Gerbil21's - 05 Envoy Build

[Gerbil21]

Did the rear speakers today, sound was improved once again!


Im going to do the dash speakers next

This is a great, cheap and easy upgrade that everyone should do,

The Bose subs with all their extra power sound amazing with both the sound deadaning and now the foam. They sound awesome and rattle the doors and seat pretty hard.

 

[Gerbil21]

Just a pic of how she sits now, looking good

 

[Gerbil21]

Forgot to take pics but I used the left over foam and made a surround for the dash speakers and the sound quality had increased once again, the whole car sounds very good, think about that sub now

 

[Gerbil21]

Well yesterday i went out and got more capacitors (100uf) I wired them in parallel with the bass blockers I had already which raises the capacitance. So with the use of a simple cap to frequency chart i have my high pass filter (bass blockers) setup like this:

-Bass blocker only
Rear- 5.25" 50uf 800hz
Dash- 3.25" 14uf 2.8khz

Now with the 100uf caps in parallel
5.25" 150uf 265hz
3.25" 114uf 348hz

The music is by far better since everything is overlapping nicely, I might go on and lower the cap on my dash speakers to raise the cutoff (probably to 450hz and I may raise the rears to get 200hz also might get better quality caps if I find a good price.

With those installed I was able to tweak the amp again and everything sounds Awesome and loud, I also tweaked the Bose subs and they kick pretty hard now, just need to chase down some door rattles.

I was also able to put the panels back on and it looked super nice and stock

Side note, there is no space for an amp on the driver's side quarter panel unless it's a small one (less than a sheet of paper)

I also got around to to change the amp turn on wire, I was using a tap-a-circuit with accesory power to turn it on, I now have it connected to the pink wire in the Bose harness which is the signal from the radio to turn on. So now it stays on with the radio when in rap power (20min after engine off.

I also had some noise with the radio off so I connected the Bose drain wire but it only helped a little bit, I'm sure my t tap, butt splices and ok-ish soldering, plus amps gain set to max and gain set to max on the loc does contribute lol

I also may get an inductor for the Bose to limit them to 400hz which should give a bit more fill vs the amps 300hz.

I was also thinking of getting some 9" Bose subs from another car, I just have to measure the door opening.

 

[Gerbil21]

OK well yesterday I picked up some capacitors and wired them in parallel with the bass blockers (overpriced capacitors) which raises the total capacitance, which lowers the cutoff frequency for the high pass filter it creates.

Before, only Bass blockers
3.5" dash - 14uf 2.8khz
5.25" rears - 50uf 800hz

Now with 100uf caps. In parallel
Dash - 114uf 348hz
Rear - 150uf 265hz

The sound is by far better before they sound OK but still kind of off and peaky. Of course now that I looked at the frequency cut off I can understand, they sound great now with a nice overlap with the Bose subs and they come together perfect, I also tweaked the amps settings again and have the Bose kicking strong, I just need to chase some door rattles.

I had moved the amp up slightly owhich allowed me to put all the panels back on making everything look nice and stock.

I also changed the amps turn on wire, I had it connected to an accessory fuse, now it's on the pink wire which is the radios turn on signal, so now it stays on with rap power and chimes work just like stock.

I also connected the drain wire in a effort to reduce a slight background noise I get when the radios off, but it only helped a bit, in shure it has more to do with the fact I have the amp and line out converter at full gain, butt connectors, t taps, scotch locks and my ok-ish soldering lol

I also need to measure the door openings to see what's the biggest speaker I can put in the front, I was thinking of getting a bose sub from another car, also looking at new rears, 6.5", 6.75" or 7" if they fit well and the rms matches my amp)

Also need to get a new hu soon, nothing wrong with the factory but upgrading is always good

 

[Gerbil21]

Did a oil change yesterday, last one was at 140,591 with magnatec, I'm now at 143,770 and within 3,179 miles I went through one quart, the oil was pretty dirty and had a gas smell, could just be the oil it has its own distinctive old machinery smell.

