1971 Suburban 4x4 build "The Big Ugly"

[Yerboogieman]

This is my 1971 Chevy Suburban my dad bought in 1998 from my uncle who had it for a few years. The engine was rebuilt in the early 90's by a local shop in Graham and has about 154k miles on it now. The original transmission started slipping in 2012 and I replaced it with a JY TH350 at my work. That one died a very quick death and left me stranded one day. I had it rebuilt and got about 1000 miles until it died. I parked it in my backyard in 2013 and haven't touched it since. I bought and sold a 540iT this summer and made a huge profit off it so I decided to dump it all into the Suburban because I wanted a truck and fun toy.

Enough history. Now for the good stuff.

We decided we're gonna pull it out and swap the transmission. Then we wanted to pull the engine to refresh it. Then we also pulled the transfer case for a refresh as well. We promised ourselves it would not snowball. But that went out the window quick.

The BMW wagon I sold. Made a little over 330hp on the dyno at the wheel. Bigger intake manifold, nice exhaust, and a DUDMD stage 3 tune.



My dad pressure washing it after pulling it out.



For the longest time, I had no idea this tunnel came off.



Found a 700R4 to rebuild with a short shaft and all the upgrades I can do.



And after it came back from the shop. I had it rebuilt at TRC in Kent. Very helpful people and they asked the right questions.



It leaked. A lot. From everywhere.





Started pulling, I unbolted the transmission from the transfer case and we pulled the engine and trans as an assembly.





Found that ticking noise!



Started stacking up parts. We're reusing the Edelbrock Performer intake manifold my dad installed years ago, I bought an Edelbrock carb from my old boss and he threw in a Mallory Unilite distributor, coil, and wires.



After discovering the tiny 1.72/1.50 valves I broke down and bought some Summit heads that came in a Dart Head box. 2.02/1.60 valves.





It's bored .030 over and the bottom end looks great. Still has cross hatch marks on the cylinder walls. I ran a rag over the tops of the pistons, hence the dirty looking tops.

[Yerboogieman]

Transfer case needs a little care. She's been beat down.


That's much better. My dad spent this weekend cleaning and resealing it this weekend. The main reason my transmissions were going out was a little O-ring on the shaft was completely shot. Resealed and ready to slap back in. It's been rebuilt once before so I wasn't worried about the bearings.


I dipped the front driveshaft and T-case adapter in the ultrasonic cleaner while I sandblasted the headers to ceramic powdercoat them.




I removed the fenders, seats, cluster, glovebox, heater, sound deadening, carpet and hacked up wiring harness today. No rat droppings luckily.





Me and this old harness have had some bad times so I am glad to be rid of it.



That's about as far as we got. I'm trying to get my dad to sign up for an account on here so he can post about it too. I know he wants to do a write up on how to measure and drill the frame rails for a 700r4 install.

[ManNamedJed]

Sounds like a cool build. Not sure if its just me, but I'm not seeing any pics.

[Yerboogieman]

I see the pictures on my home computer and on my phone if I use Chrome or Opera, but not on internet explorer. They're embedded from Google Photos.

Edit: Got the images working and resized.

[Yerboogieman]

Here's a picture of the floor after I ripped the carpet out. Gonna be fun patching all this. Luckily, the front floor and the body panels is the extent of the rust. The rest of the floor is actually pretty good.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by Yerboogieman

Here's a picture of the floor after I ripped the carpet out. Gonna be fun patching all this. Luckily, the front floor and the body panels is the extent of the rust. The rest of the floor is actually pretty good.

You guys are moving right along on it. keep us posted on the progress.....

LockDoc

[Yerboogieman]

Originally Posted by LockDoc

You guys are moving right along on it. keep us posted on the progress.....

LockDoc

Will do. Should pick up again this weekend. Gonna have the GF helping rough up the floor on Saturday in preparation for primer while I clean the underside to rust proof and paint that if the weather cooperates. One day I'll have a garage big enough for this thing.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by Yerboogieman

Will do. Should pick up again this weekend. Gonna have the GF helping rough up the floor on Saturday in preparation for primer while I clean the underside to rust proof and paint that if the weather cooperates. One day I'll have a garage big enough for this thing.

Yeah, that's one thing about the Burbs it takes a little bigger garage to have room to work around it.....

LockDoc

[Yerboogieman]

Progress has been moving steadily. Been doing some floor repair, sealing, drilling, welding, and cutting. I'll post some pictures tonight and remember to resize them.

[Yerboogieman]

Been focused on getting it done I almost forgot to post. We started sanding and coating the floor in rust reformer





My girlfriend was under the hood getting that prepped. She fits in smaller places better than I do.



I got out the industrial RoundUp and went to work on this. I'll take another photo this weekend of it all cleaned up. Rain chased me inside. My dad started stripping the cowl and the metal underneath looks much better than I expected. Actually looks perfect for an original piece. I need to seal up the corners. They leak water into the cab.



And the moment I've been excited for. The engine is fully assembled and ready to go back in.



I ordered a new custom driveshaft and it's sitting in my garage right now. ready to go back in. It's gonna feel so nice with a whole new drivetrain. After it's back together I'll chop a hole in the firewall and put the new harness in. I might take a video of first start up and the tuning process on the Dynojet.

