That was a hell of a deal you got, especially if the bolt was the only real problem with it! And I say go for it with the burban, get a little pep in the car and if you end up selling it (which I hope you won't, that is a really nice truck), you can pump up the price on it considerably.
gstubbz's trucks
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GarrettGmc
I'm Awesome
Id say look for another 350 for the burb. Keep the 5.3 for a project you'll keep little while longer.
gstubbz
Hi I'm Gavin and I have an OBSession
So update on the 350. I've had a huge issue with the oil expanding ring on the pistons, and thought I may have ordered the wrong set so I ordered the .200 oil groove size and it's no different from the first set I ordered, so now I just ordered the .165 kit and I'm hoping that will work. It's just too tight in the cylinder and I can't do anything about it. I want to get that engine together!
Still iffy on the Suburban, mainly it's just sitting looking pretty at the moment but I plan to mess with it throughout the next few months but I have another project I'll probably mess with more and I'll get to that shortly.
--
For easter weekend, I took a trip to Eugene Oregon to visit family, so a 11 hour trip one way to visit for a day and then the 11 hour drive back. Long drive and I managed to only get pulled over once (of course for speeding on the last hour of my drive, 60 in a 50mph leaving the last closest town) and received a warning.
The truck did great, especially at the speeds I was going. I had two little hiccups, one was thinking I had a flat tire along the boondocks Columbia River (on the WA side) which would have sucked because my truck doesn't have a spare on it, but I think I ran over something and got worried because the tire was fine when I got out.
Next was on my way home outside of Kennewick WA I had a pretty good smell of oil burning, but when I looked under the hood there was zero smoke and no signs of anything, so hopefully it was just someone else going down the highway!
The suspension bushings on the duramax squeak pretty bad in the warmer weather (never did it all winter) so that is on my list of things to do with the truck.
My next purchase is a gooseneck hitch. I hate even having to buy one knowing I want a flatbed soon enough already with one, but I needed one for my purchase (post below this) that required one on short notice. That's part of the reason I went with a cheaper Curt hitch but if my bed wasn't mangled or I wasn't going with the flatbed I would have happily spent the additional $200 on the B&W hitch.
--
So.... what is it I'm buying? This is happening I promise, unlike everything else I post about lol.
It's a 30" tandem axle gooseneck trailer. The guy we get our logs for (at my job) uses this trailer to haul them and on the last delivery he told my coworker that he was thinking of selling it for $2000 because it needs some work and he wants to upgrade to an even bigger trailer. He's still using it as we speak but I plan on picking it up in two weeks or so, assuming my gooseneck hitch comes before then so I can install it.
Definitely larger than what I wanted, and I was also after non-duals in the rear but whatever at least I can feel comfortable about whatever I haul. The front jacks need fixed, as well as the deck. Not sure of the tire condition yet. Not sure of the brand but looks kinda like a BigTex. Should make for yet another project for me but this will allow me to do almost anything I want so I'm excited about it. Gives me the freedom to haul bigger equipment (or 3500HDs lol) and hopefully any size truck I want.
Time to treat my poor 300k mile duramax to heavy hauling!
Still iffy on the Suburban, mainly it's just sitting looking pretty at the moment but I plan to mess with it throughout the next few months but I have another project I'll probably mess with more and I'll get to that shortly.
--
For easter weekend, I took a trip to Eugene Oregon to visit family, so a 11 hour trip one way to visit for a day and then the 11 hour drive back. Long drive and I managed to only get pulled over once (of course for speeding on the last hour of my drive, 60 in a 50mph leaving the last closest town) and received a warning.
The truck did great, especially at the speeds I was going. I had two little hiccups, one was thinking I had a flat tire along the boondocks Columbia River (on the WA side) which would have sucked because my truck doesn't have a spare on it, but I think I ran over something and got worried because the tire was fine when I got out.
Next was on my way home outside of Kennewick WA I had a pretty good smell of oil burning, but when I looked under the hood there was zero smoke and no signs of anything, so hopefully it was just someone else going down the highway!
The suspension bushings on the duramax squeak pretty bad in the warmer weather (never did it all winter) so that is on my list of things to do with the truck.
My next purchase is a gooseneck hitch. I hate even having to buy one knowing I want a flatbed soon enough already with one, but I needed one for my purchase (post below this) that required one on short notice. That's part of the reason I went with a cheaper Curt hitch but if my bed wasn't mangled or I wasn't going with the flatbed I would have happily spent the additional $200 on the B&W hitch.
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--
So.... what is it I'm buying? This is happening I promise, unlike everything else I post about lol.
It's a 30" tandem axle gooseneck trailer. The guy we get our logs for (at my job) uses this trailer to haul them and on the last delivery he told my coworker that he was thinking of selling it for $2000 because it needs some work and he wants to upgrade to an even bigger trailer. He's still using it as we speak but I plan on picking it up in two weeks or so, assuming my gooseneck hitch comes before then so I can install it.
Definitely larger than what I wanted, and I was also after non-duals in the rear but whatever at least I can feel comfortable about whatever I haul. The front jacks need fixed, as well as the deck. Not sure of the tire condition yet. Not sure of the brand but looks kinda like a BigTex. Should make for yet another project for me but this will allow me to do almost anything I want so I'm excited about it. Gives me the freedom to haul bigger equipment (or 3500HDs lol) and hopefully any size truck I want.
