Polar Bear Suburban

[jbclassix]

I can't wait to see this come together.

[truckfan]

Creeping

[El Dorado Jim]

Originally Posted by DirtyLarry

Well, I ran across this rig on Craigslist Thursday night and I knew had to have it. I could barely sleep Thursday night in anticipation to call the guy first thing Friday morning. It is a 1989 V2500 Suburban, 5.7L, SM456 with rear barn doors and only 132,000 original miles. When I saw it had a manual transmission in the CL add my eyeballs about popped out of my head and the rear barn doors were a bonus (I don’t care for the tailgate with the roll up window on Subs). You won’t believe what I paid either. $1500! Actually, $1496.35 as I found a few bucks in pocket change when I took the interior apart for deep cleaning.

As usual with a rig of this age and price it isn’t without issue. It needs a clutch, the windshield is badly cracked, the steering column is wobbly as hell (typical loose tilt mechanism situation that these Saginaw columns are famous for), stereo is missing and it has a severe lean to the left due to a sagging LH front spring plus it was filthy dirty! None of this is a big problem as I have a good used Centerforce dual friction clutch that I took out by my K10 last year when I did the NV4500 swap. The lean isn’t an issue either as I have a pair of left over 4” front leaf springs from the K10 as well. Probably do a ORD shackle flip on the rear. I bet I already spent 20 hours since Friday night cleaning this thing. It is turning out nice though! The biggest disappointment is the fact it has 3:42 gears no biggie as I will be swapping in a 14 bolt FF soon but wasn’t planning on regearing the front. Looks like I need to find a pair of axles now. It has a couple small surface rust spots but they will come right off with a DA sander then touch it up with touch up paint. Nothing major.

When I do the clutch I’m planning to kill two birds with one stone. Just yank the engine to replace the clutch and give the engine a makeover (paint, tune up, new sensors, gaskets, water pump, etc). It probably will get an 8.1L and NV4500 someday as I still have a few laying around but for now I am going to run with this TBI 5.7L and deal with the priorities first (fix issues, lift it, address the rust spots).

Let the fun begin! My wife named it the Polar Bear.



The underhood light even works!




Ah, YES!! Manual trans Picture after a major cleaning. That is the shifter from the SM465 out of my K10. It is a NOS shifter with no slop and a new knob. Glad I saved thos Husky floor mats too!

what a steal! love that it is a 4-speed

[ryanroo]

very nice work, as usual!

[Zoomad75]

I was waiting for this! Great job as usual. It's a bummer for the teething problems, but they seem manageable. Tell me when to stop by and I'll grab the trans for it's date with the doctor at work. In the mean time, I've got a little more to do to the 75 and it will be ready for you to fetch. Then we get to do the swap again on mine! Thank goodness spring has sprung around here.


If you need another small block radiator, I've got the one from the 91 clip I robbed.

['63GENIII]

Hey Larry, the RayLar cam that you mentioned - is it a custom grind for the 8.1? I'm trying to find a cam for an L29 that Im going to rebuild for the '63. It seems as though just as little is known about the L29 as the 8.1 although there does seem to be a bit more aftermarket support for the 454. I think I will take my Howell harness apart as well after running into similar fitment issues. Once again your build is factory fit and finish - just better!

[zombiescustoms]

Looking good Larry, I am gathering the pieces to start on my LQ4 swap now, hope to tackle it this summer

[Average Joe]

You do awesome work. Killer Burb!

[DirtyLarry]

Thanks for the compliments everybody!

Originally Posted by '63GENIII

Hey Larry, the RayLar cam that you mentioned - is it a custom grind for the 8.1? I'm trying to find a cam for an L29 that Im going to rebuild for the '63. It seems as though just as little is known about the L29 as the 8.1 although there does seem to be a bit more aftermarket support for the 454. I think I will take my Howell harness apart as well after running into similar fitment issues. Once again your build is factory fit and finish - just better!

The L29 is a great engine and my second favorite GM engine of all time. Definitely a better looking engine than the L18 that is for sure. Personally, I would leave it stock as tuning the ECM after the cam install is a pain in the rear unless you have access to a tuner that knows what he is doing (that is the jamb I am in now with an aftermarket cam). If you’re interested in a RayLar cam you would have to give them a call to see if they have anything for the L29. As far as I know, all they do is focus on 8.1L engines and Corvettes.

