Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

You might check out those 4 core aluminum with welded aluminum tanks made by Champion. I installed one if these in my Suburban and it has been good.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Nice score on the Hickey diff cover.

That or if you still have the original radiator, take it to the radiator shop and let them rework it.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

I have been going back and forth with Champion. The closest they get for my application is their cc1696. It is for a 94-00 c/k with a 454. It would need the hose connections changed out to 1 3/4" and a additional 1/4 npt bung on the pass side near the top.
Here is my old one.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

From what I've seen, these newer brass radiators are thinner in the tank areas than the old ones. I've replaced a few BBC trucks over to plastic tanked radiators and these guys have had better luck than the brass ones. You sure wouldn't think it would be that way but it is.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

I used a Champion MC716. Although not quite as wide as the original, it still worked fine.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Since I run a external oil cooler. I was looking at this as a possible option too. I got a guy that could add a fill neck and a few bungs for a coolant level sensor and a water temp gauge.
If course the trans cooler lines would have to switch sides too.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

I have been looking for over 10yrs. Not very hard. Just never came across one.
The dilemma now is to.
A. Leave it raw.
B. Paint it, maybe cast iron engine paint.
C. Clean it and clear coat it.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Bead blast it then clear coat it or have it PC'd clear is my vote.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Yep. Either one would be great.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

The more I clean it, the less patience I have for PC...
It is the route I want to go. It will be more resistant to the pressure washer and leaky fluids.
But...... I am going to put it on as is, and send it out for PC after I clean up the rear axle.


This thing is beautiful.

The bud I got it from had it on his K5 wheeler. He knew they are hard to come by, and even mentioned that he might have ended up ruining it. He put a small scrape on the bottom side. No big deal. In addition to cash, I tossed in a fresh bead blasted stock cover, a gallon of 80-90, and the gear oil resistant rtv.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

After much overthought. Wasted time. Many long and drawn out conversations with different manufactures of radiators. I went with a cheap lifetime radiator.

It came down to this. Cost/Warranty. I have spent over $800 in brass radiator replacements and repairs. I spent $400-500 for a brass unit to only fail just outside the warranty period. Now, a decent brass rad is $800. That's custom aluminum high dollar status. Not in the budjet for a truck I bought for $750, or my style.

I was just about to have a champion rad modified to the spec I need, but I was told it would void any warranty. Even if modded in house. That was going to be around $500

The lifetime unit is a plastic/aluminum unit. Fingers crossed.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

While I wait to fix my Burb.... I have been driving my wife's secondary truck. It is a 91 V1500 Burb. The tbi 350 has every bolt on mod, minus headers, and heads. 700r4 has a funky no engine braking in any gear issue, but other wise works great.

We only use this Burb a few times a yr. It sits alot. My wife decided she wanted to take the Burb to a b-day party for a friends 4 yr old. She wanted to to take a few friends and their kids. Full load. 8 bodies, full tank of fuel.

A few hours later she gets back and mentions that she took the steep mountain roads to our friends house and overheated the brakes 3 times and stopped to let them cool. She said it was smoking bad, but never lost brakes completely.
Scary.
Today the caliper started leaking and pulling. The truck has been converted to 8 lug outers in the front end with 1/2 calipers,1/2 ton master cylinder, 14bff.

I got a bunch of goodies today. Great price too.

Looks like since the kids got sick. No thanksgiving travels. I predict a Burb on jackstands tomorrow.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Has any have experience with Lubelocker diff covers and transmission pan gaskets? I love them. I for some reason am always breaking or doing fluid changes and I have yet to have a leak in any of the ones I have. I am going to install another on this 14bff cover.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

I got my Hickey cover on!
Looks great.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Looks great! Did you clear coat? It looks like it's still original finish.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

No. I was impatient. My powder coat guy is out of town and the other place that is local, does not have the best reveiw.

I have to do a gear ratio change. When I do that, I am going to have the whole housing powder coated black and the cover cleared.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Well everything has gone to hell, but I am slowly getting a handle of it all.
Kids have been sick with a fever and cough since Thanksgiving. This morning my wife called me as she got off her 12hr night shift, that her 00 3.4 4runner quit running on her way home.

We get it home, and inspected everything. Timing belt let loose. Thankfully it is not a interference motor. I guess I got something else to do now. Truck has 245k on it. I was told it was changed at 150k.




Any way. Back into the Burb repair. All of the options I wanted to go with were either too $$$ or I was going to void any warranty on modding one.

Lifetime warranty and the price was right.


