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I’ve had this truck for a little over two years now not doing much besides oil changes on it and some basic maintenance. Finally decided that it’s not worth anything if I were to sell it being that it’s a 15 year old caddy with 242k miles on it, not that it doesn’t still run like a new truck because honestly it does. Drives tight, doesn’t burn anymore then 1/4 of a quart of oil in between oil changes, ac blows cold and everything works. My overall plan is to keep it daily able but turn it into something a little more sporty feeling. I’m not expecting it to handle like a 2k lb car can, but the overall feeling of it I want to be influenced by performance.
Current mods done to the truck:
engine: stock with the exception of a 4” cold air intake and a tune I’m working on on hptuners. I go back and forth from wanting to do a mild small twin turbo setup on it and shoot for 450whp but I know generally speaking more power = more problems. It will either be twins on it down the road or just some long tube headers, exhaust and a mild cam.
suspension:
-new standard shocks all the way around (need to upgrade to something with better dampening)
-New front and rear brakes.
-bell tech lowering springs in rear with shock extenders, torsion keys in front.
-energy suspension sway bar bushings front and rear, although I’d love to find a larger/ stronger front sway bar for the front, open to recommendations, I know the Escalade has decent sized bars on it stock.
-sits currently on 20x8.5” 09 suburban wheels with 275/55/20 tires, I had 285/50/20 tires on it before but they got to the point of being worn down and needed replaced. I loved how the 285/50’s looked, I hate how the 275/55’s look big time. I just picked up a set of 22x9.5 wheels and I’m getting some 285/35/22 tires this evening and I’ll see if I like the stance of them once they are painted and on. I’m sure I’ll change wheels and tires a few more times as I progress on the truck.
weight reduction done so far: third row seats removed, spare tire removed, rear air pump removed. Open to ideas on other places to drop weight while keeping the truck nice to drive still. Also removed the bull bar pictured on it as of yesterday and I forgot how heavy that thing was. Drives much nicer without it. currently scales at 5400lbs with just under a half tank. I think if it were rwd with a t56 I could get allot closer to 5k.
long term goal is to t56 swap it and convert it to rwd. I still need to do allot more research before I start gathering parts but I’ve always been worried about the 4l65e trans giving me issues when driving the truck hard. That and I think a 6 speed Escalade would just be really cool 😎.
If you don't have an e-fan that should be on the list. With your tune you should have the pin turned on in to make it work. That's usually the most expensive part of that mod. At least read up on it, so you know. When you need to flush the coolant anyways would save you some more on it. https://www.performancetrucks.net/fo...h-info-536648/
I'll let others who know more get in depth on the engine, but is 450hp with twin turbos a typo? That's in the NA power range, and even the most basic of setups will get much more with just one.
If you just did brakes, and didn't do the GMT900 front brake upgrade, you missed out on that one.
Hellwig make the largest solid swaybar you can get for this model.
You should make sure the t-56 is what you really want. This is a heavy vehicle for that, and I wouldn't expect to ever tow anything. Just making sure you know about the NV4500 (5spd that came in the 1500HDs, and 2500 behind the 6.0). The ZF-6 (6 spd that came in the 2500 and 1 tons behind the 6.0, 8.3 and the 6.6 diesel, and is rated to tow I think its 13 tons). The tr6060 is another one. The first two both came in this model behind that engine you have, and both have granny gears.
There's a good thread on converting to RWD. Its really not that difficult, and will save you that weight you are looking for. I'm not searching for it, but I remember they weighed everything and you will know exactly what you will save before you start. The escalade came with traction control and stabilitrak, standard, not sure how much more difficult that makes it.
The roof rails and side steps could come off. If you like the look (a little more rugged, less refined). The rails don't weigh much, and I don't recall the side steps. Those escalade parts should sell pretty easy. For some more weight, you could get rid of those heavy electric seats. Some of the SUVs and pickups had manual seats that should save a good amount, IIRC its in the 25-30 pound for each bucket range. Have to research to find out about the center console if you would be willing to put in a folding seat or if its even worth it.
Man that’s pretty much the exact reply I was looking for. That coil over setup definitely looks like something I would dig after I got the truck to 2wd. As for the trans, I wasn’t set on a T56’ mostly just wanted something manual in it. I’m glad there’s other options. That zf-6 sounds interesting. I’ll have to spend the next few days (weeks/months) reading up on stuff.
the roof rails and running boards I think I would like to remove those. Unfortunately there’s no way I’m parting with my super heavy seats. I love them way to much, makes this old truck feel like a lazyboy on wheels.
as far as 450whp being low for a turbo setup, yes I understand that, odds are I most likely won’t build a turbo setup for the truck, maybe once I get all my other ducks in a row. But if I were to turbo it I would be after throttle response and low end torque increases more then anything. Turbos make the kind of torque down low you can’t make Na unless you have some big inches. Im really not super interested in making a bunch more power out of it. I would just like to tighten it up and make it feel a bit more planted. I’m still in the brain storming part of figuring out how to go about building this truck so I apologize if I seem a bit scatter brained.
on a side note I took the truck down to eugene Oregon and back this evening, about a 70 mile trip each way and averaged 20.4mpg round trip. Pretty happy with it. The truck is definitely running allot better now that I’ve messed with hptuners a bit. I’m still a bit confused on a few things, I’m used to speed density tuning and it seems like no matter what for part throttle the ecm completely controls afr regardless of what I do to it. I wanted to add in some lean cruising for gas mileage but it doesn’t let me really do anything because it’s always in closed loop unless it kicks into pe.
