Meet Tatanka, my 99 Suburban K1500

[tedly]

I think I should shed some light on why I have been so intent on getting a 4x4. This is a Google maps screenshot of our home, which Keni and I have nicknamed Narnia. It's a duplex on 6 acres way out in the boonies, has a mile or two of woods behind it, and can be stunningly beautiful. The downside? The driveway is friggin nightmare. That's it in red, and the duplex where we live is there at the end.



It's a quarter mile long, has a 60 foot drop followed by a 60 foot rise with a hard 90 degree turn at the top. It's single lane with fully mature pine trees lining both sides. The rise is facing north, during winter it barely gets direct sunlight so ice is very slow to melt. I got stuck one night coming home from work. It took 4 hours, 140lbs of sand, 2 gallons of gas, a tow truck, a plow truck, and $200 to get unstuck. When I snapped my hand off my arm, it was because I took one step too far on the driveway and was on the start of the hill. We love this place, it is truly amazing and magical, but I needed a 4x4. I have to be able to get in and out so I can get to work. Here's a pic from near my garage. The horizon is the road. That's a 2 story house by the road, and the trees at the bottom of the hill are about 25-30 feet tall.

[tedly]

rust on the electrode and threads makes me wonder if you have a head gasket issue. Those motors used the Red anti-freeze. If you didn't change it on schedule, it builds up mud in the corners of the motor then overheats (and cracks the block - don't ask me how I know this). You also have some oil issues on number 2 - well, most of them, but 2 is worrisome and 8 has the same issue. Add to that the erosion on the tip from burning lean.

with the water that got into 3, 4, and 5 - you can avoid SeaFoam.... water cleans carbon nicely too - though number 8 probably has a good buildup.... (it's how you can have 1 cylinder that's burning lean because it increases the compression.

The old girl definitely needs to be sealed up again at a minimum, 220,000 miles is a lot. The plan is to just run it and keep it in the best shape I can for the least amount of money until spring. Then I can either rebuild it or build a fresh one from a core to transplant. There's no antifreeze in the oil, but I am using some, so it's got to be going somewhere. A full chemical flush of the radiator and cooling system is high on the priority list, but other things have been knocking it down. Temp is slow to climb but never above 180. Things are holding for the moment, so I'm keeping an eye on things until I can do more about it.

Thanks for the input! Reading plugs is an art I have never mastered. It gives me a better idea of what's happening.

[SuperBuickGuy]

rust on the electrode and threads makes me wonder if you have a head gasket issue. Those motors used the Red anti-freeze. If you didn't change it on schedule, it builds up mud in the corners of the motor then overheats (and cracks the block - don't ask me how I know this). You also have some oil issues on number 2 - well, most of them, but 2 is worrisome and 8 has the same issue. Add to that the erosion on the tip from burning lean.

with the water that got into 3, 4, and 5 - you can avoid SeaFoam.... water cleans carbon nicely too - though number 8 probably has a good buildup.... (it's how you can have 1 cylinder that's burning lean because it increases the compression.

[tedly]

Heading to bed, I'll try and finish this saga tomorrow.

[tedly]

Started inspecting the wires, looking for signs of arcing out. They were crossing each other and touching metal in a few places, so it's possible. Found a couple of small white marks on them. Might be from rubbing something, might be from arcing. Might as well change them out.

Got everything put back together, took it out for a drive.

Whoa! This thing woke up! It's running strong and smooth as hell I think I got it licked! Must have been the plugs after...

And the misfire is back. Just as bad, but less frequent. What in the actual... Was I really friggin bad in a former life? Like Genghis Khan or something?!



It does run amazing in between the misfire though!

[tedly]

never change the post-cat O2 sensors sure you'll have a dash light; however, they are not needed for engine running.

before you get too far into this, run a can of Seafoam through - the randomness of the issues, carbon could be a big issue. Also, while you're running it, do a WD40 test, Vortecs are notorious for intake leaks. When you pull the plugs, take a picture of them in the order they came out....

