Monster - 1974 GMC Suburban 2500 Super Custom

[kikkegek]

Recently bought a 74 GMC Suburban 2500 Super custom...

sweet ride:

- 4" lifted
- 35 inch tires
- 2 year old crate 350 engine
- edelbrock perfformer intake
- they replaced the whole front end during the last inspection

very happy with it

some pics of it



the night we picked it up



on the road with our other 86 Suburban



very cool tag



Edelbrock SDT mufflers, sound great


they installed a later model roofconsole



it had been standing still for allmost 2 years, so replaced the transmission and engine oil and filters


they swapped the tailgate for cargo doors, but didnt swap the bottom part...doors dont shut all the way





I replaced all bulbs (all were broken) with leds, planning on putting ledstrips in there and painting the reflector and bucket gloss white like in my other Burb. but at least I can see how fast I drive at night for now



it backfired on cold starts and took for ever to crank it it the morning. checked the HEI BAT terminal and it only got 11.4V and during cranking ot dropped to 7-8V. So supercharged the HEI by wiring it to the firewall terminal through a relay.







result:
no more backfires
cold starts in 2-3 rotations of engine in the morning
stronger idle

[special-K]

Very nice! I like the early square bodies because they are a transition from the '72s.

[68Timber]

Nice score! With 4" lift and 35's I thought it'd tower over the black and white truck. Are they the same height?

[kikkegek]

no they arent Bruiser. driving the Sylvester (BW suburban) feels like it is slammed and bagged right now....smooth and low ride...while the lifted Monster feels very rough and high, hahaha...

Sylvester has no lift and 30.5" tires
and Monster has 4" lift and 34.5" tires

here's a better view:

[kikkegek]

I recently bought a CB Performance Black Box for $175,-

pretty nice specs and hooks right up to my HEI ignition.

http://www.cbperformance.com/Product...oductCode=2013

Features
21 x 21 Spark Table
5 Bar MAP Sensor (good to 43 psi)
Adjustable RPM/MAP Load Boundaries
Low and high end adjustable rev limiter
4, 6 & 8 Cylinder Applications
Easy to use Windows-based Software (requires XP, Vista, 7 or 8)
7' Flying Lead Harness
Electrical Terminals Included
Serial Cable Included (some computers may require #2015 USB to Serial Adapter)
Instructions, wiring diagrams and Tuning Video on included CD
Conformal coated circuit board with surface mount components
Made in the USA
#2040 Vacuum Reference Kit recommended for Dual Carb Applications

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=7qv87mFw6T4



cant wait to get it hooked up and start tuning

[mcrich01]

Real Nice I see you were talking about switching the tailgate for doors. I asked about that before but never got a clear answer. Do you know what all needs to be done to do this I have a tailgate but prefer doors.

[kikkegek]

Originally Posted by mcrich01

Real Nice I see you were talking about switching the tailgate for doors. I asked about that before but never got a clear answer. Do you know what all needs to be done to do this I have a tailgate but prefer doors.

thanks man.

The swap is easy on the pre-81 models I believe. They have the mounts for the hinges of the doors already in the body. The newer models 81-87 I believe dont.

so you just screw the doors on.

The one thing you want to make sure to get is the bottom part where the door locks to the chassis. I havent done it myself, but its supposed to also just be fastned with some bolts and maybe some strong glue of some kind.

[kikkegek]

score! got my hands on a cheap second hand double fan setup.



now I can take that ugly nasty flex-fan off.

question: anybody know this style of connector. the guy that sold it to me didnt know from what car it came, nor did he have the connectors.

anybody where you can get these?





this is the only info I can find on the fans. Cant find any info on these numbers.



also tested the tach in 4cilinder mode 2night to see if it would max out....yes it did..check 0:59 seconds, hahahaha...

guess I'll have to put it in 6cilinder mode to get me a range of 6,000rpm in stead of 8,000rpm


http://youtu.be/HaDEFFWnXh8

[Cherub]

how much trouble was it switching to rear cargo doors?

[chevak20]

Wow nice find. I envy you having two trucks that run. My project is on hold after a ski accident.

[kikkegek]

Originally Posted by Cherub

how much trouble was it switching to rear cargo doors?

was done by previous owner..sorry, no details.
only thing I know is they didnt take the bottom part of the chassis from the vehicle where it locks the doors...and now the doors dont alock all the way



which should have looked like this:

[Cherub]

ok thank you. great suburbans you got

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

Nice addition to the family looks pretty beastly. Clean as well though good score gonna be a fun project

[kikkegek]

Thanks man

[Edahall]

Does this 74 Suburban avoid the $3,300 owners-tax?

[kikkegek]

Originally Posted by Edahall

Does this 74 Suburban avoid the $3,300 owners-tax?

you guessed it! 40 years and older are considered oldtimers and dont have to pay owners-tax, because they represent our driving heritage...

and thats the way I like it...cars were build to drive and should be driven...not stowed away in a garage only to come out every now and then...that would be a loss for everybody

[68Timber]

I hate you had to park Sylvester after owning it so long, but the upside is you replaced it with a 3/4 ton lifted round eye Burb. I think you'll enjoy this truck more after you've done all the upgrades to it you did to the other truck.

[kikkegek]

retrofitting my 7" headlights with aftermarket xenon projectors from TheRetrofitSource. I am using the Porsche Panamera Shroud and put some 100mm angel eyes behind them. what you guys think?

http://youtu.be/BTpkbV4KdK0

[kikkegek]

finally got some work done. Added a double cool-fan







the two fans are controlled from 60-100% by a Flex-a-lite #31165 variable fan controller
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/flx-31165

put my temp-cap on temporarily to check the temp, since my dash temp isnt that accurate.



took a pic of Monster in the Wild!