Time to treat my poor 300k mile duramax to heavy hauling!
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gstubbz
Hi I'm Gavin and I have an OBSession
I've got a little bit of an update on things!
Start out with the 350 engine. I FINALLY received the correct piston rings, and that happened to be part number ENGINETECH R10258 with a shallow oil ring. From what I found out, the 87-95 TBI blocks use that shallow oil ring at .165" where my mistake was buying not one but two different sets at .200"
So I finally have some pistons in the block, now I can resume assembling it and cleaning parts. Just got around to that last night.
--
Next up, ZF6 Duramax.
Another kid up here my age is also named Gavin, and actually lived in Sonora which was half an hour away from where I was living two years ago in Oakdale and ironically we had mutual friends with people down there. He's been up here for two years as well. Another odd bit, his girlfriends parents have a large chunk of land here and have a guy named Mike also on their property, and he recognized be but I didn't recognize him. I actually sold him some Peterbuilt parts when I was working at the junkyard years ago so that was crazy! He did logging in the area.
Back to the truck - Gavin bought this pretty cheap, and the story was that it used to be really nice with a flatbed and was really clean, but it needed injectors so the guy started pulling it apart and then it got repoed. Then someone else bought it and drove it for a bit then ended up just starting to part it out and at this point in time now the truck has sat 6 years so it needed some fixing and replacement body panels. It's a 2005 ECLB 4x4 2500HD with a LLY/ZF6.
I helped him out for probably 4 days on this truck and we got it back together with new head gaskets and studs, and used my duramax for reference seeing where things went. When it was all back together we had an issue where it would crank twice then stop with the security light flashing so we tried some other things like a key relearn and messing with sensors, but turns out the computer plug wasn't seated the whole way and when he fixed that it fired up.
It's not perfect yet and has an exhaust leak around an injector but we were trying to get it off his brother's property so I followed him for probably 10 miles and all the smoke gave me a gnarly headache following behind him but got it home and now he can mess with it there.
--
My duramax!
In the middle of working on his truck, the first day we tried working on it the snow started coming down pretty hard so we ended up going back to my shop and swapped my dented up drivers side door with the Idaho replacement and honestly it matches pretty good. Swapped all the guts out with my few month old AC Delco window motor assembly and put my tinted glass and door handle in.
The truck is less than 100 miles from 299k, so I'm right on the cusp of 300,000! Actually right now I do need to rotate tires and need to replace the front end bushings they are starting to make noise to sound like a horse drawn carriage and it annoys me!
--
Other smaller shop projects.
Finally started messing with my Dodge yesterday for the first time in over a year, threw a code for a bad coolant temp sensor so I replaced that and now I receive 6 different codes that all have to do with the throttle position sensor but what's weird is the throttle works fine controlling the throttle body. I am now 100% positive the fuel pump is out because it just doesn't make hardly any pressure and I can get it to run on ether but that's it. So maybe by not getting fuel pressure it's being goofy with the throttle I'm not sure.
Gavin's girlfriend's truck needed a master cylinder and an oil change so we brought it to the shop and did that. Not sure what year F250 it is but has a p-pump 12 valve Cummins with a NV5600 and a 205 divorced tcase. This truck is a pain for me (6'2) to even crawl up into.
You can also see my banged up duramax door in the corner!
My employee yesterday dropped off his 03 Yukon XL that they bought back in January (I went with them because they wanted me to check it out with them and I said it passed all my tests for the price it was a decent deal) with I think close to 300k as well but it drove super nice and the guy was a one owner who took care of it.
It's in the Stubbs Shop for some intake manifold gaskets and a fuel pressure regulator to help because it has a little bit of surging at idle so it should be a quick job I plan on doing that today.
Last night my coworker James stopped by and we changed his studded tires out. He wanted to put a bull bar he had on his truck but it turns out they were wrong and it was late enough in the night I didn't want to start getting into some welding stuff.
In addition, a Cali friend named Beau is up here visiting some of his family and drove his grandpa's truck up, its an immaculate 89' c1500 RCSB with a 350/700R4. I told him the only mod I would do to that truck if it was mine would be dropping the rear end down a bit and a compass/temp mirror.
---
So that's this update! Still haven't received my gooseneck hitch in the mail and the gooseneck trailer is still being used until he finds a new one so I still have a little bit longer to wait but I'm hoping within the next two weeks it'll happen!
Start out with the 350 engine. I FINALLY received the correct piston rings, and that happened to be part number ENGINETECH R10258 with a shallow oil ring. From what I found out, the 87-95 TBI blocks use that shallow oil ring at .165" where my mistake was buying not one but two different sets at .200"
So I finally have some pistons in the block, now I can resume assembling it and cleaning parts. Just got around to that last night.
--
Next up, ZF6 Duramax.