I already regret it.
I got a spectre 850 unit
Aluminum and plastic.
I stood it up next to the old unit and it looked good. Until I went to install it.

The saddle mount area is slightly shorter and narrower. Rad was loose in the mounts.

Fitting for the coolant temp sensor was the wrong size. Same fitting was missing the o-ring and leaked. Went to reinstall the adapter and it broke off in rad fitting.

Oulet for heater core hose is very short. I am worried it might pop off.

Upper trans cooler line fitting is loose fitting and weaps through the threads of the inverted flare fitting.



But. It is back for now.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Ahh. That pic reminded me. The repair on the Wife's burb required a new wheel hub, and a spindle. What was left of the inner bearing came out in pieces. The race fell out and a new one was loose. I had a spare 8 lug 10 bolt front axle, so I tore into it for donor parts.

On another note. Has anyone upgraded a plastic 1/2 master cylinder to a metal 3/4 ton version? This unit is for a vacuum brake, same yr, but 3/4 ton. I needed a adapter to get the same line size, but it almost looks as if the plastic unit has a larger piston bore.

I was hoping to swap it in and get rid of the slow responsive and squishy brakes.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Just saw you're in Aptos. There's a shop in Watsonville my hot rod pals from Santa Cruz use for rads. Let me ask.
Orig Harrison rads are the best hands down.
Never give up a brass Harrison if you can avoid it.
Fix the tanks and get core rodded out
My 454 trucks hate anything but Harrison 4 core brass rads.

And I feel your pain...sick kid, sick wife, broken truck,
take it off, new crap part back on, broken again, back off, replacement crap back on, broken again....ugh...
PM me for your brake troubles. ;) Easier than you think

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Original was long gone. I had one I got from a parts truck but it was too rotted.



The rad shop, Polar Radiator, only recommends this company. It was too steeply priced at almost $800.

Life keeps moving. Kids keep growing. Bills keep coming.


Master Cylinder swap answer? I put that on the back burner for now.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

So the weather has been starting to change, and after my last backcountry road outing. It's time to get a matching set of gears in my Burb. I have been putting this off for too long. I think it has been a yr now since I swapped the blown out semi float for a 14bff. In the process I put the wrong ratio in.

So I need 3.73 gears. I have 4.10 in it now. With the 285/75/16 tires and the th400, the motor is running a tad high in the rpm band on roadtrips. I don't want to swap a 700r4 in, or go to a taller tire.


After looking into the cost of a re-gear. I decided not to re-gear. I have been looking for a complete used unit just to drop in. I had lined up a proper donor from a 86 C20 Burb(gray) that was a factory 454/th400 truck. It even had the proper length e-brake cables and connections. That was two yrs ago(yes I had a 14bff swap planned). Then I sold it a yr later. Sob!

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Fast forward. Came across this gem. I need to crawl under it and confirm, but for less than the cost of the re-gear. I could bring this home. It has more than just a 3.73 14bff.

I need to find out why he wants to sell... But if it is a runner, I might just have to swap my 4.10 unit into it and drive it. Or turn it into a donor.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

A few of my fave codes.
GT4 with G80
L19
MT1
ZW9 because I have only ever owned tailgate burbs.

This thing is pretty heavily optioned. The wood grain trim package matches my wife's 91. The blue seats in my 87 are pretty worn. My 70/68/78 Burb project needs a motor, f.i. BBC would be nice.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Well, things sometimes to wrong. In my case, more than less.

My diesel has been slowly running worse and worse. I replaced the lift pump and that helped a little. I was not seeing any bubbles in the return. It would miss in mid range rpm, it was hard to start warm, and randomly roal coal.

I sent out the injectors and injection pump.
2 injectors failed the test and the pump looks to have water damage inside.

How is that possible with only 42k on new parts?
I run a racor setup with water seperator. I changed fuel filters with every other oil change. I rarely had water in the collection bowl. I wonder if my racor setup is not the best?



At around $1100. I am going to reevaluate my situation. I am getting tired of the constant battle with this motor. Parts are a pita to source.

Big D is going to get parked for a bit while I decide what to do. I am over spending $300-1000 every time something goes wrong.

Any suggestions on how to keep mice/rats out of the engine bay and heater ducting.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Put drops of vanilla on the carpet. Maybe moth balls near the blower motor. Drier sheets have worked for me in the past but I've heard others say they had no luck with them. Sorry to hear about the 6.2 issues. Nothing diesel related is cheap these days.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Good news.

I found a good used injection pump and 4 injectors off a j code motor for $200!

