Project “Polar Bear”: 1989 V2500 Suburban

[Larry]

Yep, the lope separation is really wide on this RayLar 202 cam. It doesn’t have an ounce of lope although it did when I first fired it on a stock tune with several stuck injectors (engine sat for several years before fire). You should go into tuning since you have a solid grasp of it all.

 

[justcuz]

Grasp is about it and not a real firm one at that!
Besides, I am retired and just want to play, build my own stuff and travel with it.

 

[backchat]

Anything new to report?

This is a great build and something i hope to accomplish someday in my '88 V30 Crew Cab. Always looking forward to your updates.

Thanks!

 

[Larry]

Anything new to report?

This is a great build and something i hope to accomplish someday in my '88 V30 Crew Cab. Always looking forward to your updates.

Thanks!

Hello,

Thanks for the comments

No, nothing new to report on the ole bear as its been a crazy busy summer and I’ve been busy building a 1991 K5 Blazer for a buddy of mine in my spare time. The only thing going on with the bear is that fact that I given up getting it to run correctly with the RayLar camshaft and collected a brand new factory 8.1L camshaft and install parts and will be removing the RayLar cam this winter. My personal feeling is the RayLar 202 cam is a great cam for a vehicle with fitted with an automatic transmission and electronic throttle as well as access to a tuner that knows what the hell they are doing. I don’t have any of that. While the Bear runs like a raped ape at wide open throttle. I mean it really does, it really runs! It is amazing how something this big can be so sneaky fast for its size but I cannot stand the normal drivability of it where the idle flares up every time you step on the clutch and just all around jerky operating. The tuner blames the cam and altitude (I live at 5000 ft), and lack of a throttle cracker (electronic throttle), RayLar blames the tuner, which I agree but I am sick of it and just want to move on to other things. I think it has somewhere around 800 miles on it now.

I had a halfass idea to drive it to San Diego on a business trip and leave it with RayLar’s tuner but that just isn’t going to work out in the short amount of time I plan to be in San Diego. In reality, I have more time and money into trying to get this damn cam to run and operate as smoothly has the K10 than what the Raylar cam cost to begin with. I just don’t feel the added power the cam adds is worth the tuning expense and hassles in the end. So, it’s coming out and being replaced with a stock GM cam then I will run the exact same ECM tune that is in the K10 now. When it is done the K10 and Polar Bear’s powertrains will be 100% the same outside of the fact the Bear has headers and those sumbishes may be coming off too if they leak one more time. The K10 8.1L recipe has proven to me to be a powerful and reliable combination as it has almost 8 years in it and 35,000 miles.

That’s it for now :coffeedrink:

 

[justcuz]

Engines are engines. If the manifold vacuum is lower than normal for your altitude, then the cam is too big. If you have good vacuum then it's your tuner. As you said earlier the RayLar has a wide LSA, so it's probably your tuner.
Looking around it seems most factory cams come in at .510 of lift. I suppose if you wanted to play around a bit you could increase the rocker ratio to 1.8 to 1 on the intake or exhaust valves and see if there is any performance improvement. 1.8 would take the lift at the valve from .510 to .540.
Most split duration cams have more lift and duration on the exhaust side.

Enough cam talk, you guys have any plans on doing a little fall color tour and post some photos up for us fall weather deprived west coasters?
With temps on the high 90's and 100's we won't see any leaves turning until December I fear.

 

[CRolandLJ]

Wow, just saw some of your builds on the other site, you're a legend.

 

[chilliwak]

Well I hope everything works out Larry. Always hoping tha a new build works as it should. At least you dont have to replace a injector pump on a 6.5 turbo diesel... Cheers, Chilli...:ylsmoke:

 

[Buckallred]

Hi Larry: awesome thread and awesome suburban. I hope you don't mind if I steal some of your ideas.

Which, speaking of: I recently picked up a 1989 suburban v2500 4x4 with a 6.2 diesel. White in color. 4" block lift, 35" tires with some life left (P315s I think). It does need some TLC, but it has fantastic potential. It has a grease kit on it, meaning it can run on waste vegetable oil. Which actually is more trouble than I realized. I actually am going to remove it. It involves having a 40 gallon grease tank in the trunk area.



As you can see, the kids are very excited. My wife, not so much. Current name candidates include Moby ********, the Stormtrooper, the Beast, or my wife's suggestion: White Trash.

Thanks again for all of your detailed write ups and awesome photos for those of us who are not nearly as skilled as you.

 

[Larry]

Hi Larry: awesome thread and awesome suburban. I hope you don't mind if I steal some of your ideas.

Which, speaking of: I recently picked up a 1989 suburban v2500 4x4 with a 6.2 diesel. White in color. 4" block lift, 35" tires with some life left (P315s I think). It does need some TLC, but it has fantastic potential. It has a grease kit on it, meaning it can run on waste vegetable oil. Which actually is more trouble than I realized. I actually am going to remove it. It involves having a 40 gallon grease tank in the trunk area.

View attachment 310592

As you can see, the kids are very excited. My wife, not so much. Current name candidates include Moby ********, the Stormtrooper, the Beast, or my wife's suggestion: White Trash.

Thanks again for all of your detailed write ups and awesome photos for those of us who are not nearly as skilled as you.

