Vettelovralexand's 2009 Silverado Build Thread

[vettelovralexand]

My 2009 Silverado has been a run of the mill 93 octane tune, cat back, and CAI truck for about 3 years. Through its early life, I spent most of my time on the factory add ons and clean up, with color matched door and tailgate handles, mirror covers, putting in seat covers, the leather wrapped shift lever, steering wheel with controls, adding fog lights, DL3 mirror swap, and DIC add ons...mostly normal stuff for what people are used to. I have had it on a dyno

. And I have had it at the track

. But, it never really lived up to my previous car, a restored ZZ4 powered 1987 Monte Carlo SS that was stolen and stripped (and ultimately gave me the down payment for the truck).

So, I had been wanting to put a supercharger on my for quite a while, but obviously funds are always difficult to set aside for something "frivolous" but recently my wife got tired of my saving up money on the side for my truck and ending up using it on...well...anything but the truck. So, she gave me her blessing when I found this:http://www.performancetrucks.net/forums/gm-parts-classifieds-23/roush-tvs-1900-supercharger-kit-new-box-sale-529400/

Well, I didn't want to pay quite what was being asked for that kit, so while the haggling was going on, I put in calls for some supporting items. Maryland Speed hooked me up with some Kooks 1 7/8" primary headers, catless y, AEM wideband, AEM boost gauge, and a dual pillar pod. So, fairly soon I got to work putting the headers on even without any supercharger in route.
First, had to pull the trans crossmember. Two bolts on the passenger side, two bolts under the trans (after it is supported) and the crossmember is free.

Next I undid the factory exhaust and started to undo the manifolds from the Y-Pipe...but, much like everything, it is never easy. So this guy gave me some trouble (notice the one nut that is partially off the stud, not to be removed without cutting):


But a little time with a cutoff wheel (since I don't have a sawsall):

And tada, no more manifolds:






My truck has about 57k on it now and so I took the opportunity to pull the pan and change the filter. Topped it off with a little of this:


And carried on installing the headers:

And they're in (sorry for the blur):




But, I didn't like that a factory plug wire touched on the driver side:


So I ordered up some of the recommended Taylor wires:


And that did the trick:


And, by this time I had worked out the details with Dyno Dan on the supercharger and had put a check in the mail. In the mean time, I drove the truck around without a retune. It felt about the same, threw the expected codes, and had the normal Corsa sport plus catless header rasp which came in at about 3500 RPM. But under normal cruising there basically isn't any increase in noise for the cab.

Before I could get the packages from Dan, I got sent to Colorado for a work trip, but the wife sent me a text during the week:


And so, the torture lasted for the remainder of the week, but when I got home, the fun started:






I had a friend come over to help, and he quickly had this pulled off (despite not having the correct fuel rail disconnect tool):

[vettelovralexand]

While I worked down low on pinning the crank:




Once that was all done, I worked to drill and tap the 1/8" NPT and 3/8" NPT fittings for the intake pressure and intake temperature sensors. Note to all those involved, do not put them on the SIDE of the aluminum section between the heads and the head unit. I learned the hard way, that the rail is basically unavoidable :bang::


Anyway, I had to give up for the night until we could get plugs to fill those two holes and also because the L9H injectors I intended to use were about 10 mm shorter than the factory ones (yes I know I could/should have used the 42 lb ones from the kit, but I had these factory ones around from my dad's truck which used ID1000s for his procharged 6.2):


So, I put in a call to Fuel Injector Connection and got the top spacers for those while I licked my wounds. And since my factory intake basically drained a cup of oil out on my garage floor, I decided to pick up one of these:


I took the next couple days while things started to arrive to go ahead and install the gauges after painting the pillar with Colorbond 333 paint:


And also wired up the IAT sensor, and ran the boost gauge wiring under the hood. I figured out that the wiring wasn't quite long enough, so I had to just zip tie the sensor under the hood and run a hose to where I was going to fit the barb on the intake plate:


And last thing I could do was install the intercooler in front of the radiator and the pump/reservoir setup (and wouldn't you know it that I didn't take pics until after it was done through the grille):




Anyway, a day or two later, I got all the plugs, injectors with spacers in, got the fuel rails installed, and the IAT sensor put in:


And finally, everything all put back together:


And this one is blurry too, but shows the catch can setup:

At that point it was running great with about 7 lbs of boost. It would now roast the tires off if you floor it from a stop in 2wd or chirp the 1-2 shift in 4wd. I was pleasantly surprised with the performance of the truck.

