So it's now been 5 months of driving this beloved beast around and we have put nearly 8000 miles on it. It's driven to the park with the kids and dogs, doctors appointments, friends houses, grocery trips, to work and even made a 2 week jaunt across the country from Kansas to Washington state with stops at Casper Mountain, Yellowstone and Grand Teton along the way. Our trip was most certainly trouble free but, it wasn't because we just hopped in our nearly 20yr and 230,000mile old rig and punched it. After getting this monstrosity home it was clear there was work to do.
One of the first steps we took with our new battleship after recording all the maintenance it needed was to simply start ordering parts and trying to plug her leaks like the wounded beast she was. We're going to cover a ton of small parts and bits and bobbles, we'll put links to where we found them at the end. Some are local parts store chains, ebay, summit etc and some are direct from our site. (Yea we actually stock some of the parts we used, silly gooses)
Engine Oil Cooler Block Off - With our factory engine oil cooler leaking and really providing no benefit to us, we made use of an ICT Billet block off plate PN551621 which is widely available all over the internet of things. Less than $20 later we had one of the oil leaks nipped in the bud. This billet piece comes with install hardware and an o-ring, really simple and it's a cheap long term fix.
Cost: $17.99
Transmission Oil Cooler Lines and Cooler
Next on our list was to address the leaking transmission cooler lines. We sourced these from Summit Racing ACDelco 15773661 and ACDelco 15809053. When we removed the transmission cooler lines from the factory transcooler, we sheared off part of the transcooler that had become SUPER brittle, so naturally that was replaced as well. We used a Hayden Rapid Cool 677 Transmission Cooler. The massive size difference between the OEM and the aftermarket transcooler was immediately evident. The mounting bracket took a small amount of DIY due to the size difference between them but some massaging and we made it work. Cost to replace the transcooler lines and upgrade the transcooler VERY reasonable.
Cost:$115.97
Transmission Pan Gasket
This next part of our journey to stop the bleeding for Lagertha is truly unimpressive. We called Dons Transmission shop in Junction City, KS. He replaced the transmission fluid, pan gasket (which was leaking) and changed the filter and even snuck is in on very short notice.
Cost: $163.64 (local tax included)
AC Service Since it become quite hot in Kansas this year, we decided to stop living like farm animals and have our AC system inspected and serviced. Our local GM dealer pulled vacuum and recharged our dual AC system for just over a Benjamin. It's been working great since with no sign of leaks.
Cost: $119.43 (local tax included)
Exhaust Leak (REALLY REALLY fixed it) The last big leak that we fixed was an exhaust leak. Doesn't sound like a big deal right? Well, the reason the exhaust was leaking is because the passenger side manifold only had 2 of the original factory exhaust bolts remaining, the rest were snapped off in the head. After looking at the driver side, our worst fears had been realized. It had a grand total of 3 of the factory exhaust bolts with the remainder snapped off in the head. It was at this time I did some quick math and decided that rather than contemplating ruining my own life trying to get all these exhaust bolts out, I would just go the smart route. What's the smart route? Obviously order remanufactured heads and send these 317's off to be someone else's problem. Ain't NOBODY got time for that many snapped off bolts. Off to ebay we went for a set of Remanufactured 317 heads for $530 shipped. BBK Shorty Truck Headers for $550, these headers are crucial because they bolt up to the factory Denali exhaust system. ARP Header bolts for another $40 made sure we had the exhaust locked down. Before putting the new heads back onto the block we installed new head gaskets and used ARP headbolts for another $150 of good measure. After buttoning everything back up we threw in some new NGK TR6 plugs to tune of $20. This was by the biggest job and the most expensive portion outside of buying the truck in the first place. This solved a HUGE exhaust leak with a constant tick even when warm and has freed up another 10-15hp in a nice stock appearing package. Looking at how nasty the stock heads are, it's really no wonder the truck feels so much more responsive with the fresh reman heads, headers and plugs in. For good measure we also cleaned up the intake manifold while it was removed, there was a ton of oil sludge in there. Assuming we used up the entire jug of coolant on the shelf to top her back off it was a pretty successful event.
Cost: $1300 (Did all labor on jackstands at home no lift)
Air Intake/Engine Cover After putting the truck back together and having addressed the exhaust situation, we decided to give a little love to the intake side of things. We dialed up a Banks Power Cold Air Intake to handle incoming air and provide filtration. It's a nice clean OEM plus look and doesn't have cracked rubber couplers and a missing filter minder like the stock unit, so that's a win. We also decided to clean up the entire look by acquiring a complete Vortec 6000 engine cover set. Totally not needed but it makes us feel better.
Cost: $579
With nearly all the leaks patched up and some good long term power/efficiency mods completed we wrap up this round of stopping the leaks on Project: Lagertha. Full parts number and cost break down for each job below. Oh but wait, you probably wanted the entire total for this portion and the running project total right? That's a fair point. Start expecting updates every 2 weeks on Thiccums Thursday for Project: Lagertha. Purchase price of 2004 Yukon XL $5500
+ Stopping the leaks and moving some air
$2296.03 Project Total $7796.03
- Engine Oil Cooler Block Off ICT Billet Plate PN551621 $17.99 https://www.ictbillet.com/oil-port-adapter-cooler-delete-block-off-plate-ls1-ls-lsx-gasket-pan.html
- Transmission Oil Cooler Lines + Cooler ACDelco Transcooler Line 15773661 $25.99 https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ado-15773661
ACDelco Transcooler Line 15809053 $30.99
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ado-15809053
Hayden Rapid Cool 677 Transmission Cooler $58.99 https://www.summitracing.com/parts/hda-677 -Transmission Pan Gasket/Filter/Fluids $163.64 (varies)
Dons Transmission Service 1224 N Washington St, Junction City, KS 66441 (785) 762-2209
- Exhaust Leak + Heads + Headers + ARP Hardware + Plugs
Remanufactured LS Heads $530
The Cylinder Head Shop on Ebay
BBK Shorty Tuned Truck Headers BBK40060 $549.99 https://www.overland-industries.com/product-page/bbk-gm-6-0-truck-short-tuned-1-3-4-headers-99-13-gm-truck-suv ARP GEN3 LS Header Bolt Kit 134-1202 $37.74 https://www.overland-industries.com/product-page/arp-sbc-geniii-ls-3-8-flange-12pt-header-bolt-kit ARP GEN3 LS Head Bolt Kit 134-3610 $151.31 https://www.overland-industries.com/product-page/arp-gen-iii-ls-series-head-bolt-kit - Air Intake + Engine Covers
Banks Power Ram-Air Intake GBE41801 $429 https://www.overland-industries.com/product-page/banks-power-ram-air-intake-system-1999-2008-gm-4-8-5-3-6-0