A tale of two Pigs.

someone asked about my Suburban in my Fiero thread, 

Warning: Long winded post.

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you, The Pig Rig!

Here is the Pig, as purchased, with exception of the running boards. I picked it up for $1800 near Tacoma, Wa. when I lived in Bremerton. 

Here are some "now" ish pictures

Watson Lake, Yukon Territory "The Signpost Forrest"

The Pig is my ride or die, together, we've been as far north and west, as Gobler's Knob Alaska, as far south as Pensacola, Florida, and as far east as Aiken, South Carolina. it's my adventure machine. 

The Alaska Trip

a trip to OKC for my best friend's wedding

and from OKC

and to South Carolina

as a bonus, this show the extreme ends of all of the adventures

The Pig started out as a 1988 V10 Suburban. Don't let the V10 designation confuse you, GM changed the designations from C/K to R/V for 88-91 Suburbans, Blazers, and Crew Cabs,  it really has nothing to do with the engine. 

The power plant is a plain jane TBI 350, it's backed by a 700r4, with an NP208 transfer case. When I bought it, the rear main seal was leaking, and when I pulled it apart to fix it, I found some FOD. I put a parts store crankshaft in it, and rolled on. 

It was born with 8.5" 10 bolt front and rear axles, with 3.42:1 gears, it now sports a 28 spline 8.5" 10 bolt front, and a 9.5" 14 bolt "semi float" rear axle from a 1991 V2500 Suburban with 4.10:1 gears.  The truck has been lifted 4" with front springs, and an ORD Shackle flip. The steering has been upgraded to an ORD Crossover/High steer setup, which was hands down, the single best part purchased for the Pig. 

The big burly bumper, is my own ugly, magnificent creation, it's made of 3/16" wall tubing, that I bought at an auction. 

some of you may have noticed, there's a bunch of damage to the driver's side, unfortunately, this didn't happen on a radical adventure doing fun, stupid stuff, it happened cruising down the highway after picking my dad up at the airport, I was sideswiped by a drunk in a new challenger. the truck was totaled by the insurance company, but I kept it, as I said, it's my ride or die. This happened the day before my dad and I took the Pig to Alaska, which was in 2019. 

For a long while, I had been contemplating what was next for the Pig, there were two obvious problems. 

1. the body, aside from being hit by a drunk, the truck has obviously been in several accidents, this was evidenced by the rear seat belt on the passenger side not being held on by the factocy hardware, the existing damage to the re-pop hood and fenders, the crappy paint job, etc. 

Not much I can do except find a donor and fix it. 

2. the power, or total lack thereof. the TBI 350 has been rock solid, but it was "190 hp" new, you think it's slow now? wait til I go up hill.

I had it set in my head to pick up a set of Vortec heads, drop them on, and profit. the issue I was running into, is that the best heads in the world don't change the fact that the cam has less than .400" lift at the valve, and if I swap the cam, it's getting a roller. all this starts to snowball real quick, which starts to get into engine swap $$ real quick. 

While helping a buddy pull a 351 for another buddy's F150, I looked around for some vortec heads, they seem plentiful enough, but I passed. on the way home, we stopped for lunch, and , he says "My dad is crazy, he wants me to buy this old suburban" this of course, raise my eyebrows and caught my attention. he hands me the phone:




next thing I know...



now, I have a matching pair, one 2wd 3/4 ton, one 4x4 1/2 ton.



the "New" suburban is minty, with the exception of some surface rust on the roof and hood, and a knocking 454. I've got another 454 that I'm going to clean up and throw in it, then I'll fix this 454, and fix the Pig Rig's lack of power problem with it.

There's also a pair of Duramax's hidden near me, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that kind of cash outlay yet. 

The "new" suburban is too nice to start taking parts off of it, so I'll keep it, but I need to figure our what to call it, and where to get some proper hubcaps for it. The name that keeps coming up in my head for it, is "War Pig", I feel like it's only fitting that it's also some kind of pig, 

Don't expect a ton of fast paced updates, the Pig Rig is a driver, I put miles on it, and the new Pig is going to wait until my Fiero is on the road. 

I've always loved this body style of suburban. Those are some impressive road trips for a truck like this too. 

Looking at those maps the first one should have been the Travel Pig. 

I've thought long and hard about putting one of these bodies on the frame rails of my 06 2500hd purely for aesthetic reasons, wheel base doesn't quite line up and I'm not talented enough to shorten the frame (and everything else) or extend the body... yet...

