Looking for purchase advice regarding an older Suburban

[ljense8]

Ooh 91... My favorite year for them. I had a 91 K5, and since I got rid of it, I have never been able to get rid of the itch to buy another, preferably a Southern vehicle.

 

[justcuz]

3/4 ton axles and 3/4 rear springs can be easily installed in a 1/2 ton. You can even install an old Dana 60 up front.
Chassis on Suburbans seem to be the same in the 73 to 91 square bodies.

 

[bob91yj]

Not sure when it started/ended, but I know in '87 4wd was only available with a 350. I had a 2wd with a 454 in it...if only that thing had been 4wd it was the perfect incognito Baja vehicle.

 

[7echo]

I personally love tho old school `Burbs´as they are easy to work on and give lots of off road fun with solid axels. I have a 92 Yukon with a 6.5 turbo diesel. Runs great even with high mileage. No powerhouse unless you consider the crawl torque compared with a gasser, but what great mileage! I say go 3/4 ton and old school. You will love it and as you have already stated this will be a back up vehicle then you can go nuts doing mods that you and your family will love. Cheers, Chilli...:wings:

What sort of mileage does the 6.5 TD get you?

 

[rt66paul]

The "square bady" chevy trucks that are rated 3/4 ton are much tougher than the 6 lug 3/4 ton made in 88 or the big boys made in 92 up. The axles are real truck parts. The unit is heavier, but parts are easy to get, the axles and things last forever. The torsion bar suspension has been tried before and was not as strong. 50-62? maybe?
I really like the 67-72 model, but it is not as plush. Changing heads might be fine for the SBC, but if you buy a BB with TBI 91 -96?, be careful changing heads. Those had these peanut port heads, if you use other heads, you could be in for coolant leaks.
There is a way to use a more powerful fuel pump and larger rails maybe injectors, but you have to flash an ephrom and it might be better. The peanut heads with the 454 pull great, but it is very flat and just like a freight train. Do NOT try to make it a race car, that it will never be.

 

[chilliwak]

What sort of mileage does the 6.5 TD get you?

I get about 8 km, to a liter so to convert that you need to go 3.7 liters to a gallon and 1.6 km to a mile. Even when towing a car trailer with a full size Chevy pick-up with a ton of spare parts I still got about 7 km to the liter. Not bad for a motor with 400000 km on it!:wings:

 

[aardvarcus]

Edit- Nevermind my prior question, got the RPO codes from GM.

All,
This is slightly off topic, but I just got a 1994 K2500 6.5L Suburban, but the RPO sticker in the glove box is gone. If there is anyone who could run the vin and get me a RPO list, I would be grateful. Please reply if you can and I will PM you the VIN. Thanks. (Build thread will be forthcoming once I have a decent plan in place.)