$6k dd/expo vehicle?

[hidesertwheelin]

if i were to buy a diesel burb and the motor were to go south, what parts interchange between the gas and diesel suburban? can i pull a diesel engine out and bolt in a gas motor?

Yes you can. they will bolt right up. Most all GM's share the same bell housing bolt pattern. In fact I believe even the fly wheels are the same. You would need to chance the governor in the transmission. I had a 1982 GMC Jimmy w/ a 6.2 diesel. I loved that truck. The only reason I sold it is because I was commuting 120 miles a day in it, and even though it got around 20 mpg, it wasn't enough. I sold it and bought a used Honda Civic

 

[hillbillyjake]

all right fellas. maybe not a new direction, but a differnet one. are the new body style tahoes mechanically the same as the new body style suburbans? meaning a 98 1/2 ton tahoe the same as a 98 1/2 ton sub? i was looking on craigslist and found a lot of nice tahoes with les mileage and better prices than suburbans. the tahoes look like to me that they are just a little shorter in the back behind the rear seats than teh suburbans. a tahoe my be just what i'm looking for!

 

[KLAKEBRONCO]

Supposedly the the Vortec 5.7 trucks have some sort of unique injector arrangment that is expensive to repair....I had a 97 Z71 for a couple years and it was GREAT. Good power, excellent ride, VERY comfortable interior....Only reason I got rid of it is because I was towing 6k lbs regularly and wanted a Duramax....In hindsight I should have made a few modifications to the Z71 and kept it.

Brakes IMO are marginal. At the least I would upgrade the pads, and down the road seriously look at upgrading to rear disk brakes.

A trans temp gauge is a good idea. I didn't have one and never had problems with the 4L60E but a little insurance never hurt.

A set of "helper" air bags would be a good idea. Both for towing, and for heavy loads (when going camping).

There is some good info on these trucks and I think you would be very happy with the Tahoe. BTW Blackbear tune tunes those trucks and you should be able to expect a nice power and MPG increase.

 

[hillbillyjake]

ya i knew about the brakes. my dad has a 95 1/2 ton and it has never really had good brakes. like you said marginal. gauges for the tranny are a given. as well as a cooler. inever thought about air bags. those would help.

whats balckbear tuner? thanks

 

[KLAKEBRONCO]

ya i knew about the brakes. my dad has a 95 1/2 ton and it has never really had good brakes. like you said marginal. gauges for the tranny are a given. as well as a cooler. inever thought about air bags. those would help.

whats balckbear tuner? thanks

Black Bear is just a small tuning company....They have a good rep in the Chevy truck scene. They offer custom tunes that actually produce power and MPG increases.

 

[hillbillyjake]

i was reading about them on z71tahoe-suburban.com last night. that sight has a lot of info. i think that the tahoe is my best bet for the money. any other quirks beside the brakes? thanks again

 

[KLAKEBRONCO]

i was reading about them on z71tahoe-suburban.com last night. that sight has a lot of info. i think that the tahoe is my best bet for the money. any other quirks beside the brakes? thanks again

When I had my Z71 ext cab I didn't even drive it on dirt roads. Even still, I wished it had a limited slip. It would unload an inside rear tire, and spin, which I found stunk in traffic....At the time we did all our shopping in a busy mall district area, and you had to hurry to beat traffic making left turns.

If it is a 5.7 vortec watch out for a heater hose fitting on the intake maifold base. It's made out of some god awful pot metal and it will crack or break and leak. When mine broke I just replaced it with a solid stainless screw in hose fitting.

Hawk Superduty pads, or Reybestos extreme duty pads are both good pads and I would highly recommend them.

So good front brake pads, rear disk conversion, limited slip, fix the heater hose fitting, and some Bilstein HD shocks, air bag rear helper springs if you are towing, or carrying heavy loads, and that would be the perfect everyday truck IMO.

 

[spacer]

If you are conisidering a newer body style, I would look at the Vortec 454 trucks. These have lots of power, and not much worse MPG than a 5.7.

And good prices because they are perceived to be horrible on gas....But they aren't that bad. 15 maybe even 16 on the highway with tuning-compared to say 19 or 20 in a Cherokee or Tacoma. It just makes sense to go big.

Y'know, it's interesting, and my then-friends goggled at the idea that my '86 Camaro RS with a 5 liter V8 consistently got over 30mpg, while a friend with a V6 powered firebird couldn't seem to bust 25. I told 'em it was a combination of driving style and the fact that my engine wasn't having to work as hard.

Ran into the same attitude while driving for JB Hunt nearly 20 years ago. They were so hyped on running underpowered trucks to save fuel, and we ended up using more fuel because of 'em, especially in the mountains.

