TEGGSRB18C1's 2000 Silverado Z71 revival thread

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Hey guys, just making this journal for myself and if anyone else cares. I just bought a house and quickly realized my need for a truck. My Dad has been retired for a few years now and offered me his 2000 Silverado Z71 that he has owned since day one back in 1999. He has a small car now so this has been sitting, unmoved for the past 2 years.

This truck has been a staple in my life, I've borrowed this thing so many times and worked on it with my Dad so many times. I jumped at the chance to own it. She's rough, 146K miles and every common issue known to the GMT800 community is here and accounted for.

It runs poorly. Throwing P0300 codes and stumbling on its face, especially when in gear. Brake line leaking right under the master cylinder, brake rotors completely rusted and pitted but it runs, it moves....very unhappily. It had to be towed to my house about an hour away.

The first few photos are from where it has sat for fast few years, the last few are post delivery and a quick garden hose single bucket wash. Work will start shortly as to why she has such a hard miss and cleaning things up a bit. Enjoy the rust and hit me with your best HOSS/BARB lines.

[King Nothing]

Honestly one of my favorite trucks. I look forward to the progress.

[Realist]

Always nice to have a pickup around the house. You may get asked to help some family and friends now, as that comes with the territory of ownership of one.

The good is parts are available for them everywhere. Any plans to stop the rust, slap on some fender flares and some wheel spacers for a tougher look?

Have fun!

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Originally Posted by King Nothing

Honestly one of my favorite trucks. I look forward to the progress.

I like these too. I learned to drive in my Dad's 1995 Silverado and I thought the GMT800 was a great successor.

Originally Posted by Realist

Always nice to have a pickup around the house. You may get asked to help some family and friends now, as that comes with the territory of ownership of one.

The good is parts are available for them everywhere. Any plans to stop the rust, slap on some fender flares and some wheel spacers for a tougher look?

Have fun!

Yeah, luckily in its current condition no one is asking too many questions about helping move or anything like that lol. But to remedy the situation with the appearance I may end up just replacing the bed.

I work for a body shop and I've seen a few of these come through and this thing is not so great. The replacement bedsides from GM are 1000+ per side PLUS it needs outer wheel house panels too...it's a lot. There's full rust free beds on marketplace for 1000-1600 that just need re sprayed. So I'll probably end up going that route. I have a BNIB tailgate already that has a small ding that we can fix in like 5 minutes along with some new emblems (photos soon).

In other ways of making this thing look a little better, I procured some new wheels as the OEM wheels are so corroded that none of them hold air. Those Goodyears are brand new so I'll swap them onto these wheels and run them till they're shot. I'd like to do a small lift (2-3") and then step up to 285/75 All Terrains for a tougher look.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Finally cleaned up the garage enough to get the truck in beside the Camaro. To be honest I'd rather have them flipped by logistics had other plans. This is where she'll reside until it runs on all 8, more on that later.

As I was pulling the truck into the garage I noticed the left daytime running light was out. I had a little time to mess around with it before a family party so I took the lights out and notice the bulb melted into the socket. Pretty wild, not sure what happened there but I'll have get another connector/pigtail and solder it in.

During disassembly the lower lights literally fell apart in my hands. These things are done. Perfect excuse to buy the headlights I've always liked on these trucks: late 90's/early 00's style fluted clear corners. I need to make some decisions on lighting, I'd like to do some LED's but I don't want to blind people and I don't want to overcomplicate a simple project with resistors/whatnot.

With that being said....I will be adding some fog lights via a BNIB (aftermarket) Tahoe Z71 lower valence and fog light kit I found on marketplace. I've really gone down a rabbit hole with funky little different OEM pieces that came on these trucks and its family. I've got some ideas with all OEM parts that I think will make this thing cool for minimal coin.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Tahoe Z71 valence and fog lights secured. Being that my truck is a 2000 I have to run an aftermarket harness and switch, otherwise the BCM would have to be reprogrammed and I don't want to go down that road.

I'll re use the upper black textured portion of the Silverado bumper, the chrome face bar and brackets will be replaced then I can put this on as well. Believe it or not the rear bumper is only a year or two old and is mint, Dad replaced it right before he retired.

The other piece I procured is a Tahoe Z71 emblem. You'll see some GM goofery in the photos below. There's a different Z71 decal on each side of the bed. Keep in mind this truck has never been wrecked, it rolled off the factory line this way. Regardless I dislike both, I think they're cartoony. This emblem looks a little more mature IMO.

Im going to run it on the tailgate where the CHEVROLET would be. Kind of like the Tahoes have on their liftgates, just flipped to the right side. I'll get another Silverado emblem and keep it in the same spot.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Started to dig into her a little bit, took the grille off as I'll be replacing it with a different version. The sight shield, VORTEC engine cover and other plastics were taken off, cleaned and stored in my basement for now.

I took the battery out to remove the washer bottle (more on that later) and discovered to no surprise that the battery tray and upright brace were pretty much shot as well as most of the hardware. I found a new GM brace, the tray is disco'd so I had to go Tong Yang on that.

