I have treated myself with a 1999 Chevrolet Suburban K1500

[Svein]

Thanks! Thinking the black grille will stay on for a while...its just meaner!

 

[98chevy2500SS]

Thanks! Thinking the black grille will stay on for a while...its just meaner!

I agree. Go chrome if you want class. Go color-matched if you want aggressive.

 

[Svein]

I agree. Go chrome if you want class. Go color-matched if you want aggressive.

But I want both, hahaha!!!

 

[Svein]

So, finally I've sorted the pics, and I'm ready to write about my Christmas projects. My cunning plan was to set up a tent in my parents driveway, so I could celebrate xmas at their place while doing several projects on the burb. I thought it was a good plan. My goals were as following

-install fluid damper and new crank pulley
-delete vacuum pump
-service the turbo and upgrade it with wicked wheel
-Change the injectors

It turned out quite differently, as you will read through the story. It all started very well with setting up the tent and going for the harmonic balancer:

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I removed the upper fan housing and the fan. I kept the belt on, so it was easy to get the crank pulley off by putting tension on the belt so it didn't turn. When removing the HB I found that the easiest way to stop the crank from turning was jamming it in a crowbar that I stuck down in the hole below:

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I had bought a brand new HB remover and installer tool locally. Luckily I had also bought some spare parts, so I figured a way to get the HB back on after the tool broke:

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The old HB came off easily. When I inspected it it looked quite fine, but I am happy I'm swapping it for a Fluidampr anyway. I prefer planned downtime doing preventive maintenance when I can. ) Then it was time for the crank seal. I had bought a seal remover from Amazon.com - but it didn't really do the job, the seal was stuck way to good:

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Violence turned out to be the winner, and with this nifty thing and a hammer, I got the old seal out:

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Story continues in the next post. A great thanks to 65turbogarage.com for the brilliant guide on replacing the harmonic balancer!!

 

[Svein]

Continuation of the HB install.

The old crank seal finally came out:

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Then I made a "custom tool" with a piece of wood and used a mallet to get the new seal in. Again, thanks to 65turbogarage.com for the great tip in his guide!

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New front seal in place:

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The new fluid damper was much easier to slide on than I thought. I didn't need much leverage to get it far enough on to get the crank bolt in place so I could torque it down:

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At the end of the evening, the crank pulley was on, and I still had time to eliminate the vacuum pump and get the fan and fan cover back in place. A flying start on the xmas projects!

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[Svein]

I was interrupted for a couple of days on my projects by something that's called "Christmas". Entire Norway shuts down. This is from 3am on Christmas Eve - which is the big day in Norway. Nobody does anything on 1st day of Christmas, so I had to wait an entire day to continue. Haha!

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Then I got started on the turbo and injector project. I jacked the car up on stands, removed the air intake, passenger side battery, and the inner fender. The inder fender was all 13mm, except one weird one that was a inch-based socket and not a metric one, of course, attaching some plastic in the front.

I have tried to be organized this time, so I bought a roll of ziplock bags at a grocery store. I put bolts and nuts and pieces to them, and marked them, so its easy to find, and I could keep it out of the engine compartment. I also used them to block off the different ports.

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When I had gotten the turbo out, I hit my first big bummer in my series of projects. I had the new injectors. I had the new injector socket. I had just about almost everything tucked away and ready to do the work. Had cleaned all the surfaces. I had no injector return lines. They were supposed to be in a box, but they weren't. And it was Christmas and everything is closed. I decided to try to re-use the old lines, but I quickly realized that I needed new ones, and at least new hose clamps. As I had already started removing the old lines, I decided to try to at least loosen the injectors on the turbo side. They were stuck. Proper stuck. - temps outside, and the battery was out - so I couldn't start the truck and run it warm. I let it stay plugged in over night. Three days later when I tried to use the block heater the earth protection tripped in the garage, so I'm afraid I might have left it in for too long. I hope I haven't burned something, cause I really like to know that I have the block heater should I need it.

Anyway, the injectors was stuck, so I went to the warehouse of a company I work for where my welder guy who helps me a lot hangs in the evenings. I brought Kaktus along with me to the shop. He was very happy to get his own shiny bolt! He rides on my shoulder in the car. We like to drive the burb together!

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Came back from the shop with an extension for my breaker bar. MAN, those injectors came loose, but it needed work!

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Got the new injectors torqued down, and connected the fuel lines. I made sure to clean the end of the fuel lines before I connected them.

