New to the board, 2 suburbans and some other GM goodies

[cal30_sniper]

Hey all,

I've lurked here for quite a while, but I've never actually posted up. Thought y'all might like to see my rides and hear some of my plans for the future.

I've been a suburban owner for nearly 3 years now. I purchased my first burb back in '09 for an all around beater/camper/long-hauler when I was up in Maryland. It turned out to have the extra benefit of being quite the winter bruiser up there.

The first was a '90 GMC R1500 Suburban. I purchased it from the original owner with 260k on the clock. Actually, purchased probably isn't the correct term. I actually traded it for an M1 Carbine, haha. It had a fresh (<500 mile) 350 Goodwrench crate motor, a freshly rebuilt trans, redone brakes, bearings, etc. He had all the work done to it and then ended up buying a new truck to tow his boat back and forth to the lake. I ended up throwing a ton of time and a good bit of money at it over the past two years. I ended up doing a Vortec head and Quadrajet swap on the 350 with a bunch of other goodies. I did a heavy duty buildup on the transmission, full dual exhaust and long tubes, all the coolers, and 1-ton springs with a completely rebuilt front end and air-lift rear air springs. I did all the work myself up at the base hobby shop. The full list of mods and a bunch of pics are up on my cardomain page, http://www.cardomain.com/ride/393062...-suburban-1500.

In the winter of 2009, I jumped behind the wheel and piloted it form West Texas to Annapolis, MD. After that trip it ran all over the eastern U.S., including some really long road-trips to South Carolina, Kentucky, and Toronto. I ended up racking 40,000 miles on the clock before I brought it back down to Texas with me to start grad school. The trip from MD to TX saw it loaded down with 6000 lbs of gear and a 2500 lb boat trailer on the back.


Here's some of my favorite pictures of the old burb from the last few years:


-inaugural test run, Big Bend Ranch State Park, West Texas


-first snow storm, Annapolis, MD


-towing my boat back to Annapolis from Pittsburgh, PA


-fly-fishing trip, Shenandoah River, VA


-Lake Bryan, TX


-the only pics I have of it with the 17" Jeep Wrangler rims and tires. This particular moment happened to be when a flood had about a foot of my front yard under water.

Unfortunately, all good things usually come to an end sooner or later, and with 295k on the clock, I got sideswiped by a kid texting and driving while running a red light. Best as the anyone could determine, he was doing about 50mph in the 35 when he hit me. Spun the old burb completely around and threw it out of the intersection. I gave a quick scan of all the vitals, threw it in reverse, and backed out of the intersection. I drove home that day, he had to be towed out of the middle of the highway where most of his front clip and drivetrain lay scattered about in pieces.

I found her replacement a few weeks ago in the Austin craigslist. It's a 1986 Chevrolet C20 Suburban with 69k original miles. It's got a 454/TH400 with a full factory towing package. Other than that it's bone stock, and one of the best driving old trucks I've ever crawled into. It took me a few days to get all the dirt and doghair cleaned out of it, but when I got done I was very surprised at how clean it was. Here's a few pics:






The front seats and door panels have some sun damage, but other than that it's a pretty clean old truck. I've got some big plans for it in the near future:

-Gear Vendors Overdrive
-Low Stall Torque Converter and Shift Kit + extra capacity trans pan
-RV Transmission cooler
-17x8.5" H2 Rims and 255/75/R17 tires
-SBC Serpentine bracket kit (using all my 350 brackets from the other burb)
-Air Lift Springs and KYB Monomax shocks
-Weiand Street Warrior Intake, Pertronix Ignition components, Comp XE250 cam kit with 1.72:1 Magnum Roller tip rockers
-Full tube heat-coated headers and dual 2.5" exhaust
-Milodon high-flow waterpump and thermostat
and any other random goodies that come my way. My goal is to build the one heck of a Heavy Duty Suburban while still keeping the gas mileage reasonable enough for the long distance trips I love to make. Stay tuned for the build thread.

-cal30_sniper

[cal30_sniper]

My other two toys:

1988 Trans Am GTA, 350 L98 and 87k original miles. I bought it bone stock, and have slowly been modifying it to my taste. I recently complete a full suspension and brake upgrade with Koni Yellow struts/shocks, Hotchkis Lowering Springs, Moog front suspension rebuild, C5 Corvette Front Brakes, LT1 4th Gen rear brakes, and BMW M-Sport 18" rims and tires. I also have UMI Performance Subframe connectors, lower control arms, panhard bar, and steering brace, along with J&M caster/camber plates. I don't have any good pics after the swap yet, but here's a few that I took in pretty bad light:




The interior is pretty much stock except for an '87 T/A Steering wheel (I hated the radio controls), and a Factory CD Player.




The drivetrain is stock as of now except for a lot of computer tuning (done by myself). I eventually plan to swap the Vortech 350 out of my 90 R1500 along with a Comp Cams Extreme Energy Roller Camshaft and a FIRST TPI induction system for the vortech heads. I have shorty headers, y-pipe, and a 3" Magnaflow cat-back system waiting to go on, along with full ignition upgrades and some other goodies. Just haven't decided the order of my swap yet. Too many projects and not enough time.

Here's a few pictures before I started modifying it:





And, last but not least, my '72 Sidewinder Lo-Pro Jet Boat. It's 18' with a 350 Oldsmobile and a Berkeley Jet Pump. The previous owner restored the hull and upholstery, and I went through and rebuilt all the cables, steering linkage, wiring, and gauges to get everything ship-shape. It's a heck of a lot of fun, and will run over 60mph.




