Hello All!
New to the forum and new to the thread. I just imported an oldie but a goodie - 220K miles (360K km) '05 Suburban 1500. Seems to be well taken care of, drove 800 miles from WA to home in AB Canada without any major issues. One brake dragged the entire way unfortunately... Getting ready for my out-of-province safety inspection... This is my work in the last 2 weeks of evenings and weekends.
-Moog problem-solver front end kit (Upper & Lower Control arms plus tie rods)
-Sway bar links and bushings
-Front bump stops
-Crank stock keys - not a lift but restoring some ride height from tired sagged springs.
-Grease, grease, grease...
-Alignment
-Rear brake caliper replacement (stuck piston), pads & bleed both sides - RockAuto fail - wrong parts. Bent over for local parts store to get the job done...
-Replaced leaky coolant tee to rear seat heater core (up against fire wall, took way longer than it should have to remove the old PITA fitting)
-Coolant leak on thermostat housing - new paper gasket where once there was none. New thermostat since I was in there.
-Valve cover gaskets & bolt grommets replaced
-Major engine shampoo
-New washer fluid pump & cracked line repairs
-DRL light bulb holder replacement - old one burnt up...
-Front signal bulbs replacement - orange peeling off bulbs... must have been old.
-Manipulate and grease up intermediate steering shaft - clunking gone for now
-Fixed loose connection on clock spring - air bag light off - Help from a friend on that one!
-Vacuum interior and bubble bath exterior
Inspection tomorrow, wish us luck!
Oh ya, and I've named the beast... 'The Kraken', not because I'm a hockey fan, but this thing IS a big ol' sea monster from Seattle...
Like I said, new to the forum, some lurking in the past, but I'm in the club now. Already formulating next steps... Lots of great ideas and help on here!
I've got a little humor for you guys... My wife said to me last night, "So after this... like... the truck is good to go, right? You won't need to work on it all the time?"... "Yes Dear..." I said... I won't NEED to work on it... but I might WANT to work on it... Plans /ideas include:
-1. I'm thinking lift/level a tad more, new shocks to compliment. I'd love to do the Atomic Fab coil-over conversion, but likely not in the cards right away --> $$... I'll probably just use some '97-'03 Ford F-150 torsion keys from the wreckers, new Moog HD rear springs, Shocks I'm undecided - Bilstein 5100's or RC V2's, tuff to afford Fox 2.0's. I do a lot of rough oilfield/fire roads, shocks are worth it to me. Height/lift isn't a big deal. Currently undecided on shocks - any comments from the crowd?
-2. LEDs inside and out, except I'm second guessing Lo and Hi beams... Or headlights in general. Halogens might be better than LED bulbs, In some cases LED bulbs can be WORSE than the halogens... But it tends to be specific vehicle to vehicle based on the headlight housing design. I've done HID upgrades in the past, that might be better light than stock. And I'm also considering a projector retrofit idea. Again undecided - comments from the audience?
-3. Rear Drawers. I plan to use this as my Swiss Army Knife. I like to be over-prepared. I previously ran a pickup with organized totes floating around the box, this time I want a home built overland style drawer system, hopefully without being too excessive, bulky and more of a hassle than help... Also, I'll do some electrical upgrades - inverter for cordless tool battery charger, maybe small appliances for camping, vacuum packing meat/fish in the bush... Ultimately an off road fridge/freezer will suit my
needs wants.
-4A. Under the hood - Performance. I could see a cam and intake in my future. An exhaust bolt is snapped on each bank, so no headers until the engine comes out. I would love to go forced induction, but that is for later - LSA S.C. or single turbo... I don't want to destroy reliability... and I don't want to jam-pack the engine bay... so pipe-dreams for now. I'm looking at an HP tuner to play, tweak and code read, as well as for my wife's daily - Audi. HP is nice because it covers them all...
-4B. Under the hood - Utility. I'd like to add a second battery on OEM mounts against the passenger firewall to go with the overland theme - This would be auxiliary power for an inverter camp setup. Another consideration I have is to fit a Premier Power Welder under the hood. And to go full-on crazy with the idea. I'm thinking adding a second alternator as a dedicated welding alternator/ battery. The Premier Power Welder wiring design is to run the truck off the battery, and run the welder from the alternator, the alternator will not charge the battery while in welder-mode. If you stay in welder-mode too long, the truck will eventually kill the battery. So, by adding an EXTRA alternator rather than just 'switching' to a high amp alternator, the welder can be used while the truck just idles and runs on original charging equipment. This could be my main, one and only shop/field MIG/SMAW welder...
Thanks for reading! Hit me with comments!
Dave from the Great White North.