89-91 conversion complete

[dale_gribble]

I just finished installing my 91 suburban grille conversion on my 88. It was a pretty long process; I logged about 10 hours doing the whole conversion by myself. I used the original wiring harness and spliced in the 91 pigtails- I soldered the splices, used heat shrink tubing and then electrical taped them; they SHOULD hold up well. Since I had to pull the radiator and had the core support available, I installed a B&M tranny cooler as well and changed the tranny fluid/filter.

I was less then impressed with the taiwanese repro grille and headlight bucket crap. As a matter of fact, I was pretty disgusted. I had to dremel quite a bit around the grille to even get a decent fit, and the buckets and grille don't line up very well. At first I thought it was just how it was stock, but when I test fit the original trashed GM pieces, they went together a lot better. I would have to recommend to anyone wanting to do this to go OEM grille and buckets, even if it's used.

Here it is! I could SURE use the grille emblem if anyone has one lying around. Please PM me; I will buy it from LMC truck otherwise.

 

[dale_gribble]

My next project-

And then the Doug Thorley headers and I am calling it quits for a while... By the way, I have been working with Doug Thorley's tech support, they are amazing. I sent them some pictures of the engine compartment, their R&D team looked at my setup and gave their recommendation within an hour. They have a special on the headers and y-pipe right now for $450 directly from Thorley. On the system I ordered, the y-pipe is even made for a 4-6" lifted truck! The tech's name is Sean Crary. Awesome guy! Those Thorley header's are 14ga steel! and have 3/8" flanges! Those are the sturdiest ones out there.

Sean mentioned on a stock TBI motor to expect 20 lb/ft at 2100 RPM with a slightly faster torque delivery as well. I heard the tri-Ys are good for torque and good balance of a short and long tube design.

 

[roadnotca]

Truck looks so natural, looks great. Thanks for warnings on Taiwan stuff. I installed an LMC grille and HL rings; they're good enough, fit, and the right price.
Thats one outsatnding rig you're building!

 

[cbbr]

That looks great.

 

[Engineered Vintage]

Your rig is so sweet! Nice upgrade with that front clip. Looks clean

 

[Cricket]

Nice job!

 

[smalltowncowboy]

what size lift and tires are you running? i just picked up a 91 burban with 6 inch lift and 36 inch swampers

 

[roadnotca]

pics????

 

[dale_gribble]

what size lift and tires are you running? i just picked up a 91 burban with 6 inch lift and 36 inch swampers

37x12.50" BFG A/Ts on 17x10" MB Gunner 6's with a 6" BDS suspension. I don't have a single rub issue anywhere in travel or turning.

 

[WRENCH-HEAD]

Let me know if the OEM emblem fits in that grille. The aftermarket grilles I looked at were like yours with only the square recess not the oem bowtie shape so my emblem wouldn't fit in them. I ended up using the used grille I picked up for that reason.

 

[dale_gribble]

Let me know if the OEM emblem fits in that grille. The aftermarket grilles I looked at were like yours with only the square recess not the oem bowtie shape so my emblem wouldn't fit in them. I ended up using the used grille I picked up for that reason.

Just for you, I took a few pics; The reman grille obviously doesn't have the inlet for the emblem, however the emblem still looks pretty good and goes over the square recess ok. I did have to dremel the square recess; it was too high and was holding the emblem away from the grille. I took a few pics to document-

Pic of emblem over square recess pre-dremel; Note the gap between the emblem and grille. Not too fancy...

This is the square recess post dremel-

The grille with the emblem being held in place while RTV drys; nice and snug fit-

 

[smalltowncowboy]

here is my 91 6 inch lift and 36 inch swampers

 

[dale_gribble]

Nice burb! God I love burbs...

You could probably pick up 1-2mpg and a few cool points just by deep sixing that old bug guard...

 

[imiceman44]

Nice burb! God I love burbs...

You could probably pick up 1-2mpg and a few cool points just by deep sixing that old bug guard...

Yeah but do you have any idea how usefull that thing is?
I never knew until I ditched mine.

 

[roadnotca]

I'm thinking about putting one on myself. Might have saved my new H3 from a stone chip, just off my 80 mph line of sight.

 

[muddybuddy]

Yeah but do you have any idea how usefull that thing is?
I never knew until I ditched mine.

true, but it looks so much better w/o it

 

[imiceman44]

true, but it looks so much better w/o it

You wanna see how ugly mine looks now without it?
It has chips and cracks all over the windshield, and the bugs are so hard to clean.

 

[GotBoykins]

Good looking burb.

 

[WRENCH-HEAD]

Thanks for the pics

 

[smalltowncowboy]

i just picked up the burban last thursday, so i havnt had a chance to do much of anything. im going to be getting rid of the 36 inch swampers. i will either be going with some 35 inch BFG M/T, or if i get my dana 60 i have some 38 inch swampers ill run.