# My suburban -



## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

A little background - 

I've always been a 'burban boy. My parent's said I cried when I was 5-6ish and they sold one we had then (lol). - I drove a '95 K1500 SLT for a few years, downed it to do a drivetrain transplant and it has basically just sat in neglect for a few years now as the body was honestly too rough to warrant fixing. I decided I'd get it back going as intended and just find a clean body to swap in place, but scored a great deal on a running K2500 with a super clean body, thus I'm simply putting my custom powertrain in it & swapping my loaded interior over. 


Now onto the "victim". After a light wash/polish the day I drove it home - 









Gave $1k for it & drove it home, though the trans was mortally wounded. 454TBI/4L80E trans, ifs front/full-floater 14-bolt rear. It had had a roughly life for its almost 250k miles, heavily dirt/grease stained interior. Motor was supposedly rebuilt within the last 40k miles, all kinds of new gaskets/sensors/etc and signs of a major over-heat suggested they probably cooked it and had to freshen it up. 

I cleaned it up a drove it for a few weeks in basically stock form, getting a whopping 10-11mpg...."ain't nobody got time for dat".









A TBI big-block was never an efficiency minded motor, but the same engine/trans in our *32' motorhome *manages 11-12 while towing our loaded enclosed car trailer.....tells me what the simple "free mods" and namely what a full exhaust(headers & all) can do to really help efficiency.

Apart it came to start the list of mods:
- custom 4" suspension lift
- 305/5.0l full-roller short block, mildly ported 350 "vortec" heads, TPI intake manifold, '97 sequential-fire efi computer/harness, all force fed from an Eaton M112 blower (ford lightning/cobra blower). 
- Full length ceramic coated headers & all mandrel bent dual 2.5" merging to single 3.5" exhaust that I had on the '95
- Essentially stock 4L80E with a shift correction/improvement kit(an 80 will handle around 700-800hp in basically stock form, so no reason to upgrade much)
- Interior swap from the later SLT
- 18" or 20" wheels with likely 33's, but maybe 35's. 

It's being built as a nice/fun daily driver/tow rig, shooting for high teen/low 20 mpg & enough torque to pull the enclosed trailer comfortably on the cruise control at 75mph w/o downshifting for every over-pass. - I got 18-19mpg out of a 2-door tahoe on 35's with a 355 & crappy OBD1 TPI computer, so the smaller bore motor & better ecu should get me within reason and the "boost on demand" of the roots blower should give me plenty of power when wanted. 

The interior swap wasn't as straight forward as one might think. The later door cards required changing all hardware(including all handles & linkage rods) and the mid passengers' door frames are slightly different than the later, thus some cutting/grinding was required to fit everything up. I haven't yet swapped the dash/steering column but it also requires cutting out the entire column/pedal mount assembly and welding the later one back in place. - I only seem to have one pic of the int uploaded as of now, a shot of the door cards. I'll be working on the dash swap tonight, and will take pics accordingly. 










Being a daily driver/tow rig I decided it made sense to keep the IFS, though in all honesty an SAS swap would have been a much easier route. - I measured everything up and figured out that if I cut the stock upper a-arm mounts off and moved them from the top edge to the bottom edge of the frame it would net me a true 4" worth of lift. Then I cut the lower mounts & crossmember off and spaced them down with several sections of 2x4 box tubing. Every "spacer" is at least doubled up(thus 4x4 with 4 upright walls) and they also span a length of the frame rail. I still have a couple braces to add, but I'm happy with the results - 


all cut-off - 









notching/boxing in the lower section of the rail to allow full caster/camber adjustability/a-arm movement - 









front mount welded back in it's new place - 


















rear - 









All cleaned-up/finished - 









Spacing lower mounts/crossmember down, behind the sections of 2x4 that you can see here there is another peice standing up right(at the inside edge of the frame rail, welded to the sections viewed here at the outside edge) - 



















I'm going to run a section of angle from the lower-front edge of the crossmember up to the very front of frame rail. Will add some additional bracing & make a nice spot to mount a big skid plate to. 









