Twill

Dad just bought a used 2005 Silverado z71 4x4 5.3, gonna post in a different section the questions I have. but might as well kinda mention them here, so.

He's looking at getting a tune up done on it. It's a used truck and we don't have much information regarding the maintenance done on it and stuff. My question is what should we do to the truck to make it a reliable truck and in case some things haven't been kept up with.
Examples like coolant flush? pwr steering flush? brake flush? check the heads for carbon buildup/clean?

Basically I want to make the engine perform like new. When getting heavy on the gas it doesn't accelerate as much as my 03 ram 4.7. but when easy on the gas it's equal to if not better than my truck. I just expected better acceleration when I hit it.

Some problems with the truck that I've noticed:
1. Rear end roar (like the rear diff has a roaring noise when getting up to speed. Could be rear wheel bearings?
2. When I test drove it and put it in 4hi and 4lo. It had horrible clanking noise up front when turning the wheel and moving forward. Upon my buddy driving the truck to show him the noise, it didn't happen.
3. Now there's a knocking noise in the front end when driving, you can hear it going 3mph while standing outside the truck or 15 with your head out the window. (almost sounds like our golf cart, because there's a rock in the hub of our cart lol)
4. Dad said there was blue smoke upon startup but has since gone away. (could have been bad gas?)
5. lots of play in the steering.
and some more stuff but I don't have my notes with me right now.

Thanks for taking the time to read and help me out. New to the chevys, your future 17yr old Cyber Security specialist and Electrical/mechanical engineer.

Also I would like to gain as much info about our new truck as possible like the engine name (ya know those codes like LS1 which is what I believe the truck has).