Looking forward to seeing how these pigs progress!

I love this body style of Suburbans. I still look for them every now and then. 

DjGreggieP said:

I've thought long and hard about putting one of these bodies on the frame rails of my 06 2500hd purely for aesthetic reasons, wheel base doesn't quite line up and I'm not talented enough to shorten the frame (and everything else) or extend the body... yet...

Looking forward to seeing how these pigs progress!

I've been thinking quite alot about the plans for the new one, and honestly, this is exactly what I've been thinking for the long term, find a late model frame, measure all of the body mounts, put the suburban mounts on the late model frame, put soft-ish springs and airbags in the back, and have a great tow vehicle.  short term plan is to throw another 454 together, and start driving it. I already have a roller cam 454, I need an intake, oil pan, flexplate, and a few other odds and ends to put it together right. I also need to do some work to the brakes, the rear reservoir on the master cylinder is empty, I'm not sure if the master is bad, a wheel cylinder, or a line. I did see some rubber in one of the rear wheel wells, so someone may have opened the bleeder to make better burnouts or something. lol!

DrMikeCSI said:

Looking at those maps the first one should have been the Travel Pig. 

yeah, the original pig is a trooper, I do need to figure out how to get it properly registered again, the insurance company totaled it, and now it has a "salvage rebuildable" florida title. I need to figure out what I need to do to make it work and keep going round and round the country. legal or not, it has at least one trip left in it, My dad and I are starting to work on planning a trip to Key West, so that we can say we have gone corner to corner. 

dculberson said:

I've always loved this body style of suburban. Those are some impressive road trips for a truck like this too. 

Thanks, when I was a kid, my dad had an awesome brown and white K20, it was what drove me to buy the Pig.  The way I see it, when it was built new, that was what it was for, I see no reason it couldn't keep doing it now. 

bad things happen when I get on marketplace... 

Among other things, I picked up another 454, this one, an L21, which has a factory forged crankshaft, and should have a 24x reluctor wheel like an LS1. I'll need a distributor still for the cam position sensor, but that's available in the JY, or any parts store.  The part I'm having the most trouble finding is Vortec 454 intake manifold set, the only one I have found was over $500 for a factory intake, and I'm not wanting to spend that much on it. 

among the other things I picked up is this:

I did a dumb and bought a Duramax in pieces. I think the short term plan is to put together the 86 with a 454, and drive it, while I make a acceptable plan to put the LBZ duramax in, and maybe swap the whole body onto a 1 ton frame.  More to follow later, for now, I need to get the shop cleaned up and put together.

ready for this build!   Love that body style truck and Sub

Oh man, I really like where this is going.

Lifted 'burbans are so cool.

...How much was the dirtymax?

Your Pig Rig has by far the best color combo for an '88 Suburban.

But I'm prejudiced on the subject.

I have owned several Suburbans and continue to love them.  Awesome!

iansane said:

Oh man, I really like where this is going.

Lifted 'burbans are so cool.

...How much was the dirtymax?

I picked it up for about $800, I normally see them go for alot more than that, and with all the parts I got I'm fairly confident I could make my money back. 

SuperDave said:

Your Pig Rig has by far the best color combo for an '88 Suburban.

But I'm prejudiced on the subject.

 

 

Fun fact, The Pig Rig was a half ton factory, just about the only difference I can see between how our trucks were born is that mine was 4x4. 

_____________________________________________


 

I picked up another 454, now I have 3 of them, one with a rod knock in the truck, one with a bad thrust bearing/crank, and a L21 that was in a running truck. The L21 has a forged crank, and 24x reluctor so it's already setup for coil per cylinder operation like we would expect to find on an LS1. I'm going to do a rattle can rebuild on it, install it with a Vortec 7400 intake. I was planning on installing a 4L80e, and I may still do it if I can snag one cheap. I have a throttle, pedal, TAC, PCM, and intake on the way, I'm sure I can run the TH400 with the DBW 24x PCM, but I'll need to look into the programming aspect of it.

While browsing marketplace I saw another truck I shouldn't buy listed... I bought it... now instead of just an engine, I have a truck, transmission, and transfer case! my plan has changed a bit, but it's not far off from an idea I had for the 86 Suburban. Originally, I planned to swap a DMAX into a suburban, but now, I think I'm going to swap a suburban onto a DMAX! I'll need to shorten the wheelbase, and find a manual transfer case, and then figure out what to do about cab mounts. I don't think it will be terribly hard until I start playing with the core support, the DMAX radiators are huge(for good reason) I think I may have to play with putting the two together to make something work. I will probably use an A2W intercooler instead of the stock a2a, as it would make packaging a little easier.  I'm still going to get it running with a 454 for now, and then once I'm ready to make the chassis swap happen, I'll put the 454 in the OG Pig.