For appearance, I tried a little something in vinyl, not sure if I like it or not:


Probably better than the bare aluminum rectangle anyway.

[vettelovralexand]

I took it to the track for the first time in a while at this point. All on factory 60K mile goodyear wranglers. DA was around 1400, so I pulled in fresh off the interstate after 2 hours and laid down these two passes:



I tried working on my launches later in the night, but I was still having some issues with timing being pulled sometimes when powerbraking and not others, and also trying to work out the best time to shift out of 4wd to maximize time. I think with a good set of tires that I might have been able to hook out of the hole and I may have been able to cut another tenth or two off. But, I couldn't have been happier. As a reminder, here was the truck in similar DA at Edgewater before the supercharger and headers:



Not bad picking up 2 seconds and 12+ mph from the stock truck.

The only video of the night was from a different run where the timing issue was giving me fits at the line. Anyway, my 60' showed 2.7 on this run because I rolled through the beams which is about. .7 more than i ran the rest of the night. Still managed a 14.3. Best for the night was a 13.4.

 

Around this time, my wife and I found out we were going to be expecting our first child...so she said that if I was going to do anything else, I better get it done.

 

So, I placed a few orders. Some of the new parts:

 

So what is all that, you ask? PRC Stage 1 LS6 heads with BTR .650 lift dual springs and titanium retainers, a BTR custom spec 219/234 cam, new ls7 lifters, factory rockers with a trunion upgrade, new thick wall pushrods, and a new a 10% overdrive crank pulley.

 

Before I did all of this, I figured it was a good time to sort out the fuel system. So, I bought a fuel pump from a flex fuel truck, and along with a little help from MS3dale I figured out that the FPCM needed either reprogrammed, or I needed to swap the factory one for one on a flex fuel truck. Ebay got me sorted and I got both of those installed and working.

 

Then it was on to the tear down...which I powered through all in 1 weekend alone. Since I did it this way, I didn't get any pictures, but after finding a longer belt for the OD pulley the result was this:

 

 

And subsequently, it now moved out like this:

0 to Speed Before After
60 mph 4.9 sec 4.3 sec
80 mph 8.0 sec 6.9 sec
100 mph 12.4 sec 10.5 sec

Before:

 

After:

[vettelovralexand]

After doing this, Justin emailed me and said that I had a bit of a miss under boost, so I swapped the plugs to a factory LSA/LS9 plug from the basically factory ones before. And that is how the truck sits today. Just your run of the mill looking truck with virtually no visual change, but it has a bit of a mean side.

[RyanbabZ71]

Very nice

 

 

 

 

Ryan

[vettelovralexand]

Thanks Ryan. It has been quite a ride and the truck gets better every time I drive it.

[Daryl Z71]

What a beast! Nice upgrades!

[vettelovralexand]

Yeah, this thing is a beast to drive. But, its still not quite as fast as dads procharged 6.2. Anyone know a good machinist who can machine the snout of the blower to accept magnacharger pulleys?

[zach1990]

That's a nice ride right there. Got a bit of sleeper going on with it

[vettelovralexand]

Guess I never did show a "finished" product picture. Couple of before shots around when I brought the truck home on 11/13/2009:

And the way it looks today (except I finally pulled off the front license plate bracket):

 

And a bit more dated and worse picture, but one that shows the tailgate and exhaust:

[kstruckcountry]

Very slick