Another kid up here my age is also named Gavin, and actually lived in Sonora which was half an hour away from where I was living two years ago in Oakdale and ironically we had mutual friends with people down there. He's been up here for two years as well. Another odd bit, his girlfriends parents have a large chunk of land here and have a guy named Mike also on their property, and he recognized be but I didn't recognize him. I actually sold him some Peterbuilt parts when I was working at the junkyard years ago so that was crazy! He did logging in the area.
Back to the truck - Gavin bought this pretty cheap, and the story was that it used to be really nice with a flatbed and was really clean, but it needed injectors so the guy started pulling it apart and then it got repoed. Then someone else bought it and drove it for a bit then ended up just starting to part it out and at this point in time now the truck has sat 6 years so it needed some fixing and replacement body panels. It's a 2005 ECLB 4x4 2500HD with a LLY/ZF6.
I helped him out for probably 4 days on this truck and we got it back together with new head gaskets and studs, and used my duramax for reference seeing where things went. When it was all back together we had an issue where it would crank twice then stop with the security light flashing so we tried some other things like a key relearn and messing with sensors, but turns out the computer plug wasn't seated the whole way and when he fixed that it fired up.
It's not perfect yet and has an exhaust leak around an injector but we were trying to get it off his brother's property so I followed him for probably 10 miles and all the smoke gave me a gnarly headache following behind him but got it home and now he can mess with it there.
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--
My duramax!
In the middle of working on his truck, the first day we tried working on it the snow started coming down pretty hard so we ended up going back to my shop and swapped my dented up drivers side door with the Idaho replacement and honestly it matches pretty good. Swapped all the guts out with my few month old AC Delco window motor assembly and put my tinted glass and door handle in.
The truck is less than 100 miles from 299k, so I'm right on the cusp of 300,000! Actually right now I do need to rotate tires and need to replace the front end bushings they are starting to make noise to sound like a horse drawn carriage and it annoys me!
You must be registered for see images attach
--
Other smaller shop projects.
Finally started messing with my Dodge yesterday for the first time in over a year, threw a code for a bad coolant temp sensor so I replaced that and now I receive 6 different codes that all have to do with the throttle position sensor but what's weird is the throttle works fine controlling the throttle body. I am now 100% positive the fuel pump is out because it just doesn't make hardly any pressure and I can get it to run on ether but that's it. So maybe by not getting fuel pressure it's being goofy with the throttle I'm not sure.
Gavin's girlfriend's truck needed a master cylinder and an oil change so we brought it to the shop and did that. Not sure what year F250 it is but has a p-pump 12 valve Cummins with a NV5600 and a 205 divorced tcase. This truck is a pain for me (6'2) to even crawl up into.
You can also see my banged up duramax door in the corner!
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My employee yesterday dropped off his 03 Yukon XL that they bought back in January (I went with them because they wanted me to check it out with them and I said it passed all my tests for the price it was a decent deal) with I think close to 300k as well but it drove super nice and the guy was a one owner who took care of it.
It's in the Stubbs Shop for some intake manifold gaskets and a fuel pressure regulator to help because it has a little bit of surging at idle so it should be a quick job I plan on doing that today.
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Last night my coworker James stopped by and we changed his studded tires out. He wanted to put a bull bar he had on his truck but it turns out they were wrong and it was late enough in the night I didn't want to start getting into some welding stuff.
You must be registered for see images attach
In addition, a Cali friend named Beau is up here visiting some of his family and drove his grandpa's truck up, its an immaculate 89' c1500 RCSB with a 350/700R4. I told him the only mod I would do to that truck if it was mine would be dropping the rear end down a bit and a compass/temp mirror.
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---
So that's this update! Still haven't received my gooseneck hitch in the mail and the gooseneck trailer is still being used until he finds a new one so I still have a little bit longer to wait but I'm hoping within the next two weeks it'll happen!
Last edited:
gstubbz
Hi I'm Gavin and I have an OBSession
Another quick day update.
Did some work on the duramax, mainly rotating tires and greasing the front end. Then I proceeded to try my best to pull the bumper out again to look a tiny bit better and to replace the plastic bucket the turn signal/headlight sit in so it would stop flopping around. My turn signal was broken so luckily I had two takeoffs from the same avalanche my doors came from so I swapped them in. At some point soon I plan on ordering new lower control arms to replace the worn out ones with bad bushings.
Brought the Yukon XL into the shop for the intake manifold gaskets and it looks normal for a 285k engine bay. I would have loved to pressure wash it beforehand but it actually started snowing heavily this afternoon so that didn't happen.
I also planned on replacing the fuel pressure regulator (for some reason I think the 1999 to early 03s had them but 03.5 up didn't, my 07 2500hd classic 6.0 didn't have one), and the one I ordered from rockauto for a 03 yukon xl 5.3 was apparently wrong, so maybe Napa will save the day tomorrow with the correct part. Worse case scenario I have the 99 5.3 on the engine stand with the same fuel pressure regulator I could take until I find the proper one.
One last neat thing, Beau came up today in the truck he drove up from Cali, a 94 c1500 RCSB 4.3/5spd in a GMT800 grey color. On his trip up here his hood popped open and trashed his hood, and the local guy in town wanted $175 for one, but fortunately for him I had a red hood on the side of the shop from the truck I cut up (88 k1500 rclb) a few years back. I am most jealous of the Sport wheels!
