Went and picked up another project this week. My mom's old 88 suburban. It's sat for the better part of 10 years ever since it was parked with a busted radiator and a blown headgasket on the 350 (that was repaired with head gasket in a bottle). Some rust but nothing too terrible so far, rockers and rear quarters. The inside is a mess though. Planning a nice winter cruiser, no lift, some 32 inch tires. If I can't get the engine to run with a little work I will probably end up LS swapping it before I dump too much money in it. First thing will be to get it all cleaned up and assess everything.
On to the next one: Bronco build
- Thread starter YJKrawlin
- Start date
The bronco has been in the exhaust shop since just before christmas. Exhaust is done but I was hoping he could tinker with the tune a little to get all of the emissions stuff out. Been working on the suburban in the meantime. Rigged a fuel pump and a gas can to get it started, albeit roughly due to lines not fitting together perfectly. Drove it into my backyard to work on the concrete pads. Cut an access panel and put a boat access panel in for the fuel pump. Stripped the interior and went at it with a carpet cleaner. It could definitely use more care but it's a good start. Put the LS fuel pump and a new sending unit in. After all the research I did I though i had figured I had a 25 gallon tank, ended up being a 40 gallon tank. LMC apparently can't measure anything. Found out the TBI can run on the LS pump, although I wouldn't want to put it to the test in the long term. Got a line on another 4.8 so I've started stripping the front to pull the 350 and 700R4 as gently as possible. Also got one of the busted wing windows replaced, had to retouch the paint though after 8+ years of gorilla tape sitting on it.
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- Joined
- Mar 10, 2005
- Location
- Hooterville (24171)
Did the same thing in my old '99 2500... cause fuelpumps *only* go out when the 40gal bastages are FULL!
Hoping to pick up the drivetrain for the suburban in the next few weeks. Got the Bronco back from the exhaust shop, sounds great! Also figured out my idle issues. Had a loose ground for my MAP sensor causing it to stumble periodically at speed. Drove it into town for a local clubs meeting and found out the brake lights don't work, so one more thing to fix. Still need to finish the tune on it and chase down a few leaks. Both are coming along though.
Got the engine for the suburban pulled sunday and tossed in on monday. It's a tight fit but she's in there, now to start working towards the list of parts needed to button it up. I initially was going to run a drive by cable setup but this engine was a drive by wire so I'm sticking with that to hopefully tie cruise control in fairly easily. Busted part of the intake pulling it but thankfully found one at LKQ that didn't require me removing anything. Swapped everything over yesterday. It's definitley coming along. I'll probably send the PCM out for a tune next week so that it will be on the way back about the time I should be wrapping everything up. LS swap #3 is coming to a close sooner than expected. Meanwhile I'm still chasing down the cause of the bronco brake light issues. Trying to cut back on too many expensive projects so we can save up to have a shop built by the end of the year.
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LS swap #3 is wrapping up. Still plenty to throw together but everything is at a point it just needs to be assembled. Still trying to find a good place to locate the PCM behind the glovebox before I decide to just delete the actual glovebox. Finishing up wiring in the cruise control and integrating the PCM into the standalone fusebox and chassis harness. Then the process of making fuel lines, trans lines, getting the donor cooling system installed and exhaust buttoned up. Plenty to go but with everything here it will get there sooner or later. Still on the lookout for some 31x10.50/15 to replace the 15 year old dry rotted tires on it (that surprisingly hold air). And need to rebuild the brakes on the 10 bolt. Excited to get this on the road and start back in on buttoning up the bronco.
Less than 3 weeks later and the suburban is fired up! Still needs exhaust and fluids, then to wrap up wiring for it just to get things tidied up. After I get it cleaned up I'll be pulling the Bronco back into the back yard and tearing apart the dash to find out why the brake lights aren't working. I really want to get a Ron Francis harness for it but the suburban sucked up my budget and I know I need to step back to get a shop built by the end of the year. Still have the El Camino to tinker with and finishing up the Bronco soft top whenever my wife gets a chance to mess with the fabric and make sure it's doable with our machine. Picked up some 31s for the suburban. Nothing huge just going to be a winter beater and work truck basically I'm thinking. Lots of irons in the fire and have another project we are interested in picking up. I'll post some more on that once it's official. Planning on a 30x50 shop with 2-3 bays and a workshop area. Space to pull something in and keep a long term project or two. Also managed to blow the brake line in the front crossmember for the rear brakes on the suburban after working on bleeding and adjusting the brakes. So that will be getting replaced this week. All in all, it's been a fast paced month to get this far.
