Diptenkrom
Newbie
You can run 87 or 89 with just decking the heads to true them up and the .030 gaskets. My 98 has had the heads decked .010 and .015 steel gaskets and have ran 87 with no problem but I normally try to run 91 due to tune. As far as the cam, I would go with the Ramjet because of the weight of a 4wd suburban. You can run that cam with stock springs and tune. The hot cam will move torque up higher in the rpm range. I run the hot cam with 1.6 rockers in my 98 C1500 with 4:10s, a 4l80 and a 3000 stall 10 in converter.
so i should be able to run the ramjet cam, with stock springs and retainers, just new lifters, and minimal head decking with cometic .030 MLS and be good with a little extra power. the thing is here,that i am trying to do this with as little downtime as possible, and pulling the whole motor to get the block decked will increase time and money by a lot. i'm not looking to compete at anything, just have a bit more power for doing what suburbans were meant for, hauling and towing!