1996 Chevrolet K1500 Suburban

gstubbz said:

I don't know why I never saw this thread earlier and just finished reading through it. The suburban looks great and I'm glad to see another young guy have interest in these things and you are making yours proper. It's an addiction, ever since I purchased my 98 k1500 when I was 16 my truck habit has been terrible since then!

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Thank you! I can definitely relate to that haha. My wallet hates me...

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Found the issue, turns out the door handle actuator thing (the box attached to the inner door skin which the inner and outer door handle rod connect to) started to sag due to the rivets giving out, so I drilled one of the rivets out and then added a new rivet to hold it against the door. I only had one rivet, so it'll get a correct fix once I find the time to do it. In the mean time, the window and door handles work for now.

Great thread. The best thing to due when modifying/restoring a vehicle is to do what you want (what is right) the first time. Keep it up.

Bad news... I noticed a lot of white smoke blowing out of my tailpipe the other day while I was at operating temp. I checked under the cap today and found this...

Also, the coolant was nowhere in sight when I peeked into the radiator.

I know the radiator needs a flush ASAP, but I needed the truck today. Also, the oil looked fine. No sludge/milkshake nastiness under the oil cap.

I immediately drove to the auto parts store (in a different car) and grabbed a no-spill funnel and 1 qt. of coolant.


The suburban took the whole quart and I still couldn't see the coolant. I checked for leaks but there were none to be found. So I ran back to the store and bought another 2 quarts. It took another half quart then I began the process to bleed the system.


The system was burping itself... and burping... and burping. It finally stopped 5 minutes after starting the truck so I revved it to 2k RPMs to help speed up the process of getting it to operating temp. During that time it was burping like crazy. At that point I was 99% sure it was the head gasket...

The thermostat finally opened and the coolant burping process was done. It stopped bubbling... until I brought up the engine speed. Then the bubbling would happen again. No smoke out the tailpipe, no smoke in the engine bay, no coolant on the ground. But while I did inspect the rear of the truck I was greeted by this surprise


Yep, that's right... water coming out of the tailpipes. Almost a constant drip as well. I was 110% confident it was a blown head gasket at that point. Yay.

So, at that point I did what any man would do and let some eye sweat roll down the cheeks. Then, I thought long and hard about the next steps with the suburban.

After a long stressful while, I decided that I'm going to tackle this head gasket job with my Dad. It'll be a great learning experience into the mechanics of the truck. Plus, who doesn't love a good father-son project? As for the vehicle situation, I'll be using the Hummer as the daily in the mean time while the Suburban is down. I'm going to have to park the suburban for a little bit while saving the money for the project. As far as I know I'll need new head bolts, top-end gaskets, along with resurfacing the heads. While I'm in there, I'm going to be dressing up the engine a bit.

I posted another thread in the engine section asking for people's help: http://www.gmt400.com/threads/blown-head-gasket-whats-next.39218/

If anyone has done this job before, please help guide me in the right direction of what to do as well as what to do while I'm in there. Thanks.

They really aren't that bad to do. Just a lot of stuff needs to be taken off the engine in order to get the heads off. If you don't have a manual for the truck, pick one up. It will have all the torque specs in there for re assembling the engine as well as a step by step on doing the head gasket. Also when you are getting the gaskets get the complete top end kit for your truck. you will have everything off anyways so it will nice to have all the gaskets to put it back together.


Also watch a couple videos on setting valve lash. You will need to know how to do that.

7thdarkangel said:

They really aren't that bad to do. Just a lot of stuff needs to be taken off the engine in order to get the heads off. If you don't have a manual for the truck, pick one up. It will have all the torque specs in there for re assembling the engine as well as a step by step on doing the head gasket. Also when you are getting the gaskets get the complete top end kit for your truck. you will have everything off anyways so it will nice to have all the gaskets to put it back together.


Also watch a couple videos on setting valve lash. You will need to know how to do that.

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Thanks for the reply. I will definitely pick up a manual. Also, is this everything needed for the top end gasket?
https://m.summitracing.com/parts/fel-hst7733pt16

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yes it is a complete gasket set for doing the head gaskets. it will include the head gaskets, intake/exhaust mani gasket, valve cover gaskets, and so on. I know summit has them and most local parts stores should be able to get them for you as well.

Let's see, you have to pull the intake and all of the accessories to get the heads off. Another hour of work (taking your time) gets you to the cam... Easily justified by the mileage to replace the timing chain.

7thdarkangel said:

yes it is a complete gasket set for doing the head gaskets. it will include the head gaskets, intake/exhaust mani gasket, valve cover gaskets, and so on. I know summit has them and most local parts stores should be able to get them for you as well.

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Awesome! Thank you for your help.

skylark said:

Let's see, you have to pull the intake and all of the accessories to get the heads off. Another hour of work (taking your time) gets you to the cam... Easily justified by the mileage to replace the timing chain.

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Hmm... I never thought about that. I'll have to check up on it though.


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Imho if you are going to do the timing chain you might want to consider taking the engine out to work on it. It is a lot easier to do all the bottom end gaskets with the engine out.

By that's just my preference.


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