Did some work on the duramax, mainly rotating tires and greasing the front end. Then I proceeded to try my best to pull the bumper out again to look a tiny bit better and to replace the plastic bucket the turn signal/headlight sit in so it would stop flopping around. My turn signal was broken so luckily I had two takeoffs from the same avalanche my doors came from so I swapped them in. At some point soon I plan on ordering new lower control arms to replace the worn out ones with bad bushings.
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Brought the Yukon XL into the shop for the intake manifold gaskets and it looks normal for a 285k engine bay. I would have loved to pressure wash it beforehand but it actually started snowing heavily this afternoon so that didn't happen.
I also planned on replacing the fuel pressure regulator (for some reason I think the 1999 to early 03s had them but 03.5 up didn't, my 07 2500hd classic 6.0 didn't have one), and the one I ordered from rockauto for a 03 yukon xl 5.3 was apparently wrong, so maybe Napa will save the day tomorrow with the correct part. Worse case scenario I have the 99 5.3 on the engine stand with the same fuel pressure regulator I could take until I find the proper one.
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One last neat thing, Beau came up today in the truck he drove up from Cali, a 94 c1500 RCSB 4.3/5spd in a GMT800 grey color. On his trip up here his hood popped open and trashed his hood, and the local guy in town wanted $175 for one, but fortunately for him I had a red hood on the side of the shop from the truck I cut up (88 k1500 rclb) a few years back. I am most jealous of the Sport wheels!
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gstubbz
Hi I'm Gavin and I have an OBSession
Not a whole lot on this week update, got around to installing a gooseneck hitch on the Duramax in preparation for the trailer, still being patient with waiting for the go ahead to get it. The install wasn't terrible. Trying to fight around the gas tank was the worst part but I found it easier to use a bungie cord and a ratchet strap from a rafter hooked onto the bottom of the gooseneck assembly through the hole in the bed to keep it elevated so I could get back under the truck and start tightening bolts. My truck doesn't have a spare tire mount under it (PO I'm assuming removed for the 4" straight pipe install) so I am keeping my eye out for one I'd like to put a spare tire back up underneath!
Nothing else really exciting, but I did see this semi loaded on a gooseneck behind a 4th gen ram lol
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Nothing else really exciting, but I did see this semi loaded on a gooseneck behind a 4th gen ram lol
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gstubbz
Hi I'm Gavin and I have an OBSession
Time for more updates!
I'll start out with the gooseneck trailer. Talked to the owner again this evening and he has still been trying to search everywhere for one and still has yet to find the one he's after, so I still have some more time to wait. Would have loved to have it by now but that's okay! Just have to be patient although I am extremely eager to have it and start using it, could have used it tonight actually! And I'll get to why later in this post.
One of my recent hire employees is a 19 year old who I have running around between all three of my in-house construction crews and doesn't have a vehicle yet so he's been catching rides to work with one of my other employees but he sparked interest in this suburban so I finally got around to working on it again. I'm hoping to have it together this week and then iron out some other issues it has. When I was rolling around under it today I noticed a coolant leak for the rear heater core, wasn't happy to see it and I'm not sure what fixing it will entail.
I started my hunt for another used 350 tbi and came across two on facebook marketplace, and ended up paying $500 for one pulled from an ad I came across where a tree fell on this truck. The truck was at a junkyard, and actually I was really happy about this discovery because it was like a Pick-n-Pull, which I haven't been to one now for two years so I had a lot of fun running around with my duramax friend Gavin and his fiance Crystal (currently pregnant with twins). The junkyard is Garwood Wrecking in Hayden, Idaho.
The truck just had a bunch of work done and also had an nv4500, unfortunately the transmission was gone already otherwise that would have come home with me too!
They actually had a few GMT800 denalis so I also grabbed the darker wood looking bezel and swapped it in my truck in a parking lot in Spokane. Not crazy about the lighter grey color so I might try to paint it to match the "very dark pewter" trim that's in my truck. I also need a passenger pillar with the tweeter since mine is broken, but of course I forgot to grab one. Also, the truck crossed 300,000 miles on Tuesday, and as of today I'm at 300,800. I've been putting miles on this thing like crazy and it's been a champ, supper happy with it, I do love this truck a lot!
Other neat finds out there, they use a 3500HD for their tow truck and had two for parts out in the yard, and also had a 98-00 K3500 CCLB forest service truck. I grabbed the tailgate but when I looked at photos later I noticed the hood was in the other truck next to it so if I make a trip back next weekend (I plan on it to see a different friend who is visiting his parents in Spokane) I'll probably grab it for James.
I'm not big into Fords at all, but this one caught my eye. 90s F150 crew cab short bed Centurion conversion, don't think I've seen one of these yet! I've seen a few four door bronco conversions in person, one even runs around my town!
Last night after getting home Gavin and I (it's odd saying my own name!) dropped the new engine in the suburban and today I lined up the transmission the rest of the way but throughout the week I'll work on getting it together. This engine has oil cooler lines and the suburban radiator does not, so I'll have to remove the lines and find plugs for the adapter.