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[Svein]

So, since the turbo was ****ed and everything was closed for Christmas, I quickly realized there was no way I´d have my burb back on the road before I had to leave for work at the 5th of January - so I decided to give the projects I wasn't supposed to do over Christmas a shot, starting with replacing my old (but well functioning) starter with the gear reduction starter from Quadstar. The old one could easily be 20 years old for all I know, and even though it worked better than I thought after my battery change earlier this autumn, I decided to swap it for the better one when I had the inner fender out already.

After a bit of cursing with the electrical connections, it was out. Again - a great thanks to 65turbogarage.com for the great guides!

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Old vs. new:

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New starter in place. I was a bit concerned about the alignment, so I decided not to torque it down and put out a request for help on various facebook groups. Apparenty, this is how they fit!

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Next day, I decided to torque it down and finish up. Torqued down the first bolt...CLICK. Torqued down the second bolt....SQUEAK. SQUEAK? SQUEAK! The casting gave in! My torque bar was correctly adjusted, so I really don't know what went wrong. Luckily, both Powermaster and Quadstar tuning gave me great customer support, so as we speak, a new casting is on its way to Norway from Powermaster free of charge. Hopefully there will be good outcome of this project at the other end!

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[Svein]

Anyway, the story continues. As I had ****ed up pretty much everything I tried to work on in the holiday period, I decided, I might as well give the exhaust a go as well. I have red countless posts about people ripping of the heads of the bolts on the crossover, so I decided to let time, rust penetrating oil and heat help me. I even invested in a impact gun to try to loosen the bolts.

Then, a friend of mine gave me THE BEST TIP EVER:
50/50mix of acetone and atf was supposed to be the best rust penetrating goop ever. Okay, I decided to give it a shot. Bought it and a steel oil can to mix it in. Let it work for a night, and then my plan was just to heat it up, let it cool down, and apply more to let time work for me. I just had to feel the bolts. DON`T YOU THINK THEY CAME LOOSE! ALL 6 bolts on the crossover came out quite easily, and I got all the four nuts on the down pipe connection off as well. This is a miracle mix!!

I tried to divide the exhaust without hurting it, but at the end I gave in to the angle grinder. At least I got it out. Here laid out next to the new 4" Diamond eye exhaust:

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Got under the burb and started mounting the exhaust. It was a bit tricky being alone, and the blizzard didn't really help either, so at some point in the evening I gave in, and left the project unfinished. At least - even though its not finished, its at least not ****ed!

So that's basically the end of the rant when it comes to my Christmas advedtures. I've been three weeks away now, heading back home on Thursday, where I will have return lines, turbo shaft and the new casting for the starter waiting for me - so hopefully I´ll be able to get it up and running fairly quickly. I scored some cheap Ac Delco 60g glows the other day, so I´ll be doing the glows while I have everything opened up. I didn't have to, as I did the glows a year ago or so, but it feels good to know that they are 60gs. At the moment I have a mix of Bosch duratherms and some dieselrx plugs that I luckily found locally when all the electrical connectors on the Bosch plugs kept breaking off.

So here she is - waiting for me to come back and finish the work. Can't wait to get home!!

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[Svein]

So, first day back from work - and boy did I have a productive day!

Went down to my parents where my truck is parked. It was Christmas Eve all over again:
-injector return lines and new cdr valve from yesterday.
-brand new shaft and exhaust wheel for the turbo
-new front casting for my starter
-new glow plugs as an added bonus - had a bit of luck and scored a set of brand new ac Delco 60g for 70usd. Cheap for Norway!

First I had a look at the new front casting for the starter. After consulting a bit on how to get the gear out and back in, I got it going. The solution was to put it in a vice and use a piece of wood and a hammer to drive the gear out of the old casting and in to the new.

New starter with new housing, and the old housing at the side:

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Then I went to my old companys warehouse, and had a go at the turbo and the new shaft. I took my time, and it took some hours, but at last I could drive home with a overhauled gm8 with new exhaust wheel, shaft, wicked wheel 2, and a mech. waste gate controller:

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I shot a lot of pictures during the rebuild, so I will make a post or two to show what I did. Maybe someone finds it useful, maybe someone can spot my mistakes! haha!

Think I'm gonna proceed with the starter and exhaust tomorrow. Its supposed to snow and rain, so I rather be under the car than on top of it, but if it clears I might have a look at the injector return lines and the glow plugs as well!

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