My Green Machine (98 K2500 Suburban)

[CTX-SLPR]

Well Crap.... puddle is still there. Don't morn the work I did for the hoses, it needed them, just annoyed that I didn't see it with the flush in it but it came back with the good coolant in it. Going to have to buy a clean catch basin to capture it for reuse.

Debating if it's running down the hose from the water pump or if it's coming from the radiator. Hope it's the pump, a AC Delco unit is $35 from RockAuto while a FlowKooler from Summit is $110. The Radiator is ~$125-$250 from RockAuto and $200-$700 from Summit (granted 95% of Summit's are fabricated Be Cools or Griffins). I'll go poking around in daylight tomorrow. Today does not have enough free daylight hours. I'm still below $3000 in total investment.

[JOES66FURY]

might be a good idea to get a fluid leak kit from Wal-Mart or Amazon or wherever stocks them near you..........better than tossing money and parts at it plus the kit is reusable and could very well come in handy on other vehicles....I've never thought much of these kits til I started using them at the garage....they are pretty awesome..........just my 2 cents

http://www.amazon.com/Mastercool-53351-B-Professional-Detector-Light/dp/B000IHJXHG/ref=pd_sim_263_27?ie=UTF8&dpID=51JluQHYrcL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=1KVMV9B7NRC0K0WDDM3X

you can piece one together from amazon for a bit less if you look around

[CTX-SLPR]

I got under there during daylight hours and checked it out, coolant is running down the hose from the water pump and dripping off at the lowest point of the hose. I can't see between the crank pulley and the water pump pulley but that definitely seems like it's the area that it's coming from. Now to see who has a decent quality pump in stock locally.

[CTX-SLPR]

Picking up a "new" water pump from NAPA today. I've had pretty good luck with NAPA's stuff so I'm hoping this is the same quality. Pump doesn't seem too hard to change out.

[CTX-SLPR]

Water pump is on and other than fighting to keep the gaskets from falling off while I got the pump in position it was not a bad job. Pump seems like a composite of Gates parts (likely NA made) and a Chinese pump body casting. I like it overall but like suggested, I snugged up the backing bolts a fuzz.

I did have a near miss though in the reassembly. I got the nuts on the fan finger tight and ran it for 10min, even reved it a few times, before realizing I didn't tighten then and shut it off to do so. Two of them were visibly loose when I tightened them. While I was at it I also changed the belt, PCV valve, and the air filter. Still on the list: fuel filter, front O2's, and the elephant in the room: front brakes.

[CTX-SLPR]

Well home from my trip and its been raining off and on since I got home. The good news is there is no more puddle and in even better news the truck looks like it already has the cam bolts and knock outs done to it as none of the 4 cam washers are either straight up or down which seems to be the mark of the knockouts still being in place.

Bad news is that its still not completely legal (have an appointment for Monday to take care of that) and I've had no luck finding a source for the load floor latches. Looks like I'm going to just have to start calling around to junk yards and see if I can't get them to mail me some in a flat rate box.

[CTX-SLPR]

All legal and drip free... I almost said no leaks but one of the rear tires was at 28psi this morning when it's supposed to be at 80. Filled it up and will see how long it holds. Worse case I'll get it checked out when I get alignment and balance done.

Like my 99 Silverado, this thing does not like to cruise at 71-76 or so. It vibrates just like that one did. This one also has Dueller A/T Revo tires but I think it's just a common point since a few of the rest of y'all that had similar trucks did the same thing.

[Admirall2]

I've had no luck finding a source for the load floor latches. Looks like I'm going to just have to start calling around to junk yards and see if I can't get them to mail me some in a flat rate box.

Are these pertinent to your search:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/199596979899-1-Load-Floor-Latch-Chevrolet-GMC-Suburban-and-Yukon-XL-/261486007244

[CTX-SLPR]

He got more of them! I found that ad a while back but he was out of the pieces I needed, now he has some of everything and I should just buy some working ones and let him know that if he ever gets the colors I want I'll swap him for shipping both ways.

Thanks man!

[CTX-SLPR]

Back from vacation to Yosemite which we originally planned on taking the 'Machine to but ended up finding a coupon for $10/day rental car so we did that for reasons I'll get into beyond the fact that this thing would have gotten ~12-16mpg while the rental Impala got in the mid 20's.

