6.5 Harvest Time

[Big T]

Finally got around to harvesting the engine and transmission from the '95 Suburban that my son wrecked when he hit black ice. The wreck was almost 3 years ago and it's been in my backyard since. In between, remodeling a 2nd home, son remodeling his home and having their first baby got in the way. Wife wanted it gone as she's hosting a HS Reunion party at our home in Fullerton. So we pulled the engine and trans yesterday, maybe I'll get rid of the rest today.

 

[SnowDrift]

Plans for it?

 

[Big T]

Engine and trans will be backups for the brown '94 in the photos. That one has 265K miles on the engine. Runs great, but lot of blowby and guzzles oil. The takeout from the wreck has 185K miles, modest blowby and average oil consumption. Our plan is to put new gapless rings in it when the time comes to put it in the '94. The trans was a GM reman and it only has 12K miles on it.

 

[Paveltolz]

Good to have a back up, just in case. Most of us just carry a PMD or OPS in the glove box but a motor...that's being prepared. I think 635 had at least two of them at one point.

Good to hear from you and Cody last night. Hope all is well with the Grandson and the home remodels. The houses should be done by now but I thought the same about my restoration work on the truck.

 

[Big T]

Paul, Big Bear is largely done. Just a few items left like a bathroom mirror and another coat of urethane on stair risers. Colby's is largely done too. I think he needs to do mouldings, but not my business to push him. It was to get rid of this truck. Two weeks from now we'll winch it up onto a flat bed trailer and take it to the recycle yard. And yes we're finally using that military crate that Ted gave us. We saved the rear axle, front differential, transmission and transfer case.

While doing this, I noted that my '99 Suburban was turning over slowly. By the following morning, the batteries were not strong enough to start it. Alternator was dead. It had been slowly losing voltage on the meter over the past 6 months. Replaced under NAPA lifetime warranty and all is good, but that alternator maybe went 12K miles.

 

[WarWagon]

It's been that long? Just recalling the trip out there - that long ago!?

On the overhaul make sure to rebuild heads with checking valve guides and new stem seals to help oil consumption. It's my one regret for not doing due to time and budget on Patch. Smokes blue like a 350 on startup due to stem seals/guides and uses 1qt every 1k or more. Shoot it even puffs smoke after sitting with the fuel off...

The current running engine with blowby can run a long time before needing to be changed.

 

[Big T]

It's been that long? Just recalling the trip out there - that long ago!?

On the overhaul make sure to rebuild heads with checking valve guides and new stem seals to help oil consumption. It's my one regret for not doing due to time and budget on Patch. Smokes blue like a 350 on startup due to stem seals/guides and uses 1qt every 1k or more. Shoot it even puffs smoke after sitting with the fuel off...

The current running engine with blowby can run a long time before needing to be changed.

Yes, been that long. Remodel on 2nd home at Big Bear for us. Colby was remodeling his home and then had their first kid, making me a grandfather. Just life intervening.

That said, transferred about $2,500 (retail value) worth of parts to the '94 and some replacement stuff to the '99. It was like having a parts store back there. The coup de gras was the spare engine, trans, front diff, rear axle. Then we get rid of the POS body.

Thanks for the input regarding rebuild of the heads. The engine in the '94 is running strong. It has the ATT on it, plus all the longevity mods. We'll run it until it dies.

 

[Big T]

Today we got rid of the body. $160 from the recycle yard.