2013 Escalade ESV mid-travel abomination

[Drew]

Hey guys, I wasn’t really sure which forum section to put this in but I have something a little different here with this one. Why is it different? Because it’s fucking dumb as shit.

Anyway I picked up this hot rod a couple years ago with 188k miles and some minor Escalade to John Deere rubbing damage.






Yanked the engine out of it then the rest of it sat out back in a fence row for a year (never actually had any intentions of putting it back together “right”).





Plans changed on another project, oh well, that ol Escalade isn’t in that bad of shape, I’m sure I could do something with it.

Quick redneck refresh on the 6.2, undoubtably it will now have a much shorter lifespan than if I just left it alone. Mission accomplished, moving on.




Why didn’t I delete the DOD/VVT shit while I was in there? Great question, but none of this shit makes any sense and it’s not about to start at any point for this project.

 

[Drew]

Stab the engine back in, order some of the finest reproduction parts the internet has to offer. New core support, radiator, trans cooler, AC condenser and we have a gorgeous running and driving caddy again.





Decided to put a chevy front clip on for a couple reasons. Well, mainly to run fiberglass for the mid travel that I inexplicably decided to purchase for it.

Got a Dirt King kit that keeps the stock shock bucket and uses a 2.5x8” coilover. 3.5” wider per side, the lowers are also tabbed for bypasses but I don’t think I could ever justify that with the limitations I’ll have with the rear suspension, the rear AC lines also live where the bypass shock tower would go.





Cut the frame horns and crossmember out and got started on a simple prerunnery bumper.

 

[Drew]

Building something off such a retarded platform presents some issues.



The Escalade ESV is full time AWD, I suspect this thing will eat up CVs like it’s fuckin cool. Probably will strap it an inch or two higher than what guys normally run on these kits and see where that gets me. If it turns into a big problem I don’t know what it’d take to swap a 4wd transfer case into it, probably not that simple but that’s what I get for being drunk and stupid.



After removing all the factory magneride shit, it throws a service suspension system code that limits the top speed to 80mph (seems kinda weird, they don’t go much faster than that but ok lol) Not the end of the world but apparently you can trick the system with resistors.



In regards to the rear suspension, really have no idea what direction I’m going at this point, I think it could be possible to squeeze a 3.0x10” bypass shock back there with longer coils, a taller fabricated shock mount and possible slight massaging of the floor with sledgehammer. I’d prefer to not cut the floor up on this one for now but who knows I’ll probably get sauced and do it anyway or something.

 

[Drew]

A couple more thoughts I had going forward.



I’ve never tried to mount my own fiberglass before so that’s bound to be a complete disaster. The inner fender structure I’m sure is still tweaked up, the core support took some massaging to get in.


It’s sitting on 33” toyo m/t’s and some kind of 18” fuel wheels right now because that’s what I had laying around the shop. I’d really like to run 37s on it but it might realistically be 35” max on this one.

 

[othersidemetalworks]

This is cool as fuck. Purchases while sauced can go either way, sometimes they lead to distaster, sometimes to greatness. Glad to see this is the latter!

 

[Drew]

Had a skid plate cut for the front bumper, got the tabs squared away then got some paint on it.







Now I’m waiting on fiberglass for the front, in the meantime I need make a decision on the rear suspension and get started back there.