Steve-o-08's Silverado Build Thread

[struck by Lightning]

Great pic's Steve, thanks for sharing.
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[Steve-O-08]

Great pic's Steve, thanks for sharing.
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Thanks! I got took all the ones of Claudia and her truck and she took the rest. The telephoto lens came in really handy and helped get some good pics.

[RBEAST]

you look good out there tearing it up , great pics thanks for sharing ... how did truck feel out there? how big of stall is that tiny converter? looks like you dropped truck even further down than last time i saw it and it looks great! good job ! well march is upon us see you at pomona soon

[Steve-O-08]

you look good out there tearing it up , great pics thanks for sharing ... how did truck feel out there? how big of stall is that tiny converter? looks like you dropped truck even further down than last time i saw it and it looks great! good job ! well march is upon us see you at pomona soon

Thanks man. Didn't lower the truck any more. It's still at the same height as it was before. The truck felt pretty good. Having a couple issues with it now. Might have a vacuum leak. Going to dig into it tomorrow. The converter is as tight as we could make the 245mm. It's right around 26-2800. Just getting a few things adjusted and I'll be ready for Pomona. Any updates with your truck?

[Donutboy97]

Awesome truck!!!! Thanks for sharing

[Steve-O-08]

Hey guys. I realize it's been a little while since I've updated this. Here's a few new things to my truck and to my girlfriend's truck.

Claudia got me a new steering wheel for my birthday. I had been tossing around the idea for a little while. It's a Sparco R345 and the adapter is a Momo. Love the wheel. Much better than the 15 1/2 diameter stock one. Got to test it out at the NMCA West Hotchkis Autocross last weekend. More pics from the event below.







Also got a new set of wheels and tires on Claudia's truck. 295/45R18 NT-05's like mine on Level 8 Wheels. I've also got a set of these wheels for my truck coming. I was planning on getting them on my truck first but she beat me to the punch. The stance is perfect with the tire width. Just one slight rubbing issue on the left rear but that was taken car of easily.



Pics from last weekend:





















Only had one issue that weeked. One of my exhaust band clamps had loosened up and the exhaust had slid off the y pipe. Scared me a little but after I realized that it was just a stretched clamp I redneck engineered a quick fix and went about the rest of the weekend with a Redbull can fix haha.













Overall it was a great weekend. Claudia took first place in the truck class Saturday and I did on Sunday. Although it was just the two of us battling it out it was a great time. Should be a few more trucks out next time. Got to meet Brandy and Rob from PCHRods and got to have them ride along and give us a few pointers which helped us both improve. Few more things to come for both trucks. I'll hopefully get a few of them done before the next event. Because Racetrucks.

[Steve-O-08]

Just saw this article in Motortrend. It was from our Speed Ventures Autocross back in February. Pretty cool. they mentioned Claudia out there driveing the heck out of her truck haha

http://www.motortrend.com/news/2016-...view-update-2/

[Steve-O-08]

A few updates. A few weeks ago Claudia and I got to do another Autocross at the Airport in Camarillo, CA. It was pretty fun. Limited to only 30 cars it kept things moving quickly. Got to hang out with Rob and Brandy of pch rods and learn a little more. Claudia got to drive my truck a couple laps and see how it felt compared to hers. Overall a good day. No obvious casualties until I started taking the front end apart for a spring swap.











I needed to get a higher rate front spring in the front of the truck to keep the truck from nose-diving into corners. Up to this point I've run the stock 106,000 mile coil spring and lower control arms to achieve the height. I started calling and emailing a handful of places to find out spring rates/heights on their GM truck coil springs I ended up going with Belltech. They were the only ones that would give me any info on the springs. Everyone else gave me replies like: They are like stock, or we don't have the info on them.

The springs were delivered last Saturday so got to un-bolting.





I found that I had a missing sway bar link bushing on the passenger side. The missing bushing let the sway bar to slide toward the drivers side which bent both links. The bar rubbed against the tire and ended up knocking the grease fitting off the driver's tie rod end.







The upper control arms boots were leaking and the bushings were drying out and starting to crack, So I ordered a new set of and new tie rod ends. I already had new Moog ball joints for the DJM arms that I never got around to installing so I did everything all together. Just need to figure out sway bar links for the front and she'll be ready to rock for the next Hotchkis event in June.



I also pulled the trigger on new wheels and because my NT05's are pretty much completely wasted new tires too. Not going to be leaving the wheels black. Taking them down to get coated today and then have the tires installed. Will hopefully have them back soon and get them on the truck.





The next few things I want/need to do are. Cut the transmission crossmember brackets level with the frame and plate them in. Ground clearance is already really close and will already scrape on my driveway. It'll be even more of a problem with the new shorter tire diameter.

[Badasschevillac]

Any part #s for the wheel and apadpter?

[KiCKiNaX]

congrats on fontana class win both of you ! the motor trend artical was great, she was giving the miata guy fits it sounds like lol! lots of new goodies for truck love that steering wheel! how many lbs are the springs rated at 500? 550? did you go with nt05's again or bfg's? same size? lol got my ride running again ! new motor is nice .... thinking about running out to camarillo this weekend and get a little practice for hotchkis event maybe see you out there have a great weekend both of you! your truck is looking great as always!

[Steve-O-08]

congrats on fontana class win both of you ! the motor trend artical was great, she was giving the miata guy fits it sounds like lol! lots of new goodies for truck love that steering wheel! how many lbs are the springs rated at 500? 550? did you go with nt05's again or bfg's? same size? lol got my ride running again ! new motor is nice .... thinking about running out to camarillo this weekend and get a little practice for hotchkis event maybe see you out there have a great weekend both of you! your truck is looking great as always!