The rear of the front diff mounts is part of the rear-lower a-arm mount thus it moved down along with the above a-arm mounts. The front mounts are part of the engine mounting platforms, thus I built extensions to lower them accordingly - 









Drop blocks for the torsion bar crossmember, cut with my logo just because. The back side is notched open so that the crossmember sets inside the box, while still being box for a few inches forward of & behind the crossmember. - 









I used two drag links to build the drop unit - 









Front suspension bolted back up - 









Front all back together - 



























In the rear I simply built some custom blocks. They are fully welded to the spring perches/axle housing and are wedged to correct the pinion angle. I made them 4" on the short side & 4.5" on the long, should have gone 4 x 4.25 as I almost back the pinion off too much. It's still down 3-4* at ride height so I don't think it will be an issue, but I will re-work them if I have a vibration. - I'll be building some custom traction bars for it as well, later on. 

Suspension all back together & standing a true 4" taller - 










The new long block is sitting in it now. Will be working on the dash/colum swap tonight, hopefully get it done so that I can get the exhaust & accessory drive on tomorrow night. Then mod/install the wiring harness, put the front clip back on & it should be back on the road. Also gotta swap my step-bars over. 

Hopefully have a nice set of wheels/tires on it shortly. I will probably leave the blower off for a little while till I decide what I want to do on the tuning. Paint will be one of the last things, thinking a nice 1-1/2 or 2" cowl hood would suit it nicely. Probably sport a nice "D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F" sticker at least until paint, lol.

Also looking at having the later "non-chrome" looking rear windows swapped over.


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## Polaris425 (Dec 16, 2004)

lookin good so far


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## 2010Bruterider (Jun 20, 2010)

Wow! When you start a build thread, you don't mess around. It looks like you're doing a good job. The lift looks good on it. Keep up the good work.


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Thanks guys. 

I tend to not start a thread until I have a good amount of progress done. Provides better info & makes it easier to read.


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## Eight (Mar 24, 2010)

Good work. SAS with a nice set of coil overs, with mild lift would have been awesome, mainly because you don't see many burbs of that era with a SFA. IFS will net much better ride quality tho, which is the most important feature in the long run. I would mind a nice obs to roll as a daily. Keep up the awesome fab work man.


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## Cal3bCart3r (Mar 5, 2012)

nice fab work man! can't wait to see it with those 35's on it :bigok:


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Had a 4-day weekend, but barely got to touch it. My two year old daught was home with me Thurs & had "one of those days". Then we were on the road Fri at 4am to run almost 900 miles round trip up into Georgia to pick up our new enclosed trailer, then took the family up to see the in-laws & hit the Strawberry Festival Sat-Sun. 

The deal I had lined up for a nice set of 18's & 33's fell through, so still on the hunt for wheels/tires. 



I have both dashes out, the entire a/c boxes out, & the body harnesses out(power windows/etc). Gotta cut both column mounts out & swap the later one over, then put all the later stuff in. - The window/lock etc harnesses actually have the same plug-ins, but the wires are in a different pin-out order............that's some stupid shizz, but whatever, not a big deal to swap them out at this point.


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Been tinkering on the front accessory drive during the week, don't get much time after work before it gets dark so most works gets done over the weekend(s). 


Worked on the new enclosed trailer all day Sat, but got the dash swapped yesterday. - Definitely not a simple job, to really do it right I ended up cutting a section out of both firewalls to swap, along with cutting the entire steering column/pedal mount out and swapping it over. Got all that done along with putting the insulation back in place & mounting the a/c box in. 

column/pedal mount out: 









section of firewall cut-out:


















Differences on the column opening as well as the main elec connector plug & some other misc cable/wire holes:









Welded in:









Column/pedal mount in:




















I set the main dash in place, but just loosely as I have some misc to finish up underneath first that will be a lot easier to do with it out. It ws getting dark so I didn't snap any pics, but will get some at some point. 


