Project �Polar Bear�: 1989 V2500 Suburban

[Larry]

I have the week off from work and the wife is out of town visiting her parents so I�ve been busy playing with shop projects.
Today it was the Suburban�s turn for attention. It has needed a clutch from the day I brought it home and I decided to pull the engine instead of pulling the tcase and trans as I wanted to give the engine a good cleaning, reseal, clean up wiring, etc. Also installing an ORD steering box brace while the engine is out as it is so much easier to install with the engine out of the way.





The engine and engine bay all steam cleaned up by late afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised to find how clean the inside of the engine was once I popped the intake off. Since the engine was coming out I figured I�d might as well throw on fresh intake gaskets. Glad I did, as I found an external coolant leak by cyl #8


I should have the flywheel back from the machine shop tomorrow and can start going back together once the paint dries.

[EricM]

wow, you have a lot of Iron in your garage!

[xpndbl3]

That's quite the tall garage doors and large shop. I'm insanely jealous!

[dieselfuel]

That's quite the tall garage doors and large shop. I'm insanely jealous!

that makes two of us.. my garage is 19' square with a 6'10" door height, useless...

[Larry]

Funny you two have brought that up as the 1000 square foot shop was quite the topic of controversy when we built the house in 2004. I almost forgot about the hassle to get that door and ceiling. I would have liked to gone taller for a hoist but a 9ft door with a 10 foot ceiling was the best variance we could get from the Committee of Architecture in our unincorporated area of Pueblo County. The builder did a great job of hiding the shops size with the gable roof lines. Surprisingly, the Phoenix camper top can actually pop up inside the shop if I park the truck in between the lights and still have room for the Silverado HD and a little �93 Chevy 1500 Sportside big block project I have going. The 3 car garage attached to the house is around 700 sq ft with the typical short garage doors. Worthless garage for anything other than parking daily drivers. The Tahoe Z71 barely squeezes in there.

[LIVEanimals]

I cant wait to see how this burb turns out

[Larry]

Well, the rattle can rebuild is complete and the engine is almost ready to stab but I am struggling with some major seized exhaust manifold flange studs and the power steering pulley does not want to go back on. I�ve never fought a pulley like this one ever in my life! Errrr! I am going to pull out the hot wrench here in a minute to help with both of those problems.

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Now this front axle snubber is just a dumb idea. You can hardly get to the starter motor with this stupid thing in the way. I yanked it off and tossed it in the iron pile.


ORD steering box brace installed


Engine bay ready for install. New clutch fork, ball and release bearing. I didn�t paint the inner fenders as they will be replaced soon anyway. Same with the brake booster. It is going to be replaced with hydroboost.




You can see those rat bastid exhaust manifold studs in this picture. Errr


I wish I was putting this 8.1L back in the Sub instead of the TBI 5.7L during this teardown. Next time!


We�re all going snow wheeling tomorrow so nothing will get done with the Sub until maybe Sunday.

[1leglance]

Hey Larry I am really enjoying watching what you are up to with this rig..
I just wish I had the space & parts pile you do, very nice.

[poriggity]

Looking great so far Larry. Keep it up brother!
Scott

[BurbanAZ]

looking great, i wish my suburban fit in my garage lol