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91 Suburban V2500 - Tow/Weekend Rig - Build Thread

I could never tell the difference with the poly on multiple squares. Just bought poly for the C10 too.
 
Had a little time in the garage, so I finally put the rear tailgate Chevrolet badge back on. Knocked it off with a shovel last winter.

What lunatic spends 45 min prepping an emblem to install on something that is losing its paint?!


Old friend gets to spend the night in the garage while the emblem dries. Glad this garage is so comfortably deep!

Hey, which 3M tape did you use? I need to do this exact repair.
 
Whoa, a year since an update.

The old rig is still very loved, but sits a lot during summer.

needs paint, and has developed a coolant leak. And needs batteries. And a steering box adjustment . And body mounts.

Doing my best not to neglect it. Barely put 1000 miles on it last year.

Looking forward to driving it some more this winter.
You mean 2 years, jan 16 to jan 18.
Glad you still kept it.
I am gearing up to do some major work on mine.
I have been running this engine with a ticking sound for about 7 years now and it's starting to lose oil pressure after it warms up, still starts first try and never dies on me but don't trust it for long drive anymore.
I am putting a 454/4l80e/241 and a front d60 and a few other things to make it a wheeler instead of a daily driver/ tow rig.
 
Awesome to hear.

Got the steering box adjustment right (finally), which makes a huge difference. Unfortunately, my exhaust isn’t getting better until I replace the flowtech shorty headers, they are leaking through the front of the collector.

Besides that, it needs body mounts next. But has been a reliable companion again this winter. Just loaded up 8 friends on the way to the casino for a Batchelor party last Saturday’s. Fun to put it to work!
 
Well, the burb is hopefully getting some love soon.

The flowtech headers have rusted through at the collector after 8 yrs. Guess that's what you get for $200. Going to replace them with the same to avoid real exhaust rework.

Exhaust leak has been bad as of late, so excited to get that figured out.

May do body mounts soon too.

Besides that, it needs paint bad. Need to figure out what to do with that and not spend a fortune. Possibly considering a roll on job, but really low temps in the garage during the winter kinda make that hard. We'll see.
 
I just did the body mounts and it really wasn’t bad in my case. The rear most carriage bolts were seized to the bushing. Had to cut those out, but otherwise painless. Some of the rubbers were a pain to get out of the hats, but all eventually came out. Some of the mounts had thinner metal washers on the top of the uppers that were corroded/nonexistent. That was interesting, because there’s not other visible rot anywhere. I ended up not replacing the two that had damage. I installed a 1” body lift at the same time, so I figured my pucks would be a good mating surface in lieu of the big washer.
 
I’ve got to figure out paint/coating too. My clear flakes off daily.
Check @TreeFarm new build. He’s going to use a spray can based gov’t spec. I believe it’s enamel. I’m waiting to see his results. I’m not going to drop he $3-4K to do it right(more to get fancier paint). I’ve talked myself out of most other options for coatings too.
 
Well,
I blew out the trans cooler part of that radiator again. What a joke. Doubt I have 4K on this radiator.

Towed the boat an hour to Tahoe, and it started leaking over the grade. 2 trans refills, and we got to the ramp. Need to bypass the radiator cooler tomorrow, and run on just the six. Hopefully I can find a 5/16” flare union in town.

Frustrated. The old burb needed more attention than I thought to take over tow duty again.

Dmax was down for bcm replacement.

Hopefully can get her patched up to get home tomorrow, without too much impact to the wife’s bday weekend.

At least the boat is doing ok.
10105116-E1D4-4F4B-9935-629C1DF3516F.jpeg
 
It was the aux cooler. Unfortunately, between running low on fluid, then overfill, then foamed fluid, I think the trans is cooked. Slipping and doing weird things in 3rd and 4th.

Somehow we made the tow home, mostly downhill or climbing In 2nd.

Really don’t want to be looking at a trans right now.

Will be parking for a couple weeks before further evaluation. :-(.
 
So, after a fair bit of soul searching, the burb is staying. Hard to justify the cost of a trans and eventual paint, with a baby coming soon, but i'm keeping it.

But, this makes me wonder, for around town, occasional towing, occasional wheeling, should i manual swap it rather than replace the 4l80e?

The 4l80e is THE reason I bought a 91. But, at this point in it's life, a manual might be a lot more fun. I've also tossed around the LS swap idea, but my motor only has 30k on it, so hard to justify. Unless I found the right donor.

That, and we went from having 2 manual vehicles to none. Wife got a newer Subaru, and we couldn't get manual AND touring/turbo. And I got the Tesla. So, having a manual around again would be rad.


Where is a good manual swap thread on this forum? Couldn't find one. Definitely want overdrive, so thinking NV4500 or Nv5600. Or ZF6. Would love to hear some of the details.

I figure it can't be THAT hard with a hydro clutch. Swap in pedals, swap in trans, mount clutch reservoir, adjust drive shafts.

Am i missing something?
 
Ok, did some more reading. Sounds like NV5600 or ZF6 are WAY too big to swap easily into these trucks

I guess a NV4500 would get me there, has OD. Would definitely do Hydro clutch.

Still looking into good swap resources though.
 
Starting my Own Pro/Con List for my thoughts:

Pros:
More fun to drive
get to have a manual in the fleet again

Cons:
Loose remote start
Hard to leave running on incline (winter, with boat, etc) unless ebrake it perfect


Potentials:
Does a shifter clear a factory center console?
 

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