Score! I am going to try to get it back together in the next few days. I also scored another 3.73 g80 14bff! I found a guy that wanted a 4.10 unit. He suggested we trade. It looks fresh inside too.

Now I am itchy to go off road again.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Wow. So much for a few days...

Well the used injection pump and injectors did the trick!

I ended up putting in a airtex E8053(?) lift pump and fuel pressure gauge. I had intended to put the pump down on the frame, but ended up on the pass side inner well. While I was looking up fittings for the fuel pump and guage, I came across a filter that would spin onto the 3/8" inverted flare inlet of the pump, with a 3/8" hose barb end. The whole combo is around 12" long.

I drove it down to Coalinga and back, roughly 300 miles. No problems.

While it was down, I traded a guy my open diff with 4.10 gears. He had a good looking G80 3.73 unit. He let me take his first and i was able to swap my backing plates, pinion guard and diff cover.


The G80 engages nice with the low hp n/a 6.2.
Let's hope it holds together.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Nice! Sounds like good deal all around.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Good to hear you got her going again. I agree with you on the G80, it should last a long time and work well with the 6.2.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

That's good to hear the IP and injectors took care of it. That diff cover still looks sweet too. :lol:

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

I am happy to have it back too and it didn't cost me a arm and a leg to fix it.


I got a call from a bud that buys storage lockers and such called me and said he thinks he has a 700r4 with adapter and 205. With his deals, it's a take it or leave it situation. The price was low enough to roll the dice.


Well, it's not a 700r4. It is a 2 yr only manual control 4l80e with a Mag hi Tec Pan, Converter, and flex plate. It has a 241 adapter on it but no actual matching t-case.

The T Case that it came with, is a racetrack pattern 205 with the 32 spline input and Th400 adapter.


Hmm. Do I sell it, or put a O/D in my diesel or wheeler.
Either way, score!

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Nice score! I would love to have one of those in my 6.2 Blazer, but the price of the trans, controller, and re-gearing the truck is a bunch of money I could never recoup. You've got a good head start though.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

I am a hoarder. I have a 4.10 ratio set of 3/4 ton axles to swap the 3.73 set out. I literally just got the 3.73 stuff worked out. It would be nice to get some low end grunt out of the 6.2 with a lower gear set and shorter 1at gear.

With a 91-92 4l80e, you don't need a controller. It is a manual shift setup.


That now leaves me with 2 manual control 4l80e trans.
1st one is 2wd. For the wheeler project. 205 and black box will go on that one.

2nd is the factory 4l80e/251c combo.


Score!

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Nice score on the trans! Those mechanical ones have to be hard to be getting now I'm guessing?

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

With a 2 yr only application, I'd say yes.
They are getting rare.

I only know that the 91 3/4 Burbs had them either 2wd or with 241 T-cases
C/C 91's Came with 4l80e and a 205

I am not sure what they came in in 92

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Nothing major to report, I have just been cranking out miles.
We took a trip to Las Vegas for the last Monster Jam World Finals held there. Next yr they are moving it elsewhere. Somewhere in the East coast.

As we were muddling around in the desert, I was pleasantly surprised by my G80 rear working well and we spun donuts for the first time successfully! A few weeks later a bunch of friends went to Hollister Hills Svra and I was able to do every obstacle I took. Again, the g80 worked well. I think the low hp/tq will help with the lifespan.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Actually, that pic from coming down from 5 fingers hill reminds me. When I am going downhill in 4lo in 1st gear of my th400, it will feel like it is uplifting into 2nd. The shifter is in 1st. After 20 seconds of downhill, it will start to coast, no engine braking until I burp the throttle.


I spoke with my tranny guy, and he suggested and vrv regulator adjustment and then unplugged the modulator and see what happens. After a few tests, he suggested I try a govener spring and weight kit to see if I could "fine tune" the shifts.

I also have a marginally weak vacuum punp, so I plan to swap that out first and see the results of a stronger vacuum.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Did I miss what 4” lift you’ve got? I’m looking at something for mine and had thought maybe 2-1/2”, looks like your suspension is working good. Nice truck 👍🏼

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

It is a mixture of different parts. Mostly used stuff. The front consists of a pair of Rancho lift springs, extended length rubber hoses, longer bumpstops from the rear of a s10 blazer, and a raised steering arm.

The rear is rough country 4" lift, 56" long springs with a longer rear brake hose and clearanced shackle bolts to allow longer drop.

I have all poly bushings and I order shocks by length, not by the lift size.


14bff swap with a g80 was the best upgrade yet.

Happy wheeling.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

It's nice to hear the rear end is holding up nice and you're able to enjoy it!