My 1989 Suburban overland/expedition project

[RADAR12]

Love the sub. I did the 6.2 swap on my 90 and i am pleased with the results. I average 18-19 mpg with a combo of city and hwy driving . The swap is basically straight forward if you have a donor vehicle. The little things will wear you out but overall i am pleased. I have a banks turbo kit in the wings that will help out a lot on the power situation. If you need specifics on the swap let me know.

[Little Red]

is your coolant level low? Or does your oil look like chocolate milkshake? If not you could just be tossing a EGR code, which happens on older tbi engines.

Oil is very clean, and coolant level is normal. I did not notice it consuming any coolant either with I would expect if it is burning coolant. (It only has about 40k miles on the rebuilt engine). I am taking it to the shop this week and they will hook it up to their monitor so I will know for sure what’s wrong.

Either way I want to do a diesel swap at some point, as I can get almost twice as many miles per gallon that way. If I am driving it to Alaska next year, that would save me about $1400 in fuel on this trip alone.

However if it can wait I might save some money and buy a Cummins.
I looked around on craigslist and can buy a running 6.2L diesel truck for around $1000
I could use the engine and part out the truck and take the rest to the scrap and probably only be out about $400 to $500. If I where to buy a Cummins it would cost me at least $3000 plus cost for extra parts to make it all work. For that price I can buy a 6.2l diesel, lift kit, winch and winch bumper.

[rxm6]

I looked around on craigslist and can buy a running 6.2L diesel truck for around $1000 I could use the engine and part out the truck and take the rest to the scrap and probably only be out about $400 to $500.

If you go this route, I will help you part it out

[Little Red]

as I had mentioned before I have not had the time to do any more mods except that I installed 2 more off road lights on the roof rack.

Enjoy the pictures for now...




(yes this picture was taken in early July, we had a lot of late snow here, the summer did not reily start till the last week of July)

[mr250twostroke]

Where were those pics taken?

[roostercruiser]

Its looking real good now little red

[roostercruiser]

Ive got 4 100w kc daylights and a 150w center one. I like them but eventually I want to upgrade. How well do u like your lights? Because they look nice

[bldeagle10]

so is your rack just screwed/bolted through the roof? I know rain gutter mounts is the way to go on my cherokee, and could be used in the front of the burb but the back needs to be bolted through, looks like thats what you have done front and back.

[rxm6]

What mount are you using for your cb? Are you getting good rear range with that location?

[Little Red]

Where were those pics taken?

The pics where taken on different forest service roads off the MTN Loop Hwy near Granite Falls, WA.

Ive got 4 100w kc daylights and a 150w center one. I like them but eventually I want to upgrade. How well do u like your lights? Because they look nice

Thanks for the compliment but my lights are just cheap ones, 2 are pro-comp and the other 2 I bought at harbor freight for $14 each. They are not super bright but get the job done. I am eventually going to upgrade to some better lights.

so is your rack just screwed/bolted through the roof? I know rain gutter mounts is the way to go on my cherokee, and could be used in the front of the burb but the back needs to be bolted through, looks like thats what you have done front and back.

Yes the roof rack is bolted trough the roof. It is the only way to mount a full size roof rack on the suburban as it only has rain gutters on the front.
It is also a very heavy roof rack so I wanted it to be more secure. Now I can walk on it if I need to. It was a pita to drill all the holes and get it mounted but worth it.

What mount are you using for your cb? Are you getting good rear range with that location?

The mount I bought at Napa and I don’t remember the manufacturer.
It works good but I haven’t really used it much to be able to tell how well it performs long range. It would probably work better mounted to the roof rack as it would be higher up but than I would hit it on tree branches all the time and not be able to park it in my carport without bending the antenna.