I used Valvoline maxlife synpower, hopefully the high mileage oil will help some.

 

[Gerbil21]

Well two days ago I repainted my grille, fixed my broken bumper support, sanded the headlights again, cleaned the air filter and the throttle body and sprayed all the sensor plugs clean.

All went well except for the last one, I sprayed the o2 sensor connector and apparently it dripped thought the pins and into the o2 sensor "breathing" space on the wires and clogged it up. So the o2 sensor has almost no response and because of that it idled at 1k rpm and was in open loop for my whole drive to nj, which got me 10.3mpg lol

I tried cleaning it out yesterday but I don't think it made much of a difference I'm going to try again today

 

[Gerbil21]

As for my last Post, the o2 is working fine and the truck runs the same as before.

Now for today's update: I went on and tuned the Bose subs again and have them to what I would say is there loudest without bottoming out and they sound pretty good at that spot which is a little less than max gain (probably around 80watts) with a bit of baas boost @45hz (around 6-8db)

I also noticed my driver side dash speaker wasn't moving as much as the pass. Side so I checked the crossover I made up and found this lol.


Either way, now both the dash speakers are working which is good but I need to change the cap and raise the cutoff to around 450hz which should help since it sound like the speakers are slightly bottoming out.

 

[Gerbil21]

Forgot to post the picture of the dash speakers foam

 

[Gerbil21]

Well yesterday I got a new bose sub from eBay, It was only $18 so I had to give it a try. The seller tested it with a pic showing 2.2 ohms but when I checked it I got what I expected 0.5 ohm. I need to go to radio shack tomorrow to pick up a 1 ohm 10w and a .5 ohm 5w resistor to get back to the amps 2 ohm rating and see how it does.

This sub is 10" mount to mount and 8.5" for the woofer, the stock bose I'm using now is around 6.5" woofer so this should be a nice improvement, I just need to make some custom mounts for them. Also the magnet is around twice the size so my 90watts that would bottom out the old ones should be nothing to this

 

[Gerbil21]

Finally got my hids installed in the fogs 5000k. Now I need to wait for tonight to see there real output and align them

Installing them was easy I just zip tied them on the bottom of the headlight mount panel

 

[dmanns67]

Finally got my hids installed in the fogs 5000k. Now I need to wait for tonight to see there real output and align them

Installing them was easy I just zip tied them on the bottom of the headlight mount panel

View attachment 74297 View attachment 74298 View attachment 74299

What kind of fogs light do you have that need alignment?

 

[Gerbil21]

What kind of fogs light do you have that need alignment?

It's the fog light housings that I needed to align, but everything was already at a good level, I still have to check at fog light height and 25ft away to be sure

https://drive.google.com/folder/d/0B9Weih8v_fPBMUZkbkpIOGNET2M/edit

 

[Gerbil21]

So i spent today moving the line out converters from next to the amp to in the middle of the dash, right under the radio to hopefully cut down on some noise i get when there's nothing playing but volumes at max and a slight hiss when radios off
I also moved it there to be a much easier connection for my electronic crossover im getting tomorrow which I'll be installing in the spot where On-Star used to be under the rear seat.


Also went on and ran a new 3.5mm Jack and wiring by tapping in to the wires right before they come into the radio to cutout the old wiring which was a jack by the radio down to the xm and then backup to the radio.

 

[Gerbil21]

So I've done a few things in the recent days, as posted above I moved the line out converters to the dash and with that I also tapped them straight from the radio therefore bypassing the rear audio controls. I also ran the 3.5mm aux wiring more directly to the radio which did seem to have a diffence instead of the loop of wiring I had before with the xm connection.

(The two gray wires running next to the harness are for the aux input)

I also went on and ran the RCA's and the sub control cable down through the center console which tucked away real nice.

I then brought those cables up through a slit I cut in the carpet, to the crossover.

From there I have the RCA's running to the amp next to the power wires which has given me some alternator noise but I knew that and is only temporary. Until I lift the rear carpet and run the RCA's diffently.

