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'03 Silverado

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    '03 Silverado

    Bought this truck last sunday and brought it home on friday. I paid $4300 for it which isn't bad for the year. Has rust starting in the rear wheel wells but other than that it's rust free. It's a V6 2wd truck with 136k miles. It's finally nice to have a DD with cruise control and working A/C.







    It's a base silverado with a rubber floor. It' needs a few things but nothing that doesn't keep me from driving it. It needs the resistors in the gauge cluster re-soldered cause the PRNDL is out, drivers door hinge bushings, maybe a steering wheel cause the old one is kinda beat up and tires. I was gonna buy my bosses '02 Avalanche but I saw this and checked it out and it was closer to my price range.


    '93 T-bird
    '03 Silverado ECSB

    Missed:
    '88 Mark VII
    '86 CV

    #2
    I like the color ! Take care of the rust right away.

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by Mainemantom View Post
      I like the color ! Take care of the rust right away.
      I'd defiantly do that, seeing as Buffalo likes to eat anything metal. Nice truck and color, I see you like your V6s
      __________________________________________________


      1985.03 Crown Vic. Coupe "CVGT" Build thread - china whirlybird, burnout machine.
      The only 6 speed box on a late model frame.

      Originally posted by SVT98t
      It has air ride. I've disabled it since I've been jacking it up and down.

      That is how you're supposed to jack it.

      Up and down.

      -ryan s.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Bobcat View Post
        I'd defiantly do that, seeing as Buffalo likes to eat anything metal. Nice truck and color, I see you like your V6s
        Thank you! I love the color. As soon as spring gets here I'm going to try and get at the rust. It's not rotted through like most of them around here so I shouldn't have to cut anything out. I'm just glad the rockers and cab corners aren't shot. I actually wanted a 4.8/5.3 4x4 truck but after test driving this and checking it out I had to have it. It was in too nice of condition to pass up. And it was in my price range.


        '93 T-bird
        '03 Silverado ECSB

        Missed:
        '88 Mark VII
        '86 CV

        Comment


          #5
          You don't need 4x4, just throw a True-Trac limited slip and you're golden. Besides, 5.3's are easy to find and pretty cheap, you could buy a low mileage one, slap a bigger cam in it (I'll have to research LS engines again, I know Ls heads generally flow a lot so you can add a cam by itself and gain power), and drop it in after the 4.3 starts to go bad. Or course that'll be a while, the 4.3 is slow in big trucks but runs forever, kinda good and bad, like my tired old 305.

          Also for more power, my friend installed the Dynomax Super Turbo exhaust on his 04 Blazer which was 2.5" all the way, and you could tell it made a bit more power. He got better mileage with it, and it sounded great for a V6, very mild and deep with no drone. You could throw one on with a turndown to save weight and really make a difference. If you do, get the offset in/out muffler, by design it flows a bit better than an offset/center muffler.
          Last edited by 88Vic; 01-07-2015, 08:02 PM.
          88 Town Car (wrecked, for sale)
          Walker OEM duals with muffler deletes

          Comment


            #6
            I may snag a nice dual exhaust off of craigslist. There's a guy in my area parting out a stupid clean '06 with a bad title. Not sure what I wanna do. I'm getting used to the quiet. But before I do anything I gotta get tires. I've got 300lbs of salt in the back and it's made a world of difference so far. Also having a 3.42 limited slip helps with the traction too.

            The 4.3 has grown on me. My last truck had one. I may do the TB mod to this one. Also being an '03 it's got the upgraded fuel injection in it. The truck is pretty much a hauler/shitty weather vehicle. From the spring to the fall I've got the t-bird and my motorcycle.

            I've got a couple little things I'd like to do to it. Definitely needs a new radio. The stock one is crap. I've been looking at swapping the gauge cluster cover with one from a caddy. I like the chrome rings around the gauges. Maybe an ultragauge or dash command depending on the radio I get.


            '93 T-bird
            '03 Silverado ECSB

            Missed:
            '88 Mark VII
            '86 CV

            Comment


              #7
              You mean the TBI mod where you mill down the TB surface? I can't think of any mods you can do to the SEFI engines besides a tune, which is the best bang for the buck on Vortec/LS engines, even stock. With an exhaust and tune it'll have the power of a bone stock 4.8 truck and it'll last forever. Soon as I fix the gaskets and tune-up my Suburban, it's getting a BlackBear tune.

