The Pig Rig!

[ericjon262]

Just got a 88 Suburban 4x4, and decided to call it "The Pig Rig"!

First thing I did was rip the running boards off, put a new battery in, and do some general maintenance. the truck was filthy when I got it, so I spent several hours (8+) cleaning the truck inside and out.

Short range plan:

3 inch tuff country lift, and 33x10.50 R15 BFG All Terrain t/a's. the muffler is rotted through, so I will probably throw a hooker aerochamber in it's place, but otherwise leave it stock. I'm also planning on 3.73's or 4.11's. (I think it has 3.08's now.)

Long range plan:

3/4 or 1 ton rear axle w/2500hd disc brakes, and swap the front knuckles to 8 lug and mod them for matching 2500hd brakes, then there's the engine, planning on a as stock as possible 6.0 4L80e, maybe headers, but probably just manifolds.

overall, the paint is Ok, not multi color(well you know what I mean...) it appears to have been in at least one accident that damaged the passenger side door, and another that damaged the grill front bumper and hood, the door damage was fixed, but very poorly prepped for paint, and therefore looks pretty bad up close. the bumper, grill and hood still needs to be fixed, but it shouldn't be too hard.

[68Timber]

Congrats! Those colors are my favorite on two tone Burbs. How is the interior?

[ericjon262]

Originally Posted by 68Timber

Congrats! Those colors are my favorite on two tone Burbs. How is the interior?

needs carpet, headliner, radio and some trim, but overall, not bad at all for $2000 I'll post more pictures when I'm not at work. the color isn't my favorite, but not bad. my favorite is one I have only seen one of, dark brown, with white sides, like my dad's old K20 Suburban.

[Nodnarb76]

Nice truck. Reminds me of mine except mine is 2wd. I like your plans with the truck. I swapped a 6.0l/4l80 into mine also and love it.
Can’t wait to see how yours turns out.

[ericjon262]

Originally Posted by Nodnarb76

Nice truck. Reminds me of mine except mine is 2wd. I like your plans with the truck. I swapped a 6.0l/4l80 into mine also and love it.
Can’t wait to see how yours turns out.

thanks, I was gonna post pictures the other night, but I had a ton of work to do on the house. I don't have better pictures right now, but you can see, it needs carpet. lower door panels. overall, it cleaned up real nice for a $2000 truck, the dash isn't cracked, it runs and drives ok, 4wd works, not a ton of wind noise. I just wish I had more time to play with it. I just bought a house too, and have been doing lots of clean up and renovations.

[Ski-me]

These suburbans are great! Had a 91' when I lived in Renton/Kent. With all the rain all the time....so nice to have dry hauling ability and the suburban did that perfectly!

You can get a new carpet set from stockinteriors.com for a decent price and it really helps freshen up the interior.

The actual carpet manufacturer is ACC.

[ericjon262]

so, here's a few updates...

the truck now has a big block 4 core radiator, which I finished installing right before the heater core let go... DOH!

the plans for this bad boy have changed drastically, as a result, I picked up some new stuff,

I picked up a new front axle so I could get it setup 8 lug now, and once I have a donor truck, swap in the whole axle, probably way faster than swapping the hubs alone. it also allows me to set an axle up with late model brakes, and make that part of the swap quicker as well. all that being said, I think this axle might get resold, I'l definitely prefer to have a dana 60 under this truck for reasons to be explained shortly...


I also picked up a NP205 transfer case, and have a line on an NP203 so I can build a doubler! I knew I would need a heavy duty transfer case, so the new plans, and when this popped up for $50... how could I say no!

now that you're all wondering what these new crazy plans are, I'll spill the beans! without further ado, the new plans, are to find a 04.5-06(or 07 classic) chevy/GMC 2500 HD donor truck, but instead of everyone's favorite LQ4 or LQ9, I'm gonna go for that LLY or LBZ! Precision fabrication makes a mount kit, so all I really have to do is find a donor, and do the heavy lifting!

https://precisionfabricationplus.com...uburban&page=1

the idea is that I'll throw a pretty much bone stock DMAX in, and have a very powerful, very reliable, daily driver ready for anything I want to throw at it!

