After 3 years and now at 40k I thought I would give a slight update on my Tahoe. After doing a bit more research, my idea of going TBI is stupid as both are flawed in their own ways, so I might as well do a 411 pcm swap once she's not my daily anymore. So I am better off looking for a gen 6 454 truck for power mods. It also gives me a chance to get rid of pass-lock as I don't know anyone on the west coast that does black box tuning yet. I also had some health problems and had to give up on driving a bit for most of 2019 and the beginning of this year so she sat a bit more too. It sucked when it came to driving again as once I gave her some TLC and got driving again, 3 of my lifters started sticking on cold starts. After trying to use engine cleaners to get rid of it, I spent about $400 on a set of Melling lifters and gaskets with help of my Midget engine builder to change them all. You really cant go wrong with the warranty on some of their parts. Engine was almost spotless in the inside when we took the intake manifold off, but when I opened a few lifters they were all caked with sludge. Ironically the original spider injector looked good too with no leak down still. I definitely think its from sitting most of its life, the lifters keep a small batch of oil in them and oil can oxidize, and then 2019 didn't help one bit. But other than the lifters, its just been small things like the brake light switch and dome light switch that really has given me trouble. Definitely have been getting better mileage and has more grunt now than in the past. Got 380 miles out of 25 gallons a few weeks ago on the highway, 15 mpg on the highway where before I would get 10! I also changed out my rear taillights finally as mine were far from gone. I got the TYC set I believe and the back side of the assembly sticks out too much for them to fit, so I took the back half off of the old pair and put them on the new ones and they fit way better in my case. I also transferred the covers/guards to keep the stock look, but one of them broke. I was able to fix them easily with epoxy, filler, sandpaper, and some plastic spray paint.
