Is this 01 suburban worth it

RenegadeT

RenegadeT

no shirt,no shoes,no dice
Moderator
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Location
Stokesdale-Greensboro
i have the opportunity to get a 2001 suburban with 200k miles and a "cracked head gasket" for pretty much nothing. current owner wants it gone, Chevy dealer wanted $2k to fix it, needs tires soon, looks like KBB value is around 3500. I don't know much more about it, but would this have anything worthwhile to part out. 2wd, 6 lug wheels, I assume a 5,3L V8 auto.
 
It'll be worth more as a complete car than as parts. I'm in a similar situation with a nearly identical vehicle. Mines an 03 GMC Yukon xl with 5.3, auto, 4x2 and 166k. I paid around $4k for it a while back and with lower miles obviously. To me its worth more than I could sell it for since its my dd, weekend travel ride and boat puller, parts hauler, whatever. Very tough and reliable car. I rearended a prius a few months ago and i drove away without a scratch. If you were to part it out you'd get $500-700 for engine, $400 or so for Trans, $200 for rear end, body parts maybe $1000..? Thats really about it. Or sell it to any soccer mom if it still looks decent for $3000 and get that no problem.
 
Thedoorsbring 5-600 each from body shops and are in short supply around here.
 
well, first off, im a big fan of these vehicles. secondly, fix that head and you potentially have another 200k + miles on that thing.

also, i think there is an LQ4 (6.0) motor for sale on here some where.
 
Chances are that "cracked head gasket" is a cracked 706 casting head. Still an easy fix. GM had a bad batch of castings come from one of their suppliers and they're popping up as these vehicles get some age and mileage on them.
 
Croatan_Kid said:
Chances are that "cracked head gasket" is a cracked 706 casting head. Still an easy fix. GM had a bad batch of castings come from one of their suppliers and they're popping up as these vehicles get some age and mileage on them.
Click to expand...
I now know, check out the link I posted above. I do in fact have the Castech heads noted in the TSB.
Any recommendations on heads? I would like to stay away from Castech. Advance auto has heads rebuilt by Spartan for $260. I looked over on summit racing.com, they had some for $330. I plan on calling both to ask if they might be Castech heads.

Oh, and as much as I would like to drop a vette engine in this chop the top and do something crazy, I better stick to the cheap DD plan I sold the wife on :D
 
If you're on Facebook, you can get on some of the LS Sales sights and find stuff nice and cheap or Craigslist. I'm not sure that any of the other LS heads have the same combustion chamber size as a 706, so you may still need minor tuning to make it run as good as it can. That's no big deal if it means you won't be having head issues every time you turn around! 243/799 heads or 862s would be a decent choice. Any of those 3 could be found on a 5.3 in stock form. Usually 862s or 706s though. 243/799 heads were on the 5.3 HO motors.

Better yet, just snag some non-Castech 706s if they exist.
 
Back
Top