I love your truck the way it is, even with a toilet carburetor on the sweet 396!

[MalibuSSwagon]

Larry,

With the popularity of LS engine swaps, you should be able to find a shop in your area that can put a proper dyno tune on the 8.1L, seeing as it uses the same hardware and software as an LS engine. It will cost a bit of change, the 2 shops in my area change $500 for a dyno tune.

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by MalibuSSwagon

Larry,

With the popularity of LS engine swaps, you should be able to find a shop in your area that can put a proper dyno tune on the 8.1L, seeing as it uses the same hardware and software as an LS engine. It will cost a bit of change, the 2 shops in my area change $500 for a dyno tune.

Well ya, that is a given…tuning an 8.1L is no different than an early Gen III but in Pueblo, Colorado or even Colorado Springs there isn’t any tuner I know of, or one that I would trust for that matter, to do it so I’ll probably end up trailering it to Denver and paying someone out the nose to keep the truck for a period time and hotrod the crap out of it to get the tune dialed in. That hassle, worry and expense was not figured into the budget or plan.

I’m coming off of a 4.3L to TBI 7.4L project that basically took two years to get the tune 95% dialed in. I am sick and tired of dealing with and forking over cash to eccentric tuners where each think they are better than the last but in reality each actually sucks worse than the last in some way. And, I don’t have the interest in buying software and learning the tuning myself. I’ve already been through that self-tuning BS on a MEFI-4 Marine/RamJet ECM and quickly learned that I certainly am not a tuner nerd. I’ll give a tuner a chance to get this L18 going but I have no problem throwing a stock cam back in and start driving it the next day. I’m certainly not going to deal with months or years of tuning BS or dealing with tuners again like I did on the 7.4L Super Sportside project

['63GENIII]

I love your truck the way it is, even with a toilet carburetor on the sweet 396![/QUOTE]

Thanks Larry, I like it too. With the potential problems of tuning the L29, and the virtual lack of info on hot rodding the FI, I'm contemplating throwing a slightly bigger toilet (I'm stealing that one btw) on the 454 and tuning it with the tuner that I'm sitting on right now. Lol. Anyway, I'm going to keep looking into it in hopes of not bailing out on running a little hotter than stock FI big block. The roller cam and 4 bolt bottom end sold me. The fuel injection was the icing on the cake and I'd like to think that the GM engineers left just a little something for us to work with. Just went through a lot of the same discussions with a diesel that I just had. There were a few tuners that knew what they were doing and a whole bunch that would burn your engine down all the while saying that they were the best and there must have been something wrong with the truck to begin with.

[Dieselwrencher]

Very nice work Larry and man that was pretty fast for a swap. Good luck getting it tuned. I had a buddy get burned by a lot of so called self proclaimed tuner bad asses. Now he's sitting with a blown up 6.0 and he's tired of messing with the project.

[Zoomad75]

I'll have to find out who one of our club members took his '56 Nomad with a GM ramjet crate engine last summer to dial it in. The idle on it was way too high and after sending the MEFI-4 out to a couple of hot-shots and getting no where he found a shop up in Ft. Collins to take the car up to. The shop was highly recommended. I'll get him to pull up the name of the shop. He was very happy with it.

[1985-GMC]

Nice rig! I'll have to go back through and read it all but I didn't want to lose it

[DirtyLarry]

Little update on the Polar Bear. I got the trans reinstalled (had to remove it to fix a rear main seal leak plus the NV4500 needed a 5th gear synchro), did a IAC relearn and reset the fuel trims to accommodate the new injectors she runs a lot better…..and that hot rod lope went away which I am so glad. It still has some little fine ECM tuning to do as runs a bit fuzzy in cold start open loop but other than that, she runs like a scalded dog at wide open throttle. The RayLar cam definitely gave it a lot more top end although at the expense of a little low end grunt loss but I’ll know for sure once the tuning is all dialed in. So far, I’m really happy the way it turned out and it will only get better once the ECM tuning is finalized. It’s pretty funny how such a big truck can flat out scream when you poke it in the neck

Outside of the fine ECM tuning the only other thing left is to have A/C lines built but I probably won’t have time to tackle that until May or June sometime.

