Opinions on Suburban 2001 rig?

[Fierokid]

I have an 160K mile 02 suburban with the 8.1 and it's a beast. Only issue I've had that I didn't cause myself was a rusted out break line. I've sheared teeth on the rear axle, and I have a bent frame at the trailer hitch (not my fault, loader operator decided to pack down the dump trailer by lifting his front wheels off the ground with his bucket on the trailer) I have had 14K behind her before and she handled it (10 miles most across city).

Watch oil consumption
Give her regular maintenance
Give her a good once over at "problem areas" occasionally and I bet you'd be fine for a long time.

 

[lilkia]

Race car trailers are very heavy towing. Completely wrong reasoning there.

RV's contain foam, plastic, and wood veneer. Race car trailers haul steel tools, steel tool boxes,steel jacks, and steel stands. Racing is 24/7, not just a weekend hobby. Race through the work week while fixing the car at night, race to the track, race to the hotel, back to the track, etc. etc. It's very hard on tow vehicles and your sanity.

Keep room in your budget for a complete trans rebuild. Replace the fuel pump and brake calipers. Don't freak out about oil consumption. The 8.1 drinks oil regardless of condition.

It depends on the type of racing he was doing. It may or may not have been abused. We raced formula V and autocross when I was teen and our trailer was under 6k lbs and it was very much a weekend hobby. We pulled it with an old ford econoline 150. I remember one trip to Nelson Ledges we pulled it with moms Bonneville.

 

[nicochau]

Hi guys, here is a quick update following the test drive this afternoon.

The truck itself looks ok:


Before test drive:

Opened the hood, oil is good in the engine, transmission fluid is nice and clear too.

The inside looks bad, nothing that can't be fixed though and all the electronics where working including: AC, radio, sunroof, windows, electric seats...


During the test drive:

Shocks were completely shot, which was expected. I was surprised by who nice the truck drove, really nice and smooth. With new shocks would have been even better including much better handling and braking.

Tried 4wd: 4H worked well, 4L wouldn't go through...

After the test drive:

Decided to have a second look under the truck. Motor and transmission looked really wet to me.


At that stage, I'm considering walking away... What do you guys think?

 

[nicochau]

It depends on the type of racing he was doing. It may or may not have been abused. We raced formula V and autocross when I was teen and our trailer was under 6k lbs and it was very much a weekend hobby. We pulled it with an old ford econoline 150. I remember one trip to Nelson Ledges we pulled it with moms Bonneville.

Not sure, but he is selling the truck in order to upgrade the trailer... (going for gooseneck)

Race car trailers are very heavy towing. Completely wrong reasoning there.

RV's contain foam, plastic, and wood veneer. Race car trailers haul steel tools, steel tool boxes,steel jacks, and steel stands. Racing is 24/7, not just a weekend hobby. Race through the work week while fixing the car at night, race to the track, race to the hotel, back to the track, etc. etc. It's very hard on tow vehicles and your sanity.

Keep room in your budget for a complete trans rebuild. Replace the fuel pump and brake calipers. Don't freak out about oil consumption. The 8.1 drinks oil regardless of condition.

That's right, changed my opinion on that one too.

 

[rayra]

Easily fixable with a couple days of wrenching. The real nice part of the Vortec / LS / LT motors is their component layout really allows for easy access to change gaskets and such without having to tear down much else than what you are after. STuff isn't layered on top of each other like it is with the small block chevy in my '85 C-10.
That's probably oil sender and valve cover gaskets. Plan to take the pan off and change the oil pickup o-ring, you'll need to loosen and drop the front axle to do that.
Go take a skim thru my 'Hey Vortec Guys' topic, it's chock full of the common faults and repairs for GMT800s and none of it is hard. And with a small bit of pre-planning it's easy and cheap to take care of other needful things when you are changing some nearby gaskets and have parts off the motor.
Really go read the topic linked in my sig. None of the fixes are hard. And if you are getting or negotiating a good price due to the oil leak(s), all the better. It won't take long to fix or cost more than $200-400 to fix all the basic leaks and tune up the ride with replacement OEM rubber bits.
My own build topic also has a lot of info on 'budget' parts replacements. I've got too many hobbies, so I'm 'cheap' whenever I can manage to be so.
And again, parts are available and as inexpensive as they'll ever be for the GMT800 series, these last few years.

 

[lilkia]

How much?

 

[Buliwyf]

Were you in neutral when trying to go to 4L?

Looks like a rear main to me, I'd walk.

 

[nicochau]

How much?

2001 Burb, 2500 LT
160k miles
Clean title
Asking $4200

 

[nicochau]

Were you in neutral when trying to go to 4L?

Looks like a rear main to me, I'd walk.

Absolutely, we pulled the manual tried several times. Could hear the switch ticking but transfer case never switched to L4.

 

[Buliwyf]

Sometimes you need to be rolling while in N.

 

[lilkia]

The price isnt bad for an 8.1 that may need some repairs but it does look like it was used hard.

 

[Martinjmpr]

WRT the 4wd issue, If it's just the encoder motor that's like a $200 fix. It wouldn't be a deal breaker to me.

160k is pretty low miles for a 2001, have you run a Carfax or similar to make sure the odometer hasn't been tampered with?

 

[nicochau]

Sometimes you need to be rolling while in N.

tried it too! J

 

[lilkia]

WRT the 4wd issue, If it's just the encoder motor that's like a $200 fix. It wouldn't be a deal breaker to me.

160k is pretty low miles for a 2001, have you run a Carfax or similar to make sure the odometer hasn't been tampered with?

Its better to run the carfax but I wouldnt sweat the miles being low. When I was looking for mine most of the 2500s were lower milage even more so with the 8.1s. Most people that buy them use them to tow the camper and other toys rather than as a daily driver so they dont tend to rack up the miles.

 

[nicochau]

WRT the 4wd issue, If it's just the encoder motor that's like a $200 fix. It wouldn't be a deal breaker to me.

160k is pretty low miles for a 2001, have you run a Carfax or similar to make sure the odometer hasn't been tampered with?

Looks legit actually.

Odometer Check

State title odometer check
Auction odometer check
Odometer calculation check

Your Vehicle Checks Out: No odometer brands, rollbacks, rollover or tampering has been reported to AutoCheck from state
Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) or auction sources. AutoCheck also examined the sequence of reported odometer readings to
determine if there are any potential discrepancies.

0 Problem(s) Reported Mileage Date Reported
37 01/25/2001
28,545 05/14/2002
61,616 05/17/2006
61,621 05/19/2006
65,267 12/26/2006
65,477 01/24/2007
66,075 03/23/2007
68,471 06/27/2007
68,755 07/16/2007
72,018 01/23/2008
75,899 06/20/2008
76,093 06/30/2008
77,141 07/28/2008
80,249 10/22/2008
81,649 12/19/2008
81,649 12/19/2008
83,342 03/25/2009
83,603 04/09/2009
85,297 07/17/2009
88,064 11/18/2009
88,215 12/07/2009
91,697 03/26/2010

6/10/2019 autocheck

Open Recall Check

Service And Repair History Check
0 Problem(s) Reported Mileage Date Reported
96,127 08/24/2010
97,406 09/27/2010
97,893 11/22/2010
97,893 11/22/2010
102,582 05/11/2012
116,762 02/13/2014
138,478 05/26/2016
156,871 02/07/2018