(Another) Forest Living Suburban Build Thread

[Burb One]

I think you are talking about the 6l80e (the new 6 speed trans). The 4l80e has a higher first gear than the 4l60e. The 80e ratios are 2.48, 1.68, 1, 0.75.

Atomic is correct, the 4l80e has higher first gear than the 4l60e. The 6l80e is also way larger and the interface apparantly takes some work to get it talking with the older nbs engines. There is a company that sells kits for the 6l80e to fit and also all the wiring/computer but if I remember the kit (not including the transmission) is 3k. They also sell all the stuff to get a 4l80e into the 4l60e space and I believe the kit was 1k not including transmission(or you can go junkyard shopping instead of the kit for mich cheaper) I'll look for the links

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[justcuz]

Absolutely right guys, I got a brain fart. 4L80E is the overdrive version of the 400 turbo. Duh, you think the 4 was the give away! 😁

Thanks for bringing me back on track!

My numbers work for the 6L80E.

 

[Martinjmpr]

If you have access to a money cannon there is at least one company that does Duramax diesel/6 speed Allison swaps into GMT-800 2500 'burbs. I think conversion prices start around $25k though. :Wow1:

 

[OR2BAJA]

A Duramax Suburban 2500 should have always been a factory option.

 

[Burb One]

A Duramax Suburban 2500 should have always been a factory option.

100% agreed.

Anyway, bought the atomic mounts, got them today, less than two days after ordering them!

First look, they are very well made. Good welds and powdercoating.

I plan on going to the scales early next week to get the truck weighed to pick the springs. Should have this installed in two weeks. I will post pictures of the install, and my thoughts after then.

 

[Martinjmpr]

100% agreed.

Anyway, bought the atomic mounts, got them today, less than two days after ordering them!

First look, they are very well made. Good welds and powdercoating.

I plan on going to the scales early next week to get the truck weighed to pick the springs. Should have this installed in two weeks. I will post pictures of the install, and my thoughts after then.

.
Yes, very interested to hear about this. Did you get the optional reinforcing mounts for the upper end of the coilovers?

 

[Burb One]

@martin yep I got the you reinforced looking to add install within the next week.

So while waiting for a pitman arm (moog problem solver HD) I decided to tackle my rear sleeping/storage platform. I think it came out pretty nice. It weighs less than 50 pounds and I can remove it single-handedly with nothing in it. While driving I like to have the option for the second row ti be free and clear because we go with 5 people sometimes, so there's a hinge on a portion of the platform that bends over where the fridge sits during transport and the fridge slides back from over the (40) seat. On the other side the forward section over the (60)seats is removal and the support is hinged so it goes flat so it's easily store in the space between the platform and the second row. The entire rear platform slides out for removal if I want to use the full storage space or put the third row seats back in. I also added a USB charger and a small red LED strip for nighttime lighting on the rear shelf. I put some thicker carpet pad between the carpet and the wood, but will probably still need a sleeping pad. The carpet is the cheap stuff from homedepot, actually made from recycled water bottes.

 

[Burb One]

Also now that I have the pitman arm, it's drivable and so I'm going to load it up/fuel it up to full spec and go corner weight it to pick the springs fir the coilovers! Hopefully will be on the new suspension next weekend

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[Burb One]

So this happened today........

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[Martinjmpr]

So this happened today........

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Is the torsion bar still connected or is that the driveshaft sticking out on the right?

 

[Burb One]

Those are the optional kicker braces from the lift kit, they sit about 2 inches lower than where the torsion bars were and provide more rigidity to the frame. The torsion bars are completely removed with the coilovers

I've got an alignment appointment later this week and will give driving impressions after then and take more pictures

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[rayra]

How long have these sort of conversions been around, in use? I'm curious to see how they hold up. They certainly look good.

 

[Burb One]

How long have these sort of conversions been around, in use? I'm curious to see how they hold up. They certainly look good.

That's the only downside, not very long.

I did p.m. a member on one of the other forums who has the lifted setup he said he's put 10K miles on his setup woth a bunch of offroad use with no problems except for a blown shock from the Eibach.

It looks like there's a lot of lowered trucks that do this with this kit and I can't find any problems on the forums, and some of them have some heavy use (drag).

What sold me was looking at how the nnbs shocks attach to the frame, because my worry was the load of the truck going into the frame there, there's no additional bracing for the nnbs, other than the chassis side mount being wider. With the load transferring with the reenforced upper mount, I think it will be good in my opinion.

Guess we will see!

 

[Burb One]

Drove the truck today to make sure it was drive able to my alignment appointment later this week.

Wow.

Even with the grabby tendency due to the messed up camber (I also replaced the camber plates) I can already tell a huge difference in the truck's ability to soak up bumps. I didn't push too much but at 30mph, on a few gravel roads I could get to, the "cowl" shake indignant of torsion bar gmt800's is completely gone, in fact some of the bumps that bump the truck with the torsion bars, I didn't even feel.

Can't wait to get it aligned and really test it out!

ALSO, looking at it after install, I decided to not install the limit straps yet. Looking at it, the down travel is limited by the upper a arm hitting the stop and that is before the shock bottoms. It would be interesting to use the limit strap to limit the down travel even more so the cv angles doesn't get that bad, however I am where I was before in terms of down travel, and didn't have problems so I'm going to see if anything changes in that regard and reevalute.

I didn't like any of the options of the aftermarket bump stops, so I actually cut up the stock bump stops and installed them around the shock rod, should work nicely, if it ever even gets to that much travel...

Also lost abut 5 hp painting over the orange shocks... ignore the silver, that anti galling aluminum paste gets everywhere! The coils look great in black. With the wheels on it's refined, but you can still see them, I'm sure I'll get some comments from people who know about the torsion bars

 

[Martinjmpr]

So did you keep the same amount of lift that you had before? Would be interested in seeing any before/after side views to see how the lift looks.