Ay, there’s the shot I was looking for last time.
A couple of weeks ago, my 1-ton Suburban (that’s right, 1-ton – it’s an ex-railroad rig that was upfitted when new, and even sported railgear in its younger days) started showing signs of impending doom. I watched in horror as the oil pressure dropped to zero and stayed there for a good 3-5 seconds, followed by the awful sort of noise that usually heralds the collapsing of a lifter. The pressure did return, and the noise went away after several more tense moments – but my faith in its mill had been irreparably shaken.
With winter upon us, I needed it to be ready for anything at a moment’s notice, and I can’t quite consider it ‘ready for anything’ if I have to live in fear of blowing it up. And besides, what fun would it be to install a snowplow made out of car doors (finally, a solution to the high cost of plow equipment!) on a truck that can’t be trusted to stay running?
So I decided that, at 280,000 miles, this motor had fulfilled its duty. I began shopping for a replacement. It took a while, but I finally found one that was reasonably priced and had lowish miles.
With more snow on the way this coming week, I decided not to waste any time getting to the swap. So I picked the motor up Friday evening, brought the truck in to begin melting last night, and started pulling the old motor this afternoon. It was just about ready to come out when I quit for the day just a short while ago.
The garage is heated by a torpedo heater, in which I run regular diesel fuel. It’s a thirsty little contraption which can easily drink 4 gallons in a 12-hour period, keeping the garage in the mid-60s while the temps outside are well below zero. As a result, I have to keep plenty of diesel on hand – and today I was down to my last few gallons.
To prepare for tomorrow, I loaded those empty diesel cans into the trunk of the faux Touring Sedan, and started it so it could warm up. But unlike last time, I had the camera in hand. The result is as you’d expect.
This trivial follow-up was posted at the inconspicuous hour of midnight CST, on a Saturday night/Sunday morning. If this post draws more than a half-dozen comments, I’ll be amazed!
I cannot make a constructive remark as the proliferation of chilly white stuff is completely alien to me. And I’m not sorry about that. Does that count as a comment?
Comment #2 🙂
If this is your garage at home, I am very jealous.
It’s the garage at my office – but since I own the place, I can use it like it was (hence why there’s snowmobiles and other such things around).
Just can’t let the customers catch me wrenching out there… all the “appliance drivers” tend to take it the wrong way when they see their IT consultant wearing overalls and greasy up to the elbows 🙂
LOL. I thought it was just me. It is a little weird in the office as the IT guy when you are asked about as many questions about cars and car repair as you are asked about computer stuff.
Mr. Thelen,
I enjoy your posts and enjoyed that post yesterday about the coldness and heavy snow and how your Olds started right up. However (and please don’t take this the wrong way) I hope the snow stays in your area instead of coming toward mine
So tell me more about the truck and its past life as a rail rig. CSX owns the tracks in my area and they have a few Tahoes and Jeeps that ride the rails. How does one convert one back to road ready and did you do it?
The story of its rail history is pretty vague. I’m the third owner; second owner was friends with the employee who operated it since new, and who turned him on to the deal once its retirement date came around.
Seems that the conversion included 1-ton axles, inset skinny 19.5″ wheels, and the railgear itself. I passed on paying extra for the wheels, which the former owner had laying in his garage.
Though I never got to see the railgear, I did find plenty of evidence that it existed at one point – the holes, wiring, stickers, etc. were still all there. There were also matching spots on the rear quarters which were heavily bashed in, as if struck from something underneath.
Seems that, when delivered, the railgear wasn’t able to be retracted fully – it was on hydraulics, and in the back the quarter panels hindered its ability to go all the way up. Early in the truck’s life, the operator came upon a situation wherein they needed that extra clearance to proceed. So they hydro-bashed the railgear into the body repeatedly, until the tin had been beaten into submission. (Needless to say, that’s where the rust began!)
comment #4…closing in on amazment
oh yeah…comment content: good thing the temperature displays show “F” so we know those subzero readings aren’t wimpy Celsius subzero numbers
Here in the BC Rockies it’s currently a wimpy -27C, or a manly -17F if you prefer! Either way it’s cold enough to freeze the 6-pack of Labbat’s I carelessly left in the garage solid. At least I remembered to plug the truck in…..
See, that’s what I get for telling the CC commentariat that something can’t be done! 🙂
I know that this “Celsius” is so bad there is only one country in the world that realises just how bad it is.
Metric and Celsius are wimpy.
My car has 240,000 km on the odometer….Oh no, wait, I should say 150K miles.
Ooops, “K” is metric, that’s wimpy. I mean a manly 150,000 miles. There you are.
Does your ‘Burban have crank windows, three bench seats cover in vinyl, and rubber floors with a pair of barn doors at the rear? I have been around a few 1980s and 1990s Burban’s like that and they are really cool. I could either buy one of those someday or buy a Caprice Estate which only gets a few more MPG, but has less room.
Even more impressive than plain-jane 2500 and 3500 ‘Burbans are ex-police Tahoes with the Bull Bar and Spot Lights still attached. Last month or so I caught glimpse of an ex-police Tahoe in Vancouver, WA that looked like a rougher version of this. Been years since I have seen an ex-police Tahoe from the 1990s.
http://www.code2high.com/CHP/chp_tahoe.jpg
It has the deluxe chrome grille and bumpers, but those can be swapped over.
Crank-ups, benches, and rubber mats? I wish.
My ’94 3/4 ton Suburban was equipped like that. But beggars can’t be choosers (this rig cost a mere $1500), so I ended up with kinda-working power windows, thoroughly worn tan velour buckets with a jumpseat, matching second and third row benches, and decimated charcoal carpet.
It took me about three days to refurb that interior. The former owner had several large dogs, so what little had been good when he got it (at 200K) was shot by now.
