shocks seemed out of round. Well, we put a bolt in all of the holes in both axles for comparison and there's really no difference.

Then I went to use my Kent-Moore J-45857 that I paid a small fortune for and the threads are different when trying to hook it up to a slide hammer with 5/8-18 threads. It's 1/2 inch something! So rather than buy an adapter I just bought a Performance Tool kit off Amazon for $39 that has three of them things with the right threads.

But wait, there's more! Man, it stinks when you can't remember anything. This project has been slowly prodding along for over three years now. I thought I had all the tools and parts and discovered that I was missing all the tools to work with the pinion and its bearings and bought the wrong master kit. I got one for a 9,25" front axle and not the 9.5" rear axle. The ring gear bolts are way too small, so is the pinion nut. It has Koyo bearings which are fine but I bought a Richmond Gear set off Rock Auto with Timken bearings. Did I pay $50 extra for the Timken name since Koyo owns Timken? I dunno, you tell me.

Two more days of clear cool weather, I'm going to finish my band saw stand.

Oh, here's another one for ya. Rear Upper Control Arms. Why are some of them straight and some bent? Are there two per side? What am I missing here?

 

[swathdiver]

I made four passes down the 1/4 mile in the Yukon XL the other night.

First pass - Launched off idle and in 4WD and switched to 2WD right after the 60-foot. Fastest time and highest MPH of the night. 318 horsepower.
2nd pass - Launched off idle and in 4WD and switched to 2WD at around the 1/8th mile marker. Down 6.2 horsepower.
3rd pass - Launched off idle and in 4WD and switched to 2WD at around the 330 foot marker. Picked up 3.4 horses from the last run.
4th pass - Launched off idle and in 4WD and switch to 2WD after the 1/8th mile marker. Lost 4 horses over the previous run, slowest run of the night.

Jaime was having so much fun in the Sierra she didn't pay any mind to that stuff. Only her truck kept getting faster and mine slower!

 

[mountie]

I made four passes down the 1/4 mile in the Yukon XL the other night.

First pass - Launched off idle and in 4WD and switched to 2WD right after the 60-foot. Fastest time and highest MPH of the night. 318 horsepower.
2nd pass - Launched off idle and in 4WD and switched to 2WD at around the 1/8th mile marker. Down 6.2 horsepower.
3rd pass - Launched off idle and in 4WD and switched to 2WD at around the 330 foot marker. Picked up 3.4 horses from the last run.
4th pass - Launched off idle and in 4WD and switch to 2WD after the 1/8th mile marker. Lost 4 horses over the previous run, slowest run of the night.

Jaime was having so much fun in the Sierra she didn't pay any mind to that stuff. Only her truck kept getting faster and mine slower!

I am planning to be at Bradenton Motorsports Park next Thurs / Fri....maybe Sat. All the NHRA "big guns" will be there.

 

[mikez71]

Oh, here's another one for ya. Rear Upper Control Arms. Why are some of them straight and some bent? Are there two per side? What am I missing here?

Weird, my 2012 (Tahoe) has the curved.

I see the straight ones labelled as 'original grade' Perhaps they were originally straight? Straight ones look like welded steel, curved look like.. forged iron?

More tire clearance at extreme angles?