Hellwig make the largest solid swaybar you can get for this model.
Solid doesn't necessarily make it better. It also adds unsprung weight to the vehicle.
1-3/8 is a common upgrade size for this model.
Progress Group and Belltech both sell a 1-3/8 bar.
Hotchkiss Sold a 1-7/16 bar at one time. It's since been discontinued. It has the highest spring rate per square inch of any bar that I have been able to find and have tested for the GMT800
I think in HP Tuners to do lean cruise, you have to set it up so that you are cruising in open loop. Then you will melt your cats, according to the scuttlebutt.
I think if it were rwd with a t56 I could get allot closer to 5k.
long term goal is to t56 swap it and convert it to rwd. I still need to do allot more research before I start gathering parts but I’ve always been worried about the 4l65e trans giving me issues when driving the truck hard. That and I think a 6 speed Escalade would just be really cool 😎.
Originally Posted by adriver
You should make sure the t-56 is what you really want. This is a heavy vehicle for that, and I wouldn't expect to ever tow anything. Just making sure you know about the NV4500 (5spd that came in the 1500HDs, and 2500 behind the 6.0). The ZF-6 (6 spd that came in the 2500 and 1 tons behind the 6.0, 8.3 and the 6.6 diesel, and is rated to tow I think its 13 tons). The tr6060 is another one. The first two both came in this model behind that engine you have, and both have granny gears.
If you end up going the "t56" route, make sure you get the T56 Magnum for your build, its gonna be able to handle the 450 range plus the weight of the vehicle. The key to making the T56 survive behind a lot of weight is a great clutch with good road manners and the right t56 magnum gear set and rear gear ratio. If i were building a heavy rig like that one, I'd get the t56 magnum setup for an fbody and the 2.97 gear set and a minimum of a 4.88 in the back. with those big heavy wheels and overall weight of the SUV, you'll need some get up and go, with that combined gear set/rear ratio you'll be able to get that pig moving easy.
As far as towing goes, I'm not gonna say you cant tow but you'll have to be selective about what you tow. I towed my G8 a couple hundred miles with my 2004 GMC Sierra RCSB (standard 2002 camaro t56 built by texasdrivetrainperformance.com), it tipped the scales at around 4800 pounds (car and trailer) and it did great, but I never used 6th gear and wasnt hauling *** (maybe 80mph at the most)....I have the 2.66 gear set and 4.56 rear. that's just my experience with it, others have had better and worse luck, just don't cheap out with the parts.
It sounds like the nv4500 or zf-6 will be a better match for the trucks weight. This truck does tow quite a bit, nothing too heavy and I always drive like a grandpa when towing because I like my fuel economy. I think I may be in a bit over my head and still have allot of research to do. For the time being I’m gonna swap the new wheels over once they are refinished and weigh them vs my current wheel setup and then start looking for sway bars for the truck.
That would be sweet. I definitely enjoy kind of odd ball projects. I like to have stuff not allot of other people do. Here’s one of my projects and I’m ecstatic on how the car feels and functions. The car is a 2000 Honda Insight, definitely one of the goofier looking cars that was made, I bought it to use as a commuter because I was driving the Escalade allot to do mobile tuning. When it had the original 3 cylinder in it with the hybrid system bypassed (bought it with a bad hybrid battery) I was able to pull 80mpg on round trip long freeway drives. The car currently scales at 1750lbs and has a naturally aspirated d16/d17 stroker engine I built in my living room. It made 152whp and 130ftlbs on a dyno jet that I tune on that tends to read fairly low. The car should do mid to low 13 sec quart mile passes and still gets 32mpg in town and just under 40 on the freeway. I mostly built it to auto cross it. It will 3 wheel on hard low speed corners and definitely surprises people. If I get bored with it I could build a rod and piston d16/d17 stroker turbo motor that could easily make 350whp and 300 ftlbs of torque on pump gas and probably get better fuel economy too. I wanted to keep the power in the car useable and right now it’s a really good balance of that. The car is all aluminum and still retains pretty much everything a daily driver should have, electric power steering, power windows, a decent stereo with a 8” sub in a tube, full exhaust system with cat and still has front and rear impact bars. Its the most go kart feeling Honda I’ve ever owned/ built. My last Honda I built was a 441whp/303 tq on pump gas awd converted Crx.
I like the caddy! I actually wanted an Escalade before I got my Tahoe. As far as the manual trans goes all the other guys seem to have pointed you in the right direction. There aren't many successful T56 trucks that I know of and the main problem is weight which the SUVs obviously have even more of.
Both my RCSB and Tahoe have an NV4500 and I absolutely love it! I just towed an expedition about 60miles on a 22foot trailer for a buddy with my LQ4/NV4500 Tahoe and it towed awesome! The gear ratios of the NV4500 are awesome for all around daily driving and towing.
On my RCSB I've got around 35k miles on the NV4500 most of which where with the Supercharged 4.8 and I beat the metric ****Ton out of it everytime I drive it. The clutch still feels great and the trans shifts like a dream.
My point is I have no regrets about the NV4500s and if you want a clean and simple swap with nearly all OEM parts do the NV4500 and save a ton of money over the T56.
11-03-2019, 03:07 PM
My 2004 lq9 6.0l Escalade daily driver build.
