One Piece at a Time: My 1985 Diesel Suburban

[AgDieseler]

Seeing how you were able to do that nice air box makes me think about relocating my batteries. Been wanting to clean up the engine bay, too.

It clears up a lot of space, and also moves a good bit of weight.

Tell him to hurry up on that fabrication.... how is anyone else supposed to blatantly steal all of his ideas if they aren't posted up here...?

More coming!








The truck runs and drives, with plenty of kinks to work out. But off the top, it’s a load of fun.

Next up is locker diag’ and repair, then the passenger fender, and breaking in the rear springs.

David

 

[dhcomp]

So, watched your IG video on the catch can, saying you use 4 ports?

Air in, air out, then what? How do you drain off the oil, or where does it go?

Keep up the good work!

 

[AgDieseler]

So, watched your IG video on the catch can, saying you use 4 ports?

Air in, air out, then what? How do you drain off the oil, or where does it go?

Keep up the good work!

The four ports are just divided evenly between air in and out. I only used one from each. The others are plugged. There’s a drain on the bottom, and a dipstick to check the volume.

David

 

[dhcomp]

The four ports are just divided evenly between air in and out. I only used one from each. The others are plugged. There’s a drain on the bottom, and a dipstick to check the volume.

David

Got it. So you just check it regularly and dump? How often do you expect to have to dump?

 

[AgDieseler]

Got it. So you just check it regularly and dump? How often do you expect to have to dump?

I’m not sure, but figure once or twice for each oil change interval. We’ll find out. My last separator wasn’t terribly effective.

David

 

[dhcomp]

I’m not sure, but figure once or twice for each oil change interval. We’ll find out. My last separator wasn’t terribly effective.

David

Makes sense. Now the dumb question......will you dump it, or pour it back into the motor?

 

[AgDieseler]

Makes sense. Now the dumb question......will you dump it, or pour it back into the motor?

After disposing of the first drain, there’s no reason it can’t go right back in. I’d hook up that drain directly to the crank case if I could. Most separator designs do that already since it’s just filtered oil.

David

 

[dbcorvairracer]

After disposing of the first drain, there’s no reason it can’t go right back in. I’d hook up that drain directly to the crank case if I could. Most separator designs do that already since it’s just filtered oil.

David

Probably cleaner than the crankcase oil to some extent, metals should be too heavy to hitch a ride in the oil vapor. I've always recycled

Except where I had heavy blow by causing problems so I went to a down draft tube for a while till I could get to the ring and valve.

 

[campfire]

Most separator designs do that already since it’s just filtered oil.

Another dumb question...why collect the oil in a separate place? Why not let it drain directly back into the engine like the stock CDR setup?

 

[AgDieseler]

Another dumb question...why collect the oil in a separate place? Why not let it drain directly back into the engine like the stock CDR setup?

This is all about filtering the oil vapor before it comes to the turbo. It collects in the can only because it’s a pain to setup an automatic drain to the crank case. The original CDR routing doesn’t do any of that, and would allow a free path for oil to collect in the intercooler. In it’s original layout, it doesn’t really drain because it doesn’t collect anything.

David

 

[campfire]

This is all about filtering the oil vapor before it comes to the turbo. It collects in the can only because it’s a pain to setup an automatic drain to the crank case. The original CDR routing doesn’t do any of that, and would allow a free path for oil to collect in the intercooler. In it’s original layout, it doesn’t really drain because it doesn’t collect anything.

David

Oh. That makes sense.

 

[AgDieseler]

It’s never great to put your truck on a flatbed, but sometimes it’s necessary.

I dropped it off yesterday with Adam at Tribe16. The grizzly locker sounded like it was mixing aggregate.



I’m cleaning out the garage while I wait.

David

 

[mrk5]

Hopefully it's an easy fix.

 

[AgDieseler]

The axle lives! One too many shims kept the grizzly from unlocking. I’ll go pick it up tomorrow. The folks over there felt obliged to mention that the truck was the largest thing they’ve worked on, by far.