A lot more of a job than most would realize in swapping from the early dash to the later. Several holes changed, some moved, some completely eliminated/added.


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## Nasty-Nate (Nov 26, 2012)

Badass man! Gonna look sweet we just finished a solid axle swap on my buds 94 z71 !


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## kirkland (Oct 24, 2012)

This is gonna be awesome! Keep up the good work!


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Thanks guys


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## mikenick937 (Mar 4, 2013)

Nice work man!


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

A few pics of the main dash loosely in & the front door cards -


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## 2010Bruterider (Jun 20, 2010)

It's starting to look like something again. It's one of a kind now, for sure. I like the dedication, keep up the good work.

---don't go away mad, just go away---


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## brutemike (Mar 23, 2010)

Very nice work you have to have patients for that kind of work.


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Thanks guys. - It's definitely been quite the project, even more so than I expected. 


I've got the top-end all on the motor now & started working on the blower & a/c bracket. The dash is also "final" installed. 

Probably have to let it sit a couple weeks at this point & switch modes to get everything ready for an up-coming Trucks Gone Wild event at our local mud park. Still out-fitting the new trailer & MH, as well as some odds-n-ends to fix on the quad, so need to focus on that stuff the next couple weeks.


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## jrpro130 (May 10, 2009)

Looks awesome!


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Thanks Ricky. 


Dash/column in, gauge cluster in & bezel snapped on for pics - 









This gauge cluster is actually kinda rare to come by, it's the escalade/denali cluster which has white pointers instead of yellow, and a 120mph speedo instead of 90mph - 









And the motor - 


















blower & a/c compressor laying around while I started figuring out the bracket for them -


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## lilbigtonka (Dec 30, 2008)

Can't wait to see the finished product is this gonna be the daily driver and what color you painting it


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Yes, will be my DD/tow rig. - Just going back with a burgundy color as it was OE, with a darker more "charcoal" gray metallic around the bottom instead of the silver. Too much of a PITA to color swap it.


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Been overly busy with other things(namely the new enclosed trailer & motorhome), but got a few things buttoned up. 

Decided not to mess with the blower for now as I need to "clean my project slate" for a while & regain my sanity. Had decided to run the blower with the proper 8-rib lower pulley any way & just put it on it's own belt, so no big deal to put it on later when I'm not so burnt out from working too much. 

Stuck the complete '97 truck brackets on so as to have the later model/larger Sanden style compressor instead of the R4 "pancake". The brackets won't coperate with the TPI intake, so had to shorten the stancions on the back of the drivers' side bracket enough to allow a section of 3/16 plate to fit in between, which allowed me to relocate the bolt holes & tip the top out some to clear the throttle body/cables/inlet piping. 

Modified bracket & relocate plate I built - 









Couple of the pieces cut off to comphensate for the 3/16 plate - 









My bracket bolted onto the head, shows how the mount holes moved - 









Everything bolted up - 











Now on to the plumbing. Fuel lines, heater hoses, and a/c lines. Then mod the wiring harness from the "spider" injector to the standard EV1's, install it, and put the front clip back on. Then drop the fuel tank & swap in the 255 pump and it will be rolling.


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## kirkland (Oct 24, 2012)

Nice, I can't wait till this is done its gonna be sick


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## lilbigtonka (Dec 30, 2008)

When Jp does stuff he does it right so can't see this thing being anything other then awesome as far as motor goes


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Thanks guys. 

Got a list of the little misc all sorted out:
- fuel lines
- t-stat kneck/rad hoses
- heater hoses 
- powersteering/hydra boost
- brake lines
- EGR block-off plate

I'm running Caddy Northstar injectors(happened to have a set for some reason, and they're 24# so perfect for the stock ecu tune). They're slightly shorter than most standard "ev1" style injectors so I shortened the bolt-down stancions for the fuel rails & they're ready. 

