ok guys. I finished the gibson/tci deep pan and trans-go shift kit, as well as the band adjustment. Here goes!

Gibson install.
Easy easy easy! Holy moly! I was impressed. Hardest part is tightening up some of the header bolts, but that isn't even that bad. Start by dousing all the bolts in penetrating oil, this made stuff easy easy to get off. Take off the factory bolts that bolt the Y pipe on the back of the factory manifolds. Keep the little tabs that hold the bolt from turning... you can use those on the new bolts and make life easier. The rest goes into the extra bolt pile.
Anyway, start on either side... driver's is a bit more cramped with the A/C and P/S in the way, so I tackled it first. Remove all the manifold bolts/nuts, and voila! Manifold slides right off. You can snake it out of the top of the engine. My truck didn't have any manifold gaskets, so I gave the mounting surface a little scrape to knock off the carbon, and a little scotch-brite pad to clean up the surface some. You will need to take out the rear factory stud as it will hit the pipe, but you can keep the front one in, and I recommend keeping it in to help hold the header, and gasket on during installation.
Slide the new header in, and get it close to where it will end up at. Put the gasket over the remaining stud, and put the header over that. Line up a header bolt with a hole, and tighten it to just under snug. Finally, tighten the header bolts from the inside out. You are done! Repeat the process on the other side. The passenger manifold/header fit between my FIPK tube and all the A/C and trans lines with a little "tetris-ing", but this would have been easier with the tube off.
Now, climb under and bolt up the factory Y-pipe, and you are done. Start it up and check for leaks. Truck feels stronger around 3K + RPM, and sounds way cooler. MPG updates soon.

TCI deep pan. Awesome awesome awesome! Take your pan off, chuck it in the trash, put the TCI pan on. Easy. You may as well tighten the trans bands while you have the pan off. Follow the instructions on this site. Easy as well... you just need a torx socket and an inch pound torque wrench.

The trans-go kit wasn't bad either. It's not for the faint of heart, and if you are less mechanically inclined, or scared to death of automatic transmissions, do yourself a favor, and pay someone to do this. It is a bit funky, as you are drilling holes in the seperator plate, and in your valve body. You have to be absoulely sure you use the sharpest drill bits available to avoid shooting aluminum slivers all into the various ports of the valve body. If it doesn't make a long curly cue ribbon of metal, the bit isn't sharp enough. Anyway, follow the instructions to the T, and you won't be disappointed. I used all the "service truck" settings, as it will provide a firmer (and therefore less slippage) shift, and I know my truck isn't exactly a show truck, so I'm fine with the shift firmness. The kit also makes your trans semi manual. In D, it will act as it always has, however, in 1 or 2, the truck will start, and stay in that gear until you either 1)blow up the engine or 2)move the shifter up one. This is cool for me, as sometimes 1st gear is a bit low in the icy winters. Starting in 2nd will keep the tires from spinning as much. COOL! I also installed a trans cooler at this time. I got the B&M supercooler. I have one on my racecar as well, and I like the design much better than the traditional tube and fin design. The B&M resists rocks going through the tubes too, so it's a win win.

Tomorrow is modified kegger intake and hughes stage II TB install, and, if I can find a shorter belt locally, the underdrive pulley set. Stay tuned!

oh... pics to come soon. It's like 9:30 now, and dark and I don't feel like looking at my truck for another second!

 

I would be very interested in pics of your trans pan. I'm looking to do that very soon, and the TCI pan is one of the choices I am looking into. Does it have a magnet? Place for temp guage? Drain plug?

Thanks.

 

Cool deal...it's a relief to hear the header install wasnt that difficult, i think i may talk myself into doing one soon. thanks for the detailed info.

 

Here's some pics of the TCI pan. It was missing one of the allen bolts, so I do have to go get one of those still, but you still get the idea. It does have a drain plug, and inside the drain plug there is a magnet, but there is not spot for a temp gauge (although the aluminum is really thick, so you could drill and tap one in pretty easily).

Also went out to get pics of the headers and found "gasp" a spark plug wire sitting on a tube. Time to get a new set I guess... if you do headers, make sure you have good wire seperators!

Stupid misfire!

The pics are in the top message.

 

I'm not seeing any pics.

 

dar! my power went out. sorry. I just got it back on. I'll get them posted tomorrow sometime sorry!

 

^^hahaha classic!

 

Hey, What are your reasons for choosing a tci deep pan rather than a B&M deep pan. And why didnt you get a shift improver kit rather than a trans go kit. Just wondering becuase i may be in the market next Thanks


BNB