              Also I'd suggest at least load range D tires, may only find load range E in stock size which is fine. I put regular P-metric tires in the rear of my Suburban while a couple tires were having small leaks fixed, and I could tell how the tires rolled onto the sidewalls in corners, so for hauling the extra tire stiffness helps, and you can air down to 50psi when not hauling for a more comfortable ride. I keep my Suburban at 70 since it's heavy, and air it to 80 when I'm hauling and it's cold.
              88 Town Car (wrecked, for sale)
              Walker OEM duals with muffler deletes

              Comment


                #8
                Yea. I've taken that stupid plate off on the other truck and filled the holes with rivets. It gave a slightly better throttle response. I think the v8's had them too. I haven't seen any tuners that do a 4.3. Then again I haven't really been looking. I haven't checked the psi in the tires yet but on the other truck I kept it around 40 psi. So far I haven't hauled more than 500 lbs. I did tow a '96 suzuki savage on a utility trailer with the other truck with no issues. I've never really put any thought into raising the tire pressure for towing/hauling only for the fact that it hasn't crossed my mind. As far as tires go I'm not sure if I'm gonna buy new or used. Depends on how money is next week. I'm almost down to the wear bars on the tires. I'd like to do it next week cause of the snow. If it wasn't snowing I'd wait till the end of the month when I got my bonuses from work.

                Once the snow and frigid temps are gone I'll get more pics.


                '93 T-bird
                '03 Silverado ECSB

                Missed:
                '88 Mark VII
                '86 CV

                Comment


                  #9
                  BlackBear Performance can tune the Vortec 4.3, either a simple mail-order tune or a scan cable tune.

                  Don't know if you're a member at www.fullsizechevy.com but they have a ton of info on these trucks, a few guys and threads on 4.3 trucks too. BlackBear is a site sponsor, I think they give members a discount, and they travel around and do in-person tunes for members at certain cities.
                  88 Town Car (wrecked, for sale)
                  Walker OEM duals with muffler deletes

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I've been on the site a couple times but nothing really in depth. I'll have to look into more threads. I was checking out the gmt 800 forum. I was a member on the gmt 400 forum but I like this forum way better. With the old truck I pretty much browsed and searched for what I needed there.


                    '93 T-bird
                    '03 Silverado ECSB

                    Missed:
                    '88 Mark VII
                    '86 CV

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Do you still have the 96 or did you sell it/trade in?
                      88 Town Car (wrecked, for sale)
                      Walker OEM duals with muffler deletes

                      Comment


                        #12
                        I sold it to one of my coworkers. He wanted an extra vehicle just in case anything happened to his dd.


                        '93 T-bird
                        '03 Silverado ECSB

                        Missed:
                        '88 Mark VII
                        '86 CV

                        Comment


                          #13
                          nice truck!
                          i would leave the 4300 alone, do the maintenance and enjoy for hundreds of thousands of miles.

                          1986 lincoln towncar signature series. 5.0 HO with thumper performance ported e7 heads, 1.7 roller rockers, warm air intake, 65mm throttle body, 1/2" intake spacer, ported intakes, 3.73 rear with trac lock, 98-02 front brake conversion, 92-97 rear disc conversion, 1" rear swaybar, 1 3/16" front swaybar, 16" wheels and tires, loud ass stereo system, badass cb, best time to date 15.94 at 87 mph. lots of mods in the works 221.8 rwhp 278 rwt
                          2006 Lincoln Town Car Signature. Stock for now
                          1989 Ford F-250 4x4 much much more to come, sefi converted so far.
                          1986 Toyota pickup with LSC wheels and 225/60/16 tires.
                          2008 Hyundai Elantra future Revcon toad
                          1987 TriBurner and 1986 Alaska stokers keeping me warm. (and some pesky oil heat)

                          please be patient, rebuilding an empire!

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Lincolnmania View Post
                            nice truck!
                            i would leave the 4300 alone, do the maintenance and enjoy for hundreds of thousands of miles.
                            Thank you! I don't plan on doing anything other than the TB mod. I did it on the last truck and enjoyed it.

                            Once this cold shitty wether breaks I'll get more pics. Been way too cold here.


                            '93 T-bird
                            '03 Silverado ECSB

                            Missed:
                            '88 Mark VII
                            '86 CV

                            Comment


                              #15
                              I ordered a new tailgate handle and bezel thursday from rockauto. Should be here by wednesday. The old one is rusted up inside and I have to manually move the rods to get it to latch shut.

                              Saturday at work I had nothing better to do so I fixed the gear indicator problem.



                              The tool I made out of 1" angle aluminum to take the needles off


                              Back, front cover and needles off




                              Set of 7 resistors I reflowed solder into


                              The second one from the bottom left had a broken solder joint. I went to reflow solder and it came right off.

                              The solder station I used


                              Here it is complete. This was taken before I had to reset the needles a few times. Mostly it was the 4 small ones that I had to keep fixing.



                              It took longer to reset the needles than it did to do the whole job. The stepper motors are real sensitive. Just grabbing the needle to hold it to take it off so it didn't go flying made the readings off.

                              I'm pretty happy with it. Either next week or the week after I'm going to order the escalade cover for the gauges. It's got nice chrome rings around the gauges. I don't care too much for the esky cluster itself. I also don't feel like paying a dealer to set the mileage on it and I don't have a need for the DIC in those clusters. Especially if I plan to get the appradio or the ultragauge. Haven't decided on either of those.


                              '93 T-bird
                              '03 Silverado ECSB

                              Missed:
                              '88 Mark VII
                              '86 CV

                              Comment

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