2008 GMC Envoy Denali

n8in8or · Jul 10, 2019

Shifted gears a little tonight. After seeing more specs on the AEM valve I decided it was a suitable semi-temporary solution. I ordered it off Amazon and received it today. Here are some more detailed pictures of the piece.

I made a quick tee on my existing pipe and then mounted the valve. I didn’t have time to make a plug out of 3” exhaust pipe so I used a PVC plug.

And here it is installed. It should work.

n8in8or · Jul 10, 2019

Here are the instructions that came with the valve. Interesting the foam inside is considered a spring.

And here’s something interesting.....here’s a pic of the edge of the top horizontal piece when I removed it.

And here is the top of the vertical piece.

See the rust? Does that mean water got that high in the pipe? Was it just some slight water vapor or was it a column of water? Galvanizing better on the horizontal pipe than the vertical one? I don’t know the answer, but thought it was interesting.

And then I saw this online today and thought it was funny......

n8in8or · Jul 10, 2019

Today I picked up some polyethylene drops from the local metal and plastic supplier. These are a lot thicker than the jug I tried using last night. I’m going to cut the jug out, clean everything really well and then give it another go with some thicker stock and see if I have some better results.

n8in8or · Jul 10, 2019

Will L. said:
I panic from low mounted air intakes. When I was the Mac tools guy going to different shops and dealerships, I saw it all the time where people did major damage because of splashing a puddle too hard or crossing a bit of water.

Being into off roading, and the road flooding that used to be common place in Vegas, I always thought it was only from people crossing water that was deeper than the height of the air intake. Not so! Most of the people cross 6” to 8” of water but the enough of a splash gets to the intake.

So my preference is a high intake. And I also don’t understand why so many of the cold air intakes don’t correct the level air is pulling from. Your driving on asphalt which is sending a lot more heat upwards. Go out and place a thermometer at 18” off the asphalt, then move it to 40” off the asphalt. The farther off the ground, the colder it is. Also better for fine dirt and dust up higher, so cleaner colder air.

On the valve, I am confused also. Like it is a bladder that collapses and blocks airflow maybe?

You are plenty good enough fabricator to create something to bring in cold, clean air from somewhere better than the factory planned it out. I don’t think a vertical snorkel like hummer/hmmwv uses is the best answer, but I would be tempted to do something near the top of the hood line. Any cowl induction that looks good maybe?

So this was interesting today.... I sat for about 5 minutes in the truck with it idling while I made a phone call. This was after driving for 15 minutes and it was 88 degrees outside. When I took off it seemed a little doggier than it has been. I didn’t have my scanner hooked up at that moment, but I did have it with me so I plugged it in at the next light. The IAT was 111 if I recall correctly. I drove for about 5 minutes in city traffic and the temp kept ticking down. I think it was around 104 when I parked. I was in the building getting the plastic scraps for about 15 minutes. Then I drove another 5 minutes to get back to work. By the time I parked it was down to 94. So yes, it will get hot when sitting, but once moving it starts cooling down again. This was the first time I had noticed that high of a temperature relative to ambient, but I had stop monitoring after a while. I’m also not sure I had idled that long on asphalt that long after driving. Just thought I’d share some honest facts with you......you aren’t crazy.

FellowTraveler · Jul 11, 2019

I see there maybe more room for another unit if you use a cobra head to that intake up/down pipe.

n8in8or · Jul 19, 2019

Finally got the reservoir welded up so it doesn’t leak. I started cutting some of that thick stock to fit and it was a pain so I changed plans again. I said screw and just ordered some 12x12 pieces of 1/8” thick PE off of Amazon and some white filler rod. This worked SOOOO much better for me. Unfortunately 12” wasn’t enough to make the tube in one piece, but it worked in the end. I did learn that it would have worked best to make the tube and then weld it in place, but again, it still worked in the end. I had the best results by preheating the weld area with my heat gun on the highest setting and then doing the weld with the iron. Some parts even fused a little with just the heat gun. I did have a couple small leaks when I first finished that I had to go back and fix, but eventually it ended up leak free.

I’m curious, for you guys with plastic welding experience, see how some of the plastic turned amber? Is that indicative of anything? Does that mean I got it too hot? Is it just stained from my welding iron? Nothing to be worried about? Just wondering.

I’m interested to do more plastic welding in the future. I can see making custom coolant, washer and WMI reservoirs with it. I think I could make much cleaner welds if I did 2 straight pieces welded in a miter joint rather than trying to do a filet weld on an irregular contour.

ak diesel driver · Jul 19, 2019

It's just from the heat. Don't know how you'd go about maintaining the perfect temperature.

here's the instructions off mine.

ak diesel driver · Jul 19, 2019

Here is an air box on a motorcycle I'm fixing up. Welded it up today. There was a hole that I had to fill in. I actually used a rattle can lid for my filler material.

n8in8or · Jul 20, 2019

ak diesel driver said:
It's just from the heat. Don't know how you'd go about maintaining the perfect temperature.View attachment 57627here's the instructions off mine.