Werner had done an upper intake cleaning a few months before I got it, so I wasn't too worried about that yet. Already got to the bottom of the issue, but I wanted to break down how I got there for anyone else that might have similar problems. The rabbit hole gets a little deeper, my friend.

Edit: I should also add those are damn good suggestions. Two reasons I wasn't looking for a vacuum leak at that point:
1. When it was misfiring bad it would pop and backfire every once in awhile.
2. Metal in the oil was telling me something mechanical was going on.

[tedly]

Pull the plugs and inspect them. Got them laid out in order so I can reference each to a cylinder. Looks recent, the gap looks consistent, but what's up with #7? Might be gas fouled, and there's others with minor discoloration as well. Maybe I was on the right track. The question is, was the discoloration caused by the misfire, or causing it? Inspected each plug, no cracks on the insulators I could find. Inspected each new plug, no cracks either. Gapped them to .060, and chucked them in.

[SuperBuickGuy]

never change the post-cat O2 sensors sure you'll have a dash light; however, they are not needed for engine running.

be careful pulling O2 sensors when the exhaust is hot - it's about equal odds that it will pull the threads out with the O2 sensor (wire tying it back in place works).

before you get too far into this, run a can of Seafoam through - the randomness of the issues, carbon could be a big issue. Also, while you're running it, do a WD40 test, Vortecs are notorious for intake leaks. When you pull the plugs, take a picture of them in the order they came out....
if you don't want to spend for seaform, a gallon of e85 with a full tank does basically the same thing

and never buy from NAPA when you can buy from Amazon - I have a motor on my shelf I paid $17 for.... delivered.

[tedly]

99 Suburbans came with platinum plugs from the factory, and were designed to run on them. I have an internal battle for a minute on whether or not I want to spend the money and get the platinum plugs or save a few bucks and get the coppers. I don't know if it will fix the problem, and like I said, times are tight. Every dollar spent on something I don't need is a dollar less to spend on things I do. It's just one step down from platinum to copper. I should be ok. The cheapskate in me wins.

Plugs, wires, and O2 sensor, about $100, so now I'm at about $1750.

Following a tip from Werner, I drive around for bout 15 minutes to get the exhaust hot before changing the O2 sensor. It's probably the original one and almost certainly has tried to weld itself to the pipe by now. Heating it up makes it easier to break loose. Makes sense, and because i was going to blast it with a blow torch, it's hard to argue that heating it up wouldn't do anything. I just feel like a dumbass for not thinking of it on my own. Guess what? It broke loose easy. Lesson learned.

Three of the four O2 sensors are right out in the open, easy to get at, and unobscured. Guess which one is tucked up by the framerail, facing it, and a pain in the ass to get to. If you said drivers side, after the cat you win! After some singed knuckles and a lot of patience, it's swapped. Here's the best picture I could get of it.

[tedly]

Right about that time, life thinks I must be getting bored from things going smooth and easy for a bit, so it decides to shake things up. Again. Werner's in the hospital for a week. Right after he gets out, my brother is in the hospital for 3 or 4 days. He has a mean infection after having surgery on his feet. That turns into a bone infection. Look up osteomyelitis, it's not fun. I'll add a link at the bottom to make it easy for you. And we have more car troubles with the other ones in the flock I tend. And... Well, Let's not go there, you guys don't need gory details. Lots of stuff popped up that took priority over a running, functioning car that still got me around.

The misfire gets bad again. I finally get the time and money to go a little deeper. The check engine light was on since I got it. Bank 1 sensor 2 O2 sensor circuit - so drivers side, after the cat oxygen sensor is throwing a fit. Normally no biggie, but gas mileage will down. Oxygen sensors measure unburned air/fuel mixture in the exhaust and tell the computer how to fine tune how much fuel goes into the combustion chambers. (Oversimplification, I know, but just going for basic concept here). Since you can't really mess up an engine by running rich (unless you dump so much fuel you hydrolock it), but can REALLY f*#k it up running lean, when they go bad they default to telling the computer to run rich, hence the gas mileage goes down. Now, what if it's running rich enough to foul out the plugs? Unlikely, but gas fouled plugs will cause a misfire. Plus, it's a known problem, so might as well go with the known problem first. Also, the plug wires might be arcing out against something, or even each other. Werner had put new ones on, but he can be impatient as hell, and I'm not sure if he was still drinking at that point, so who knows what's going on. Come to think of it, plugs might not be gapped right either. He is a good mechanic and knows what he's doing, but something is making this truck misfire. Cap and rotor are done, these are next in line.

