'99 K1500 Suburban "Storm"

letitsnow said:

Just watch for the front cradle rust. I had a '98 that looked mint, but the motor was about to fall out...

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I looked this one over really well and thankfully it has no signs of surface rust under the car. It was originally bought from an old dealership in my town that shut down during he recession. Pretty cool history on it imo.

OutlawDrifter said:

Should make a good driver, the supercharged 3800 is pretty peppy.

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I hope it does! I had an 02 lesabre, so I'm somewhat familiar with the 3800 platform, but the supercharger is new to me. I have a gen 5 from an 04 up gtp to install eventually. I'd like to get an intense tune and modular hub system and do a few mild things to it.

We had a pulley'd 98 Grand Prix GTP and it pulled pretty good. I imagine a tune, more pulley, intercooler would have been that much better.

$800?? Hell naw that ain’t bad at all! And will this be the first 3800 motor to make a 9sec 1/4 mile? lol

Jerryred94silvy said:

$800?? Hell naw that ain’t bad at all! And will this be the first 3800 motor to make a 9sec 1/4 mile? lol

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You're funny lol. Dont tempt me to turn another daily into a street car!

Figured I would give a little update to keep the thread going... Still waiting on the machine shop, suprise!
In all seriousness. I spoke with the owner and he said he will be machining the block this week, so I'm thinking I should have the engine back in a few weeks! November will mark 1 year since Storm has been broke down.

Stratos has developed a coolant leak somewhere. I didn't notice anything around the intake or heater hoses when I briefly looked the other day after I found the radiator to be low on coolant. I'll need to look into it more when I have the time.

I've gotten White Lightning up and running now. The original engine threw the cylinder 1 rod after trying to track down a tick from the front of the engine and replacing a broken valvespring on cylinder 3. Made it all of 50 feet down the road before it blew. Purchased a low mileage 2002 L67 and finally got it running last weekend, new brakes and tires too!

I'm wanting to get this car 100% reliable, get Storm up and running, and then I believe it will be time to put Stratos up for sell after I fix a few issues on it. Always something to work on!

To say I'm infuriated is an understatement... being this close to having my engine back, and now being even further away from having it back on the road... radiator, lights, air intake, shocks, and the grille my grandfather painted are gone, along with many other parts and tools... I'd be happy if all I recovered from the items stolen was the grille. I just pray comprehensive covers these things since they were not mounted on the vehicle due to it being broke down and working on it.

If anyone has a set of smoked amber/black housing corner lights for sell please PM me. They don't make these anymore and I really liked them.

Damn I'm really sorry that happened. Reminds me when the *******.e.r.s. broke into my company van and stole off my tools..... I know these parts are hard to come by but at least you still got the burb. Otherwise I bet the would of tried to steal that. Guess it's that season for thieves. I wish I had parts to give you but unfortunately I dont have any of those. .

If all goes well, my new engine for Storm will be ready by the end of next week! I have about 95% of the components ready to go in with the new engine, and need to replace some of the crucial items that were stolen for the truck to operate (radiator, maf, air intake). It's going to be really difficult to keep my foot out of it during the break in period, but knowing how I like to drive a lot I'll have the miles on it in no time!

I've been doing a few things on the Bonneville in the mean time. Got a baseline 1/8th mile time with a faulty MAF or 10.10. I'm not going all out with this car as it is my daily, but I will be doing some mods to help efficiency. I also got my 93 Grand Prix B4U 16x8 wheels installed with new rubber! These help eliminate the grandma look of the car.

It's been a good while since I've posted an update on here. Insurance covered all the stolen items thankfully, but the theif has not been caught. I've replaced most everything I needed to.

I finally got the engine back from the machine shop. He discounted the labor costs as an apology for taking so long to finish it. I got everything dropped in, fired it up, and everything worked as it should! This iron 6.2 is a HUGE difference in power and torque compared to my old LQ4. It will spin in 4wd from a dig with 265's on it. But the fun only lasted for a day...

The day after getting the suburban back on the road, I took off and let out at 45mph when I heard something pop. Suddenly it revved in gear like it was in neutral. I tried every gear, but it had no movement at all. It ended up being a broken output shaft once I removed the transfer case (stock 4l60e shaft). I have since sent the trans back to Performabuilt to be rebuilt and upgraded from a Level 3 to a Black Edition (awesome customer service, even though my warranty had expired, I explained the circumstances with the engine and they prorated my warranty).

While it's been parked, I have sold my 20x10s to a friend (they are much heavier than the 18s I had on it the day I got it running, and I noticed a huge loss in acceleration from the heavier wheels), lowered it 2.5-3" (3" drop keys and 2.5" shackles), installed my VAS traction bars, removed the fender flares, roof rack, and tow mirrors, installed an Eaton True Trac differential in my 14 bolt, bought 2022 Silverado wheels, and have a set of 285/60r18 Toyo Proxes ST3 tires to install.

It looks like a whole different vehicle than it did 3 months ago. I'll have the transmission installed in about 2 weeks, then I'll put the rest of the break in miles on the engine. The plan is to make it to Street Car Takeover Charlotte on June 25th for Test and Tune.