Hello! Welcome to Expo! I feel honored my thread is your first post.

No worries about steeling ideas from my Burb build….Hell, I stole most of them from others as well. LOL

6.2/6.5L’s are awkwardly cool. I wouldn’t mind having one myself running on a Banks Sidewider turbo. Nice looking rig you got there. Ya, my wife doesn’t take any interest in my rigs either so don’t feel bad. Glad your wife didn’t talk to mine on the burb names…mine came up with “Polar Bear” but I am totally surprised she didn’t come up with “White Trash” as well. LOL!!! Hope she doesn’t read this or she will want to rename it.

Kids love big trucks by nature through…..My 2 year gets quite a kick out of the big trucks loitering around the house. Definitely much more so than momma!

Not much new with my Polar Bear Burb in a while as work travel has been nuts this summer/fall. The ole Burb has been sitting next to the garage while I’ve been traveling and building a 91 K5 for my buddy Rob in my spare time. Got frustrated with trying to find a tuner to get the Raylar cam in the 8.1L to run right with my particular 8.1L swap recipe so I gave up and ordered a new stock GM cam through work and plan to get that installed over the holidays then copy the ECM tune from the ’78 K10 8.1L rig to run it. Once the Burb gets a stock GM cam the two rigs will virtually be identical in powertrains aside from transfercases so they should run like identical twins….which is good.

I met with Larry from RayLar last week on business travel to San Diego. He wasn’t butthurt at all that I was removing his cam and understands my reason for doing it. If I was running a slushbox trans, electronic throttle and had access to truly talented tuners here in CO the RayLar cam would be the cat’s meow. Maybe on the next 8.1L project rig (oh, yeah….there will be more) I’ll go back to a crazy bigger Raylar cam as beating down "Hey Bro's" and ranch honkey's in riced up turbo diesel trucks from stop light to stop light is so much fun! For now, I just want it to be rock solid stupid durable and reliable powertrain with Cadillac road manors like the K10 has had for the past 7 years since it’s repower. Drivabily roadmanors isn't something I can't say my Burb currently has.

Thanks for your post

 

[PGW]

Those are some cool rigs you got there and some real clean engine swaps. I'm a big fan of the 8.1L's, I have a 8.1L Yukon XL that is a blast to drive, I love that nice fat torque curve. Have you thought about porting the intake manifold? That supposedly helps the 8.1L's breathe much better. Raylar charges $950 to do it but some people have done it themselves for much cheaper.

 

[Buckallred]

6.2/6.5L's are awkwardly cool. I wouldn't mind having one myself running on a Banks Sidewider turbo. Nice looking rig you got there. Ya, my wife doesn't take any interest in my rigs either so don't feel bad. Glad your wife didn't talk to mine on the burb names…mine came up with “Polar Bear” but I am totally surprised she didn't come up with “White Trash” as well. LOL!!! Hope she doesn't read this or she will want to rename it.

I have driven many diesels, learned to drive on a tractor, but this one is the first I have owned. The 6.2 isn't a popular engine by any stretch, but it gets the job done and has lots of parts easily findable for repairs or mods. The best thing about it all to me is that in CA it is totally smog-exempt! I am working on some basic repairs/upgrades, and am going to have a lot of fun with it with the kids.

 

[Larry]

Those are some cool rigs you got there and some real clean engine swaps. I'm a big fan of the 8.1L's, I have a 8.1L Yukon XL that is a blast to drive, I love that nice fat torque curve. Have you thought about porting the intake manifold? That supposedly helps the 8.1L's breathe much better. Raylar charges $950 to do it but some people have done it themselves for much cheaper.

Thanks!

Yeah, there are a lot of guys on the 8.1L Facebook group that have done the intake mod. When I was at RayLar last week I got to see intakes in process. Pretty cool. It’s supposed to help greatly with the top end. I’m personally not interested in doing that mod to any of my 8.1Ls. There is something to be said for the drivability and durability of a bone stock engine. Just a bump in fuel pressure and ECM tuning alone to turn off EGR, Torque Management and lean enrichment wakes up the 8.1L immensely without needing any aftermarket dodads. My stock K10 8.1L with just ECM tuning will run circles around my bone stock 2001 Silverado with an 8.1L/ZF S-650. The Polar Bear burb with the RayLar cam blows both of them away. All three run entirely different but I prefer the overall power and drivability of the K10 over all of them. The bone stock 8.1L in the Silverado actually feels a bit wheezy due to how badly GM has the ECM tune neutered. It is really noticeable after driving the K10 and Burb for a while.

I have driven many diesels, learned to drive on a tractor, but this one is the first I have owned. The 6.2 isn't a popular engine by any stretch, but it gets the job done and has lots of parts easily findable for repairs or mods. The best thing about it all to me is that in CA it is totally smog-exempt! I am working on some basic repairs/upgrades, and am going to have a lot of fun with it with the kids.

That’s a good deal! :victory:

 

[chilliwak]

Looking forward to seeing more of your smokin rig Larry. Cheers, Chilli.......:drool:

 

[legendaryandrew]

Sooooo....whatcha doin with that raylar cam?? ;-)

 

[Larry]

Sooooo....whatcha doin with that raylar cam?? ;-)

It's going into a buddy's 1995 Tahoe that is getting a 8.1L transplant.