I spent two night staying up to midnight to replace the front brakes. I really hate the behind the hub designs of the rotors on this thing, makes you take a ton of things apart and around half of them are guaranteed to be loud and annoy the neighbors. Each night I did one side and staying up late was generally a factor of not starting till around 2030. When the inspection said the brakes were right at the minimum they were not kidding! Friction material was almost non existent on all 4 pads! I put new EBC rotors on with Wagner semi-metallic pads. I also lubed the chassis (took most of a whole tube of grease to do it!) and replaced the O2 sensors.

While I was under there and when I took it in to get an alignment, balance, and rotation a few things became obvious.

• The shocks are original, not good at 180K miles
• The ball joints are original, uppers still hold grease well and seem to be in good shape; lowers the boots have collapsed and ripped
• One inner tie rod end has been replaced with a non-greasable Moog
• There's a steering damper that is also undoubtedly original
• The bleeders on the front calipers are seized solid

The calipers are ~$50/side and for that much it's just not worth snapping a bleeder off trying to get it open. I'll mark that one down as mandatory as the brakes need to be flushed. What do ya'll think is the priority for the rest of the stuff? Shocks then ball joints? All 4 ball joints or just uppers? I don't have the budget to throw it all at the 'Burb at once and this isn't my form of transportation to work daily so I can string things out a bit. Right now I'd call it drivable but not roadtripable as the brakes are not confidence inspiring.

Thanks,

[Damon23]

Back in '09 I was looking for one of those specifically. Every time one popped up it was gone within the day it was put up. I ended up with a Excursion and have been happy but I wanted that suburban. One thing I learned with using seafoam, if you have not already done it, was to run it like you would normally but shortly after change the oil. I was told that all the smoke is not the gunk burning off it is the seafoam burning. All the gunk ends up in the oil. I've had good luck with that stuff.

[CTX-SLPR]

Love it when people you ask for help who can't help you directly give you a call back when someone they know says they can!

Called up a place parting out Suburbans and Tahoes and they said they wouldn't pull the latches off of the seat since that would make the seat worth substantially less as a unit. However one of his customers who's doing an interior color change or something will sell me his old ones! Guy called me back about an hour after I inquired of him for the parts.

[JOES66FURY]

In a pinch I've used salvage calipers from low mileage cars with no issues....Replace the joints that are bad or exposed, leave the others then swap shocks (leaking or broken first)....that's how I would prioritize it anyway...opinions may vary.....

[CTX-SLPR]

Put new brake calipers on it (NAPA Eclipse's since they were in stock locally) and new brake hoses on it. Had a really fun time bleeding it till I got a friend to help out and bent up a piece of coat hanger to keep the prop valve from defaulting to "leak" mode when trying to bleed the rears. Ran a whole gallon of brake fluid through it! Not perfect but hugely better than before. From what I've read, the GMT400 brake system is just plain spongy for much of the initial pedal travel. I'll keep my eye out if I ever get to a "you pull it" yard around here to yank a set of discs from a later model as well as the master and hydrobooster. Got to swap rods but not a big deal. Might re use the existing hydrobooster on my Riviera since it's kinda janky.

Polished up the original headlights and parking lamps. The side that got spray painted needed nearly an hour of work with the 1000 and 3000 grit papers to get it clear again because it looked like the guy who bought it at auction took 200 grit to get the paint off. Also replaced the middle exhaust gasket and discovered that the pipes have some decent dents in them and the catalytic converter setup is definitely very inefficient with the cats located in roughly the second row footwell area. Can't move them under CA/Federal law even though moving them up towards the engine would make a big difference in light off time. The flange was warped bad enough that I could flap the gasket after tightening the bolts down with my finger. Took it apart and gooped it with ultra copper to seal it up. Hackery I know but at $500 per cat section and most likely needing both I decided to try this before buying anything.

Ordered new Bilstien shocks last week that should be here this week to install before I take it up into the mountains. Might replace the exhaust donuts while I'm at it but that's going to be a calculated risk to get the bolts off the manifolds without breaking anything. Might leave those alone till I'm not dependent on it to take a group of guys to a church men's retreat. What is more likely is me finally fixing that blasted door handle!

[CTX-SLPR]

More hackery... the bottom of the door panel had separated between the inner skin that the clips engage into and the outer skin of the door. Pulled out the pop-rivets and put about 8 of them in there to hold the two back together. Its on the underside of the door panel so you'll never see it unless you look under there but still continuing to keep this on the low buck.

Oh and the RTV is holding up great and I decided against pulling the headpipes off the manifolds since running my hand around the flanges with the truck running (I only sorta got a burned spot) didn't feel any exhaust leaks. Good enough for until I can afford to break a stud and have to resolve that issue.