Opinions On the 7.4 / 454 Suburbans and engine

[Dogmann]

Any lift options/opinions ???

Nothing major just a few more inches of lift!

 

[RedF]

Gave those trucks nothing but severe duty. 454 and 4L80E had no issues whatsoever.

I remember seeing that beast a few years back, when there was still the 4x4 show at the Westener. Pretty cool!

 

[2025 deleted member]

I have owned Chevys all my life and have nothing but praise for the vehicle. You can find lemons of any make, including Ferrari and Rolls Royce. I have an old 78 Chevy and it is still going strong. The 454 is a great motor. The `Burb´is a great truck!:Wow1: How can you go wrong?

I like chevys, but you compared it to two of the most unreliable vehicles ever .

 

[justcuz]

I had a 99 K1500 Suburban that went through front brakes quickly too. Others have had the same trouble. Not sure what the trouble was but I think the brake proportioning valves were messed up.

I think you could easily get a small lift by changing torsion bar keys and having the rear springs re-arched to add 1.5 to 2" of lift. That will allow you to easily run a 285/75x16 (32") tire with no rubbing.

I like the look of these trucks with H2 wheels on them with Chevy center caps. H2 wheels are 17" You may be able to run 305 aspect ratio tires with the above mentioned lift.

Engine and trans are bullet proof, as is the 14 bolt rear axle. All the front end stuff is easy to buy and fix.

The interior electrical stuff is usually due to bad grounds, or moisture and or dust getting in the contacts of the switch. I just fixed the right front window on my 93. The door switch had some mild corrosion on the contacts. I gently took the switch apart and cleaned the contacts, reassembled it and it works fine now. Probably took all of an hour and 2 beers!

Heater cores are easy to change out and the factory plug in heater lines can be changed out for regular nipple type. I used a plastic pipe cutter on the hose to remove the aluminum factory fitting, slipped the old hose with clamp over the new nipple fitting and done! No more weeping heater hose.

If the price is right you really can't go wrong with one of these. Here the 3/4 ton big block Suburbans are cheaper than 1/2 tons because our gas is always higher than the national average.

 

[Seaveykenneth]

Mods

the Vortec 7400 (454) that came in that suburban is one hell of an engine, there are also many things you can do to get more mileage and power out of it. Some of which are going with an upgraded ignition, headers, removing the cats and having the computer flashed to shut down the secondary O2 sensors. high flow intake elbow, filter and MAF

I had a 97 GMC 2500 short bed with the 7400 in it, I loved it, I did said mods to it with a true dual 3" exhaust and the thing would get 15 mpg on the interstate doing 70+ mph, selling it was one of the poorest decsions I have ever made.

What all exactly did you do to yours. What ignition system did you go with? What tuner did you use to programnout the secondary 02s

 

[rayra]

Yeah. I have had terrible luck with chevrolet products, especially around that year, but I'd rock one with a 454, especially a Burb.

must be a northeast corrosion thing. They're running strong in the southwest. I've got three older high mileage Chevys in front of my house without any significant trouble. 59yrs, 665,000mi altogether.

 

[NevadaLover]

I just picked up a '99 2500 with the L29 and 4.10's, upgraded from my '99 1500 with a 5.7 with 3.73's, aside from manual windows this burb is a much better beast of burden! much better low end grunt and stout running gear makes for nicer day in the hills!