90 Suburban 1500 4x4 upgrade

[crash81]

I have a 1500 1/2 ton 4x4 subueban with the corp axles in it 10 bolt front and rear. i wanted to make it strong as i can. would like to run disc brakes front and rear when finished and still be able to tow my boat and race trailer. would like enough lift to run 35" tires. so throw all your ideas and advice at me please.


thanks Dudley

 

[Moose]

burb

I am running a 6" with 37" ssr's now for 3 to 4 years. I have 10bolts with 4:56 gears and have had no problem. I believe 10 bolts are fine with big tires uless you are pounding them. By this I mean stock 350 not a high horse power orstickwhere you are shocking the axles constantly thats how things break. My performance 700r4 does just fine. I tow the race truck and bikes allot.

 

[crash81]

what about a rear disk break conversion for the 10 bolts i see them for the 14 bolts but nothing for the 10 i know some guys with stock axle trucks like beter breaks also.



Dudley

 

[Muddytazz]

Try here

 

[gone huntin]

I have the same truck as you and I upgraded to a 14bff in the rear. I had 3:73's in my ten bolts with 31's and broke the rear on the pavement. I mainly use this truck to tow my 16' trailer with atvs on it so I decided on the 14b with 13" brakes. I installed 4" of lift and 33's when I still had the ten bolts with 3:73's and needed to regear so I went with 4:10's when I did the axle swap. If you want to run 35's and still tow with your truck then I would go with 4:56's or 4:88's.

 

[dleroy43]

Install a 14FF if you plan on towing things and then yu wont need to worry about it IMO. I granaded my 10 blt trying to make a left turn w 3.42s less than a week after I put on 35s. I have the stock 13x3.5 brakes and they stop real good after I swapped out the leaking wheelcylender. 4.56s and 35s are good to still tow things

 

[crash81]

you are running 35" tires now on a 4" lift? you don't have any problems with fender rub when working th suspension? i want to run 35/12.50/15 on 15x10 wheels. also has anyone had to replace the tbi on this mod suburban if what you use?

Dudley

 

[dleroy43]

you are running 35" tires now on a 4" lift? you don't have any problems with fender rub when working th suspension? i want to run 35/12.50/15 on 15x10 wheels

I trimmed the front fender becouse it rubbed. I have 15x8s. It works good I just want to lift it a little and put on BIGGER tires

 

[woody9]

i went from the 10's (3:42) to a 14 FF (4:10) and went to a 245.16 tire. Tried the rear disc, but i never felt it gave me as much as the 13" drums did (yeah, i might coulda done more 'tweaking' with it, but didn't want to make the conversion a career!!).
I pull our travel trailer and have also gone with a 4 row radiator, HUGE tranny cooler and a tranny temp gauge. (on board air with air horn is another add-on for those times those pesky ricers pull out in front of you with a full load!, but more OPTIONAL than those other mods)
If you're gonna do more pullin, you want more brakin' & coolin' too!

 

[mini_mull]

also has anyone had to replace the tbi on this mod suburban if what you use?

Dudley

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean switch to carb, modify the TBI, or what? If you clarify, someone can probably answer.

 

[crash81]

i ment like upgrade or modify the tbi. with something like the holly projection units or something like that. in other words i want a trail capable dd family ride that sits on 35" bfg at/ko that can still tow the boat and race trailer and pull behind camper that is 34' long it has a 350 in it now and 700r4 trans. 10 bolt corp. front and rear.

Dudley

 

[mini_mull]

If your interested in TBI upgrades you can check out www.turbocity.com or www.cfm-tech.com . Both sites and many of their products come highly recommended from other cK5 members. If you want to spend even more $ you may want to check out Edelbrock's Performer MPEFI for engines originally equipped with TBI on www.edelbrock.com .
Even with all the bolt-on upgrades you can think of that 350 may still feel like a dog pulling a 34ft camping trailer, you may want to eventually consider swapping out the engine, though it's not necessary. You may also want to look into beefing up that 700R4 (which most would argue is necessary). At the very least you should add a tranny cooler and temp gauge if towing that much weight esp. very often. If you want to be more aggressive and swap out the tranny, bowtieoverdrives.com builds some 700r4s that can take much more hp and torque than stock and their costs and often not much more than a local shop would charge to rebuild your stock tranny. The TBI upgrades and the 700R4 upgrades have been discussed extensively in previous threads. If you search you should find a lot of info. Any if you need more you can always ask, someone's bound to know the answer.