01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

So here she is, 2004 Yukon XL, family hauler, Camaro hauler, been my daily driver for the last two years.

I want something that can tow my car with ease, tow other stuff, and generally be usefull. I already have a good tune, efan conversion, and cold air intake.

I figured this conversion may take a while so I bought another daily driver to cover me while the yukon was down.

I figured, I could get a little performance by deleting awd, and by selling the components could offset the price. Once I assembled all the parts, I jacked her up.

First things first we must remove all awd components....this is the non-electronic transfer case. It splits power 70/30 rear/front at all times.

And it weighs about 70lbs.

4wd 4l60e. Looks to be original.

Here's the stock setup.

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

The stock torque converter.

And it weighs about 52lbs.

Front diff about 80lbs.

Front axles.

Lot's of room under here now.


Lots of people say/think you cannot run a 4wd/awd hub on a 2wd truck. They say if the axle is not there clamping it together the hub will fall apart. After inspection it appears that what the axle clamps in the front and rear is the same solid piece, meaning it cannot come apart.


Also if you notice by looking at the axle end there is no abs, meaning everything will function normally with it removed. The abs is in the hub itself.

I also thought this truck had a bad head gasket. Looky looky, a certain stain going down the cylinder head of a leaky steam port. Winning!!!

Some goodies, a built 2wd 4l60e from my buddy Tim Frost @ Pro1 Transmission in Texarkana.

And this pretty thing right here. Its a 2800/3k unit from Circle D.



Smaller then stock.

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

Lighter then stock.

Not gonna hunt down a 2wd crossmember, so I made my 4wd work. The 2wd trans sits about 3 inches higher so I made a small bracket and welded it to the 4wd crossmember.

So here it is mounted up, using a $10 2wd Anchor mount.



The last piece of the 2wd puzzle. An aluminum shaft, 4 inch, .125 wall and 69 3/8th" center to center. I bought this from a driveshaft place in California but you can get a used one off a 2wd version off a wrecked truck, but beware they are hard to come by. Can for size reference.

Another little treat. These are 1 3/4 from Speed engineering. Fit was ok, nothing to get upset about...I did clearance them a bit to get the clearance I wanted.

Trying to get headers on by yourself isnt fun. I made two studs, inserted them so the headers and gaskets had something to hang on. I used the wire to hold the collectors up. I went with GM MLS gaskets to seal em up.

Here's a picture of the muffler and merge. Dynomax bullet and Magnaflow merge. I had it on the truck before and it sounded loud but with a nice tone.

Now that she's back on the ground and running I will give some driving impressions. The converter foot breaks to 26/2800 and flashes from a stop to 3k. To get moving you spin about 2k rpms. The converter feels nice and pulls good on the top end. The headers perked up the midrange and you can especially feel it over 4k, where the stock setup seemed flat and out of steam. And no my front tires didnt fall off even though the internet said they would! I will be pulling the intake soon and fixing the coolant leak and freshening up the top end. Questions/comments???

soloman369

iTrader: (13)

Cool dont usally see threads like this, nice read.

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

Tow haulers need love too right??

mjs1012

iTrader: (36)

This is pretty cool. Going with a standalone trans cooler?

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

Ive been on the fence about that. I should...but money ran short on this project so something had to give. Im going to monitor trans temps closely over the next couple of months and if it seems like it needs it then yeah I will make the switch.

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

Wanted to give this thread an update....I needed to fix the leaking coolant from the crossover line. So I jumped into intake gaskets and whatnot also. Here it is, cold air, efans, and stock otherwise. Also removed the wide Denali engine cover. I dont like everything covered up.



This thing is filthy. Its not so much a leak as it is just weeping from all the seals just a tiny bit over a 200k mile course.



Got the intake removed in about a hour, pretty simple stuff.



A little purple power and elbow grease goes long way.



