I am back to TB ownership

[ksucatz]

Hello everyone.
We sold our 2003 2WD EXT in 2012. Recently I got bit by the bug for an off road capable daily driver and thought how much we loved that truck. I ended up finding an 08 4WD with only 51k miles and jumped at it. As of Saturday, I am back to TB ownership.

Originally I wanted the 5.3, but know that the 4200 Atlas is so smooth and has plenty of power for daily driving, although I will probably make some changes because that is who I am!!

I found this site when the bug hit to get some ideas of what can be done, and have made a small and growing list of mods:

Lift (either body/suspension or both) with 32" or 33" tires
Cat back exhaust
Kooks header and cat (this will be a little while, need to save up)
Cold air intake
Fabbed front and rear bumpers
Safari rack
Rock sliders instead of running boards


If anyone has any thoughts, opinions, recommendations; I would appreciate it.

[BC backroader]

Welcome, ksucatz, sounds like a solid platform to start from. The 4.2 doesn't gain a lot from intake and exhaust work, so you might want to put that money into re-gearing for the bigger tires, if you have the 3.42 gearset, which is the most common in our trucks. If you lucked out and have the 3.73 or 4.10 gears, you get to save that money, too. Looking forward to your progress with the new toy.

[rScherzer]

I noticed a little better performance with the ECM flashed and the cat gutted. I would take that over spending a ton of money on the intake and header. Plus the stock intake works pretty good for keeping all the water/snow/dust/bugs/ and small children out of the engine. If I was going to invest in a header I would take the next step and put a turbo on it as well. Mark Mc has a 3" suspension lift that is really good and the price is cheap. Like BC Backroader has mentioned about gears. Check your RPO/SPID label in the glove box. your looking for G80 that is the locking rear diff, and GT5 is 4.10 gears. I believe GU ot GT4 is 3.73. There is a thread on here that breaks down all the RPO's for the gear sets.
Your going to need spacers if you want to run that big of a tire with those wheels or you can get adapters and change the lug pattern to a more common 6x5.5 That makes it so much easier to pick a wheel combination that will work.

[KingBird]

GU6 is 3.42
GT4 is 3.73
And as previously mentioned
GT5 is 4.10

[HawkeyeC25]

Nice looking rig! Looks like you have solid plans! I agree with these guys on the spending money in the right place... headers, cats, and full exhaust will cost you about the same as a new set of gears and probably a locker. Which will get you a lot farther as far as putting power to the ground. Keep us posted on what you have to work with!

[TBYODA]

Also the other thing you got to understand is about the kook headers is they only add to the power band on the top end of the curve near WOT not really were a off road needs it. Save your $$ and spend it on a axle from 06+ EXT, SWB 5.3L 8.6" ring gear or 06+ SS axle 9.5" ring gear.

[ksucatz]

Thanks everyone for your feedback so far. I will wait/pass on the cold air kits and header for now...but still might go for a cat back just for sound. Just got to go though all the videos of the different systems and see what I like the best. I would like a low grumble (as much as possible with the 4.2)

Looks like I need to hit the local salvage yards and see if I can find some gear sets/axles. I got the misfortune of the GU6. Probably will add a trans cooler to my list of mods now too though. I might not go as aggressive on this round of tires, baby step it. Maybe something in the 30.5 - 31" range and a little wider and aggressive than what on her now.

I have lots more reading to do to see if I want to do suspension or body lift first. Also need to do a search on tuning as rScherzer mentioned and see what I can do there.

I am always tinkering with stuff, so I am sure this will grow....I must apologize now to my wife!