I also dug around & found the right water pump pulley. The 96+ brackets offset back further than the TPI car brackets & need the corresponding wp pulley, problem is I'm running the earlier wp w/o the two extra bypass hose connections that the 96+ has and it has a smaller/standard sbc bolt pattern. In my misc stuff I found a '95 pulley which is the longer offset/non guided pulley, but fits the standard pattern wp. 


To do list is growing smaller:
- rear traction bars
- mod/install engine wiring harness
- put front clip back on
- change fuel pump(from stock to hi-flow/pressure 255lph pump)
- bolt exhaust up(also have to build tail pipe, was just dumped out of muffler previously)

Between now & Sunday I hope to have it up & running.


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

What a job the wiring harness turned out to be. 16 wires for the injectors was expected(convert vortec "spider injector" over to standard EV1's) but almost every wire for the accessories/sensors/etc had to be lengthened to enable the harness to tuck in instead of basically just laying on top the motor. Once I realized that, I kinda went all-out and lengthened everything so as to run the harness up the center of the intake, all under the plenum & tucked away. A LOT of work, but came up as clean as reasonably possible. - All were lengthened with the same wire color/tracer color as factory so as to keep it as clean/diagnosable as possible. Even the injectors all utilize the OE color code per each cylinder. All wires were crimped with non-insulated(bare terminal, no colored covers) splices that were filled with die-electric grease & individually heat shrunk over top. Makes for a long process, but also makes for years of trouble-free operation as if it were completely OE. 





























Once the wiring was done I was able to set a big piece back on, to help improve my motivation. 









Very happy with the stance of the true 4". This is setting on the current 285/75/16's which are basically a 32x11.5, could fit a 35 but I'll stick with a 33x12.50 for what I want.


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## brute69 (Mar 7, 2012)

That thing is going to be sweet I love those old chevy/gmc they run forever put some 33x12.50 Micky Thomson claw radials on that thing it wold look bad


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Well, it stumbled to life yesterday evening. Still a lot ot little things to finish up before I start driving it, but it should be rolling sometime this week. 

Took some pics of the fuel lines. Re-shaped/bent factory hard lines, combined with a custom SS braided feed & high-pressure/marine grade rubber return. I even drilled the drivers' side front bracket & snapped one of the factory retaining brackets in to streamline everything in as if it were stock. 


















Factory hard line routes out behind ps pump, & hooks-up to the custom soft/flex lines between motor & frame(pic angle is decieving, exhaust primary is a good 6-8" above lines). 










Also built my custom fan shroud/mount. Bolts into the factory shroud holes, not as nice over-all fitment as it could have been but plenty good enough for a daily driver truck. 



























2-speed fans mounted & edges lined.


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## Cal3bCart3r (Mar 5, 2012)

Dude i like tht custom fan shroud, keep up the good work!


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

I have SOOOOOOOO many curse words for this thread right now I don't even know where to begin.......


GM needs a butt-whippin' for making the stock spyder injector plug-in basically reversible. - Yes, that means my injectors are wired completely cross meaning they have to be swapped front to rear & bank to bank. Fronts will move back easily enough, rears will have to have a length of wire spliced in-line, two splices/heat shrink per wire, two wires per injector, four injectors.......and that's after ripping the top back off the intake & opening the harness back up.


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## jrpro130 (May 10, 2009)

HOLY crap! Thats no good!


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

My own fault for not looking at it closer. Just really annoying that I cut all the injector wires down to length & now will have to splice a length of wire back into 8 wires. - I hate having multiple connections in the same length of wire, just an OCD thing.


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!

I posted a little vid on FB(not sure how to link it here) & took it to go to dinner last night. Found a couple injector o-rings leaking so I left it home today, but will have that fixed tonight & will start dd'ing it tomorrow.


