Bought a CC Dually 454 Whipple

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frito-bandito

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I'd do it again, I just didn't have the time or vehicular redundancy being 1100 miles from home.
I know this is an old post, but I referenced it so I can get the part number. I'm gonna try your method of leaving it bolted to the firewall since I have 3 other vehicles I can drive if I screw it up lol. I only thought about this when I had to stop and buy ATF for my power steering pump.
 

Supercharged111

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I know this is an old post, but I referenced it so I can get the part number. I'm gonna try your method of leaving it bolted to the firewall since I have 3 other vehicles I can drive if I screw it up lol. I only thought about this when I had to stop and buy ATF for my power steering pump.

Did you ever get around to this? My method would have worked perfectly if I didn't tear the new seal on install. I suspect I didn't lube it all up well enough.

And for an update, today I set out to install the new Arteb headlights and squeeze in a bigger trans cooler since I had the grille off. What really transpired was just the opposite. Let's start with the headlights. The new is definitely shinier than the old.

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The flanges were warped, which I was aware of.

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Caused both sides to float the same way.

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With that, I zapped in the 4th fastener on both sides and fit the grill.

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Yeah no.
 

Supercharged111

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My grill sucks as it barely fits around the stock lights, but it absolutely will not wrap around these lights. They sit farther out than the stockers by 1/8".

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That clip is really not helping matters either, but the lights aren't entirely to blame.

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My grill also sucks something fierce. It was installed eons ago with extreme ignorance and this seems to be the result. That or it's a POS Chineseum replacement. Sure looks sharp if I could get it to work.

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This pic makes a nice segue to the trans cooler which was happening in conjunction with the lights. Check out how the new one fills the grill and see here how much bigger it is than what I removed.

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That's a 49% increase in height and a 40% increase in frontal area. Back in March with just the camper in 30 degree air trans temps were 180. 180 is good, but what have they been in the dead of summer with another 10,000# hooked up to the hitch? I think ignorance is bliss, but this isn't too encouraging.

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Looking pretty dark for something that has, at most, 15k on it since the last purge. It smells varnished, but not burned. Maybe I should have sent another gallon through. No biggie as I ordered some bungs today, one of which will find its way to the trans pan for my trans temp gauge which means it'll get something like 2 fresh gallons. I've only seen the temp once and that was with the laptop.
 

Supercharged111

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This was a nice mess behind the original cooler I never knew was there, makes me wonder about the 1500 and I'm sure this wasn't helping trans temps.

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Here's a before/after.

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While install was fairly easy as I reused the stock lower mount, I had to trim the factory upper, flatten, and rebend to fit then drill for the core support. It came out great and looks factory as you can see. I really like that the added cooler area is right in the good airflow part of the grill. I also had to swap fittings between coolers. I pulled this thing from a 1500 TBI Suburban, I really can't fathom why it and its lines are so big but they were.

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So again, next step is a bung in the pan then get off my ass and get my 3 gauge pillar pod installed.
 

someotherguy

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So... if you swap the new housings over to your old mounting brackets, does that help?

Easiest way to tell OEM grille from Chinesium - if behind the emblem, the G M C letters are fully formed (in other words no extra material beyond the actual letters; the emblem covers the "backing" area completely), it's almost for sure OEM and you should see indications of part #'s, stamping time/date codes, etc. on the backside of the grille. The Chinesium ones sort of morph the G M C letters together a little bit as a solid block to avoid copyright claims.

Richard
 

Supercharged111

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So... if you swap the new housings over to your old mounting brackets, does that help?

Easiest way to tell OEM grille from Chinesium - if behind the emblem, the G M C letters are fully formed (in other words no extra material beyond the actual letters; the emblem covers the "backing" area completely), it's almost for sure OEM and you should see indications of part #'s, stamping time/date codes, etc. on the backside of the grille. The Chinesium ones sort of morph the G M C letters together a little bit as a solid block to avoid copyright claims.

Richard

Gonna hafta head back to the hangar to verify the grill, but it's always rode just under the core support and not over. I think the depression in the center, regardless of origin, definitely sucked the outside in.

I've been trying to get the lights apart from the mounts, but easier said than done. The last one without an adjuster is a real m'fer on both sets of lights.
 

someotherguy

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Gonna hafta head back to the hangar to verify the grill, but it's always rode just under the core support and not over. I think the depression in the center, regardless of origin, definitely sucked the outside in.

I've been trying to get the lights apart from the mounts, but easier said than done. The last one without an adjuster is a real m'fer on both sets of lights.
I just mean pull the two bolts sticking up and the whole housing w/adjusters comes off the rearmost (warped) portion of the bracket. No biggie. The same operation you would do to change high beam bulbs without pulling the grille.

Richard
 

Supercharged111

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Today I reattacked the lights. Cut a chunk out of the grill on both sides and it went right together.

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Now those blinker housings gotta go.

I also zapped a bung into the trans pan for a temp sensor.

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And a little JB Weld on the outside for insurance.

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