I lined up the front wheels of the OG Pig with the new chassis donor.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/E1FKLXC.jpg[/img]

you can see here the rear wheels of the donor are further back, I'll need to shorten the chassis to fit, or at least the wheelbase. being that the chassis is a GMT 800, and GMT 800's were available with 4 wheel steering, I may look into that as well... 

The pics aren't imbedded but copying the link works.  
Your project list has escalated enormously!

ejs262 said:

you can see here the rear wheels of the donor are further back, I'll need to shorten the chassis to fit, or at least the wheelbase. being that the chassis is a GMT 800, and GMT 800's were available with 4 wheel steering, I may look into that as well... 

$800 is cheap! Nice!

Those quadrasteer trucks were super cool. I'm pretty sure there were two version. Hydraulic steering rack and electric. From what I can remember it was basically a dana60 axle under a halfton truck. I always spot those rigs because of the fender/clearance lights on light duty trucks.

jfryjfry said:

The pics aren't imbedded but copying the link works.  
Your project list has escalated enormously!

Fixed! It has! I think I'm going to work on getting the 86 running with a 454, and "restoring"  the new chassis with new bushings, ball joints, ect. so that it's super fresh when I swap the body on. 

iansane said:

ejs262 said:

you can see here the rear wheels of the donor are further back, I'll need to shorten the chassis to fit, or at least the wheelbase. being that the chassis is a GMT 800, and GMT 800's were available with 4 wheel steering, I may look into that as well... 

$800 is cheap! Nice!

 

Those quadrasteer trucks were super cool. I'm pretty sure there were two version. Hydraulic steering rack and electric. From what I can remember it was basically a dana60 axle under a halfton truck. I always spot those rigs because of the fender/clearance lights on light duty trucks.

there was only one version, all 1/2 and 3/4 ton trucks, had Dana 70's with an electric motor driven rack. I'm still looking into what differences exist between the two axles. The best way to do it will be to get a donor, but if I can get a 1/2 ton donor, and put 3/4 ton hubs on, it would double the available parts vehicles. The cab marker lights and flares are the easiest ways to spot them for sure! 

I was asking some questions on a Quadrasteer page yesterday, and was corrected about the rear axle, it's actually a Dana 60 variant. 

when I got off work this morning, I spent some time taking apart the L21 454. I got the heads and oil pan off, and did a bunch of cleanup. 

the valve covers and valley were both pretty clean, I think the underside of the valve covers was cleaned recently. the valley is clean with typical residue. 

flat top pistons.

and now some of the ugly... looks like coolant and oil, interestingly, some oil came out of one of the galleries when I rotated the stand over, it wasn't nasty, which is a good sign. none of the rod bearings had noticeable play. 

looks like the valve seals were failing, there were some small, soft pieces in the pan/pickup. 

I had picked up a new oil pan the same day I picked the L21 up, I'm glad I did, this probably wouldn't fit in the truck. 

there was a significant amount of nasty goop in the water jackets. I cleaned it out, and everything I can see looks good, I imagine this engine had dexcool in it, but this didn't look like the dexcool sludge I'd seen in the past. 

The bores looked ok, a little glassy, but ok, no ring ridge. the engine supposedly had low compression on one cylinder, if that's the case, it would lead me to believe it's an issue with a head, or head gasket, and not the bottom end.  I'll probably pop a main and rod cap tomorrow and make a more comprehensive assessment of the bottom end tomorrow.

You probably know this already but when I built my back yard find 454, I learned all about the valve train geometry on CBB's & how hard it is on pushrods, rockers, seals & everything. For a little stress relief I just added roller rockers. 
That's what I found anyway & a friend that drag raced a 454 had more than his share of bent push rods. 

mdshaw said:

You probably know this already but when I built my back yard find 454, I learned all about the valve train geometry on CBB's & how hard it is on pushrods, rockers, seals & everything. For a little stress relief I just added roller rockers. 
That's what I found anyway & a friend that drag raced a 454 had more than his share of bent push rods. 

