1994 Diesel Suburban Build

[slowmover]

As to roof paint. In the Airstream trailer community on Airforums are a number of threads concerning this. Works. The new ones come this way from the factory. Ceramix brand was popular a few years back. (But no one recommends mobile home roof paint on aluminum; yet it might work for you).

[aardvarcus]

Got some progress made on the Suburban. I got a set of factory alloy PYO 16” wheels that were an option on the 2001-2010 8 lug trucks, which are the lightest weight factory wheel option that will fit the Suburban. I want to be able to use the 1992-1994 factory smooth wheel covers with these wheels, but the covers won’t snap fit the alloy wheels like they would the steel wheels because the mounting surface is angled outward. Because of this, I drilled and tapped the alloy wheels to be able to mount some brackets to hold the factory wheel covers in an alternative manner.

One I got all the holes drilled and threads tapped, I took some older tires I had lying around and had them mounted and balanced. So the Suburban now has functioning wheels and LT255/85R16 Cooper Discoverer A/S tires. I took the occasion to start and move the Suburban closer to my garage. I could tell as I changed the tires and drove it that the steering has a bit of play in it, so I will need to check out and replace some of those parts before it gets any road time.

Anyway, some pictures.

[me and my metro]

I drive that series of truck at work. I have a new pitman arm sitting on the shelf, just waiting for the next service interval to get it on the rack.

[aardvarcus]

Made some progress yesterday, I started to pull the accessories off of the GEP 6.5L engine. I pulled things off, and put them in zip lock bags and took pictures as I went. The brackets holding everything were very heavy; hopefully the Suburban versions won’t weigh nearly as much. I also started taking off some of the cut hoses and other items that were cut off as the engine was removed from the vehicle.

[aardvarcus]

Continued to pull parts off of the engine, got the exhaust headers and a variety of other sensors pulled off. Picked up some engine paint for the block (only doing the absolute necessities of course) and I have been researching and collecting other parts for the swap.

Made a junkyard run with one of my friends, unfortunately they were light on diesels and most of the Chevy and GMC trucks had already been picked fairly clean. I did score some sideview mirrors off of 2003/4 Audi A4s, they looked to be reasonably sized, would fit the factory spot with minimal modifications, and appeared to be fairly aerodynamically designed.

Anyway some pictures.

[elhigh]

Subbed.

[aardvarcus]

Sorry I haven’t posted an update in a bit, I have been super busy working on other household priorities. I am still researching and getting parts for the Suburban, picking up a few things at a time especially if I can find items I need on sale. Rock Auto had a wholesaler closeout with some Fel-Pro gaskets and other random nonsense so I got some of those items. I also watch for amazon deals on used/returned items.

Unfortunately because of this type of mentality my garage-workspace is getting to be tight quarters with a bunch of supplies for household and other projects. I am in the process of insulating, sealing, and enclosing the attic space over my garage, which will free up some space to work in the garage as well as help normalize the temperature swings of the garage a bit. So while this isn’t direct progress on the Suburban project, it will help enable future progress.

[bandit86]

I drive a 03 ram 2500 diesel, 6 speed. 35x12.5 17 mud tires and 3.73 gears. Best I ever got was 600 miles at 28 mpg with a 12 foot noat sticking out the back. I can get 40+ mpg upto 40 mph, by 50 it's just over 30, at 55 it starts dropping and it's all downhill from there, gets to be 17mpg by 70. Really not aerodynamic. When looking at the gallon per hour display,, I see a sudden increase at about 1700 rpm - cruising rpm- when the turbo starts spooling. If I could get some lightweight street tires, larger diameter, I might gain a few more mpg. Forgot where I was going, it's late

[aardvarcus]

No the project isn’t dead. Finally got the garage cleaned up and organized enough that I can work out there again.

Pulled the cover off the injection pump last night, the GEP optimizer 6.5 came with a DB2 injection pump, unfortunately it’s fuel shut off solenoid was 24 volts like the Humvee it came in. I had ordered a 12 volt version, and I got everything ready to swap over. One thing I don’t have is the cold start advance solenoid, it is 24V so I will need a 12 volt version of it as well.

Anyway some pictures.

[aardvarcus]

Made some more progress on the new engine. Got the 12V fuel shutoff solenoid swapped, and put the cover back on. I did not change out the other 24V solenoids on the injection pump as they are for cold engine idle/timing and not 100% mission critical, I thought about running a small 12V to 24V converter as that would be significantly less expensive than replacing the remaining solenoids. The converter would be downstream of the sensor, so it would only be powered up when the engine was cold, not the whole time it is running. Anyway if they don't work right I can always change them out later. Besides if they don't work, the engine will still run and drive just fine, just will run rougher when it is cold.

Flipped the engine upside down on the stand, found a bit more oil and coolant that hadn't quite been drained out yet. Pulled off the Humvee oil pan which won't clear the differential, and test fit the truck style oil pan, which I had purchased as a cheap new takeoff item from a boat engine company. As my research had already indicated, I ran into clearance issues with the Humvee style oil pickup. Instead of replacing the pickup tube, which is the typical fix, I simply adjusted the bracket holding the pickup tube to move it down 3/8 of an inch (down on an upside down engine). Then I clearanced the tray that divides the oil pan in half to allow the pickup to pass by it.

After pulling out the glow plugs, I was able to turn the engine over by hand and check out the engine bores. Everything looked nice and clean, no visible scratches or issues. Since the bottom end looked so nice, I decided not to pull the heads, to not have to replace the head gaskets and torque to yield bolts unnecessarily.

I picked up some permatex sealant, so I hope to get the oil pan reinstalled and back on the engine this evening, so that I can flip it back upright. Getting close to time to pull the old engine out of the engine bay, and start to swap over accessories and brackets.