Here are the instructions to mine.

Mine is a different design from yours.....it’s more of a soldering iron design.

n8in8or · Jul 20, 2019

Here are some pics of the tube. It’s hard to see in a pic, but the edges at the seam sag in almost 1/4”. I wasn’t able to make them flat before adding the patch so I had to make a patch that was curved on the edges to match. That’s why I said earlier that it would have been better to make the tube first and then weld it into the tank, but I didn’t have a form of the correct size to do that so I did it this way.

n8in8or · Jul 20, 2019

There. Now I can once again clean the windshield, hatch and headlights. It still holds over 1.5 gallons even with the Tunnel.

n8in8or · Jul 21, 2019

Today one of the things I got done was the rear axle. I installed new pinion and axle shaft seals and got the diff reassembled. It’s now ready for installation. My rear suspension parts order got screwed up so I didn’t have what I needed to do the swap this weekend. I should have them this week and then the swap will happen next weekend.

smokymtn65 · Jul 22, 2019

X2 just over heat, If your going to do very much you need a SEELEY . they have a few different tips. And if I recall when we did PE we also used nitrogen (Seeley is a hot air type welder) Looks good the people washers .... i mean headlight washers, work great for calming my road rage.. LOL

n8in8or · Jul 22, 2019

Thanks, I'll look into the Seeley unit.

n8in8or · Jul 24, 2019

Axle swap has begun. I got all the old stuff out tonight after work. There’s still a lot of stuff on the frame and in the way. I’m not sure how much cleaning and painting I’m going to do....I can’t be tearing this thing all apart like I did with the Tahoe. I have Friday off, so I’ll be evaluating and cleaning that day. Saturday will be any painting I do and then Sunday will be reassembly. So far I’m on track.

Will L. · Jul 25, 2019

Just part way through your first build, it was quick to see you build things the RIGHT WAY. So it is nice to see each of your projects getting great attention and upgrades.

But I’ll be honest, I have a bias against this build. Not that there is anything wrong with the rig and surely nothing wrong with how you’re doing it. Just that this build is stealing time away from my favorite Tahoe...haha

n8in8or · Jul 25, 2019

Will L. said:
Just part way through your first build, it was quick to see you build things the RIGHT WAY. So it is nice to see each of your projects getting great attention and upgrades.

But I’ll be honest, I have a bias against this build. Not that there is anything wrong with the rig and surely nothing wrong with how you’re doing it. Just that this build is stealing time away from my favorite Tahoe...haha

I hear you and have the same internal wrestling match. Somedays I wonder what the hell I'm doing with this thing.....or rather WHY am I doing this??? It's neat and fun, but not anymore neat and fun than the Tahoe. I would have been so much further along with the Tahoe if I had invested the time and money in it rather than the Envoy.

Oh, and thank you for the compliment!

n8in8or · Jul 27, 2019

It’s been a busy couple days working on the Envoy.

I took the day off work yesterday to make sure I had plenty of time to be able to get the project done this weekend. I started the day rolling under the truck to figure out my plan of attack. I decided I should start pulling the harness out of a couple spots so I could better wire wheel. Well once I got it out of those spots there wasn’t much left for the rest of it so I just yanked the whole harness out of the back. Then I looked at the vapor canister and the hoses attached to it.....so I yanked that. And then - it sure would be nice if the exhaust was out....so off came that. Then I was looking at how crusty the combination rear bumper/trailer hitch was.... I was going to tackle that as a later project all its own, but hey, I’m here now, so off that came too!! In the end I had a good pile of parts and very little in the way of me wire wheeling the frame.

I took the bumper to a local place that lets you rent their sandblaster cabinet, so it was fully prepped for paint.

By the end of the day the back of the truck was all prepped for paint, which included the KBS Klean and Rust Blast processes done.

n8in8or · Jul 27, 2019

Today was paint. When I started this morning I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get done. That bumper has a lot of nooks and crannies and took a lot of time and paint on its own just to get that painted. I was wishing I had ordered more paint, especially since I had cleaned and prepped more metal than I initially planned on. I rationed my paint well for the first coat of paint so I felt confident I would have enough to finish the job. I wanted to paint the whole underside of the floor with Rust Seal but I had 2 things working against me - 1. I didn’t have enough paint to do all of that surface area and 2. There were too many places where the frame got in the way of me brushing the paint onto the floor. I reasoned that just getting ANY paint on the floor was better than doing nothing so I got some black Rustoleum spray bombs to coat where I couldn’t get KBS. I did first coat areas of the floor where it was rusty (like spot weld seams) with the KBS an then the clean areas got the Rustoleum....mostly just so it was one uniform color underneath. The frame and bumper got 2 coats of Rust Seal and then anything that could get exposed to UV got a coat of their Black Top paint. The conditions outside today were warmer and more humid than their recommended range, so the paint didn’t flow out as well as it could have, but that’s fine....it’s not a show truck. I also had some drips that I missed that disappointed me. Overall though it turned out fine. Assembly is tomorrow.