Edit: if you have a dana 60 front axle for sale in Washington, I'm interested.

[SBTork]

I really like your idea of a stock Duramax in your Suburban. That'll be a near perfect daily driver ready for anything! Can't wait to see progress on this

[Nodnarb76]

Originally Posted by ericjon262

so, here's a few updates...

the truck now has a big block 4 core radiator, which I finished installing right before the heater core let go... DOH!

the plans for this bad boy have changed drastically, as a result, I picked up some new stuff,

I picked up a new front axle so I could get it setup 8 lug now, and once I have a donor truck, swap in the whole axle, probably way faster than swapping the hubs alone. it also allows me to set an axle up with late model brakes, and make that part of the swap quicker as well. all that being said, I think this axle might get resold, I'l definitely prefer to have a dana 60 under this truck for reasons to be explained shortly...


I also picked up a NP205 transfer case, and have a line on an NP203 so I can build a doubler! I knew I would need a heavy duty transfer case, so the new plans, and when this popped up for $50... how could I say no!

now that you're all wondering what these new crazy plans are, I'll spill the beans! without further ado, the new plans, are to find a 04.5-06(or 07 classic) chevy/GMC 2500 HD donor truck, but instead of everyone's favorite LQ4 or LQ9, I'm gonna go for that LLY or LBZ! Precision fabrication makes a mount kit, so all I really have to do is find a donor, and do the heavy lifting!

https://precisionfabricationplus.com...uburban&page=1

the idea is that I'll throw a pretty much bone stock DMAX in, and have a very powerful, very reliable, daily driver ready for anything I want to throw at it!

Edit: if you have a dana 60 front axle for sale in Washington, I'm interested.

This is gonna be epic! I will be following along.

[ericjon262]

I sure hope so, there's more than one badass Duramax project out there, this one, will probably be one of the more tame examples, the plan is to keep it as stock as possible, maybe an air intake and a down pipe, and tune, but otherwise, only mods to make the engine fit will be undertaken, to ensure the reliability remains intact. the A1000 will also remain stock, short of mods required to make it work with the NP203/205 doubler, which, from what I can see right now, will be a non issue anyways. the biggest issue I'm running into will be finding a dana 60 front axle that won't cost me 50K... I really don't want to play around and blow up a ten bolt when there are simple enough solutions out there.

[68Timber]

Will you wheel it hard enough to justify chasing down a 60? Just a thought, but you could install an 8-lug 10-bolt and run it while keeping an eye out for a Dana 60.

[ericjon262]

Originally Posted by 68Timber

Will you wheel it hard enough to justify chasing down a 60? Just a thought, but you could install an 8-lug 10-bolt and run it while keeping an eye out for a Dana 60.

well, part of today's haul was a set of 3/4 ton front and rear axles, so yeah, I guess I can and will!

Also scored a 40 gallon gas tank, and 5 wheels, w/ hubcaps. only 1 tire is any good, it will go on the truck as the spare.

Edit: all this for $460!

[ericjon262]

got an NP203 today... damn those suckers are heavy! almost ready to start work on the doubler kit!

[SBTork]

Right on!

[ericjon262]

found a smoking deal on a set of BFG KM3's, now I need to get the axle swap and lift started!

[ericjon262]

heater core is installed. still need to hook it up, but I'm going to flush the rest of the cooling system with it bypassed first, try and make sure there's no BS in there to clog it up.

[SBTork]

Awesome progress! What size are the KM3's you got a deal on?

[ericjon262]

The KM3's are 285/75r16's, they're practically brand new!

Got a bunch of work done yesterday to get the engine e ready to be pulled so I can swap out the the rear main seal. I'm trying to decide if I should rebuild the transmission too while I'm in that deep.