As for the crossover I mounted it in the same spot the On-Star box was using the original plate it sat on to screw down to, because of its size its a 75% fit since only one 3 of 4 will be able to fit. (Note: you must predrill the holes, this metal is strong and broke one of the screws I tried to use.) I was still able to use one screw on each side top and bottom which holds it perfectly fine with no movement.)

Being that the crossover has a line driver it is much better then just the output of the line out converters and should of always been used. So far I have adjusted the crossovers output and the amps sensitivity by ear and am running it low and safe for now until I finish building the oscilloscope kit that I'm working on to set the outputs correctly and prevent clipping.

Even with the newfound power i can't go to far with the dash speakers since they are coaxial and will top out on the tweeter if pushed to far, but I already have new speakers in mind for replacement at the four corners from a few brands including fatialpro, prvaudio and Dayton audio ranging from 4" for the dash, 6.5" for the rear and maybe some 8" for the front doors if I get a sub.

 

[Gerbil21]

Alright well this past week I've had a few things done, I put in new lower control arms and tie ods and changed the water pump.

The control arms were definitely in need of replacement with the small lca bushings squished and deformed and some of the big LCA bushings were cracked. The strut yoke was a definite problem being that it holds the whole strut in place, it was loose, cracked and broken, it also spun and moved in and out definitely not good . The ball joint boots looked good but it moved like a rubber band.

The tie rods were also "rubberbandey"

here is a link with all the pics i took when replacing the arms.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9ycz0jkkkewgt29/AABqsD0kDygsJgh2kUUbo2rga?dl=0

thankfully the alignment shop was down the block, it was hard to drive like this, looking like a ricer lol

this was the final alignment specs

 

[Gerbil21]

the waterpump was a bit of a pain but the only real hard parts were the mains ones, removing the fan clutch from the water pump and removing the shroud.

i didn't get much pictures of everything but in this one you can see the strap i used, the end loop that is stripped with no rubber cover is what i used on a bolt i loosened on the water pump pulley to hook onto, after that it was just some trick wrapping on the alternator bracket and removing the nut with a pipe wrench since the autozone loaner tool was slightly too big and would slip off.

i did have trouble getting the shroud off but it was more of it just getting stuck on everything, there are a few points where it attaches too, it has pegs on the bottom, rubber flaps on the sides, two 10mm bolts on top, an electrical connector for the fan, trans. lines, and its molded on the side to hug the radiator which makes it slightly tighter. All of these are things to watch out for but what really messed me up was forgetting to remove the clutch bolts to have room to actually remove it, after this it came right out.

once i got the shroud out i noticed the reason i always had a fluttering sound when the engine was revved, i thought it was the rubber flaps that were loose and letting the shroud move but i wasnt even close.

as you can see in the pic the retards who replaced the clutch somehow installed it wrong and it cut straight through the lower shroud and cut a notch in the fan blades.

idk how that made such a difference but its a whole new car now, it accelerates so smoothly with little effort and its quiet and shifts smoother and quicker and mpg increase a good bit too, so far so good im extremely happy

 

[Gerbil21]

Since I can't leave things alone I went back to the speaker wiring and changed things up again, now I have the front RCA's left and right cables split to the front and rear channels of the crossover allowing me to set different crossover frequency's for each. Also added some 90 degree RCA connectors to stop the rub and bend of the cable on the rear cubby box.

Also went on and got two rolls of the roof flashing tape (this stuff: http://m.homedepot.com/p/USEAL-USA-...H=RV-_-rv_mobileweb_rr-6-_-NA-_-202086180-_-N) to deaden the door panels. Took both of the rolls to do 2 layers on each panel, it has reduced road noise a bit but that's not really it's job it did however do its job on reducing panel resonance (otherwise know as vibrations) put double layers on the inside of the map holder door pocket aswell.
Overall it worked out great there are almost no rattles except for my window switches and bass sounds clearer and more direct rather then muddy, the panels used to shake alot now it's so good, next up is getting some ccf (closed cell foam) to actually sound deaden the car