Tonight (Mother's Day) I get a call from Gavin, and he was in Whitefish and his truck decided not to move anymore, turns out his transfer case is smoked and I ended up having to flat tow him home tonight which honestly went pretty smooth. Fortunately for him I have a NP261 out of my old 07 2500HD that he can replace the chain in and swap it in to fix his truck. This is why I wanted my future trailer, tried calling around to see if anyone had a car trailer and I couldn't track one down. The last thing I had to flat tow was now almost a year and a half ago, being the S10 the night hours before I went to go pick up the 07 2500HD. The green truck hated pulling that S10 too!
So that's it for now, might potentially pick up a 99 K1500 GMC Suburban too with blown head gaskets but we will see. It's victory red so I'm already sold just because of the color!
I'll start out with the gooseneck trailer. Talked to the owner again this evening and he has still been trying to search everywhere for one and still has yet to find the one he's after, so I still have some more time to wait. Would have loved to have it by now but that's okay! Just have to be patient although I am extremely eager to have it and start using it, could have used it tonight actually! And I'll get to why later in this post.
One of my recent hire employees is a 19 year old who I have running around between all three of my in-house construction crews and doesn't have a vehicle yet so he's been catching rides to work with one of my other employees but he sparked interest in this suburban so I finally got around to working on it again. I'm hoping to have it together this week and then iron out some other issues it has. When I was rolling around under it today I noticed a coolant leak for the rear heater core, wasn't happy to see it and I'm not sure what fixing it will entail.
I started my hunt for another used 350 tbi and came across two on facebook marketplace, and ended up paying $500 for one pulled from an ad I came across where a tree fell on this truck. The truck was at a junkyard, and actually I was really happy about this discovery because it was like a Pick-n-Pull, which I haven't been to one now for two years so I had a lot of fun running around with my duramax friend Gavin and his fiance Crystal (currently pregnant with twins). The junkyard is Garwood Wrecking in Hayden, Idaho.
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The truck just had a bunch of work done and also had an nv4500, unfortunately the transmission was gone already otherwise that would have come home with me too!
You must be registered for see images attach
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They actually had a few GMT800 denalis so I also grabbed the darker wood looking bezel and swapped it in my truck in a parking lot in Spokane. Not crazy about the lighter grey color so I might try to paint it to match the "very dark pewter" trim that's in my truck. I also need a passenger pillar with the tweeter since mine is broken, but of course I forgot to grab one. Also, the truck crossed 300,000 miles on Tuesday, and as of today I'm at 300,800. I've been putting miles on this thing like crazy and it's been a champ, supper happy with it, I do love this truck a lot!
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Other neat finds out there, they use a 3500HD for their tow truck and had two for parts out in the yard, and also had a 98-00 K3500 CCLB forest service truck. I grabbed the tailgate but when I looked at photos later I noticed the hood was in the other truck next to it so if I make a trip back next weekend (I plan on it to see a different friend who is visiting his parents in Spokane) I'll probably grab it for James.
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I'm not big into Fords at all, but this one caught my eye. 90s F150 crew cab short bed Centurion conversion, don't think I've seen one of these yet! I've seen a few four door bronco conversions in person, one even runs around my town!
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Last night after getting home Gavin and I (it's odd saying my own name!) dropped the new engine in the suburban and today I lined up the transmission the rest of the way but throughout the week I'll work on getting it together. This engine has oil cooler lines and the suburban radiator does not, so I'll have to remove the lines and find plugs for the adapter.
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Tonight (Mother's Day) I get a call from Gavin, and he was in Whitefish and his truck decided not to move anymore, turns out his transfer case is smoked and I ended up having to flat tow him home tonight which honestly went pretty smooth. Fortunately for him I have a NP261 out of my old 07 2500HD that he can replace the chain in and swap it in to fix his truck. This is why I wanted my future trailer, tried calling around to see if anyone had a car trailer and I couldn't track one down. The last thing I had to flat tow was now almost a year and a half ago, being the S10 the night hours before I went to go pick up the 07 2500HD. The green truck hated pulling that S10 too!
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So that's it for now, might potentially pick up a 99 K1500 GMC Suburban too with blown head gaskets but we will see. It's victory red so I'm already sold just because of the color!
Last edited:
gstubbz
Hi I'm Gavin and I have an OBSession
Here's a quick midweek update.
I found a truck bed for my duramax that popped up on Facebook Marketplace, and she was selling some GMT800 body parts that looked like someone put time into them for a project, and they were cheap enough and honestly I thought that maybe she was in the middle of a fight or personal issue with her other half and started selling his stuff to get rid of it fast.
So I take the headache rack off my truck with the plan to load this bed upside down. I get there, and meet this guy who had a 2000 ECSB 4x4 silverado that he was doing a frame off build on, and so I ask him why he wasn't going to use the bed, and he told me that he was going to do a flat bed instead, so we walk over to the bed and it had rust holes all over and he said he started welding and burning holes through the sheetmetal. It was pretty bad, and honestly that bed should go straight to scrap because nobody wants it so I turned it down.
I did however go to Home Depot to not waste my hour and a half trip and pick up my first M12 tool, a 3/8 ratchet and a 4ah battery that I have yet to use, but I will soon!
