new restoration 70 suburban

[70GreenBurb]

Hi, I'm John and I think I am a Burbaholic.

We bought our Suburban in 2005 from our next door neighbors who were the original owners and in their 80s when we bought it. Vitals as follows:

Stock 350/350 except EI, with 3.07, second row seat, no Air, original AM radio and a few Mods the FO added (Trailer battery charging lockout switch, window washer switch, AM vacuum guage and ammeter.

It ran pretty good and the interior would probably have been rated very good original with some fading on the dash paint and a little rust damage to the driver's door vinyl panel cover. The rear seat had been recovered once using original fabric found at the local upholsterer and both seats looked almost new, as did all the other vinyl side panels. It had about 120K on it and had never had any major work except grinding the valves and seats at about 70K and really well documented regular maintenance (FO's sons were both professional mechanics).

We towed our 16 Ft trailer on a few camping trips and one to Colorado. It towed fine on the flats, but it never had much oomph up the hills. On the steep hills I topped out at about 40. After putting another 20K on it we couldn't take the anemic towing and just used it around town for a few years. Well, we've finally got some financial breathing room and have decided to restore it as a tow vehicle and daily driver for my wife and granddaughter.

It is currently at our local rebuilding shop for heart surgery and other upgrades since I have little mechanic although I have learned a lot during the rebuilding planning. We were just in time at the doctors since it had just munched a cam bearing and had one broken ring. It was also long overdue on the valves since it didn't have hardened seats. Bobby pointed out that was one of the main reasons for its anemia since the seats were so bad in four cylinders it was basically a four banger. The harmonic balancer had also gone out (no wonder we could never get it tuned right).

It was bored .030 over, and we added a few minor upgrades for durability:
Mild RV cam
Forged Pistons
Mahle rings
double roller chain
Melling HV oil pump
roller tips
upgraded bearings
blueprinted main cap
Balanced

We are looking forward to getting to know her all over again the way she was when she was new, and hopefully a little better.

We are going to add factory four seasons air if our wreaking yard ever gathers all the parts, and swap out the TH350 with a 700r4 for (hopefully) some better freeway mileage. I hope to swing a small loan on it and have the OD tranny rebuilt, fix a few rust spots and maybe have it painted and new rubber all around.


Pictures to come in a build thread once I have chance to do some resizing.