Ill take them along with the little fender to radiator support brace into work next week, scotch brite them up and shoot them all with a uniform SEM black or equivalent. I also want to stop the rust under the tray as well, its not bad but now is the time. That photo is after extensive cleaning with simple green, this thing is grimey.

[Realist]

Doing it right. Keep it going and looking forward to when you get to the rust. I’m always so envious of those outside of the Midwest and salty areas. They don’t have to spent the time we have to just to get a bolt or nut off that has seen years of Midwest winters and salt.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Originally Posted by Realist

Doing it right. Keep it going and looking forward to when you get to the rust. I’m always so envious of those outside of the Midwest and salty areas. They don’t have to spent the time we have to just to get a bolt or nut off that has seen years of Midwest winters and salt.

One of the selling points of my particular Camaro was that although it was from here in PA, it had never seen salt nor rain for that matter. The difference of working on that and the general PA rust bucket is night and day. Its a pleasure, not a chore.

I got my tray and upright scuffed, primed and painted (poorly, I am the world's worst painter) but they're protected and should stand up till Im in the dirt. In another post I had mentioned that I ripped the washer tank out as well.

The low fluid level warning had been on for years even before my Dad stopped driving it. That stuff drives me crazy and I wasnt going to look at that warning message for the next 30 years. These level sensors go bad, it happens. Unfortunately GM discontinued these and the reviews on the aftermarket ones are spotty at best.

So, I sourced a known working one out of a 2005 Avalanche. I thought I was getting just the sensor but they sent the whole damn tank. Which was in much better shape than mine, but the pump and line were broken and brittle. What you see before you will be Frankensteined together from the best pieces of each bottle assembly.

I should be able to get that whole driver side front corner buttoned up soon. While I have the room, Ill be replacing this absolutely kicked power steering cooler with a BNIB GM replacement. Im taking off the week of Thanksgiving so I'd like to tear into this thing a little more.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Spent the evening with the truck and got a few things checked off the list. Power steering cooler installed and reservoir refilled. Ill bleed the system as soon as I have the battery back in. Left daytime running lamp socked wired in, shortly thereafter realized the right side socket is damaged too....have to get another socket and wire that in as well.

The rest of the time I spent cleaning years of crud and retaping split loom. All the factory electrical tape ends were crispy and unraveling from the loom. I painstakingly pulled off all the old tape, cleaned with simple green dilution then re-taped pretty much every electrical connection on the radiator support assembly. Then I cleaned the radiator support and headlight buckets up. If I hadn't mentioned before, this thing stinks. It smells like burnt oil, it stinks the whole garage up. So Im cleaning up everything I can to try and combat the smell.

Next up is getting the washer bottle back in, then the battery tray assembly. Im waiting on all new hardware, the M6 bolts and u nuts coming off the truck were shot. After that I want to focus on 2 things: the fuel system and electrical grounding.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Got the inner fender touched up, the paint my Dad had mixed up at the local paint store matches perfectly. Procured all new hardware for the replacement bracket, tray and washer bottle assembly, charged up the battery and put everything back together.

Today I replaced the fuel filter and associated o-rings. I also tracked down the fuel pump ground on the frame, then wire wheeled both the frame and the connector, dielectric greased it and replaced the corroded bolt.

After all that I primed the system, checked for leaks then fired her up. Interesting results: still misfires (not surprising) but the cylinders that are firing are much stronger. It wasnt stumbling as bad and seemed significantly happier about its existence. Progress!

[TEGGSRB18C1]

This is obviously jumping ahead of importance but this was a black Friday deal I couldn't pass on. I got this Skar 2 12" under seat setup and 1200.1 for $400 shipped.

As you can see in the background I like car audio and if left unchecked, I'd rip that backseat out and build a wall with 4 18's and blow the windshield out but this thing still needs to be a functioning truck and occasionally haul people.

Theres underneath boxes that hold 4 8's and I was really interested in that but some of them require seat modifications to make it work and they still stick out 2" past the seat bottom. So this is me settling but I think they should sound decent. Ill get some components on amplifier power for the doors.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

So, when I was changing the fuel filter the fuel that spilled out during the process was horrific smelling. It stank the whole garage up, God knows how long this has been stagnant in the tank, the worst part is that there was plenty of it, over a half tank.

Watched a few videos and got a plan together. I disconnected the incoming fuel line to the rail, purchased some heater hose, slipped it over the fuel line and routed it under the fender liner into the Camaro's fuel jug. I jumped the fuse block and the pump drained the tank. This stuff is so nasty, it burned my eyes. While I don't think this is my misfire culprit, its not helping.

After that I switched over to the intake side of things. I had noticed when I removed the intake elbow that the throttle body was absolutely disgusting. Again, this isn't helping. I removed the throttle body for cleaning, ended up cutting every hose going to it. They're crispy. I'm going to do the coolant bypass mod and probably get a cheapo catch can to help prevent that from happening again.

A few more rounds of parts, some more cleaning, fresh fuel and we'll try and fire her up again to see where we stand.