70' Burb LT1 transplant

[jiggityjoe87]

Hey everybody, I just got a sudden burst of inspiration to finally do a build thread about my 70' burb. I've had it for a little over a year and I have been trying to continually make it better. My goal is for LT1 power and believe me I will make that happen. So......

Here is the burb when I first bought it

don't let the pictures fool you, the paint is flatter than it looks and there is rust in all the ususal places and a tad bit of shoddy bodywork, but I never let that stop me from building the burb.

some specs on the burb

1970 c10 suburban
a tired 350 with a mid 80's quadrajet
700-R4 transmission
disc brake setup from later model truck
3rd row seat from late 80's suburban
ugly a$$ purple tint on back windows

[jiggityjoe87]

It wasn't before long that the quadra-jet wasn't cutting it so I installed an edelbrock 1406 carb. and I got rid of that ugly purple tint. So then life went on as usual for a while until that is I decided once again that the engine needed more power.

[jiggityjoe87]

Before long I started to have a questionable feeling about the 350 that was in the burb. First thing I did was a compression test on all cylinders and you know what pistons #1 and 2 were both a little low I think it was around 100 psi when the others were closer to 150 psi anyways I decided to do put on vortec heads with a dual plane intake to see if the motor would perk up.

Well when I removed the heads I discovered that somewhere along the line pistons #1 and 2 were replaced. So now i'm beginning to feel like I wasted some money when the piston rings are the most likely cause of low compression.

The last pic is the stock heads set next to the summit racing brand vortec heads. They have screw in studs and they have upgraded valvesprings that can handle a cam up to .525 lift. I think they were around $650 I can't complain about them and they did make more power.

[jiggityjoe87]

After I assembled the vortec heads with a weiand dual plane intake the burb ran noticably better. It definatly had some umph! Since my wife drives the burb as well I think she is definately liking having that extra power. I wasn't able to find a pic of the assembled motor. This motor isn't whats important right now because the suburban is about to meet it's donor.

[jiggityjoe87]

Here is the big moment! I had been looking on craigslist for the better part of 3 months looking for the right donor car. I finally found it in the form of a 95' camaro Z28 LT1/4L60E. The car looks good in the pictures, and the paint did look good in person but..... The PO gutted the interior, didn't have a pink slip, car had a salvaged title, all emissions equipment was removed, the car has long tube headers with no provisions for any smog equipment.

The one big thing the car had was a freshly rebuilt LT1. The PO told me it has less that 1k miles, I'm a little skeptical but the car only cost me $1,100 and the car was able to fire on the first crank. The motor definately sounded strong.

[VA72C10]

Looks like a fun build...and you can probably recoup most or more than the 1100 if you parted out the body panels/wheels on the camaro!!!

[capev86]

the body would be a great start for someone building a race car or need a fresh body due to rust or wreck of their own ride.

[jiggityjoe87]

I fully plan on parting the car out so... If anybody needs parts for a 95' z28 let me know.

I got a little bonus, the rear end has a working posi.

I'm pretty close to having the car completely gutted. I just have a few more parts to remove

[jiggityjoe87]

So it's been a while and I have been trying to be diligent on chipping away at the massive amount of rewiring that I'm having to do. Turns out that the PO did some rewiring on the engine harness and trust me it looks like a hack job. I sure hope the motor fires the first time I try to start it. Here are some pics of the engine about a week ago. I've been trying to clean up the wiring loom with some attention to detail. Let me know if you have any suggestions on routing the wiring around the engine bay.

[jiggityjoe87]

A short while later I finally got the new gas tank from summit racing. It was a back order so it took about 3 weeks. The tank is for an 89-91 suburban TBI, the tank is 31 gallons the part # is RNB-576-313 I have included pictures of the internal baffling, if you can even call it that. Regardless, it can only help increase the longevity of the internal pump by keeping it submerged in fuel. Does anybody know how to tap in a return line? I have heard that some people drill a hole into the tank filler and just go that route.

[78bronzechariot]

You should be able to buy a sending unit for the same year suburban that the tank is for, It should have a provision for a return line. You should be able to mount the camaro pump in the suburban sender. Most electric fuel pumps are the same outside dimensions on GM cars/trucks of that era.

[jiggityjoe87]

I already bought an Camaro TPI fuel pump that will definately fit the bill. I was able to get a sending unit from a 90 suburban but the suburban had a 40 gallon tank I think I might assemble the tank with sending unit and temporarily hook up the electrical to see where the gauge reads with the tank empty

[jiggityjoe87]

update 2/27/11

well actually not much has happened as far a work goes because I've been busy shoveling snow just to get into town but I managed to get a pic of the suburban in its temporary hibernaton

[dougo]

Originally Posted by jiggityjoe87

update 2/27/11

well actually not much has happened as far a work goes because I've been busy shoveling snow just to get into town but I managed to get a pic of the suburban in its temporary hibernaton

You guys got dumped on!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Theres just a little snow there....

[yawdie1]

need more pictures & updates

[Flint70step]

Harness up your little dog and pull the Burb out!He looks up to the challenge

[jiggityjoe87]

Well everybody it has been quite a while since I posted an update. Things have been moving pretty slowly, you know life tends to get in the way of progress. Anyway, since the last update I have installed the engine suburban I still have a TON of wiring to do, still need to mount the gas tank etc. I'll try to post some pics very soon

[jiggityjoe87]

Here are some pics as you can see with the underdash pic I have plenty of work ahead of me.

[C20-67_N_MO]

Very cool.

Looking forward to more progress.

Subscribed!!

[C20-67_N_MO]

Any more updates on this?

Been a couple of months since we heard back from ya.

Hope everything is going well.

[GMCJOE]

Any updates on this swap? I am interested in seeing this completed. I have done a similar swap into my 1969 GMC shortwide bed. Put a 96 LT1 out of a what I was told was a corvette, but it's probably out of a Z28. I carburated mine with a Bowtie intake. Wanted to eliminate the opti-spark, plus I had none of the electronics, original intake, or any accessories. Runs great! Hope the same with your adventure.

[Trsmotrhed]

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[Trsmotrhed]

Hope the swap is coming along. I'm doing the same swap. Lots of little to handle. Having fun though.
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[DeepOceanStepside]

What ever became of this!?