While this build hasn't been cheap, it's cheaper and cooler than a new truck. I'm anti car payment.

[LockDoc]

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Wow you have a mobile garden (almost)...

Looks like the girlfriend is doing a great job. Tell her to keep up the good work.

How is the rust reformer to work with. looks like it goes on pretty smooth.

Vroom, Vroom. You will be driving this thing before you know it.

LockDoc

[Yerboogieman]

Kinda sucked to spread on to be honest. There are some thin spots because if the surface was too smooth it would act like water on a waxed car. Even with sanding and prep with lacquer thinner.


It's so close to being running but something keeps coming up that requires attention.

[Ol Blue K20]

Looking good, I'm subbing to follow along

[Yerboogieman]

Currently battling blistering cold and rain. Lately we've been getting about 3 to 4 hours of usable sunshine on weekends. But there is still progress. I wanna hit the snow with this thing so bad.

We got the transmission bolted to the engine, torque converter installed.



We measured everything before hand and even had the transfer case mount slid on the back of the transmission. Took measurement after measurement and we were still .20 off the mark. If only Advance Adapters made it just a little bit thicker. We ended up milling the shaft and everything went together as planned. The gap between the transmission and transfer case is exactly 1.875. I wish I would have put the starter on with the engine out to check the clearance.











Went to the local Amsoil dealer and picked up a bunch of various fluids. I'm just going to use BMW blue coolant and BMW DOT4 because it's cheap and I have a ton of it on hand. I use it in everything I build.



Also, my dad is having trouble using his account. If there are any admins that can help, his username is Riff_Raff.

[LockDoc]

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Looking good.

I will see what I can find out on his account. Can you give me a heads up to what kind of problem he is having?

LockDoc

[Yerboogieman]

Update is that we have it all installed, engine moved forward, front crossmember trimmed, headers fit perfect and look great with the ceramic on them, I'll never do the spacer from Advance Adapters again that was hell but I love all the room behind the engine.

The rain has not let us get much work done but this thread is not abandoned.

[Yerboogieman]

Please make the rain stop lol

[Ol Blue K20]

Any updates on this

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Any updates on his

Looks like 4/16/2020 was the last time he was on. He was moving along really good on it, I hope he has been able to work on it.....

LockDoc

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by LockDoc

Looks like 4/16/2020 was the last time he was on. He was moving along really good on it, I hope he has been able to work on it.....

LockDoc

Yes he was, I was hoping he's been holding back on the updates. I hope all is well with him.

[Yerboogieman]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Yes he was, I was hoping he's been holding back on the updates. I hope all is well with him.

All is well, but I tell ya, 2020 has been hectic. Not just with the 'Rona, but rushing to finish projects, moving across the country, taking a few road trips. One of the road trips was to see my grandmother for the last time unfortunately, but she kept her sense of humor all the way until the end. I definitely got my humor and sarcasm from her. It has been quite the wild ride. I have some pictures to post of my most recent progress, moving my Suburban and Saturn in an enclosed hauler, building the Saturn itself, helping my friend build his Honda. If anything says "Car guy", it'll be this post.







Went to the Grand Canyon with some friends. He is also the one who transported my cars in record time.


Had to start throwing this engine together to get my 99 SC2 White Hot running. There's a build thread for it over at Sixthsphere.com if anyone is interested.




I cut too much from the firewall and had to make this nifty plate. I'm kinda glad I did this because the fusebox feels much sturdier than the stock one did.



Oh no, what will I do about a heater?


There was so much wiring going into this thing. I went with the most connections I could get from Painless. It wasn't difficult, just time consuming.


My dad and I planned on retrofitting a clutch fan, but I was on Amazon and ordered this fan shroud from Mishimoto. They're hooked up to turn on when the engine hits something like 190 degrees with a kit from Painless.


I wanted to use the column shifter really bad. My dad didn't. We compromised and I lost.


I ordered what I thought was a set of LED headlights and only got one. I also refurbished the turn signal buckets and got some white lenses. I was going to order a new egg crate grill, but just couldn't see dropping that much on a piece of plastic. Threw the old one back in the best I could along with the foglights to fill in the previous owners holes in the grill.


I was driving through the Nevada desert with my birds and nothing around for miles. No trees to pee on, nothing. I found this beef jerky store just outside of Rachel, NV, used the bathroom and bought some awesome jerky from the nicest gal.


Roadtripped back up to Washington from AZ to help my friend with his Honda. Plus I was homesick. Still a little homesick.

[Yerboogieman]

Oh, and a video of first start up and a little bit of the cam break in. Timing was way off, but it ran. You should be able to view this even without a FB account.

https://www.facebook.com/555513664/v...8310326198665/

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by Yerboogieman

Oh, and a video of first start up and a little bit of the cam break in. Timing was way off, but it ran. You should be able to view this even without a FB account.

https://www.facebook.com/555513664/v...8310326198665/

Still sounds pretty good. Glad to see you posting again. Sounds like you have been busy for sure....

LockDoc

[Ol Blue K20]

Wow! You have been busy. Welcome back!

[Yerboogieman]

These projects may have been fueled by margaritas. It's what you do lol.


Nobody asked, but I'm too proud of it. My 99 SC2 White Hot High Comp. 1 of 250. Full restoration.