I have to agree, I always feel like big girl is more comfortable and at home when I get her out in the dirt.
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I took the burb up to Summit County, CO this weekend - it was my first time driving it “hard” since it bought it. My recent transmission work and tune worked really well. The engine kept pulling well past 70mph on some mountain grades, and the highest temp I saw for the transmission fluid was 160 (granted it was ~35 F outside).
Up in the mountains it gets down to negative temps at night, and the teens in the day lately. I was worried that the transmission would be too cold with the new full-bypass thermostat, but even after sitting overnight I was able to get the transmission up to above 100F after a quick 10 min drive on a county road.
Lastly, I’ve been eager to see how the Nokian Outpost nATs would do in the snow, and they’ve been great! I only put the burb in 4wd once this weekend, and it was to drive some curvy steep roads in a rural neighborhood with “4 of snow.
I’ll follow up later once I get some more mountain miles with these Nokians and the tune.
In other news, I’m starting to plan a few small upgrades. I bought an air raid upgraded intake tube (keeping the stock box for now), and a new grille. The grill isn’t 100% necessary, but some road debris cracked a hole in the black plastic, so I figured I would install an all-black rst grill since I’m not a huge fan of chrome. I’m also going to black out the trim on the headlights.
Well, that’s all for now. I hope y’all are having a good start to the year!
Up in the mountains it gets down to negative temps at night, and the teens in the day lately. I was worried that the transmission would be too cold with the new full-bypass thermostat, but even after sitting overnight I was able to get the transmission up to above 100F after a quick 10 min drive on a county road.
Lastly, I’ve been eager to see how the Nokian Outpost nATs would do in the snow, and they’ve been great! I only put the burb in 4wd once this weekend, and it was to drive some curvy steep roads in a rural neighborhood with “4 of snow.
I’ll follow up later once I get some more mountain miles with these Nokians and the tune.
In other news, I’m starting to plan a few small upgrades. I bought an air raid upgraded intake tube (keeping the stock box for now), and a new grille. The grill isn’t 100% necessary, but some road debris cracked a hole in the black plastic, so I figured I would install an all-black rst grill since I’m not a huge fan of chrome. I’m also going to black out the trim on the headlights.
Well, that’s all for now. I hope y’all are having a good start to the year!
It finally warmed up a little around here, so I took the chance to drain and fill my front + rear diffs and transfer case, then did my first oil change.
I used all amsoil products, and I have to say that the drivetrain definitely feels smoother to my butt dyno. Theyre products aren’t cheap, but they seem to be worth it. Previously when I put it into 4wd, it felt like it dragged more - especially at cold temperatures.
The color of my rear diff oil was a little dark - I know from the service records that it had been drained and filled once before, and the magnet was pretty clean. The front diff and transfer case both had pretty dark fluid, and I flushed those out a bit before refilling. Both magnets were dirty, but otherwise normal.
I used 75w90 severe gear in the diffs, signature fuel efficient ATF in the transfer case, and I tried out the signature series oil for the engine. I also bought some extra ATF for my next couple of drain and fills - figured I’d stock up and save a bit with that amsoil membership.
That’s all for now. More to come soon-ish.
I used all amsoil products, and I have to say that the drivetrain definitely feels smoother to my butt dyno. Theyre products aren’t cheap, but they seem to be worth it. Previously when I put it into 4wd, it felt like it dragged more - especially at cold temperatures.
The color of my rear diff oil was a little dark - I know from the service records that it had been drained and filled once before, and the magnet was pretty clean. The front diff and transfer case both had pretty dark fluid, and I flushed those out a bit before refilling. Both magnets were dirty, but otherwise normal.
I used 75w90 severe gear in the diffs, signature fuel efficient ATF in the transfer case, and I tried out the signature series oil for the engine. I also bought some extra ATF for my next couple of drain and fills - figured I’d stock up and save a bit with that amsoil membership.
That’s all for now. More to come soon-ish.
More updates! I’m very close to being finished with my first phase of maintenance and upgrades.
Last week my corsa exhaust delivered, as well as a set of ac delco spark plugs and wires, and some new LED headlight bulbs.
Over the weekend I installed the catback, the headlight bulbs, and changed the plugs + wires.