--
Now the fun thing I am really excited about. My buddy Tyler called last night, and said he would be considering doing the Gambler 500 in Oregon on June 25-27, so I told him I was down and I was trying to figure out what to bring. I considered the 93 Suburban I'm working on, but he told me if you have a 4WD vehicle you get put under the cheater category and I didn't want that.
After I got off the phone with him, I started my hunt since I'm starting to run out of time and I found a few potential buys for me and my criteria was that it must be 2WD only. So I found a 96 c1500 ECSB 5.0/4l60e, a 80s regular cab long bed S10, a few c1500s, and then my golden ticket item that I would have zero reason to buy or interest in it outside of doing just the Gambler 500.
Facebook Marketplace brought me to a rusty gem that I absolutely love. A 1989 Chevy Suburban. It's a 2wd 2500 8 lugger, packing a 350 TBI, factory SM465 4 speed manual, G80, 3.42s, and Silverado trim. The two tone is neat and I like that a lot too. The options are kind of weird, I was actually hoping for a 454 but I'm just stuck with another 350. Although it's Silverado trim, it has no cruise, no tilt steering, no rear passenger heat or ac, and fishbowl windows. However it did have A/C and power door locks. It's also packing the nice hydraulic master cylinder setup too.
It's rusty all over the body, but I think that's what gives it some character showing it has been a road warrior it's entire life and I have more in store for it. The roof rack is awesome, however they ripped out the entire headliner so that is missing. It's a big heavy 2wd boat but mainly unique due to the factory sm465, so I think it will be decent for whatever it goes through next month. I plan on road tripping this down there from Montana too, no duramax or trailer for that trip! I also figured this configuration should be simple enough to mess with in the event something goes wrong on my adventure and I plan to bring a box of spare parts in case I need them.
Now the mechanical issues. I paid $300 for this title in hand, however it's currently not running. The PO was going on a little lake trip with his family (of 6 kids and a wife!) and it started having issues overheating, so they filled it with water and was eager to continue so they tried cranking it while it was super hot and it seized up on them. I'm going to pull spark plugs tomorrow and see if I can get a penetrant in the cylinders then try spinning it by hand and see if I can get it running. If that's the case and it will run good again, then right on. If it needs an engine or a quick rebuild I may piece together the vortec 350 block I have in the shop and get it swapped in. But I'm not going to take the 350 I bought 4 days ago for the 93 suburban so I can wrap that project up.
But of course, stay tuned! I am absolutely stoked over this Suburban!
I found a truck bed for my duramax that popped up on Facebook Marketplace, and she was selling some GMT800 body parts that looked like someone put time into them for a project, and they were cheap enough and honestly I thought that maybe she was in the middle of a fight or personal issue with her other half and started selling his stuff to get rid of it fast.
So I take the headache rack off my truck with the plan to load this bed upside down. I get there, and meet this guy who had a 2000 ECSB 4x4 silverado that he was doing a frame off build on, and so I ask him why he wasn't going to use the bed, and he told me that he was going to do a flat bed instead, so we walk over to the bed and it had rust holes all over and he said he started welding and burning holes through the sheetmetal. It was pretty bad, and honestly that bed should go straight to scrap because nobody wants it so I turned it down.
I did however go to Home Depot to not waste my hour and a half trip and pick up my first M12 tool, a 3/8 ratchet and a 4ah battery that I have yet to use, but I will soon!
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--
Now the fun thing I am really excited about. My buddy Tyler called last night, and said he would be considering doing the Gambler 500 in Oregon on June 25-27, so I told him I was down and I was trying to figure out what to bring. I considered the 93 Suburban I'm working on, but he told me if you have a 4WD vehicle you get put under the cheater category and I didn't want that.
After I got off the phone with him, I started my hunt since I'm starting to run out of time and I found a few potential buys for me and my criteria was that it must be 2WD only. So I found a 96 c1500 ECSB 5.0/4l60e, a 80s regular cab long bed S10, a few c1500s, and then my golden ticket item that I would have zero reason to buy or interest in it outside of doing just the Gambler 500.
Facebook Marketplace brought me to a rusty gem that I absolutely love. A 1989 Chevy Suburban. It's a 2wd 2500 8 lugger, packing a 350 TBI, factory SM465 4 speed manual, G80, 3.42s, and Silverado trim. The two tone is neat and I like that a lot too. The options are kind of weird, I was actually hoping for a 454 but I'm just stuck with another 350. Although it's Silverado trim, it has no cruise, no tilt steering, no rear passenger heat or ac, and fishbowl windows. However it did have A/C and power door locks. It's also packing the nice hydraulic master cylinder setup too.
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
It's rusty all over the body, but I think that's what gives it some character showing it has been a road warrior it's entire life and I have more in store for it. The roof rack is awesome, however they ripped out the entire headliner so that is missing. It's a big heavy 2wd boat but mainly unique due to the factory sm465, so I think it will be decent for whatever it goes through next month. I plan on road tripping this down there from Montana too, no duramax or trailer for that trip! I also figured this configuration should be simple enough to mess with in the event something goes wrong on my adventure and I plan to bring a box of spare parts in case I need them.
