70 C-20 4x4 Suburban Father/Son project

[1leglance]

Great pics Larry..oh and I would be very happy to take any odd parts you have laying around

The aftermarket turbo looks to be an ATS setup..I will post up pics as soon as I get it home tomorrow.
My goal is to gather all the parts I can and then do the swap quickly (well as quickly as possible with these things)
Of course who knows while I have the front end apart I might just paint the thing

 

[Rot Box]

Assuming it is original the 82 motor it is known to be the best 6.2 block out there during the the 82-91 production run. The "red block" is said to be much stronger compared to the others however it does use the course thread injectors that aren't as common as the later years.

A little known fact: Although they are really neat/unique and work well the designers at ATS actually hired DR. Suess to design the 6.2 turbo kits.... Trust me--one look and you'll understand!! LOL :coffeedrink:

From everything I've seen the serpentine belt trucks were the ones with the faulty harmonic balancer. I shouldn't say faulty I guess-more or less it has (or should have) a replacement interval as they do go bad over time and lead to catastrophic engine failure. The v-belt 6.2's (82-86) hold up very well imo.

If a person must have a diesel and can't swing a Cummins, the 6.2/6.5L is the second best alternative. To heck with Dirtymax and PowerJokes diesels!

Ahem.... Hey now... I think you forgot one that fits great right in the middle of those two choices lol

 

[redthies]

Ahem.... Hey now... I think you forgot one that fits great right in the middle of those two choices lol

A nice Deutz???

 

[matt s]

I have seriously been considering the 6.2 for my 71. It would double my range. Power with a banks turbo would be on par with my 350 and better lower end torque. Coupled with an nv4500..... drool.

 

[Rot Box]

A nice Deutz???

Ha there you go. My love for old school diesels started with a 5cyl Deutz "air diesel". Incredible service life--it took a lot of years, and a lot of neglect to finally kill that one

 

[redthies]

I used to run a Kässbohrer Flexmobile with a driven trailer powered by likely the same 5 cyl air diesel. Kind of a funky rig... I just spent 5 hours blasting around in a Kässbohrer PB100. Nice to play in the snow again after a couple of years away from it!

 

[ExpoMike]

All of the 6.2/6.5 should have the HB replaced with a Fluidamper version, period. That is the #1 issue with these engines. If the outer ring only slips a little, you'll likely find cracked main cap webs but when it gets more slippage, a cracked crank is 100% guaranteed. When I had my M1010, the next part I was replacing on that 6.2 was the HB. I sold the rig before I did.

The 6.2/6.5 have some quirks but they are actually a good design. If you can ever get your hands on one for a reasonable price, the P400 engine is the one you seriously want. An Optimizer 6500 is a good second choice. Still in all, the original stock ones are fairly solid.

 

[1leglance]

The donor is home...
Huge thanks to one of the Copper State Cruiser guys Brian for the use of his truck & trailer to safely get this rig to my house.

I need to go through it and make sure what year it is, what is missing and what is there, get it running and then get the engine/turbo out and to the diesel shop my wife is the office manager for so they can go through it all (including injector pump & injectors)

But because no story would be as fun with out a bit of drama...the previous owner had pulled the good back axle for his other rig. However he was cool enough to put something together to make this one a roller...and the back tires tried to roll right out of the axle like a cartoon as we loaded it up.
That meant to get it off the trailer we needed to push things a bit more toward center. However things didn't want to fit together and we quickly learned why

And since this is a Father/Son project my son got to get the dirty, greasy one and get all the old junk out of the way so we could shove the axle shafts back in. However crafty kid that he is, it only took 2 seconds for him to ask me if he could have all the broken bits to forge/weld/scuplt something cool. How do you say no to that? Watch for a yard creature soon

Tomorrow I will get up and look it over more closely by the light of day, hit is with degreaser & the power washer. Then start working on figuring out what I can use and not on the 70 burb...of course we will part out what we can to get some money back and scrap the rest.

Also I need to make some phone calls and do some reading about keeping the 700r4 that is behind this engine in place for the sake of the overdrive. As much as I love playing in the dirt I am not a hard core wheeler but there are alot of highway miles to get to the cool places.

 

[TexGX]

What did the interior look like, any chance the seats are usable?

TexGX

 

[redthies]

A worthy donor! From your frontal shot it almost looked too good to part out... Then saw the rest of the pics and thought, yup, that's a parts truck for sure! I think there is a market for weird sculpture type stuff at quartzite... Maybe your boy can earn some travel cash:sombrero:

 

[toddz69]

Also I need to make some phone calls and do some reading about keeping the 700r4 that is behind this engine in place for the sake of the overdrive. As much as I love playing in the dirt I am not a hard core wheeler but there are alot of highway miles to get to the cool places.

Highly recommend that. I have one in my Bronco and love it.

Todd Z.

 

[1leglance]

Glad to hear you are happy with your 700r...
I am running one in my granddad's 72 Chevy truck with a nicely built fuel injected 350 and it has been great.
And even though it is currently behind the diesel engine and in a 4wd, I just want to make sure I have covered all the updates and have it as solid as possible.

 

[Larry]

Nice score Lance. What you are doing is definitely the best approach to an engine swap like this. Get a complete donor vehicle so you have everything you need in one package then sell off the left overs and scrap the rest. You might even break even on the deal by the time you sell the old 350 and off the donor truck scraps.

A well-built 700R4 would do well in your Sub behind the 6.2L for the type of stuff we do. Just add a big trans cooler! The 32 spline 205 tcase you have now will not work behind the 700R4 so you will have to find a 27 spline 205 or use the donor trucks 208 or 241, whichever is in it. Either of those are decent but not as strong as a 205 but have a better low range crawl ratio over a 205.

Can’t wait to see this project take place. Wish you lived closer so I could help play with it too! :Mechanic:

 

[1leglance]

Thanks Larry...after seeing the pics of your shop setup I wish you live closer also

Nick (on here as Nobin & the 67-72 board as Mosesburb) has been a great resource (his brain must hurt from all the picking I have been doing) and we have been talking about what the donor 700r will need to update it for the nice hiway mpg I want.

Looks like the donor is an 88 model as the emissions sticker says 1987 but the 10th digit of the VIN is a H which means 1988.
So bummer I don't get the high nickle content block but I do get an updated trans.
Also Nick & I hit the local junkyards and yanked out a J code intake so no more EGR junk, we also got a colant filter mount so that is one more nice thing to have.
Then we got a rad core support from a 72 truck so I can start figuring out how to add the center of the donor rad support. That will give me the bigger rad from the donor.
I have a long ol' finned trans cooler from my street rod days that can be frame mounted.

I will try to get more pics of the donor rig (underside) posted tomorrow.

Per Nicks thoughts we are looking at the DIY4x crossmember to beef things up and make the swap go smoother.

 

[bftank]

mosesburb as in first gen with a cummins in it? if so you are in good hands his build thread on ck5 is amazing!