The headlights went in easily.
The spark plugs were pretty easy as well, with the exception of the one closest to the firewall on the passenger side. I ended up going for that one from below - it definitely took more time but it wasn’t too bad. Almost all of the plugs looked good - the last plugs closest to the firewall had some oil on the threads, but from what I’ve read and what I could see - it looks like the valve cover was leaking a really small amount. I inspected the area around those plugs and saw a small amount of oil near the valve covers, but I had to really search for it.
The catback install was easy - the only hiccup was that I needed to cut the portion that goes over the rear axle in order to remove the stock exhaust.
Man - those three mods made such a difference! The headlights are finally useful, the engine idles and revs really smoothly, and the exhaust sounds great!
For now, I’m going to relax a bit on modifications. The next one on my list is a set of fox 2.0s - I’m going to wait until late spring or so to get those since I’ll probably have the bushings and wear items in whole front end refreshed at that point as well. I’ve got a bit of saving to do.
Aside from that, the only other things I have planned are another drain and fill for the transmission, and doing some LED fog light bulbs.
I’ll upload the rest of the pictures in another post since they’re large.
Happy Friday, y’all!
Last week my corsa exhaust delivered, as well as a set of ac delco spark plugs and wires, and some new LED headlight bulbs.
Over the weekend I installed the catback, the headlight bulbs, and changed the plugs + wires.
The headlights went in easily.
The spark plugs were pretty easy as well, with the exception of the one closest to the firewall on the passenger side. I ended up going for that one from below - it definitely took more time but it wasn’t too bad. Almost all of the plugs looked good - the last plugs closest to the firewall had some oil on the threads, but from what I’ve read and what I could see - it looks like the valve cover was leaking a really small amount. I inspected the area around those plugs and saw a small amount of oil near the valve covers, but I had to really search for it.
The catback install was easy - the only hiccup was that I needed to cut the portion that goes over the rear axle in order to remove the stock exhaust.
Man - those three mods made such a difference! The headlights are finally useful, the engine idles and revs really smoothly, and the exhaust sounds great!
For now, I’m going to relax a bit on modifications. The next one on my list is a set of fox 2.0s - I’m going to wait until late spring or so to get those since I’ll probably have the bushings and wear items in whole front end refreshed at that point as well. I’ve got a bit of saving to do.
Aside from that, the only other things I have planned are another drain and fill for the transmission, and doing some LED fog light bulbs.
I’ll upload the rest of the pictures in another post since they’re large.
Happy Friday, y’all!
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Here are the two plugs with some oil on the threads. On both, it looked like the oil only penetrated halfway down the threads from the outside. Like I said, I’ll keep an eye on them and will check them in a year or so.
Oh Kee Pah
Full Access Member
Lookin' GREAT!
I bet you're liking the tune a lot and now with the Corsa...oh man!
What would you say the temps got down to when you had it up in Summit Co. sitting overnight?
I'm going back and forth about the transmission mod; worried it might not be too happy on some Maine winter mornings.
Thanks for the photos - Safe Travels
I bet you're liking the tune a lot and now with the Corsa...oh man!
What would you say the temps got down to when you had it up in Summit Co. sitting overnight?
I'm going back and forth about the transmission mod; worried it might not be too happy on some Maine winter mornings.
Thanks for the photos - Safe Travels
Thanks! The black is definitely hard to keep clean haha
At night up there it was around 0 - some nights it dipped negative. Then high of 20s in the day. It was definitely cold when I first drove it out of the neighborhood, but once I got out onto the county roads the transmission warmed up to over 100 degrees in about 5 miles or so of driving.
I’m eager to get back up there to see how the amsoil fluids do in those temps. So far it’s been really smooth around town and on short highway drives. Down on the front range it’s been between 30-50 degrees lately and the transmission has no problem getting over 100 degrees if you drive for more than 15 minutes or so.
Tahoecrewcar
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What LED headlight bulbs did you go with and how is the color temperature/beam pattern? You're right about the stock halogen headlights being pretty useless, so I too have thought about upgrading the lights. Any pics you have of the LED bulbs and beam pattern would be awesome!
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Have you swapped out the chrome fog-light trim pieces on your Denali?
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