Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Thanks! Yeah it's a mystery to me why GM would have put them in such a narrow band of trucks. This one was a bare-bones one... manual shift transfer case and vinyl floor mat....and 5.3 HO!

No internal mods planned, resisting any urges to call Brian Tooley Racing! Going for MPG with this one, so all stock. That's also why I didn't go 6.0 and 4L80 too, thought that was also hard to do!

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Nothing wrong w/stock for better efficiency.

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Good find, that would be a nice motor to have! Looks like you went "nuts" on the broken exhaust bolts.

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Some more updates. From the beginning I knew I wanted a low mount AC compressor. I wanted as much "standard" stuff on this as possible, because I plan to drive it a lot. For that reason I didn't want a super long, difficult to find serpentine belt. I had to carve up the original compressor bracket to clear the Hooker motor mounts, but I got that done.

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

I did deviate from the original plan slightly and ditched the TBSS manifolds for some Speed Engineering headers after reading countless positive reviews on them. The littlest approves of them!

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Then it was time to round up some helpers and get started! Before I tore it apart I knew the AC had a leak, so I wanted to locate that so I would know if that part that leaked was getting replaced or not. Found it, crack in the condenser, that was getting pitched anyway!

Once we had the engine out the evidence of the oil leaks it had would need to be dealt with. Degreaser and a power wash only made it laugh, so out came the cheap paint thinner and old t-shirts, and after much scrubbing the crossmember, frame, and bottom of the floor were presentable.

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

And in with the new(er)! Fits really well, as I'd expect from a motor that is physically smaller than the one that came out... What I didn't expect is how well the 2005 stuff meshes with the 1986. The fan is nearly centered in the shroud with just a little of the blades sticking out, the hoses work, the intake ducting will work, but may need a little shaving on the bottom side and plastic welding it back up to clear the shroud. If I could lower the shroud a little it may work, but that doesn't look so easy to do.

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Fuel system is next. I know a lot of people drop in an 87 tank and a Walbro pump, but that doesn't address my returnless fuel rail and I have never wanted to run an expensive fuel filter....those parts should not be expensive anyway... I went a similar route to what I did when I put the 6.0 in my Jeep and used a 2005 express van fuel module, it was the correct height for the tank and is internally regulated. Phillipm filled in the missing details for me and there you go, new fuel setup! Pump is a delphi FG0402, should be reliable.

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Looks like your lower control arm took a good hit on the drivers side

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Yes it did, the perils of being low! I have a replacement that will go in it as I finish things up.

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Nice work. Where did you get the ring you welded to the tank to make the module a drop in, and the lock ring for it too?

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Thanks! The ring I got on eBay, but now Holley makes and sells them too in plain steel, stainless steel, or aluminum. The lock ring is just standard GM part TR26.

I like this method (like I mentioned I did similar with my Jeep 6.0 swap) because it matches what GM did in 2005 and all the "wear" parts are stock replacement stuff.

Fuel filter I then run is a WIX 33484 with a cheap little bracket to hold it. Push lock fittings on both ends make for easy replacement.

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

More progress. Since I had the passenger fender off, it was an opportune time to work on a significant dent that impacted both the inner and outer layer of the fender. I started off in the press to get some of it out, then I cut out inner structure so I could get access to the outer skin. I was careful to not cause **too** much damage to the paint as I worked the dent out. It isn't perfect by any stretch, but it is so much better than it was and I can put my trim back on, so I'll run it! Welded the inner skin back in and bolted it up.

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

I also noticed that inside the cowl the seam sealer was all dried up and cracked, and would surely let water in if left unattended. I chiseled it all out with a gasket scraper and a screwdriver, and put new in.

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Most of the rest of what I've been working on has been exhaust. This is my first time using stainless, so first time having to shield the back side. It is also my first time doing dual 2.5", all my other builds have single 3". It is also my first suburban, which makes for a VERY long exhaust system, x2! I still have to do the hump over the axle and make the hangars, but it's getting there.

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Other little side projects when I didn't feel like working on exhaust have been modifying the gas pedal, mounting the TAC, ECM, and carving up the stock battery tray to mount the airbox on it. All turned out pretty well.

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Nice truck

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Some good progress!

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

progress is looking good. What headers did you end up getting?

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Thanks!

Thanks!

Speed Engineering long tubes, 1 3/4". Just too many positive reviews on them to not try it...

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

I'm very curious if you still have this Suburban and how things are going on it and with the LS swap....

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Thanks for the interest! I guess I lost motivation to keep this updated since the process to upload pictures here is such a pain.

Update: The suburban has 7k miles on it since the swap. We took it on the Hot Rod Power Tour this June and took it from Iowa down to Memphis, then along to the gulf coast in Florida, Atlanta, and back home. Then in July we had it up in Wisconsin for a canoe trip and then northern Minnesota for Boy Scout Camp. I've made some upgrades and changes since I last updated this.

It was too low in the front and the control arms would hit the pavement. My solution to this was to go from 18" front wheels to 20" wheels, so I swapped in some US Mags Boulevard wheels. That got rid of any clearance I had with the inner fenders, so in with Slosh Tubz. That necessitated that I change everything that I had mounted to the inner fenders, so more modifications there. I got both front and rear AC working with a low-mount 2005 suburban compressor and T's in the refrigerant lines. Blows cold at 98* ambient! The power tour taught me that I was not happy with the very little caster these trucks have and how it drives with that. It wasn't terrible, but definitely not
"comfortable" for me. I went with the QA1 front suspension to solve that problem, and drove it for the first time this past weekend after that mod and I'm very happy with that. Between the 8* of caster I now have and the 1 3/8" sway bar it is solid in the turns. The adjustable rebound on the coil-overs is a noticeable difference for me too and I see myself doing quite a bit of experimenting with that. Also, I swapped out the front brakes for Kore3 C6 calipers and 14" rotors. That was more of a nice-to-have not need-to-have. They stop really well, and now I just need to find time to swap out the rear drums for the 13" rotors there.

So there, this suburban has proven to be a very reliable, very family-friendly way to go anywhere we want to. I achieved exactly what I set out to on this project and I'm very happy with it. Can't wait to pile up the miles on this setup!

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Nice report on the updates.

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Good to hear. Do you just load the pics straight from your computer or do you use a hosting website? I just go straight from my computer - not fast but not terrible.

Re: 86 Suburban daily driver
 

Glad to hear it is still going.