(these are all really old pictures, I'll have to get some more with the new gauges and stuff)

Hope y'all enjoyed! I'm looking forward to becoming an active member of the boards.

-cal30sniper

[1Bad65GMC]

Welcome to the boards. Lot of good info here and interesting, I mean helpful people.
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[kwin]

Are the jeep wheels a good fit? backspacing is right? I have been looking for a cheap 17 inch route!

[1BadAction]

Nice winder man! Haven't seen an inboard with the original windshield in ages.

[manimal]

Nice burbs and firebird! I dont think I could live without my '89 Suburban 2500,it does EVERYTHING I need it to and then some.

[Stringer]

Nice pics, and thanks for whatever it is you do in the military.

Can't stop thinking about the 3.68 gas price I saw yesterday. I'm looking for ways to improve my mileage besides parking it. Hope you can keep drivin the 454!

[manimal]

WOW! out here I'd LOVE to pay 3.68 for gas. It's hangin around 4.30 for regular unleaded!!!

[Stringer]

Prayin for ya!

[cal30_sniper]

Originally Posted by kwin

Are the jeep wheels a good fit? backspacing is right? I have been looking for a cheap 17 inch route!

The backspacing is exactly 2" different between the Wrangler rims and the Squarebodys. I know the '99-up Grand Cherokee also uses a 5x5" rim, but it has a different backspacing (might work without the spacers, but not certain on it).

I ran 2" thick 5x5" to 5x5" adapters from eBay. I paid $140 for the set of four, they're hubcentric to the hubs (and fit very snugly), and they're very quality pieces. I was very impressed with the fit and finish, and I work with CNC machined stuff on a daily basis with my grad school research.

I'll be pulling them off in a couple of weeks though. I snagged a set of 17x8.5" H2 rims for the C20, so I'll be swapping over the tires to the Hummer rims and selling the Wrangler rims and spacers. If you're interested, let me know.

Originally Posted by manimal

WOW! out here I'd LOVE to pay 3.68 for gas. It's hangin around 4.30 for regular unleaded!!!

I understand the feeling. Gas is still really cheap down here in Texas, but I've been to many parts of the country where it really hurts to fill up the burban. I took a 10k mile roadtrip from Maryland up to the Yukon via Ontario and the trans-canadian highway this summer. Gas up in Canada was somewhere around $5 a gallon (even though they measured it in cent's per liter, haha). It was some beautiful country, but dang it was expensive to fill up.

Thanks for all the compliments guys, I've put a lot of time and effort into these things.

-cal30sniper

[68Timber]

Nice collection of toys.

[SuburbanStevie]

First Off. Welcome to this wonderful board! We are a cool bunch of gearheads.

I read your plans about installing a GearVendor Overdrive. I've got one, it is great. But the cost$$$ is somewhat over the top. And the one complaint I have is they generally remove your two driveshafts, and install a single long drive shaft. this is all fine and good, but now when I hit about 70mph, I start having a severe vibration. I believe it is that the long drive shaft is hitting it's "critical speed", or begins opperating within one of its bending frequencies. NOT a good thing. doesn't really bother me as I mostly use the vehicle for towing now days, and never tow close to 70mph.

We can chat more about it.

Steve

[cal30_sniper]

Originally Posted by SuburbanStevie

First Off. Welcome to this wonderful board! We are a cool bunch of gearheads.

I read your plans about installing a GearVendor Overdrive. I've got one, it is great. But the cost$$$ is somewhat over the top. And the one complaint I have is they generally remove your two driveshafts, and install a single long drive shaft. this is all fine and good, but now when I hit about 70mph, I start having a severe vibration. I believe it is that the long drive shaft is hitting it's "critical speed", or begins opperating within one of its bending frequencies. NOT a good thing. doesn't really bother me as I mostly use the vehicle for towing now days, and never tow close to 70mph.

We can chat more about it.

Steve

I think if I watch my purchases, I can get one for close to $1500, which isn't too bad really. Should pay for itself in about 30-40k miles (a year or two as much as I drive on the highway). I've already got a line on a 2-piece shortened driveshaft that came out of a TH400 burban with a gear vendors, so that should take care of that problem.

Also, you have to figure in the reduced wear and tear on the engine with a gear vendors. Not only is it getting you some gas mileage, it's also keeping the revs down on your engine at a steady highway cruise. That makes a big difference in how many miles you can get out of components without having problems.

Anybody have recommendations on a torque converter for towing and increased gas mileage? I was looking at a 1500 rpm stall TCI Towing torque converter, does anyone have experience with it?

-cal30sniper

[Pop's C-10]

welcome..nice toys

[cal30_sniper]

Just a quick update (and a pretty big one for me).

I scored a used P-type TH400 Gear Vendors with everything but the autodrive for $800 today. I'll be wiring it up with just the floor switch for now until I get the cash together for the autodrive wiring controls from Gear Vendors. I also received the shortened 2-piece driveshaft from another Gear Vendors suburban, so I should be about set. Stay tuned for the progress.

-cal30sniper

[cal30_sniper]

Oh yes, almost forgot. Also have some pictures of the H2 rims installed on the C20:





I thought they turned out real good.

-cal30sniper

[justpball]

Very nice stuff bro!
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