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.