Alright guys, I've been busy though I looked at all of the events I want to participate this year and I questioned whether or not the 14 year old cooling system was upto the task of keeping me on the road. So I started to research parts and I wanted to upgrade the radiator anyhow since I have had an e-fan harness and some chinese e-fans now for like 2+ years..
Anyhow, I ordered the following:
- every rubber hose under the hood that contained coolant including upper/lower rad hose, heater hoses and throttle body coolant hoses.
- 160* Lingenfelter Thermostat (nothing more than a re-boxed MOTORAD unit).
- New Coolant Recovery tank and Cap.
- New temp sensor for the driver's side cylinder head.
- 34" AC Delco Radiator.
Anyhow, I started ripping parts off last weekend, and finished it up this weekend complete with an PCM reflash to set the efans settings so the PCM controls them.
I finished up the coolant system yesterday, and turned my attention to the spring issue.. For those of you who have been paying attention, you probably remember I was rolling on 650# springs on the front, which are, ironically, about half of what they should be.. I ran the first event (above) with those springs but the ride was miserable and there was less than 2" of travel before the truck rolled onto the bump stops. I got under the truck and measured the clearance between the lowest point on the front end and the ground.. LOL WOW !! It was the front crossmember and it was less than 4" off the pavement, probably in part why it drove well around the track, but rode like ass !!
As you can imagine this spells bad news for CV Shaft angles in the front, this is event with McGaughy's 2" drop spindles... :EEK:
So I started the hunt for the correct (better) spring rate springs.. As it turns out, not every vendor has +1000# or higher springs on the shelf. LOL I guess not everyone is racing a fat bitch 4WD Silverado, who knew ??
Anyhow I did find a place in Cali that could actually access Eibach's inventory and tell me for certain that they could get and drop ship 1200# springs, so I ordered them and some softer springs (225#) for the rear as well.. Purple Santa brought me these:
So today, I got to switching the 650# springs over (left side) for the bigger stiffer beefier Eibach 1200# springs (right side):
So with all those swapped in place, the truck is done and I am a lot happier with the spring situation:
Here's the truck at the current ride height, I ~think~ the front is pretty well sorted in terms of ride height, we'll see.. I still need to put the softer springs in the rear and lower it to match the front and I'll be ready for the next event:
Next weekend, I plan on a transmission flush/fill, replace the smurf juice in the transfer case and top off all the fluids.
Maybe a trip to the local scrapyard to hunt down a set of SUV brakes for the rear and maybe a hydroboost setup? Who knows.
The next autocross is set for the weekend of 3-11 / 3-12 and I plan on introducing the truck to the Misssissippi SCCA crew, I'm hopeful they will be as accepting as the Tennessee guys are, I'll follow it up with more video for sure.