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## jrpro130 (May 10, 2009)

Sounds great, I saw the video on FB!


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

A few updated pics - 



















Air intake plumbing is 3-1/2" per the stock MAF housing size. I will eventually build a fiberglass wall to seperate the filter off the from engine bay, but not a priority right now. 


Been DD'ing it 5 days now, running fine but is down on power. It's acting like the cam is off so I'm gonna have to degree it & see where it's at. We just stabbed it in "straight up" per the marks but it's being really lazy below 2300ish, as if it the cam is retarded. - Either that or the missing full point of compression for the boost kills it more than I thought it would NA. In which case I could stab the 4.10 gears in from the other rear I have(and just swap the front diffs complete) but instead I might just use that as motivation to get the blower on it, though then it will definitely need tuned. 

Still need to put the MSD box on it too, that will help some by itself. Also have to lengthen the low-side A/C line(as you can see still loose in the pics) so that I can get the A/C up and operating.


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## Polaris425 (Dec 16, 2004)

starting to look better for sure


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## 2010Bruterider (Jun 20, 2010)

That's a real clean install. great job. You'll have an original, that's for sure!


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

This is week three of DD'ing it, got a few more things ironed out with the drivetrain/tuning & I'm at 380miles on the first half of tank. Knowing the typical GM gauge swing(though these tanks are very square, so not as bad as most) I won't get quite as many miles out of the second half, but I'm on target to get about 640-660miles out of 40 gallons which would put me right around 16-16.5mpg mixed city/highway driving. - I'm happy enough with that being as this motor is not at all built to run naturally aspirated, thus the relatively low compression & having a bit too much cam w/o the blower is definitely hurting it some in town/out of lights, causing it to labor some when accelerating. 

I need to decide on a tuning software program & get after it some. As a band-aid for now I backed the fuel pressure off to a happy medium between not stumbling lean on throttle "tip-in" vs not being overly rich at part-throttle acceleration & cruising speeds.

---------- Post added at 08:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:30 AM ----------

Once I get some time to deal with swapping the ABS module & all the brake lines to/from it to the later model stuff it will help clean the engine bay up considerably. - Definitely not going for show-truck worthy by any means, just a nice clean DD/tow rig.


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## Polaris425 (Dec 16, 2004)

thats pretty good for a big heavy buss like that lol


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

I think so. Being up 4" and rolling on 33's with 3/4 ton drivetrain in a short-bus is bad enough in itself & this motor running NA isn't helping itself either. - I think with the blower on to get it moving easier with less throttle down-low & the tuning all sorted out I can get it around 18 combined average, which is what I'm looking for. 16ish town, 20ish highway should put me on point.


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Somebody shoot me now........just get this thing rolling and I'm heavily contemplating a swap to a diesel.......


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## Polaris425 (Dec 16, 2004)

haha! You sound like me. Always wanting to try something different.


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Not really wanting to add more work by any means, but I don't think I'm going to get what I want out of this combo. - Looking like 16-17ish average is all it's going to do, and while that is plenty respectable for what it is, I won't be happy with it. With that in mind, I have roughly $1500-2k left to spend to get the blower on, get it tuned, etc and if that isn't going to do enough for me then I'd be ahead to throw in the towel now & put that $ towards a different set-up entirely.


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## kirkland (Oct 24, 2012)

12 valve!! Do it! Do it!

I'd say a duramax but mine don't get gas mileage for nothin lol stupid emissions!


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

It's indeed looking like a 12v is in my future, either a 94-98 P-pump motor or conversion to said pump. jrpro130 is looking at swapping his truck to a manual trans & I need a complete motor/acc drive/IC, etc, so we may partner up on a "donor" truck to get everything each of us needs. 

I will keep my 4L80E trans in place, utilizing a stand-alone trans controller & a stock diesel converter for it. - That will get me rolling for now, if I later decide to turn the motor up beyond 300-400hp then I'll swap to an aftermarket converter & better input shaft(engine braking beats the stocker up over time).


