and the bellhousing question. pre 98 has the upper 2/3 of the bellhousing made to the rest of trans, with a stamped sheet metal dust sheild. ls style has a bolt on bell housing that is solid all the way around except for inspection holes.

 

Got my Beltec shackles/hangers installed last night. I plan to just de-crank my tortion bars and see how it looks before I swap keys. I will say that I'm not impressed with the hangers that Beltec sent me!! I will have some before and after pictures up tomorrow. I ran a pressure washer over the frame and shot a few coats of paint on.

 

The 4L60e switched to a removable bellhousing mid year in 97. The only difference in the bolt pattern is the 88-98 trans don't have the hole at the very top of the pattern and the 99-up do.
You can run a pre-99 4L60e behind a 4.8/5.3/6.0 by slotting the flex plate to match the converter and using the spacer on the crank. Early LQ4s with the long crank, won't need the spacer.

 

Here's a few before/after pictures of the rear of the truck. The frame of the truck is in exellent condition for 240k miles IMHO. Living in the south makes all the difference in the world! I ran a wire brush and shot a fresh coat on the biggest part of the frame.

Now for the hangers. The 2 bolt holes closest to the rear of the truck on both sides lined up just right on each new hanger. The one's one the front were off 3/4'' The bolt patterns were right. I had a welding/fab business for 10 years and the hangers were not very impressive!! I didn't have the proper equipment like I used to so I just improvised and drilled new holes for the front and they worked just fine.

Before

After

You can tell by looking at this picture how far off the holes in the front were.

 

For those who have asked what the 96+ ash tray mod was here's a picture. The one in the floor is what 95's came with.

 

Here it is. The first is a picture of what it looked like before I started working on it.

This one is with the 17'' wheels/tires

Here's the final picture with it lowered and some almost new 265/65/17 pull off's. It's still a tad higher in the front but I got it aligned and it drives and rides very smooth so I'll just leave it alone for awhile.

Here's the escalade gauges with LED's. Also done the whole interior with LED'S.

 

That ashtray is cool ... I like the gauges, I have a 6K tach in my 95 Tahoe, should have held out for the Escalade cluster.

 

Picked up the ashtray from a wrecked tahoe at my local junkyard for $10 I got lucky on the Escalade cluster and found it on another forum. I really would have liked the police cluster with the 130mph speedo but 120 will do

 

U never said which engine you ended up with or the size and place to find one...

 

I got a 6.0 LQ9 from an 05' truck.