You must be registered for see images attach
Now the mechanical issues. I paid $300 for this title in hand, however it's currently not running. The PO was going on a little lake trip with his family (of 6 kids and a wife!) and it started having issues overheating, so they filled it with water and was eager to continue so they tried cranking it while it was super hot and it seized up on them. I'm going to pull spark plugs tomorrow and see if I can get a penetrant in the cylinders then try spinning it by hand and see if I can get it running. If that's the case and it will run good again, then right on. If it needs an engine or a quick rebuild I may piece together the vortec 350 block I have in the shop and get it swapped in. But I'm not going to take the 350 I bought 4 days ago for the 93 suburban so I can wrap that project up.
But of course, stay tuned! I am absolutely stoked over this Suburban!
HotWheelsBurban
Gotta have 4 doors..... Rawhide, TOTY 2023!
Square burbs are cool, I miss my last one. It was a 90 GMC R2500, 350 TBI,TH400. Big old beast of a truck, that got parked due to the fuel pump going out. Dad wouldn't believe that's what it was, because we'd never had it happen before ( cause we hadn't had our other 99 Burb that long). I took the 350 apart, looking for nonexistent problems, and couldn't get it back together soon enough to keep it from rusting out and locking up.
That truck went down swinging though, fell off the wrecker 3 times, going to the yard.
That truck went down swinging though, fell off the wrecker 3 times, going to the yard.
gstubbz
Hi I'm Gavin and I have an OBSession
Thursday update! Suburban post mostly (about three of them!!!)
So last Thursday (a week ago) I tried to do what I could to unseize the engine in the 89 suburban (which I'm now calling the Gamburban) by removing spark plugs and trying to spray in PB Blaster. The harmonic balancer bolt just wanted to keep getting tighter so to risk not breaking it I tried the next thing by having my grandmother drive the duramax and flat tow me to see if I could get it into gear to try freeing the engine up. Unfortunately it's seized up so well that I was just smoking the clutch instead.
I figured if I couldn't break it loose, I have a few different engine options. I could easily find another 350, either by parting out the 93 Suburban (which I'll get to the reasoning in a minute) and stealing it's engine I just paid $500 for or hunting down another. The next option was dropping in the 5.3 I have sitting on an engine stand, or third, something I've always wanted but have never owned - a 454. I managed to track down a 95 454 tbi that was pulled out of a truck with a bad 4L80e and paid $450 for the complete engine with wiring harness and computer.
I am getting ready for the swap and plan to pull the 350/sm465 combo out this weekend and go to town pressure washing things so it has a clean engine bay, and new engine and the sm465. Turns out the 95 454 trucks ALSO have a one year throttle body, just like I found out with a 95 350 ("CableTV" used for an engine swap, dates back to 2017ish on my old CayenneCheyenne thread post #100 prior to "gstubbz trucks", how I miss the army truck! 4+ years ago now). So at this point I am going to work on making the 95 harness work.
Of course since 1995 is the oddball year, here's a refresher that relates to my issue. It's the last year of TBI in trucks, but with a new dash. The fuse block is now moved from under the dash to in the engine bay and has been that way in every truck since (at least through gmt800s to my knowledge). Trying to find a pinout for the C100 connector that goes to the firewall has been a nightmare, so after lots of reaching out and digging I started work on my own spreadsheet and will start experimenting when I get my new multimeter today (how have I never not owned one I don't know, but I will now). Then I will figure out what pins I need to power for ignition, starter, constant feed, fuel pump relay, etc and then I will work on adapting that to the 89 suburban harness at least into the firewall.
I ordered some cheap $150 JEGS 454 square body headers and if the clutch pedal bracket is in the way I'll probably beat the headers in. This is supposed to be a fun beater toy (it's getting real expensive though!) and I primarily purchased it for this one rally then I will probably part out the suburban but who knows. I also ordered the 454 specific flywheel and a new clutch kit. In order to hopefully prevent being stranded I also picked up a new fuel pump to bring with me just in case. Also ordered plenty of stickers, and in addition an amber flashing light for the roof just to add some fun for the gambler.
--
Onto the 93 Suburban. I have the engine almost buttoned all back up and should have it running and driving tonight. The more I look at it, the more I wish I probably should have parted it out. With the heater hose leak next to the frame, the rear pinion seal is leaking, t-case is leaking, transmission is leaking (hoping it's trans pan bolts and not the front pump seal), front diff is leaking, and I'm sure the engine will leak oil somewhere. Just a lot of time to invest into a beater. I finished the engine swap, and of course the coolant fitting on the back of the intake for the heater hose was leaking but I addressed that. I drove it on my 10 mile test loop, got to the driveway, check the mail, and it died and would not start back up so I coast it down the driveway as far as I could, and walked home. Came back to it the next day after work, and it started right up so I don't know what it's issue was. It also is now running kind of rough so when I feel like bringing it into the shop I'll look into it and then clean it up and list it for sale and hopefully it'll move fast.