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## jrpro130 (May 10, 2009)

Still on the lookout for a donor!


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Giddy like a school girl! - ordered the new rimz today, 20x10


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## sloboy (Oct 11, 2010)

That's a good looking wheel.


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Thanks, I took me quite a while to find one I really liked. I'm really picky on wheels, has to flow with the rest of the vehicles' styling well and can't be too overly common. 




I should also update - 

The little 5.0 is doing ok for what it is. It would do a lot better with the blower or with another point & half of compression, but I don't feel either will make me happy enough all-around to warrant putting more money into this combo. I've got a nice fresh higher compression 5.7 sitting here ready to go, but not really feeling that either. 

I picked up a multi-port EFI intake for the big-block. Going to pull the heads & check it out; will have them shaved .060 & will blend the bowls in the ports. Throw a mild marine hyd roller cam in it and I'll likely see another 1-2mpg over what I'm getting now & will definitely see a nice improvement in torque. - That will hold me over for the time being, knowing myself I will more than likely do the 12v swap in the future, but it's just not something I want to tackle anytime soon. Too mush other misc/projects going on & I haven't spent enough time playing either.


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## Polaris425 (Dec 16, 2004)

It's all greek to me. But the rims looks nice!


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Not winning. - Just got an email back from the company I ordered from, with an attached file showing the email from the MFG saying they are out of stock & have no ETA on when they will have them???? How the heck can the mfg not know when they will have them? 


I seem to have a knack for ordering wheels that are impossible to get a hold of, some of y'all may remember I went through this on my Can-Am......


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Tried a few vendors & nobody has them in stock. The guy I placed the order with made some more phone calls and got an estimated ship date of August 30. As much as anyone hates to wait once they "pull the trigger" on something like this, I'd rather wait a month and have what I really want vs being antsy & not being as happy with the end results. 


That aside, as luck would have it I had a tire come apart yesterday morning. Managed to find a full set of 285/75/16 Michelins with decent life left in them for $150. Threw two of them yest evening & back rolling. They should hold me off long enough.


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## Polaris425 (Dec 16, 2004)

that sucks.


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## Cal3bCart3r (Mar 5, 2012)

Tht sucks about the wheel delay but i promise u Aug. 30 will be here faster than u think lol


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## kirkland (Oct 24, 2012)

Found your donor truck lol


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

YEAH BABY!!!!! - arrived ahead of schedule!













Should have them on over the weekend.


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## Polaris425 (Dec 16, 2004)

ooooooooooo


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## big_boat_fishing (Jun 2, 2013)

Can't wait to see them on! Was thinking of getting rid of the chrome hostages and getting those!!


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## CumminsPower24 (Jul 8, 2011)

:rockn: That is a nice looking rim JP..


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

Going on with the 33 Cooper A/T's from the wife's ranger for right now. Once we get her new truck, I'll order rims for it to suit the Cooper's & a new set of 35 Toyo's for me.


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## catman3516 (Dec 15, 2013)

pull that weak *** 305 tpi out and stick a 383votec in or do a 6.0ls swap-tons better on the ls swap and easier to find donor trucks. no matter what you do-shy of 4.56s in the pumpkins- that 305 can not do what you want in that burb. its just to heavy of a vehicle.


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## JPs300 (Mar 23, 2011)

The 305 did just fine for several years in the previous 'burban, just took around 10-12psi of boost......lol. 16-18mpg & towed my loaded enclosed car trailer just fine. This time around I tried 350 vortec heads to drop the compression back some to allow more boost and it just lost too much bottom-end w/o the blower. Instead of anymore refining the combo, I'm swapping to a 12v cummins with compound twins. 

I'll try to get some updated pics on here; I absolutely LOVE the wheels, they fit the look of the truck perfectly. It's headed for paint in the not too distant future.


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