I thought to myself, “we hang out in overlapping, but different circles.” I like my circle.

David

 

[AugustDiesel]

Excellent news!

 

[AgDieseler]

Okay. Several small items to catch up on.

The front shocks got a quick rebuild, as both had quite a bit of fluid in the reservoir.

View attachment IMG_2749.mp4

I was concerned that all the suspension cycling at zero gauge pressure might have pushed some amount of fluid passed the IFP, but Adam disagreed. He is of the opinion that they were just assembled incorrectly by King, since both were in the exact same condition. They test and assemble all their cars with shocks at zero pressure with no problems like this. A problem like this is more common in a car that’s been run hard.

The rears were fine. They’re all back together, in the truck, and fully charged. The drive home went well. The locker functions like a normal Detroit, and does so quietly.

Back at the shop, the transfer case vent needed rework, and the turbo was weeping oil into the exhaust. The first part was easy to fix, and I just redeployed my old temporary catch bottle. The second required me to make an all new turbo drain.





The old 1/2” banks stuff for comparison.




At 4x the area, it drains just right, and has plenty of capacity to keep the bearing cavity from filling up and weeping into the other housings. This was actually an overdue upgrade, since the HE351CW has a much larger drain that the tiny T04B or TE06H that drain tube is sized for.

Back to fabricating the passenger fender, finishing up the lighting, and putting more miles on this setup. This suspension is so well controlled, It’s a joy to drive.

David

 

[mrk5]

Do you have any kind of drawing that shows how you wired up your remote batteries? I see you have some bus bars back by the batteries. Then I assume you ran some leads up to bus bars in the engine bay. Did you put any kind of circuit interrupt in there?

 

[AgDieseler]

Do you have any kind of drawing that shows how you wired up your remote batteries? I see you have some bus bars back by the batteries. Then I assume you ran some leads up to bus bars in the engine bay. Did you put any kind of circuit interrupt in there?

I don't have a drawing, but the wiring is pretty straightforward. There's a photo somewhere back in the thread of the batteries without the cover on. They are in parallel, so the cables combine onto busbar in the rear and travel forward to combiner posts under the hood. The main cables are 2/0, there are two chassis and two body grounds at the rear. At the front, there are two engine to frame grounds, one engine to body ground, and three negative post to frame/chassis grounds. No stray electrons.

I just bought a disconnect for the negative so I don't have to disconnect the batteries every time I want to weld something on the truck.

David

 

[AgDieseler]

At the risk of repeating myself, the truck is just a joy to drive. I've been burning through my tank of fuel one throttle jab at a time.

View attachment IMG_2822.MOV


A few quick updates. I couldn't keep a parts store starter longer than a couple of months before it would stick or start dragging. I swapped in a fancy powermaster ultra duty, and have been pleased so far. As well, fresh ARP'ness to go along with it.





The first oil change post-project is done, including the super duper bypass filtration. As much as I enjoy making junk out of metal, regular old maintenance is just as enjoyable.







I started chasing small leaks around the turbo. The new orientation offered an opportunity to simplify the feed line, but the old banks stuff is at the end of its life and is set to be replaced by some PTFE gear from Vibrant.





And because Greg reminds me every time I snap a photo, I still need to freshen the paint on the bumpers.









The rear springs are still quite perky, so we tossed in a 1200 lbs proof load and beat on it to help these settle. There are plenty of crowned intersections in the industrial section of Dallas near the levees that offer good opportunities to get the suspension at full compression.


The new fixture table under construction, sized for larger fab projects.


And Harriet had ACL surgery (her second one, this time on her left leg), and three weeks into recovery she is convinced she's fully healed. There's actually another 7 or 8 weeks to go.




Sliders are next. I'm basically spending an entire month's project allocation on DOM.

David

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Give Harriet some lovins from me. Our dog Katie had the same doggy ACL issues in 2013. Cost a lot to fix but she lived another, very full and slightly bow legged, seven years.
Kudos to you for giving her the chance.