Hey Vortec Guys! / Sierra pickup / Suburban / Yukon etc - Finally has Index!

Hillbilly Heaven · May 12, 2017

Good to hear you had no problems pulling them with 185K on the them. Still looking for a scapegoat to change mine with over 200K on the originals. Which antiseize do you use? The silver or copper?

TMJeep · May 12, 2017

Rockauto doesn't even show the 985. I looked on Amazon and they are like $13 a piece. Which seems awfully high if you ask me.

rayra · May 12, 2017

I used the silver on the Sub, but it's kind of moot. I'm only clocking about 6k/yr on it, 100k plugs, I'm never going to need to pull the plugs again before the vehicle is long gone.

M35A2 · May 20, 2017

rayra said:
a few more pics / descriptions related to the previous post / issue

The heater hose firewall connection T. Giant pieces of excrement. it uses a compression connector that's obviously made for very quick assembly on the line. You just stab them on the pipe ends. Getting them off, getting them off after 100k mi, without a special tool and limited access for large hands, a bleeding nightmare. There are several hot to vids on you'tube, I ended up trying both the cheap line disconnector tool and ultimately used zip ties to apply enough crimping leverage force to the 'hand' connector to pry it loose.

Not so hot for this, find a better set.

The fitting, there are two, black and white. Again I presume to make assembly easy, 'the white is always on the right'.

ADDENDUM - the 'T' connectors are on the SUVs with rear heat / AC. SUVs without and pickups have a straight connector, but with a similar compression fitting and fragility in high-mileage vehicles.

In situ, the cursed thing. It's up under the cowl, pretty much over the #8 coil pack / exhaust port area. That filthy discolored brown is a result of heat, age and Dexcool dye

I think part of the culprit is the rigid hose holder that's attached to the engine, the hoses move with the engine, while the connectors are anchored to the firewall. The connector and its internal o-ring shift and rub until the o-ring degrades to nothing and then it's a beer tap at a frat party.

The black stuff on the pipe at the upper right WAS most of the o-ring.

And all pretty, ready for reinstall, took me 2 hrs to wrestle that sumbitch apart and 2 mins to put it back together.

The above is very helpful - thanks for posting.

Is there a reason one cannot simply destroy the old plastic T fitting to simplify its removal?

rayra · May 20, 2017

boll_rig · May 21, 2017

Alright now we're talking. I was trying to re read a few of these the other day and couldn't find some. Thanks for putting this together Rayra

rayra · May 23, 2017

Alternator Adventures.

This evening I got a call from the missus as she was leaving work 'can you hear this?', and she holds the phone out the driver's window and I hear a terrible whirring / brrrrring noise. I ask a few questions, can't get any definitive answers. Language barrier, she does not speak 'Mechanic/Troubleshooting'. She tells me it made that noise when she drove to work this morning. Neglected to tell me about it until it was time to drive home. ~25mi each way. Heavy rush hour 4-lane freeway traffic in Los Angeles. 'smells like hot metal / plastic'. Ask her for gauge readings, any other signs of trouble. No other trouble. By the time I ask her to park it and pop the hood, she tells me 'nope, already on the freeway, it's running, I'm coming home'. Balls. Warning to you young guys out there - avoid assertive redheads, they are a terrible ruinous addiction. You shall rue the day you fall for one.

Anyway she gets it home and I smell burning hot metal, burnt plastic, ozone. pop the hood, noise is definitely driver side of engine, I can't tell if it's coming from alternator or power steering. 180k mi. I rebuilt the alternator ~65k mi ago. There's been a whirring noise FOREVER, but nothing like this. Shut it off, look things over. Engine's hot like hell like always when she gets home and it's 90F+ anyway. Seems really hot around the alternator. No sign of leaks, melts, frayed belt, anything. Alternator windings look blackened. Dash voltmeter won't quite read 12v. Just for kicks I take a section of 1-1/2" PVC pipe I had laying around and use it like a stethoscope and the noise and a matching vibration are definitely coming from the alternator.

'A HA!' says I, my fiendishly clever plan of owning two GMT800 SUVs has come to fruition. Mine is an evil laugh. So we leave hers to cool off, have dinner and a bit of a rest and I go out after dark when everything has cooled off and I do pull the alternator from my '02 Sub in order to substitute it into the '05 Tahoe and see if the evil noise quits. Which it does. And during which I discover that her serpentine idler is shot, flopping around loose even with a tight bolt, bearing is blown out. I'd changed my own a few months back as part of preventative and thought I'd kept the old one because it was still seemingly fine, but alas I appear to have purged it during some intervening garage cleanup.

She happened to have taken the next two days off to burn some accruing vacation, so first thing in the morning it's off for a new alternator. I'll probably give her my Idler and order a replacement from Rockauto. Autozone wants $78 for an Idler. I can get one for under $20 in 3 days from Rockauto. And I'm not planning to drive anywhere but local for the next several days.