Thanks! My new front springs are actually 950lbs haha. And they are actually still a little soft for the weight of the truck. The new tires are BFG Rivals in 315/30R18's. Thanks for the complements.

[LT1C1500]

Thanks! My new front springs are actually 950lbs haha. And they are actually still a little soft for the weight of the truck. The new tires are BFG Rivals in 315/30R18's. Thanks for the complements.

Awesome thread, and two very nice trucks! I really like that new steering wheel! The wheels you both have are pretty sweet as well!

[Steve-O-08]

Alright guys. Finally getting around to getting a update to this thread. Been really busy lately so not much time to post. Ended up getting a new job and a new daily driver/hauler and also helped PCHRODS out with the C10R's new engine install among other things.







Here are a few pictures of the trucks new wheels and tires. Got the wheels cerakote'd and mounted up the tires. Also had the bowtie matched to the wheels. With the 1" drop springs the truck sat a little too low in the front and I put in a set of 1" spacers that came with Claudia's front springs to bring it back up. I wanted to take the truck out and see how it handled with the new tires and see if it would have any issues with the sidewalls rolling over. If I did I was going to have the wheels widened. The shop that I was going to have the wheels done wasn't going to be able to start on them until this week anyway. The diameter of the new BFG's are much shorter than the NtT05's I was running before.











Did a few upgrades to Claudia's truck as well. Her truck got a new cam and springs, Set of headers and finally got her rear sway bar installed. I also painted her intake and bowtie. I actually really like the color. Not bad for a rattle can job.











We took the truck out to the latest NMCA West Autocross on June 18th and 19th. I was really excited to see how the trucks would do. Unfortunately I did have some issues... My new front sway bar links didn't make it through the first run on Saturday. Pulled one of the pivot ball ends out of the socket on both links.. Unfortunately I didn't actually find out they had separated until the end of the day... With the truck on the ground the rubber boots were just holding the link ends together. When I jacked up front end I found that they come completely apart. I actually borrowed the front links off Rob's (PCHRODS) Dodge tow rig and ran all day on Sunday. The truck handled much better. (obviously) and I was able to play with tire pressures a little to see what the truck liked.















- - - Updated - - -

Despite the issues it was a good weekend and got to hang out with a great group of people and have a good time. And of course got to take some cool pictures.









A few things that are on the to-do list now are cut down a set of Dodge HD sway bar links to work with my set up. Luckily I found that the dodge links have a pivot on one end. Going to scale the truck and see if I can get any more spring under it without too much trouble. I would like to try and go as far as I can with the leaf springs on the truck. And start the accumulation of parts for a T56/TR6060 swap. First gear in the 4L80e works fine but I would really like a manual in the truck. That will be a little ways down the road.

[Steve-O-08]

A few pictures of this weekend's NMCA Hotchkis Autocross.

Ran all day Saturday with no issues, But Only got a three runs Sunday due to a blown out front shock. New suspension mods are now in the not-so-distant future.

[2ndroundko]

what are you looking to do for shocks. I need some for my 85 c10 but I don't want to waste money on stock replacements and be less than satisfied. wheels look great BTW.

[Steve-O-08]

I'm going with double adjustable coilovers. I'm having a hard enough time finding the correct spring rates for my truck and going with a coilover will open up my options.

[MaukaRunner]

Thanks for posting! This is awesome. I just keep reading and re-reading this thread.

I have 2002 5 speed manual, Silverado Sportside and want to autocross the truck in Solo2 ESP class. Right not all it has is a 2/4 drop but will be doing the brakes and suspension sometime soon. Was wondering what is the offset of the Level 8 MK6 wheels you are running. The 295/45-18 NT05's look to be the perfect size for me as I don't want to lose much diameter from the stock size.

Hope to see more updates to this thread. Thanks again!

[Steve-O-08]

Thanks for posting! This is awesome. I just keep reading and re-reading this thread.

I have 2002 5 speed manual, Silverado Sportside and want to autocross the truck in Solo2 ESP class. Right not all it has is a 2/4 drop but will be doing the brakes and suspension sometime soon. Was wondering what is the offset of the Level 8 MK6 wheels you are running. The 295/45-18 NT05's look to be the perfect size for me as I don't want to lose much diameter from the stock size.

Hope to see more updates to this thread. Thanks again!

Thanks! The offset on these wheels is 12mm. They are available in 12 and 0 offsets.

[MaukaRunner]

Thanks! The offset on these wheels is 12mm. They are available in 12 and 0 offsets.

Thanks for the info. Awesome updates!

[Steve-O-08]

Don't worry I didn't forget about this thread. Been very busy with work and home stuff.

A couple updates:

Finally got the transmission back home. It was sitting at a friends shop for the longest time. Still accumulating parts for the swap. Getting closer though.



The BFG Rivals are off the truck and it's sitting on the work out nt05's. Going to be dismounting the BFG's and selling them.



Also started mocking up some new front suspension parts. Blew it all apart again to fab up some plates and mounts for coilovers.



having a plasma table at work made quick work of some of the pieces.




Hopefully this weekend will be a productive one. Going to try and get the CalTracs off and the leaf springs out so I can bring them into work for a few modifications. and get some of the current parts sold to offset the cost of new ones. More coming soon.