The time has come where I’ve listed my 2005 Tahoe Z71 locally. This past Sunday I took a bunch of nice pics at Chestnut Ridge Park here in Orchard Park, NY.
The old girl started life down in North Carolina and probably had a transmission in 2014. In 2016 she went through the auction house and came up to NY to a small dealer in Niagara Falls, NY with 173k on the clock. Dad bought her for Mom and she had quite a few years of service, never being much of a bother considering how hard Mom is on cars. Brakes, bearings, tires.
In 2017 with the LONG OCIs Mom always put the little 5.3 through, she was ready for another motor and got a 4.8. She soldiered on another 4 years up to 285k when Mom bought her 2018 Tahoe in 2021. She sat in the driveway for a year and no one did much with her. Slowly rusting the bumpers and sitting dead. Alone with no one caring.
2022 rolled around and I needed some wheels after lemon lawing that junk Ford PowerBoost. I took it in and did all the essentials. Brakes, brake lines, calipers, fuel pump, fuel lines, water pump, plugs/wires, etc. Threw on a new set of tires and hit the road. I couldn’t believe how much of a sweetheart she was. Ran good and drove good.
Availability of new cars stunk so I bought it off my parents. It was on the borderline condition of “it’s a beater don’t do much to it” and “it’s clean enough to refresh”. So I refreshed it.
Throughout 2022 it got a whole new interior, intense cleaning, some new rear quarters, new bumpers and powder coated wheels. The frame and body were still exceptional and it got a super heavy dose of undercoating oil. Woolwax… it had always been oiled.
Then 2023 came and I found the 4.8 too ungodly slow. So out came the little van motor and a larger van motor went in. She got a cammed 6.0 LQ4 which really put a little pep in her giddy up. Learned a lot of Gen III HPtuners tuning and had her dialed right in. Over time she had every Gen III truck motor, LR4 4.8, LM7 5.3 and LQ4 6.0.
Over time she got little upgrades… some Escalade 700w K5L cooling fans, oil cooler lines, plenty of fluid services, diffs, trans, coolant, bigger radiator. Plenty of oil changes. It got a lot of love and probably better maintenance than most would ever think for an old truck.
My intent on this post is just to share some thoughts, memories and some good pics. Not too bad of a looker for 330k and 8 NY winters. It is a little bittersweet, she’s a good truck and don’t got no quit in her yet. Hoping she’ll make the buyer as happy as I.
Here’s to you old girl!
