86 Suburban daily driver

[BlueJeep]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

L33's aren't exactly a dime a dozen. Nice score.
Any internal mods planned?

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!

[aggie91]

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?

[BlueJeep]

Originally Posted by aggie91

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?

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.

[BlueJeep]

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.

[BlueJeep]

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.

[BlueJeep]

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.

[87DuallyLaChila]

Nice truck

[SCOTI]

Some good progress!

[aggie91]

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

[BlueJeep]

Originally Posted by 87DuallyLaChila

Nice truck

Thanks!

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Some good progress!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by aggie91

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

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

[SBTork]

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

[BlueJeep]

Originally Posted by SBTork

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

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!

[SCOTI]

Nice report on the updates.

[LT7A]

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.

[Palf70Step]

Glad to hear it is still going.