[ericjon262]

made a bit of progress in the past two days, I decided to go ahead and pull the engine to replace the rear main seal, and oil pan gasket. I also decided, that because I would have it this far apart, it was a good time to throw on a new timing chain. I disconnected the wiring from the engine, the torque converter bolts, and began loosening the bell housing bolts. if everything goes according to plan, I'll have the engine out tomorrow afternoon. at this point, I'm contemplating rebuilding the transmission as well. a kit is about $280 for an all inclusive kit, and I'll have to pick up a few special tools, but it doesn't appear to be anything too crazy, and would give a HUGE amount of insurance for the Alaska trip.

[ericjon262]

been a hot minute since the last update, as seen in the last picture, the engine is out, and I started disassembly, all 8 plugs showed no signs of oil consumption, and with the oil pan removed, no crazy deposits or sludge was visible

Clearly someone had been in the engine before me, as these never came stock with a double roller timing chain.

but, if you look to the picture of the oil pan, notice in the oil pump pickup? yeah, big chunks of bull****. it's all plastic material, I determined it was a nylon hose clamp similar to the one in the pictures:

[ericjon262]

at this point, I had no plans to go any further into the bottom end, but I wasn't comfortable with the debris, so I decided it would be a good idea to pop a main cap, and a rod cap to check a couple of bearings, and the results were less than desired...


it's hard to tell in the pictures, but there is a nice score in the bearing, with copper showing. the #1 main bearing also had a bit of wear with visible copper. the journals on the crank are also scored... I attempted to polish the scores out, but they are beyond my capability to repair.

at this point, I have about 6 options.

have the crank ground, which costs about $200

buy a replacement crank, which is about $180

buy a junkyard engine, which is probably about $700, with questionable condition

buy a reman shortblock, which runs about $900, with more confidence.

and finally, the most expensive, but probably best option,

buy a wrecked or otherwise low cost late model suburban/tahoe with a 4.8 or 5.3, some swap mounts, and smash the two together for about $2500

theoretically, I could part out the late model and recoup some of my costs, but I'm unsure of what parts are worth for one, so I probably won't go that route. realistically, I'm probably going to buy a replacement crank, clean up the block as best as I can, and get it on the road. my biggest concern with a replacement crank, is that the balance of the engine may not be right anymore with the new crank, but, this isn't exactly a high RPM monster either, and I imagine an 80's GM rotating assembly probably wasn't balanced that precisely anyways.

[68Timber]

That sucks. Do you have a machine shop near you that you know and trust? If so, might be worth it to give them a call and get their thoughts about ground crank vs new and the balance issue. Good luck with it.

[ericjon262]

Originally Posted by 68Timber

That sucks. Do you have a machine shop near you that you know and trust? If so, might be worth it to give them a call and get their thoughts about ground crank vs new and the balance issue. Good luck with it.

I have had a hard time finding anyone local who grinds cranks... but it's back together with a new crank, by plastigage, the mains seemed a little on the tight side, and the rods were spot on. whoever was in the engine last, stamped letters into the oil pan rail where the gasket seals... I'll have to RTV it to make sure it doesn't leak... erg. otherwise, all the seating surfaces are cleaned up, the new rear main is in, the new crank is in. and I'm beat...

[SBTork]

Looking good! Bad news about the engine, but at least you were able to fix it while you were in there and it's going back together now.

I think a good rebuild on the transmission wouldn't be a bad idea, as long as you're not super tight on time incase anything else comes up.

[ericjon262]

it is what it is... I'd rather find out the bearing are messed up in the garage, than on the side of the road somewhere in Canada...

things are slowly coming together, it's going to look nice when I put it back in, and at this point, the only thing holding it back is the flywheel bolts, one of them didn't want to play nice coming out, so it has to be replaced... the air tube cleaned up nice, I'm surprised to see GM used stainless for it...

I picked up a set of "flat-top" knuckles from a D44 axle. they fit the 10 bolt and allow me to bolt a steering arm to the passenger side knuckle for the drag link to attach, so I can run crossover steering and improve steering under articulation.