I had not heard that, but I can see that based on the design, it doesn't lend itself to be super stable. For now, I'm going to run stock rockers. I might put rollers on IF I get a cam. that being said, this isn't exactly a race engine either

 

I somehow didn't see this when I was messing with the engine the other night...

that explains "Low compression on one cylinder" kinda a bummer as this is a forged piston, and the other 454 has cast pistons. hopefully the other one has flat top pistons as well, this engine only has 9.4:1 compression from the factory, I would rather not go much lower than that. 

I'm considering putting a cam in it, but it snowballs really quick doing that, as the stock valvetrain is non adjustable, and will require conversion studs, rocker nuts, and valve springs. it very quickly becomes a $600-700 ticket, I have heard that a cam makes a big difference in these engines though, even increasing fuel mileage a little bit. I wouldn't mind putting a set of tri-y headers on it as well, but that gets stupid expensive really quick. 

I  am going to start compiling a list of things I need/need to do to complete the chassis swap, my plan right now is to completely "restore" the DMAX chassis, even blasting and painting the frame. if anyone has frame measurements for either a 2004 Chevy Silverado, or for a 1986 Chevy Suburban, I'm very interested in them so that I can start working out a plan for the new body mounts. 

https://www.amazon.com/Magnet-Paint-Co-Chassis-MPC-UCP99-16/dp/B00H2VZCRQ/ref=asc_df_B00H2VZCRQ/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=242042684287&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16400798791715015593&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9010718&hvtargid=pla-571486147428&psc=1

well, this thread looked neglected... I tore down two 454's, one had a bad crank, and one, bad pistons, the guy I got the one with bad pistons from claimed it drove into his shop, my only question is how much nitrous did it inhale first?

Every single top ring was in multiple pieces

The number 1 rod was bent

IDK what happened here:

I know the Suburban's wheelbase is 2 feet shorter than the GMT 800 Chassis, so I got out a tape measure, and took a look at some things outside of drawings. 

in the real world, I think this will work out ok. I'll have to relocate the fuel tank for sure. I think using the Suburban tank is the right answer here. 

moving the rear axle forward 2 feet puts the center of the axle right under the start of the bend in the frame, I'll have to make a new spring hanger, and possibly a cab mount/spring hanger combination, having the plasma cutter up and running should make that a cake walk. 

I also measured from the centerline of the front wheel, to the front of the door on the Suburban to compare to the GMT 800, it's about 29" on the suburban, and much shorter on the GMT 800. 

I'm not sure how that will effect the swap, hopefully it makes things a little easier.

I'm just now seeing this thread?  Subscribed. 

This guy took one hell of a hit...

it was a good thing for me though, because now I have a electronic speedometer! They're pretty uncommon, I think they only came on 90-91 models. 

The back glass was busted on the new Suburban, I was able to pull a new window to replace it. 

Last but not least, i was able to snag a high hump floor, this will most definitely be required to clear the A1000. 

In other news, I'm planning a trip south, going to take the OG Pig down to Key West, and try and do a little fishing with Dad, if you've ever been, and have suggestions for the trip, I'm all ears.

Been there, done that!

I didn't take nearly as many pictures on this trip, My dad and I did a bunch of fishing along the coast, he caught a black snapper, and a smaller yellowtail snapper, I caught a pinfish... lol, I learned alot on the trip though. 

number 1, reserve campsites well in advance, there were very few places with any availability. 

number 2, take the interstate past everything in the red box. 

it's almost 100% bumper to bumper traffic for the full length, lined with shopping centers catering to the uber rich, and old(really old) people. nothing to see, minimal water access. 

number 3, don't take kayaks, either:

A- bring a small boat(~14 foot V or roundbottom) with an outboard, it will have the close enough to the same shallow water capability as a kayak, but you can fish way more places faster, and not be worn out. 

b-Rent a boat down there and fish from that. 

I did some rough math, I've put over 17000 miles on the Pig from the Alaska trip, to now, not including a ton of DD action, this thing is awesome, and it consistently brings me happiness to tell people who ask, I built it, and it's now been corner to corner. 

go there, do it. it doesn't matter where "there" is, it doesn't matter what "it" is, it doesn't have to be expensive, it doesn't have to be pretty. get out there, and watch everyone scratch their heads in terror, disbelief, joy, ect. 

Good for you.  Recently went on a black bear hunt with my son in Maine.  The trip, and the time I spent with my son, was priceless.  Didn't have a Suburban, but a well worn Dodge Ram, loaded to the gills.  As it turns out, we have collectively driven the east coast version of tip to tip.