1989 SUBURBAN V2500 PROJECT

[Todd McLaughlin]

Hello All, Going to try this again. This is the second thread for my project. Purchased this Suburban back in 2012 and have been working on it for about 2 years now. Time to show the work.
It's a V2500 Suburban (TBI 350) (TH 400) Stock Height, Stock Suspension. Purchased for 2k in western Washington State. Drove it to Northern Montana and inspected the damage.



The Suburban was in over all good shape, drove very well but had the typical Chevy paint and rust issues.

 

[Todd McLaughlin]

First was to attack the rust and clean up the outside, and do a quick grille repair.

 

[Todd McLaughlin]

Got about 1 year of use out of the old TBI 350, found a crack in the drivers side intake manifold and the flex plate was damaged, about 6 teeth were worn down. So off to the shop for the engine swap.

Found an old 454 on craigs according to the owner it was pulled from a boat, not sure about that.

 

[superbuickguy]

tasty BBC

you can keep your EFI with the BBC, you simply have to change the throttle body to the larger, bbc tbi.... it's all plug and play (no computer change needed). With that said, if there's been a cam change - you'll be enjoying a carburated motor (and 7 mpg)... granted, with the EFI, you'll squeek 13 occasionally, but live at 11 mostly.

 

[Todd McLaughlin]

Thanks for the reply superbuickguy, Your right about the gas milage and yes this is a carbureted motor lol if i was worried about gas mileage I would have bought a toyota with a 4 cyl. The suburban has been completely stripped of all the old electrical including the TBI and the computer. I'll be continuing the posts with all the updates soon.

 

[superbuickguy]

I drive a C3 corvette that gets worse mileage... I appreciate the tree huggers - they save more gas for me

 

[Todd McLaughlin]

Ouch a C3 Vett I would think is fuel injected and it gets worse than a old carbed 454 in a 8000 lb suburban. I agree with you about the tree huggers, there are just too many of them driving. lol.

 

[underdrive]

if i was worried about gas mileage I would have bought a toyota with a 4 cyl.

IMHO that's the wrong kind of thinking when you're building an expo vehicle tho, after all there's only so much fuel you can haul and there aren't very many fuel stations out in the middle of the wilderness. This is however the right kind of thinking for a heavy-haul truck, if she's pushing the CDL limits pulling a McMansion on wheels on the interstate fuel economy isn't as important as power output.

Out of curiosity, why the 2nd thread for the same truck? What happened to the first thread, last time I remember it was past 8 pages...

 

[Todd McLaughlin]

Back to the Build. Time for the NV4500, automatic pedal to clutch pedal swap and the hydro brake boost.

 

[Todd McLaughlin]

Hi again Underdrive, yes your right about the fuel problems off road, we are all subject to those issues. The 454 that im using at this time is probably not going to last very long with out a good rebuild. Looking to the future for a possible upgrade, Cummins, Fuel injected, not sure where that is going to lead this rig. I do pull a lot. The last thread kind of exploded on me, most of the pictures were not uploading, and I just felt like I had excluded a great deal of information. So this was my easiest fix. Hopefully with Larry's and your great information I will make some good decisions and build an expo worthy rig.

 

[Todd McLaughlin]

After I got the Seats and Carpet removed, I dropped the column and the old pedal set.

 

[underdrive]

Your pictures in the last thread never really were an issue for us, go figure. No matter, back to business at hand, are you going to hydroboost this thing? It's a direct bolt-in swap in place of the vacuum-assist brakes, major items you'll need are the hydroboost unit (preferably one out of a DRW 1-ton with a big block, but one from a diesel anything will work as well), a master cylinder to match (the one for a 3/4-ton diesel Suburban should work good, unless you're going D60 front and 14-bolt rear in which case use the 1-ton big-block master), and the pressure lines from the PS pump to the hydro and from the hydro down to the steering box. Return line is just 3/8" low-pressure rubber hose, transmission oil cooler (TOC) hose by the foot from the parts store works just fine. Ideally you want the PS pump reservoir with the two return ports, but it's not a big deal if you just T-ee the returns from the hydro and the steering box together. One important detail I remember seeing mentioned (IIRC by Larry) is that you may need to relocate the pin for the booster's pushrod further up on the brake pedal, we never did this to our last boxy GM and it still worked fine, but it is something to look into just for the sake of keeping things inline as they were designed to work.

 

[Larry]

Looks like you've been up to a lot a hard work on her Todd! Can't wait to see her progress

 

[Todd McLaughlin]

Thanks Larry, allways good to hear from one of best on the forum.

 

[Todd McLaughlin]

Well Underdrive this post is for you.