Overlandtowater’s solid axle suburban

[rayra]

yep, been there, done all that, earlier pages of my vortec topic. I strongly encourage you to change out the two heater hose connector Ts at the firewall while you have the intake out of the way, it's very difficult to release them with everything in place. And if you bump or dislodge them while you are doing what you are doing now, they are going to leak like Niagara Falls when you put it all back together and fire it up. 100k mi++ the o-rings in the connectors are degraded and if you move the fitting around while messing with that #8 coil pack or putting the intake back on, the o-ring just disintegrates.

First page in my vortec topic has a lot of stuff about what you are working on right now.

 

[Overlandtowater]

Yep I heeded your advise on that! Rayra....Thanks What did you use to clean the intake ports on the head? The plastic intake Im going to use simple green and hot water.

 

[rayra]

Stuffed some paper towels down the head ports and did a combo of wipedown/scrub with paper towels soaked with engine degreaser and some cleanup with green Brakleen. It came clean pretty readily, but this vehicle has been in SoCal all its life, there almost no real corrosion of either steel or aluminum. I used towels instead of brushes as I didn't want to spatter the stuff all over and wanted to avoid hosing everything down, partly because of the corrosion in the rear knock sensor in the first place.

btw, the vent for the front diff is just inboard of the frame rail near the driver front shock top. And the rear diff vent tube goes right along the fuel filler up around the taillight. They're not bad for a factory setup. But as you pointed out earlier, the time to extend the trans and transfer vents is while your intake is off.

 

[Overlandtowater]

So I did the hot water and dishwashing liquid, the hot water and degreaser (purple power and simple green), carwash pressure washer and the Steam cleaning pressure washer at the farm shop on the plastic intake the oil and grease came off with just the dishwashing liquid but in the intake runners there is a rough almost like 36grit sandpaper on the sides I could take my fingernail an scrape some off but that was the only way I used a brass bottle brush too and it didn't take it off after steam cleaning it I gave up. On the intake ports in the head the goo came off easy with WD40. Surprisingly the knock sensor on the front of the engine was worse than the rear. Got it all back together, HT RTV silicone around the knock sensor boots, I pulled the foam blocks out. Also cleaned the grease build up off the throttle body. I still have to go down to harbor freight and get a couple of water separators for an air compressor to put in the PCV hoses, They are 10 bucks and have a petcock on the bottom to drain the oil when it gets half full. I deleted the codes, ran it hard down the road, then drove maybe 30 miles normal, seems to be using more gas.... one thing I have noticed is the intake no longer whistles at 1/4 throttle like before.

 

[Overlandtowater]

also painted the bowtie.

 

[jonb8]

Right on, "Nothings hard one inch at a time"

 

[Overlandtowater]

Next up is that shift kit install, it kind of intimidates me but I will tear into it eventually.

 

[rayra]

I've avoided that. Bought my Sub with 125k mi on it and no leaks on the trans and decided not to touch it. After decades of never being able to stop my pickup trans from leaking, I didn't want to disturb the Sub's trans.
I've siphoned out about a gallon of trans fluid when I bought the Sub 4-1/2yrs ago and again last year, putting in some fresh 'high mileage' and it seems ok. It had a little bit of a random slip when I first got it (was a mom taxi) but nothing since and I've driving hard and way too fast too often. Also part of why I went for the big trans cooler. Just leery of the 4L60E crapping out somewhere in the middle of nowhere / desert southwest.

Put a shift kit in a THM400 in my old Firebird many years ago, it's pretty easy to do. Just don't lose any of the ball bearings / valve stops.

 

[Overlandtowater]

Thank Rayra I wont loose my marbles...LOL, My thinking is sense the trans does not slip now if I can keep the temps down and the pressure higher to keep the normal slips form happening then it should make it last longer....Like I said my thinking. I was just going to do the corvette servo and it turned into the shift kit.

 

[rayra]

(nodding head) 4L65E
I think your theory is good with a newer trans. I'm not so sure if it goes in one with a lot of clutch / band wear already. But we're gonna find out.
I just put a bit more about trans cooler upgrades in the Vortec Guys topic. Pics I put in there a year+ ago, but different words on how/why/where.


wish I could remember my old Chemistry lessons about mixing different solutions. Started with a 125k mi trans of 11.2 Qt capacity, siphoned about 4 qts and topped it off with some Valvoline MaxLife. Then about ~2yrs later did the same again.
If my crappy late night common-core-like math is right, my trans is ~77% newer fluid at this point. And that's as much as I want to mess with an aging transmission with ~142k on it. At this point I just figure to replace it with a 4L65E rebuilt if and when.

 

[Overlandtowater]

Went out today to explore some of the closest National Wildlife Refuge to me and found out first I just filled the tank for the first time sense replacing the fuel pump and now the gauge will not raise to full stops just a little over 3/4, and second the blower fan started running non stop even with the key is off so sounds like I'm going to have to replace the blow module. and I only got a couple of pictures of today it was busy. Mingo National Wildlife Refuge. Its pretty cool you go from Ozark hills, rocks, trees strait down literally to swamp and cypress bottoms its kind of cool 20 is mile auto tour mostly gravel.

 

[rayra]

IF that cluster's been apart it might just be the needle stuck on the stepper motor at the wrong position. One way to tell is just drive it normal until the low fuel light comes on and see where the needle is pointing when it does. If you just put a new pump in it really shouldn't be a rheostat problem with the pump / float.

 

[Overlandtowater]

Sense I'm on the HVAC system last summer I had a problem with the front air blowing warm when AC was on, the rear air blows super cold..... so I thought I would replace the Blend door mechanism when I do the blower module but I be danged at all the blend door mechanisms which one do I need?

 

[jonb8]

Yea mine does the same thing but only intermittently and only on the drivers side.. I shut mine off and when I turn it back on it blows cold again... I have no Idea which one though, I read up a little on it but I haven't got in the weeds yet.

 

[Overlandtowater]

My gosh man if you look on the parts web nothing makes sense to me, maybe I need a nap and look at it later.