Here is how it looks as of right now






And a family photo



Little update on the K10 too. Since the Polar Bear stole its tires and wheel last summer it was time to repay the K10 with a new set before upcoming annual Desert Trip. I bought the same exact wheels but I went with Goodyear Duratracs this time instead of another set of Fierce Attitude tires. Nothing wrong with the Fierce Attitude, it’s just the Duratracs turns out to be cheaper this go around. 315/75R16 Load Range E








I was getting fed up with the interior paint peeling off of the center console so I had an upholstery guy cover the entire console in the closest matching vinyl he could find that matches the seat arm rests. Turns out nice! Having it covered in vinyl also stopped the lid from squeaking and itching.

[MalibuSSwagon]

Outstanding Larry, looks great!

I got my 2002 8.1L dually on the road this weekend, it surprised me how quick that big beast can pickup speed.

[Zoomad75]

Killer. I was wondering how the trans reinstall went. How's it going into 5th now? I need to get over there and go for a ride in the bear and see how it runs!

FYI: got a box of goodies coming from Carbondale, CO. Might be a little heavy.

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by Zoomad75

Killer. I was wondering how the trans reinstall went. How's it going into 5th now? I need to get over there and go for a ride in the bear and see how it runs!

FYI: got a box of goodies coming from Carbondale, CO. Might be a little heavy.

Cool! Goodies from Carbondale are always fun to unpack! You are not going to believe this, but there was absolutely no change in 5th gear. It is no easier or harder to shift into 5th than it was before…..it’s exactly the same. I am not even joking. I haven’t had the heart to tell Harlan yet….and I not pulling that sumbish out again anytime soon so I’ll just keep living with it for another few years. At least the big pig runs better now albeit still needs some ECM tuning attention. I drove it all over town today. It hauls ASS!

[mud.man.rj]

Such a clean engine install looks like it came factory.

['63GENIII]

Originally Posted by DirtyLarry

Cool! Goodies from Carbondale are always fun to unpack! You are not going to believe this, but there was absolutely no change in 5th gear. It is no easier or harder to shift into 5th than it was before…..it’s exactly the same. I am not even joking. I haven’t had the heart to tell Harlan yet….and I not pulling that sumbish out again anytime soon so I’ll just keep living with it for another few years. At least the big pig runs better now albeit still needs some ECM tuning attention. I drove it all over town today. It hauls ASS!

Hey Larry, which shift cover are you running on the PB? Round or square shift tower? I just spoke with a guy who rebuild them. He says the round tower covers are prone to letting the shift forks drag a little.

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by '63GENIII

Hey Larry, which shift cover are you running on the PB? Round or square shift tower? I just spoke with a guy who rebuild them. He says the round tower covers are prone to letting the shift forks drag a little.

Both the K10 and Suburban have the second gen NV4500 with the square removable shift towers.

[DirtyLarry]

Got a little annoyance thing address on the Burb last night. Since the NV4500 swap the clutch “feeling” has been a moving target. I find myself adjusting the clutch every few weeks and was getting pretty tired of it. Normally there aren’t any adjustments with a hydraulic clutch but with the Advance Adapters NV4500 bell/slave bracket there is. Anyway, I treated it to a new slave, M/C and hose as well has gone to much larger hydraulic reservoir. What a difference this all made! I’ll be able to put more miles on it later this week but it already feels 100% better. See if I can do some speed shifting now!

Tiny OEM reservoir. I just never felt these little reservoirs were up to the job


Tilton reservoir mounted to a bracket I made that bolts to the bracket master cylinder and hydroboost hose bracket. I actually used a TBI 7.4L MAP bracket for this. Hey, it fit almost perfect! Now I want to do the same to the K10.

[ryanroo]

if you ever decide to get out of the truck game, call me. i love this burb!

[Zoomad75]

What the hell is going on with that trans? I'm lost on this one. I'll let you break it to Harlan. I'll do some research at work and see if there is something we all missed.

Can't wait to check out the beast. Can't wait to get the goodies from Carbondale either!