 

[Awesome Wagon]

Special price

Here is a good deal!
needs a little body work...

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you can have it! just figure out how to ship it back to the states and it's yours:wings:

 

[hillbillyjake]

all right fellas. found something close to teh house and thought i would bring this thread back from teh dead.

the truck is an 89 suburban. 350 w/38k, jasper reman 700r4 w/ 8k, original AZ truck. 600 miles on tires and brakes, 400 on full tune up including alternator. perfect frame, a small amount of rust on the rear quarters behind the tires. some bubbling over driverside front fender. basically no rust fro teh area. 3 rows of seats, power locks, power windows, barn doors. a very solid well maintained truck. the guys wife drives it and wants something smaller.

the bad. he wants $5,500 and is pretty firm. offerd him $4500 cash on sunday and would not take it.

the very bad. i want it. is this thing worth $5500 in any possible way? i really like this truck but it is hard to come off that much money fro something that old. but, it has so much going for it. looking to the expo crowd for advice. thanks

 

[ratkin]

1/2 ton or 3/4 ton? 2wd or 4wd?

I'm having a hard time connecting "original AZ truck" with "a small amount of rust on the rear quarters behind the tires. some bubbling over driverside front fender. basically no rust fro teh area."

What area is it now (central wv?), and how long has it been there?

- Richard

 

[hillbillyjake]

truck went from az to iowa to nj to wv just recently came to wv but has spent soem time in nj ( 2 or 3 years?) before coming to wv. the minimal amount of rust on teh truck is basically no rust for this area (central wv). my dad had a 95 chevy truck that he patched the frame on 2 times because of rust. if there is a little bit of bubbling on the body, that's very good fro the ares

1/2 ton 4x4. would put d60/14 bolt in some day so this is not that big a deal to me.

 

[96discoXD]

I would be a little bit concerned with the rust, just make sure to really look it over to be certain there isn't anything hidden that you missed. The barn doors are a plus for expo use in my opinion. The great part with the 350sbc and 700r4 is parts are available everywhere and they're cheap. I don't know whether it's worth $5500 or not, but it sounds like it's worth thinking about depending on what area you're in. Certainly if you're in the rust belt (like I am) a relatively rust free truck will fetch a premium over the normal swiss cheese that's left over by the time something is 20 years old.

 

[ccarley]

hillbillyjake:
FYI, I paid $2200 for a similar Suburban. '89, 4" lift, 35's, 350, th700r4, and power locks, windows, Cruise, front & rear A/C (which needs charging). I have a tailgate though.

It may be worth looking around some more. That price seems a bit high to me, especially if it has some rust on it. The body on mine is rust free, however since it was driven to Pismo beach in a past life & not hosed off... I do have some rust issues on engine components. Like exhaust manifolds

Good luck in your search!
Clay

 

[y5e06]

i'm kinda in the same boat as you on deciding on a vehicle. I'm a newb to this sorta thing so my input won't carry much weight.
for me I chose to go the 5.7L tahoe route. for minimal mods there seems to be some decent factory packages out there to get you started with upgrades down the road.
I picked up a '00 tahoe Z71 on sunday, this is the old body style. not 5.3L types.
comes stock with
5.7L Vortec
3.73's,
G80 rear posi (10 bolt)
265/75/16 -decent starter size (32")
tow package - trans AND oil coolers
rear barn doors - required for OBS trucks
appears to be a tad higher than regular 4x4's but that might not be true.

with the 2nd row seats folded forward there is 78" of space from the inside of rear doors to the back of the folded seat. I'm 76" tall... just enough. actually planning on pulling either the 60 or 40 side of the rear seats out & adding a small, level platform to get that extra lenth while yet having a seat for a 3rd person. the width of the tahoe and suburbans are the same, just a tad over 48" inside.

285/75/16 (33"s) appear as if they'll fit with minimal trimming. 14bolt semiflaoter from another 6-lug 4x4 will bolt in for extra towing strength. It is generally regarded that the tahoe brakes are weak. I'm thinking of adding the hydroboost brake booster to give more umph and maybe upgrade to 3/4 ton calipers & pads (slightly diff piston size though, more research to do).
on the 1st leg of my highway trip from dallas I calculated 19.3mpgs cruising just a tad under the speed limit and driving nice. After a few tweaks & tuning I'd be happy with 20. not sure what 285's will do to that though...


i'm selling a carb'ed '86 3/4ton 2WD that gets 12mpg at 65mph. so it is a down size and I really like the old stuff but i'm going to give it a go and see how it does for light expeditions & towing. stock ground clearance isn't something to write home about, not like my friends 2" lifted ZJ w/ 31's.

oh, has 133K miles and picked it up for almost 1/10th of the original sticker value. $4300