Any Charlotte area folks handy with a wrench want to make a few $$$?

jimmylove

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2006
Location
Charlotte
I bought an 83 Suburban with a 350 that needs some work. Mostly it's the carb and an oil leak, but I want to freshen the engine up a bit as well.

So here's the deal. My dad never worked on cars so I never learned how to mess with engines as a kid. I can do oil changes and simple tasks like that, but nothing this complicated.

I want to hire someone that knows about engines to help me fix this thing up. I'd pay them of course, but I'd like to do all of the work.

The idea is that I get comfortable and knowledgeable enough to pass it down to my kids eventually.

I'd also provide beer as needed. Anyone interested?
 
I'd help you for free if I was closer. Sold my 83 Suburban last year, still miss it.


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You are not to far from my, I am in locust. Will it drive? Can you bring it to my shop?
 
At this point is does not run as the batteries have died and I've pulled a few things out, but I'm not opposed to getting it towed out that way if it won't cost me an arm and a leg.

Locust isn't too far from me, especially now that 485 is done.
 
Also, I'm not married to the idea of refreshing the engine. I wouldn't be opposed to swapping it out with a crate engine and rebuilding the old one on my own time.
 
Also, I'm not married to the idea of refreshing the engine. I wouldn't be opposed to swapping it out with a crate engine and rebuilding the old one on my own time.
Swapping a crate engine will be much easier and quicker, however, most suppliers require a core return or charge $100-300 for the core charge.

Finding a decent running used engine from Craigslist or the classifieds would be a better monetary investment. Run it long enough to rebuild yours, swap out back out, and have a spare engine incase something you did doesn't pan out since it would be your first engine.

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This is what I'm looking at.
Chevrolet Performance 350 C.I.D. Base Engine Assemblies 10067353

Looks like it comes with everything except for Intake Manifold, Carb (needed a new one anyway), throttle body, distributor (already have a new one), water pump (already have a new one), flexplate, flywheel, air filter (already have a new one), spark plugs and wires (already have).

Whatever I can't take from the old 350 I'll just buy new. For $1550 plus free shipping, you can't really beat it.
 
So after doing some more research I've decided to just swap it out with a new engine from summit.

So the question is, did anyone want to make a bunch of money for a days worth of work?
 
I'm down if you get the engine hoist and my schedule works out.

I'm on your side of town near the Concord airport so not far.
send me a PM so I can drive by and see what you're working with.
 
Just a quick update. Lorenzo stopped by this weekend and we got a ton of work done on this truck.

We snapped a few pictures of the progress.

Here are some BEFORE pictures.

engine front.jpg

engine right.jpg

rear dif.jpg

On Saturday we removed the exhaust from the headers back, both drive shafts, and the transfer case, then started to tackle the actual engine.

Drive Shafts.jpg

My four year old wanted to help
Transfer case with helper.jpg

We were a little confused as to what that tube was in the upper left hand corner. If you look closely, it's powered by a 110v AC plug and connects to the cooling system. I know that the previous owner used this truck for camping so we were curious if this wasn't some sort of heater. I'll have to do some research.
WTF IS that.jpg

We got most of the accessories off, including the starter, belts, radiator, mystery box.

Overall is was a good start. Given that the truck is almost 35 years old and much of this is OE, the work was relatively easy. Still a lot of work to go, but definitely a good start.
 
Looks like a coolant (jacket water) heater.
 
yeah fun times.
almost got it all ripped out on Saturday.
Down to the motor mounts and had to call it a day.... A long fun day wrenching.
:rolleyes:

James, you wanna start a build thread and start some progress pics there?
Might be cool to see where you end up in a year or two with the Burban all set up inside and out.

@Ron , yea looking at how that thing was wired, it looks like it ran the water around the blower motor/heater core when the cord was plugged in.
Luckily there isn't a whole lot of wiring on this thing. Its completely 'analog' ya know.
 
yeah fun times.
almost got it all ripped out on Saturday.
Down to the motor mounts and had to call it a day.... A long fun day wrenching.
:rolleyes:

James, you wanna start a build thread and start some progress pics there?
Might be cool to see where you end up in a year or two with the Burban all set up inside and out.

@Ron , yea looking at how that thing was wired, it looks like it ran the water around the blower motor/heater core when the cord was plugged in.
Luckily there isn't a whole lot of wiring on this thing. Its completely 'analog' ya know.


If its what I think it is (something like: https://www.hotstart.com/assets/Catalog-documents/TPS-heaters.pdf)

It probably doesn't circulate anything at all. Just a heating element.
Very common on industrial diesel engines, less so on spark ignited.

I know an old eccentric engineer who installed one on a suburban simply so he would have heat first thing on a cold morning without having to warm his truck up outside the garage.
 
If its what I think it is (something like: https://www.hotstart.com/assets/Catalog-documents/TPS-heaters.pdf)

It probably doesn't circulate anything at all. Just a heating element.
Very common on industrial diesel engines, less so on spark ignited.

I know an old eccentric engineer who installed one on a suburban simply so he would have heat first thing on a cold morning without having to warm his truck up outside the garage.
This thing started life as an Idaho forestry truck, maybe they thought it would help in the winters?
 
yeah in 20 below they can be neccesary to crank.
 
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