--
Now the next thing I have to go pick up on Saturday morning. It's a 99 K1500 GMC Suburban with a 350 vortec that has blown head gaskets. I am a single guy and I developed an addition I absolutely hate - and that's Suburbans. But this one is Victory Red so I'm okay with it! Definitely plan on fixing it, and honestly I'm considering a slight lift with black rims and possibly yanking out the 350 and swapping in the 5.3 I have here in the shop. Just wish it had a tailgate since this will by Suburban #3 with barn doors. The reason I'm ending up with it is James did some trades with his tattoo artist who had this Suburban, and James is giving it to me rather than paying me off for the rest of his 350 build I need to finish up which I'm cool with otherwise I probably wouldn't have gone out of my way to buy it. The hood looks pretty dinged up unfortunately. Door pins are trashed, and needs lots of interior stuff. Running boards and that stupid chrome trim will be coming off!
Just seems like I can't get enough of 350 TBIs or Vortecs
So last Thursday (a week ago) I tried to do what I could to unseize the engine in the 89 suburban (which I'm now calling the Gamburban) by removing spark plugs and trying to spray in PB Blaster. The harmonic balancer bolt just wanted to keep getting tighter so to risk not breaking it I tried the next thing by having my grandmother drive the duramax and flat tow me to see if I could get it into gear to try freeing the engine up. Unfortunately it's seized up so well that I was just smoking the clutch instead.
I figured if I couldn't break it loose, I have a few different engine options. I could easily find another 350, either by parting out the 93 Suburban (which I'll get to the reasoning in a minute) and stealing it's engine I just paid $500 for or hunting down another. The next option was dropping in the 5.3 I have sitting on an engine stand, or third, something I've always wanted but have never owned - a 454. I managed to track down a 95 454 tbi that was pulled out of a truck with a bad 4L80e and paid $450 for the complete engine with wiring harness and computer.
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
I am getting ready for the swap and plan to pull the 350/sm465 combo out this weekend and go to town pressure washing things so it has a clean engine bay, and new engine and the sm465. Turns out the 95 454 trucks ALSO have a one year throttle body, just like I found out with a 95 350 ("CableTV" used for an engine swap, dates back to 2017ish on my old CayenneCheyenne thread post #100 prior to "gstubbz trucks", how I miss the army truck! 4+ years ago now). So at this point I am going to work on making the 95 harness work.
Of course since 1995 is the oddball year, here's a refresher that relates to my issue. It's the last year of TBI in trucks, but with a new dash. The fuse block is now moved from under the dash to in the engine bay and has been that way in every truck since (at least through gmt800s to my knowledge). Trying to find a pinout for the C100 connector that goes to the firewall has been a nightmare, so after lots of reaching out and digging I started work on my own spreadsheet and will start experimenting when I get my new multimeter today (how have I never not owned one I don't know, but I will now). Then I will figure out what pins I need to power for ignition, starter, constant feed, fuel pump relay, etc and then I will work on adapting that to the 89 suburban harness at least into the firewall.
You must be registered for see images attach
I ordered some cheap $150 JEGS 454 square body headers and if the clutch pedal bracket is in the way I'll probably beat the headers in. This is supposed to be a fun beater toy (it's getting real expensive though!) and I primarily purchased it for this one rally then I will probably part out the suburban but who knows. I also ordered the 454 specific flywheel and a new clutch kit. In order to hopefully prevent being stranded I also picked up a new fuel pump to bring with me just in case. Also ordered plenty of stickers, and in addition an amber flashing light for the roof just to add some fun for the gambler.
--
Onto the 93 Suburban. I have the engine almost buttoned all back up and should have it running and driving tonight. The more I look at it, the more I wish I probably should have parted it out. With the heater hose leak next to the frame, the rear pinion seal is leaking, t-case is leaking, transmission is leaking (hoping it's trans pan bolts and not the front pump seal), front diff is leaking, and I'm sure the engine will leak oil somewhere. Just a lot of time to invest into a beater. I finished the engine swap, and of course the coolant fitting on the back of the intake for the heater hose was leaking but I addressed that. I drove it on my 10 mile test loop, got to the driveway, check the mail, and it died and would not start back up so I coast it down the driveway as far as I could, and walked home. Came back to it the next day after work, and it started right up so I don't know what it's issue was. It also is now running kind of rough so when I feel like bringing it into the shop I'll look into it and then clean it up and list it for sale and hopefully it'll move fast.
You must be registered for see images attach
--
Now the next thing I have to go pick up on Saturday morning. It's a 99 K1500 GMC Suburban with a 350 vortec that has blown head gaskets. I am a single guy and I developed an addition I absolutely hate - and that's Suburbans. But this one is Victory Red so I'm okay with it! Definitely plan on fixing it, and honestly I'm considering a slight lift with black rims and possibly yanking out the 350 and swapping in the 5.3 I have here in the shop. Just wish it had a tailgate since this will by Suburban #3 with barn doors. The reason I'm ending up with it is James did some trades with his tattoo artist who had this Suburban, and James is giving it to me rather than paying me off for the rest of his 350 build I need to finish up which I'm cool with otherwise I probably wouldn't have gone out of my way to buy it. The hood looks pretty dinged up unfortunately. Door pins are trashed, and needs lots of interior stuff. Running boards and that stupid chrome trim will be coming off!
Just seems like I can't get enough of 350 TBIs or Vortecs
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