Going in to deep? Complete swap manual suburban.

[DrivelineDave]

Hey everyone! new to gmt400, but Im excited to be part of the community!

So lets get started..... I work with some really rad guys! I recently crashed on my motorcycle and have been hitching rides to and from work from my loving fiance, anyways, one of the elders at my shop offered to give me a 1994 Chevrolet k2500 diesel suburban! Awesome offer, but there is always a catch! There is no drive-train in it now, was bought to do a Cummings swap, but had a gas engine in it when it was last on the road. From looking at the photos it looks to have all of the wiring loom still intact, being a broke 22 year old in Santa Cruz, the first thought i had was s*** a drive train is gonna cost as much as a car... but i have that all figured out as well! Now to the twist, I have another elder at my same shop, that has a 1996 Chevrolet k1500 with a 350 and a 5 speed, with severe frame rust. (coming from Pennsylvania) He has given me an offer to buy the truck off of him for a price I cant say no to! So here is that magic question....
Am i just insane for wanting to swap the running gear over from the k1500 to the k2500 suburban? I mean i know its an insane amount of work. (but i think a no smog, 5 speed, 4x4 suburban would be worth the work!) I am in the maintenance department at my shop and I've been wrenching for awhile now, but has anyone done this before? Any advise other than "don't do it"? Thanks for any and all input! I will be putting pics up very soon so you guys can see what I'm looking at!

quick recap of the vehicles in question!
Donner truck:
1996 Chevrolet k1500
350
5 speed
complete and running well
sever rust damage.

Receiving truck:
1994 Chevrolet k2500 Suburban
Diesel chassis but was converted to gas.
no engine
most likely was a 4l80e
no trans
no transfer-case
complete, clean title and straight otherwise.

thanks to anyone willing to give their two cents!
Dave

 

[superdave]

Doing all this in California? Have you checked into passing emisions

 

[skylark]

Doing all this in California? Have you checked into passing emisions

That burb is a pre emissions diesel in CA. It doesn't have to be smogged. Those have a special market value because of it.

 

[Supercharged111]

That and the proposed drivetrain is newer, so he'd be good either way I'd think. OP there's nothing weird about what you're looking at doing. Wouldn't even be that bad of a project since the donor is complete. Just don't scrap it until the burb is running.

 

[slowburb]

It can be done for sure. You will have to figure out some things for the shifter and pedals, and the rest of the clutch setup, maybe hit the junkyard & find some OBS 5 speeds and see what's what and take pics so you can see the where and how of everything, not to mention score factory parts that will likely mostly bolt in.

You need to figure out if the 2500 had a smallblock or bigblock in it.

 

[superdave]

That burb is a pre emissions diesel in CA. It doesn't have to be smogged. Those have a special market value because of it.

That's good then. I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of CA smog laws, other than "it's complicated". It is one of those concerns that young, energetic wrenchers may overlook.

 

[skylark]

That's good then. I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of CA smog laws, other than "it's complicated". It is one of those concerns that young, energetic wrenchers may overlook.

I've purchased a few vehicles out of California and the only one that I had competition one was my wife's 94 Chevy K3500 crew cab dually diesel. Fortunately for us the owner hadn't put the truck on a non-op so the back registration fees were higher than most people want to pay. We don't have a problem with bringing them to Oregon and registering them here. I have previously offered to a forum member to have them drive the truck here, put it in my name and sign it back over to them in the parking lot of dmv. It would've been cheaper than the back registration fees.

 

[Eskimomann209]

It can be done for sure. You will have to figure out some things for the shifter and pedals, and the rest of the clutch setup, maybe hit the junkyard & find some OBS 5 speeds and see what's what and take pics so you can see the where and how of everything, not to mention score factory parts that will likely mostly bolt in.

You need to figure out if the 2500 had a smallblock or bigblock in it.

He has an obs manual to reference and remove parts from
No need to hit the yard
Not sure why the motor side of the 2500 matters
He’s swapping all the guts into the 2500 from the 1500

My biggest question would be
Are ya rolling the interior over from the 96 to the 94

 

[Eskimomann209]

When you decide you don’t want the project anymore
Lemme know
I need that 96s drivetrain

 

[mars2878]

sounds like a solid project.

it's been just about a week, we want pics