See How Truck Tech Built a 2002 GMC Sierra Old School Style

Remember the popular rides from your youth? Depending on what was in your high school parking lot, maybe you’d rather not. PowerNation's Truck Tech wanted to build a truck OG style. Maybe a set of 33 inch tall tires, a mild lift, and a chrome roll bar in the bed topped with a bunch of KC HiLites Daylighters with the yellow smiley face covers. They picked up a four-wheel drive 2002 GMC Sierra 1500 extended cab on the cheap and got to work.

Watch the transformation on PowerNation TV and learn about the parts used below.

Suspension and Brakes
With 258,000 miles on the clock, the Sierra’s suspension was due for a rebuild. Truck Tech rebuilt the worn-out front suspension with all-new replacement parts. We included Mevotech Supreme upper and lower control arms, Cardone CV axles, and Timken wheel hub assemblies in our parts list.

Truck Tech gave the truck some attitude with a two inch front end leveling kit, one inch tall rear lift blocks, and new shocks. Our parts list includes a MaxTrac Suspension Leveling Kit and lift blocks, plus a set of Summit Racing Truck Shocks. The MaxTrac leveling kit replaces the factory torsion bar keys with new keys that let you adjust the ride height from one to three inches. The Summit Truck Shocks are a twin-tube hydraulic design with multi-stage valving for a smooth ride on- or off-road.

The Sierra’s brakes were also due for replacement. Truck Tech used EBC BSD Series rotors and Orangestuff Extra-Duty pads. The slotted rotors are made with high levels of carbon and silicone to prevent fade under high braking loads and temperatures, plus a black coating to prevent corrosion. The Extra-Duty pads provide excellent stopping power thanks to the non-metallic, carbon granule friction material that is also easy on rotors. It’s the longest-lasting pad material EBC offers.

Performance Parts
Truck Tech gave the Sierra’s 5.3L LS V8 some more oomph with a few bolt-on parts. The Banks Power-Ram cold air intake places the filter in an enclosed box that takes in air from under the front fender. This design forces fresh, dense cold air into the engine and keeps hot engine compartment air out. You’ll notice the improvement in throttle response and acceleration.

Truck Tech built an exhaust system using Pacesetter full-length headers and a Flowmaster American Thunder exhaust system. Full-length headers improve low- and midrange power production, right where a street-driven truck can use it. The American Thunder cat-back exhaust features mandrel-bend tubing for better flow and a Super 40 series muffler for a more ‘rorty’ exhaust note. Truck Tech made a custom merge pipe to connect the headers to the exhaust system’s single midpipe.

Truck Tech had a custom tune loaded into an SCT Power Flash X4 programmer to compensate for the larger BFGoodrich tires. tires The X4 can hold up to 10 custom tunes and has diagnostic monitoring function. It also has pre-loaded tunes for use on a stock, unmodified truck. A set of MSD 8.5mm Super Conductor ignition wires and Iridium spark plugs round out the engine modifications.

To take advantage of the new horsepower, Truck Tech replaced the factory Gov-Lock differential in the Sierra’s 8.6 inch rear axle with a Summit Racing positraction differential. The clutch-style differential has a nodular iron case and forged internal parts, making it stronger than the ‘Gov-Bomb’ unit, which tends to fall apart when it gets older or has to handle larger amounts of power.

Appearance Parts Combo
Truck Tech bolted on a Go Rhino Bed Bar, a Go Rhino light bar, and four KC HiLites Gravity LED Daylighter lights. The Gravity LED Daylighters feature KC's patented Gravity Reflective Diode system that combines a 4,208 lumen LED, and optimized reflectors that maximizes light output while allowing precise beam pattern shaping.

The Sierra sits on 305-70R16 tires mounted on polished ION Alloy eight-hole aluminum wheels. Our parts list includes BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 tires. The tires have side biter lugs, serrated shoulder blocks, and locking 3-D sipes for excellent traction in sand, mud, or snow, but are nice and quiet on the highway. LT had to do some minor trimming on the bottom rear of the fenders and remove about one inch from the back of the front valance and bumper to clear the new rubber.

Since the bed of any pickup with 258,000 miles on it is well beat—and the Sierra's bed was—we included a Summit Racing Urethane Bedliner Kit in our parts list to bring your truck’s bed back to life. The spray-on coating is a durable urethane that's easy to use, and provides a textured, satin finish that makes your bed look good. We even include the applicator gun.

CHECK OUT THE PARTS LIST FOR TRUCK TECH'S OLD SCHOOL 2002 GMC SIERRA