As usual, I got to gut it completely, deal with several non-plugged holes in the floor, then start from scratch. Carpet came courtesy of a junkyard Suburban, which after being soaped, sprayed, and dried multiple times, turned out okay. New buckets came from a ’99 Silverado pickup (base cloth), with a Havis console taking up the space between them. Plastic bits and a charcoal second row seat were provided by yet another unmemorable junkyard ‘burban.
I’m still looking for that rare beast, the junkyard Suburban with vinyl floorcovering. Hopefully one turns up soon.
Strangely enough, this one was equipped with two 2-way radios (not just one with a remote head, but two separate units with two separate antennas) – one on the dash, and one on the left C-pillar. It also had dark tinted glass in back. That, plus the cushier interior… wonder if this one was intended for hauling the occasional VIP out to remote jobsites, or something like that?
PPV/SSV Tahoes of the ’90s are a rarity around here. The State Patrol didn’t use ’em, and few if any smaller departments took them either. Only one I ever had a chance at was an import from down south somewhere, and was selling for $2000 with a shot tranny. I debated trying to talk him down, but (as always) had too many projects going and didn’t need another.
Starting in around 2004, though, their local popularity went from nil to universal. The State Patrol started using them for commercial vehicle inspection rigs, counties and cities bought them for patrol vehicles, and a few agencies even bought the 4WD version (might have been regular ‘civilian fleet’ kind) for wintertime patrolling.
One of the local county sheriff’s departments is notorious for wrecking vehicles early, often, and badly. But it was all aces for me when they rolled their ’09 PPV Tahoe last year… still have most of the emergency equipment on the shelf, waiting for the day when I have an ’07+ Tahoe/Yukon/Suburban and need a dog barrier, plow lights… or an electric release shotgun holder 🙂
Ten years ago I bought I 3500 Silverado 4×4 king cab with the 454 with 180,000mi on it to haul my 850 gallon water tanks as my well would go dry ever summer for a couple of months in the out back of the Oregon coastal mountains. During the rainy season it set for months without being driven and I would forget to change the oil for almost a year. One time I went to start it up and one of the valves hung up and was clattering away pretty good. Not really sure if the valve was going to on stick it self so I put in a quart of Rislone engine treatment and had my son take it out on the highway and run it up to 60mph or so (I could not stand to hear the engine go through the abuse it would need) and run it through the gears good. The valve came unstuck but the engine only had 10-15lbs of pressure. I changed the oil and there after ever 3,000 miles. It has since went another 50,000 miles and runs smooth and plenty of power. I’m wondering if as they get older and sludged up if the oil passage to the pressure gage gets partly plugged up. I had a Plymouth voyager with an oil light and an oil gauge and when the oil got dirty the gage would go down to zero but the light would go off just like normal. After a while I unplugged the gage and just relied on the light. The Chevy had 4.11 gears so that engine went a lot of hours compared to a higher geared vehicle, they are one tough engine.
Okay, I’ll comment. Keith, I don’t know how you juggle your business, project vehicles like this, and all the interesting posts, but I really enjoy it. Hope you don’t burn out!
Some days I’m not sure how I do it either 🙂
Over time, though, a pattern does emerge: the business usually has its “boom months” between January and April, levels off for the summer, gets a brief bump in September, and then gets fairly quiet through the end of the year. When the “real” work is less burdensome, then there’s time for working on the cars and trucks that have been sitting and waiting for my attention.
Confession time: I really don’t enjoy wrenching all that much! Things like swapping an alternator, for instance? Easy as pie – I don’t even think about it. But major vehicular surgery was never my idea of fun. ‘Smatterafact, there’s many, many, MANY places I’d rather be than laying under that Suburban, trying to break loose stuck exhaust manifold nuts.
But, as my old man often said to us kids, “if you want to drive ’em, you gotta be willing to work on ’em”.
Repairing vehicles isn’t always a picnic, but wheeling around in them usually is. You take the good with the bad. The work may not be the most enjoyable, but the end result is always worth the trouble.
Then, after a while, all the blood, sweat, and grease fades away into the far recesses of my memory, I decide to cash out and buy another, and the process repeats itself 😉
Hi Keith,
Another great article. As the owner of a Suburan have you had any transmission problems? One of my friends has a 1998 Suburban that had to have the transmission rebuilt twice. Heard similar comments from co-workers that owned much newer ones.
They’re probably thinking of the 4L60E. In full-size trucks they’re just downright fragile late in life, and especially when they’ve been towed with. Great for S10s and mild B/F body cars, not so much for C/K trucks and Express/Savana vans, even less so with an even somewhat gutsy V8.
Very common to see them fail before 200K. My father has been particularly unlucky; his ’96 Z71 extended cab 4×4 has 275,000 miles, is still on the (very peppy) original engine, but just suffered the failure of its FOURTH tranny! Despite proper care and relatively gentle use, he has yet to get one that’s lasted more than three years.
Half-ton Suburbans all had them in the ’90s, and up into the early 2000s.
I held out for a 3/4 ton or bigger Suburban, since I tow (6000-8000lbs) frequently and therefore insist on a 4L80E. Those trannies are comparatively bullet-proof.
Of all the tranny swaps I’ve done in my adult life (at least a dozen), better than 2/3 have been 4L60Es. The 4L80Es, on the other hand, are much stouter – only ever had one of those begin to fail, in my former ’94 K2500 Suburban. Probably could have been saved (suspect bad solenoid), but rust was also a major factor… traded it straight-up for a Durango and a ’71 Ventura, to a guy who “had to have it!”.
Too bad PCM software differences prevent plug-and-play swapping of the two models. If I was equipped to re-flash those computers, I’d have upgraded at least two of my vehicles with ’80Es by now.