I got the butyl sealant in to close up my headlights again.

http://www.retrofitlab.com/butyl-rubber-sealing.html
[img]http://www.retrofitlab.com/images/products/44/Headlight%20sealant%20butyl.jpg[/im]

mounted the new retrofitted headlights. just have to connect the amber Angel Eyes









The output right side


and left


added a under dash temp gauge and green led to signal when the fans come on. makes it easier to set the fan controller at the right temperature

[kikkegek]

couple updates:

Master brake cylinder was leaking. replaced it and cleaned up the booster.




checked the booster and luckily the booster was ok and dry on the inside.



hooked up the angel eyes to my parking lights





sold to old stereos and got a very good deal on a Kenwood double din. Now to make a plan for a custom center console.



cleaned up my shocks. wanted to know the brand of the lift kit the PO used. it rides very stif so thinking about upgrading to Ranhco RS9000XL shocks. Anybody used them before?



added a couple of gauges to my top dashboard. tach with custom Monster display (set the setting to 6 cylinders and changed the range from 8 to 6 k), vacuumgauge and voltmeter.




central door locking and alarm wasnt working. PO made a mess of it. so took te whole thing out of the car.



checked it, labelled it and voila. fixed. all doors locked at the touch of a button. Nice feature with two little girls and 2 big dogs and only two hands available hahahaha...



just a nice pic of my girls and our Monster.



now its a real Monster, hahaha. asked Monster Energy in America for some sitckers. 6 weeks later I received them here in the Netherlands!



closed up the gap GM for some reason left in the defrost connection of the ventilation system with Ducttape.

[kikkegek]

he guys, finally an update!

I had bought a CB Performance Black Box (programmable ignition). I already had the box since december, but didnt have time to get it installed.

http://www.cbperformance.com/Product...oductCode=2013



Finally found some time this week. I had some hard time getting it to run properly. I tried installing it using the magnetic trigger schematic.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4s...it?usp=sharing

but the signal wasnt good enough. I had all kinds of noise and the car wanted to stall all the time...

so I looked at the options again and saw the point_module_hall_coil_wiring option:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4s...it?usp=sharing

rewired it and VOILA!...runs like a champ

here is the manual:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4s...it?usp=sharing

these are the software screens:
main screen


load range screen:


timing map screen


you can program a 21x21 timing map and have a couple of special buttons in the bottom to help.

I made a excel spreadsheet to help me design a timing map. I set a couple of numbers and it fills the 21x21 table



little clip of the software running
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaVhzNNnUnw

so...now to find some time to start testing and maybe go on a adyno anytime soon

[kikkegek]

Sold my engine 10 weeks ago and finally could rebuild the small block I had bought a year ago.

1970 Short block 3970010 casting, bored over .030 and honed
14101083 heads with 64cc chambers for some extra compression
Comp Cams XE250H-10 camshaft
Sealed power Pistons H345DCP30
Cloyes double roller chain 9-3500TX9
Edelbrock Torker II intake
600cfm throttle plate with IMPCO 425 propane mixer
CB Performance Black Box (fully programmable ignition system)
new oil pump
replaced the v-belts with a 93 C1500 serp-system

finally finished my build and got around to starting the engine...

dont mind my Dutch comment

http://youtu.be/bH2MqekWXi4

after breakin in the engine for over 20min. I tried driving it. It had absolutely no power at more then 5% of the throttle and vacuum dropped allmost immediately when increasing throttle. Vacuum at idle was just a poor 10-12inches.

after some research, pulling the intake and watching the valves while turning the balancer I found out I had the camshaft wrongly aligned

there is a inner and outer ZERO on the small sprocket. I aligned it using the inner ZERO....dooohhhhhhhh!!!!


see where it is about 20-30 degrees out of alignment


this is correctly aligned


started the engine again and idle was at 18 inches of vacuum and idle quality was very smooth

http://youtu.be/iQVNYHc4s2g

at first I used a gasket without a exhaust crossover, but the exhaust just blew right through:


so searched a little online and found a guy that had stuffed the crossover in the intake with aluminium foil and cut some blocking plates from a tin can.









drove it for over 100 miles now and the intake has not changed a bit in color. Guess the block off is working




final assembly
with air filter on


without


and pictures of the bare engine


first mileage I got was 1:4,16 driving 100 kph over 100 miles

previous engine with performer cam from Edelbrock and dual plane intake got us only 1:3

I did notice the engine gets pretty warm on 100kph speed....105-110C

added my 5HP stickers from CB Performance and Comp Cams ofcourse


will report back here....but so far, so good!

oh and a nice pic with my dogs

[68Timber]

Nice progress! How do you like that cam and intake?

[kikkegek]

Originally Posted by BRUISER

Nice progress! How do you like that cam and intake?

so far so good. the single plane intake is perfect for propane and the cam was bought with a focus on torque.

I notice power has moved down in the rpm range, but I have not floored it yet. I want to slowly break it in for about 300 miles...

[kikkegek]

ok, time for an update.

engine lasted for about 300 miles. then a little knocking quickly developed into a hard nocking during cruise. took off the oil pan and found that #1 rod bearing was causing knock.





although the engine ran fine, I found these blue traces of coolant on all four side of the engine.



took the intake of and guess the cola can isnt strong enough to stand exhaust heat.




took my heads of and found black debris in them


most of it collected at the cabin side (rear) of the heads


closer inspection of the engine showed that also #1 main bearing was gone



other bearings dont look better


I havent really found the answer as to why the bearings went out so fast, ut decided to buy a new crank and reuild it again....guess some dirt got into the oil system and destroyed them