Dirt.boy

Towing with the SS vs a 3/4 ton suburban with the 8.1 is night and day. I tow a 7500 travel trailer and I never knew how marginal the 6.0 and smaller trans (especially the trans) were until I got the 'burb. Towing isn't work anymore!

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Not to hi-jack, but.... How do you tell the difference between piston slap and lifter noise? My 8.1l suburban sounds like a diesel on start up. Dealer thought it was lifters and flushed the engine but didn't change much. Greg

Dealer said they had it figured out, the Tech2 that is. They reset the oil life with the Tech2 unit but my readout still says 88% and doesn't move. Is there anyway to reset the gauge cluster "computer". It is looking like that is where the problem is. The PCM resets just fine. PS I have tried disconnecting the battery but not the gauge cluster. Greg

Mine was at like 20% when I brought it in. How did yours get "stuck"?

Dealer couldn't figure it out with the Tech 2. They wanted to charge me to hook it up and reflash the PCM.

Not sure if this is the right forum but anyway.... Got the 8.1l engine in my suburban flushed last week at the dealer (knocks on cold start, hoping its the lifters). Now the engine oil remaining resets to 88% and doesn't appear to be dropping. I put over 300 hard towing miles on it this weekend and its still at 88%. I have reset it with the accelerator and the DIC steering wheel controls to no avail. What gives?? Greg

I have power folding mirror on my 03 suburban. I would swap with you if it is possible. I would like to have the towing mirror for a bit more visibility.

I had a flo-pro dual in/out that I had welded into the stock piping. The interior resonance was more than I wanted. Resonance was gone after dumping the exhaust right after the muffler. I have reported this before and others have tried it with mixed results. The flo-pro is a huge muffler, I think that has something to do with it. Greg

less than 48 i guess

Almost never, just a drive through now and again.

Looking for a plug to close up the keyholes. Yeah I know I buy new dishes without the holes but I'm too cheap and busy. Any help would be appreciated. Greg

I got the whole shootin' match, all brand new Gm parts. I bought them off of e-bay from gandrautoparts.com. They have them for $225 right now. Anyway I don't need'em since I totaled the truck. Make me an offer. Greg

Driving out of town the day after Thanksgiving I rolled the SS. I didn't see the that the guy in front of me was taking a left hand turn. As I made the decision to go around to his left he started his turn. I cut it as close as I could but I still had to put two wheels in the ditch. I barely nicked his front bumper but never really made it up out of the ditch. Ended up rolling several times (at least 2.5 my wife says 5.5) down the asphalt at 70 MPH. Slid to a stop 150 yards or so later on the roof of the cab. We are recovering but all told we where extremely lucky. My wife and daughter were in the back seat unbuckled. The last thing before the accident my daughter remembers is my wife grabbing and holding her during the rolls. She also vividly remembers angels holding her inside the truck so she didn't fly out the window ( I still get goosebumps everytime I tell that to someone). My daughter was bruised and shaken but not admittted to the hospital and has fully recovered. My wifes foot and leg were out of the rear window for at least one of the rolls. The tar ground off part of her big toe and one third of the bone on the first joint of the same toe. It took two surgeries to clean it out and sew everything back together. She is back to work now which is saying allot because she walks for a living teaching blind people how to use the cane and Minneapolis bus system. I broke a rib when I hit the armrest on the drivers door but am pretty much back to "normal". It was a life changing/defining moment. Our family has grown closer together through it all. Everyone has been wonderful, from the people at the scene to the first responders, doctors etc. Even all of our friends who kept us fed for weeks and weeks and came to our house to help with recovery. It all happens so quickly, in the blink of an eye. One second I was tooling down the road thinking I was the shit in my blue SS, the next second I'm hanging upside down and my truck has given its life for ours. Next time you think your the shit and it won't happen to you think again. Greg PS. Insurance totaled the truck. I just bought an 3/4 ton '03 suburban with the 8.1l. Plenty of torque but wow the 4L80 first gear doesn't have the snap of the 65!! The larger truck should pull our camper trailer a little easier and I think we will use the extra row of seats more than the pick-up bed as well. The cab roof was crushed all the way doewn to the passenger headrest, the only seat that no one was in.... We slid with the driver side leading. We rolled once in the ditch then on the next roll the rear wheel caught the asphalt snapped the axleand launched us. Probably did a roll or more in the air before landing on the roof.

Not a big deal if you have a programmer.

Just ordered a Zippy shift kit and a tune to go with it. Anyone in MPLS that can download Zippy's HPTuners tune into my truck for me. If not I am going to do a PCM swap with Zip and may need someone to do a crankshaft position relearn. Yeah Yeah I know I should buy the software myself... Someday when I have more time and money..... TIA, Greg

So does this correspond to gas mileage differences during daily driver duty? It would seem that the Radix is doing less work when boost is not required therefore using less energy.

I just put in the ultras in today. They are an improvement over stock thats for sure. Can't say how they compare to any others though. I just hope they last awhile. I put the 9005 high beams in the low beam lens. Takes just a couple of minutes to mod the bulb to fit. The 9005 is 10 watts higher than the 9006. I haven't seen anyone on here do this yet so I thought I'd share. Greg

At 33k I would do plugs for sure if they've never been done. Wires are a personal preference. If you have the money or want a little color in the engine bay I say get'em. Wires: For N/A most guys will tell you that the stockers are okay until the carbon starts to burn up around 80k. That being said I put a set of Magnecore wires on at 25k miles. Felt a littleincrease in the low end, wouldn't expect much up high. Lingenfelters has the best price (~$65). MSD wires are supposed to be good as well. Taylor's seem to have a bit of quality problems. Plugs: For N/A the plug of choice (and sometimes factory plug) is the NGK TR55. I don't get into the engine that often so I went with the TR55 IX (iridium) because they last about twice as long as the non-iridium plugs. Gap should be set to .050. Greg

"North Central" is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw "Fargo" you probably didn't think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot. Damn stuck in Minnesoooooota again (still?). Greg

I have found that the ICL is 115 degrees. This leads to .050 events of: Intake Valve Close: 33 ABDC Exhaust Valve Open: 40.5 BBDC Intake Valve Open: 17 ATDC Exhaust Valve Close: 13.5 BTDC Overlap: -30.5 degrees (.006 overlap is about 22 degrees) I didn't understand the BS flag either. Greg

Count me in. My second one is loosening up as we speek.

Finally going to order a kit from Zippy. Anyone know a good shop to help with the install. I'm also going to get am e-mail tune from him at the same time, so I need to find someone with HP Tuners or Tunercat for that as well. TIA , Greg

I am trying to get a baseline for the valve events before I select a new cam. Does anyone know the installed Intake Center Line for the stock cam? I know the LSA is 116 but wondering if it installed straight up (at 116) or +4 (at 120) or ???? TIA, Greg

You'll know. Steering feels a bit loose and small bumps, especially around corners at first, will feel like a light clunk through the wheel. One problem with forums in general is the worry factor that can arrise. Its nice to know what to look out for, but its also nice to just drive and not worry all of the time.