Showing my fbody roots, I decided to do a throttle body coolant bypass, I had this brass barb in the tool box so I plugged it into the line going to the throttle body. Here you can also see the valve covers which I spent about an hour cleaning.



Since these trucks are known for having rear knock sensor issues due to moisture I decided to do a new ac delco rear sensor, new Dorman harness, valve cover gaskets, intake gaskets just to kind of freshen things up. My stock sensor appeared fine.



We had some kinda crappy weather, but I caught this guy hanging out behind the shop for about half an hour.



On order from Jegs, to quiet things down some. I am gonna install it inline with the bullet muffler.



And a couple of random pics, this is a 4wd/awd transmission mount.



Manifolds.



Front drive axles.



Stock down pipes with Magnaflow cats.

kingtal0n

iTrader: (1)

While you have it open, and are cleaning everything, I would replace the PCV valve and any PCV associated lines or at least clean them, it will help with the oil seepage to have a good strong crankcase vacuum while cruising around.

FirstYrLS1Z

iTrader: (4)

Nice thread !

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

Unfortunately I'm having some issues with this trans. I think the forward sprag is broken. I will update once the builder has given his diagnosis upon teardown. My goal is to pull it out today then carry it to him tomorrow.

silverWS.6

iTrader: (1)

Nice thread, about how long did it take you to do the swap? Notice any major mpg increase/decrease? Good luck with the Trans!

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

The truck was down about 2 weeks total (working on my off days). The transmission is at the builder so I'm waiting on his report of whats broken. I only drove it about 30 miles before the trans gave me trouble so no idea on gas mileage. Also, the muffler showed up and I ordered something else nice too.

CO99Z28Vert

iTrader: (30)

Nice work man.
I like how people give you **** for doing this conversion but I would do the same in a heartbeat if not for daily driving in the winter here in Colorado.

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

So I had some transmission issues. I appears through my heavy foot I just broke the damn thing. I took it to the builder last week and he said the forward sprag was completely trashed. But, its fixed and ready to come home. Time to make the 180 mile round trip....which goes really fast when you're on a nice new highway.



Pro1 Transmission in Texarkana AR. These guys know their stuff.



After I chatted with the owner for a bit and loaded up it was time to head back home.



I took the stock truck pan off.



And I tried to install a new aluminum pan.......but it wont fit. It seems to be hitting the filter inside the pan.



The filter support risers are obviously made for a car filter (shorter) and this has a truck filter installed. I measured the gap at the pan rail to be around 5/8 from seating on the trans...... and I don't have a car filter, so I cut the damn things off.



Here is a pan depth measurement. Stock truck pan was 3 inches deep, and also you can see the risers after cutting 5/8ths off them.



Success!



Ready to slide back in. The trans jack makes the job easy when you're a one man band.



Walmart no longer carries transmission fluid....dipshits, so I bought a case of this from the local auto parts store....and the price was actually really good.



The new muffler.



No performance loss here.



I added it into the rear section of the pipe but left the bullet muffler also.



Back on the ground and needing a bath bad.



Cheers, you earned it!


So the trans is back to acting right, the exhaust is nice. My impressions of the new muffler is it obviously toned it down. It is mellow and very deep at idle, it has more tone/sound now then it did before. Cruising at light throttle its actually very quiet (you can't hear it inside the truck), under moderate throttle or rpm it wakes right up and lets you know its there. Under full throttle its pretty loud, and the tone breaks up some at mid rpms (kind of what comes with a loud exhaust) but its controlled and not terrible sounding like it was with just the bullet muffler.

silverWS.6

iTrader: (1)

Nice work! Easy on the burnouts now

67Lark

Nice little change here, can't wait to hear what this thing does for mileage

01ssreda4

iTrader: (96)

I have one last upgrade in the works, and I will post some sound clips soon.

CO99Z28Vert

iTrader: (30)

Nice, very nice!
After looking at air bag setups or adjustable coil overs I may just do this conversion... So many positive things can come from it!

TheSilverOne

iTrader: (22)

great job!