Along the way I discovered that yet again the mid-model series split bites me. While the alternators are dimensionally the same and have much the same ladder of amp ratings, my earlier vehicle has a 4-wire computer connection while hers has a 2-wire. Not swappable.
But mechanically I was able to swap it, re-mount the serpentine and run the vehicle enough to figure it was indeed her alternator making that dreadful noise. And even with the shot Idler pulley, there was no noise or vibration from it. Belt was turning tight and steady. weirdness.

So my presumption is that the electrical harness change is part of the 00-02 vs 03-06 split in electrical, computer, throttle-by-wire mid-model run changes in these vehicles. I'd like to find out how the pinouts matter, because her year range as a 160A option available, whereas mine tops out at 145A. And to my dismay I find I only have a 130A alternator in mine. But there's nothing really wrong with it so not spending the $170 to upgrade to 145. But I might if I could make the 160A work. So off to hunt around for a compatible 160A 4-wire design. (the wire count does not include the fat / main wire to charge the battery).

ooh pictures -

Back side of my Bosch, there is a 4th pin in there although it looks like 3.

hers with a 2-pin and apparently no brand labeling, which is very curious

Side by side, mine on the right. Same 56mm 6-groove pulleys, too. Damned shame about the pin count or I'd give her my alternator and put a shiny new 160A in mine. not even $20 difference between the two, curse it.

That was my late evening and my next morning.

oh and I tried to break down her alternator and get a look inside of it, btu it's trashed. took the four body screws out, got it most of the way pried apart and then it just stuck fast, bound up. Could chunks of slagged solder fell out. Lots of carbonized grit. So I tapped it back together and put the screws back in, Goodbye Core Charge.

Stryder106 · May 23, 2017

Quick topic change: For guys with Cladding - has anyone ever Plasti-Dipped their cladding? If so - process, pics, and lessons learned please. Thanks.

kojackJKU · May 30, 2017

slight tick from drivers side engine....speeds up with acceleration....manifolds? or lifters? seems to lessen when the rig warms up more...

mccustomize · May 30, 2017

kojackJKU said:
slight tick from drivers side engine....speeds up with acceleration....manifolds? or lifters? seems to lessen when the rig warms up more...

Could be the infamous broken manifold bolt on the rear most drivers side, but if it goes away once it warms up I would be donut gaskets on the Y pipe.

NevadaLover · May 30, 2017

mccustomize said:
Could be the infamous broken manifold bolt on the rear most drivers side, but if it goes away once it warms up I would be donut gaskets on the Y pipe.

We have I think four different 5.3's with the broken rear bolt and none of them leak exhaust, these manifolds are pretty thick flanged and as long as the other bolts are tight they don't seem to leak!
they do however develop a tick inside the engine as they age, never anything more than a noise though, use a quart of sea foam next oil change and it usually gets a lot quieter!

mccustomize · May 30, 2017

NevadaLover said:
We have I think four different 5.3's with the broken rear bolt and none of them leak exhaust, these manifolds are pretty thick flanged and as long as the other bolts are tight they don't seem to leak!
they do however develop a tick inside the engine as they age, never anything more than a noise though, use a quart of sea foam next oil change and it usually gets a lot quieter!

Once you pull the manifold off you'll see the carbon blowing past the gasket, both of my trucks were not visible from the outside either, but the gasket told a different tale...

kojackJKU · May 30, 2017

NevadaLover said:
We have I think four different 5.3's with the broken rear bolt and none of them leak exhaust, these manifolds are pretty thick flanged and as long as the other bolts are tight they don't seem to leak!
they do however develop a tick inside the engine as they age, never anything more than a noise though, use a quart of sea foam next oil change and it usually gets a lot quieter!

Run it how long with the seafoam in there?

NevadaLover · May 30, 2017

kojackJKU said:
Run it how long with the seafoam in there?

I put it in when changing the oil and leave it for 3000 til the next oil change with no problems!

rayra · Jun 5, 2017

Finally got around to collecting everything in a 'build thread'
http://forum.expeditionportal.com/t...ban)-Build-Collected-Werks-topic-02-k1500-Z71

I'm going to keep putting mechanical / repair stuff in here, though.

Search

Hey Vortec Guys! / Sierra pickup / Suburban / Yukon etc - Finally has Index!

Hillbilly Heaven

Explorer

TMJeep

New member

rayra

Expedition Leader

M35A2

Tinkerer

rayra

Expedition Leader

boll_rig

Adventurer

rayra

Expedition Leader

Stryder106

Explorer

kojackJKU

Autism Family Travellers!

mccustomize

Explorer

NevadaLover

Forking Icehole

mccustomize

Explorer

kojackJKU

Autism Family Travellers!

NevadaLover

Forking Icehole

rayra

Expedition Leader

Forum statistics

Members online