OK, plugs, wires, and an O2 sensor it is. I'll snag them and anything not needed I'll just take back. Get to the parts store, and scan it just to be sure no other codes have popped up. O2 sensor, know that. Random misfire twice. Duh, that's why I'm here. Cam/crank relationship??? What the...??? Normally I'd be looking at the crank position sensor or cam position sensor. That misfire is bad though. OK, maybe when it's misfiring really bad, it's messing with the sensors. Or maybe the timing chain is stretched. Or it's jumped a tooth.

Dammit.



Stick to the plan, let's see what the plugs and wires look like, and hopefully the O2 sensor will help as well.

[tedly]

A few weeks after getting her, Tatanka starts misfiring. Not bad at first, just an occasional stumble. But it gets steadily worse. <sigh> It's a Vortec, it's probably the damn cap and rotor. Those things are notorious for going out within 6 months to 2 years. Just a stupid damn design. When I was at Autozone we'd sell tons of them, especially after a hard rain. Most distributor caps have a lifetime warranty one available, these only have 5 year warranties on the best ones. Looks like I'm getting one on the next paycheck.



Well, next paycheck rolls around and it's misfiring so bad I didn't want to drive the 30 minutes into Janesville, I was seriously wondering if it would make it. Found a Napa 15 minutes away and grabbed a Napa Gold distributor cap and rotor. $80, so now I'm up to $1650.

I limp it on in to work because I was already running behind. I let Werner know what was going on. Next thing I know, he's crawled into the engine compartment and is changing it out for me. Turns out he had just replaced the plugs, wires, cap and rotor not to long ago. The one on the engine had some corrosion, but not bad. Huh, must be arcing out internally. I've seen that a lot as well.

Ran beautifully.

For about 30 minutes, then started sputtering again, but not nearly as bad.

Dammit.



OK, it's very minor right now and I just blew my wad getting the best piece of junk cap I could. I'll just live with it until I can dig deeper and figure this out.

[Deaf Bob]

Werner here is a cool redhead, half as crazy. We all'd get along!

[STINEY]

Subscribing. Your stories have a mesmerizing lilt to them which I completely fall in line with Teddy.

Has Keni ever told you that you have the most, ahem, interesting friends? That’s what Christy once told me.

Tell Werner that Stiney says hey. If I don’t know him that’s ok, it just feels like I should or might.

[tedly]

my wife, who came encumbered with a Prius and Smart car when we met, loves the Suburban (and will never admit it).

Keni loves cars, she used to have a 57 Chevy, several different Camaros, and some other cool stuff including a couple Suburbans back in the day. She's never been involved with someone that knows how to fix their own cars though. things have been tight financially since I snapped my hand off my arm last year. We've actually spent over $12,000 on cars and repairs last year as well. When I talk about things that need done to the Suburban, she still sees the price tag of having a shop do those things. Sitting down, listing the things I've done to our cars and how much the parts cost, then how much it would cost to have a shop do them for us was really eye opening for her. She kinda thought this was going to be a money pit at first, even though she liked it and thought it was cool. Now she helps me plan out what needs to be done when and asks every payday "What's next on the Suburban?".

[tedly]

Not too long after that, the blower motor starts screeching like a cat in heat. Uh uh. That's gotta go. Winter's coming and I need heat and defrost. While I have the blower motor out, I hose down the heater core with degreaser and get as much of the accumulated grime and dirt off that I can. There's no cabin filter in these, so that's what ends up getting gunked up first.

$50 for the blower motor, so we're up to $1570.