Got the suburban exhaust tossed together with a popcorn welder. Not perfect and will need to be touched up to get rid of the leaks but its close enough for what this is right now. Still showing a leak/ knock sensor code. Thinking it might be an intake manifold gasket, so ordering that soon. After I put the exhaust in the shifter no longer cleared so I bent a 3/8 rod and put a hoop on top of the shifter linkage, cut the excess out and now it can get every gear with ease. Drove it a few miles today to get gas and it runs amazing considering the lean code. Cruise control works great and everything seems to be shifting like it needs to. Got some interior work to do this week, need to touch up a hole in a wheel well/tub and have a DIY headliner to put in it as well as some sound deadening/heat shield material. It's definitely coming along though. Still haven't found the time to tear into the bronco dash and trace the brake wiring. But soon enough.
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Got the heat shield and headliner installed in the suburban and it has made a world of difference. It's still hot but not unbearable anymore. Been wrestling with the lean code on the 1988 suburban the past couple weeks. I started out by replacing the intake manifold gasket and o-rings for the injectors. After reassembly some of the injector grommets cracked and seemed to be letting some air in (had a sucking noise when spraying carb cleaner around injectors. Bought some new injectors since I could find a good rebuild set for my originals and they also had some cracked bodies. Still had the lean code and then in the middle of testing, my starter died on me. Since the Bronco is down until the bird living in it moves on, I stole the starter off of it and also the intake tubing to test the MAF. After all that I still had a terrible lean code that was getting worse. Picked up a fuel injection pressure tester and found I was getting 8-12 psi through the fuel rail. Grabbed a new regulator/filter. Same issues. Ended up finding a blown out hose in the sending unit/pump. I must have grabbed a section of non-submersible or non-fuel injection hose when I put it together. Replaced that and she's running like a champ now. Picked up a new power steering pump to try and get some steering again because this tank is not fun to steer. Been a long couple of weeks. Also narrowing down some decisions on our shop. 30x50x14', 1 12x12 door and 1 10x10 door on one end of the long side, 12x30 loft on the other side for storage and hoping to have a non-door bay for a long term project in between (Step-dad has an old 55 pickup I'd love to restore). Waiting to hear back about getting an old septic tank removed and getting some driveway questions answered.
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The bird finally moved on and I have my bronco mobile again. I still need to send the computer off to have another tune done on it but I used it to move some brick today and inadvertanly drove through the ditch in front of the house with the trailer on. I didn’t think it would make it without scrubbing so I’d never tried to check articulation in it. So I unloaded the trailer and drove back out front to check everything and had my wife take some pictures. Surprised it made it with no struggle in 2wd (needs a driveshaft built) in the rain and with 3.73 gears on the 40s. Still in the process of troubleshooting my battery drain and my brake light issues.
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I've been slowing down a little on spending here recently, trying to get myself in a place to bite the bullet and get a shop built. Got my layout worked out for the most part, got enough quotes to make plans. Side entry 30x50x14, 3 10x10 doors and a 12x30 loft above a 12x18 work area and 12x12 home gym. Plan to have extra concrete poured on one side for a future lift. Made a scale drawing on some grid paper and cut out scale diagrams of any potential cars going inside to make sure it made sense. Loft will be a good place to store all of my wife's decorations and some of my larger car parts. (I've had the hood for my el camino sitting in our spare bedroom for over a year now. It's a big jump, but i'm excited to finally make the jump and have a place of my own, inside, to work on my projects. In the meantime, working on small projects that don't require too much spending. Tracking down the brake light issue in the bronco, finishing what heat shielding is left on the suburban and reinstalling all of the interior on the suburban.
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- Joined
- Mar 24, 2005
- Location
- Stanley, NC
Do you make engine noises when you move the vehicles around? I know I would
CasterTroy
Faster'N You
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2005
- Location
- Wallburg
It’s a metal building so it ought to be 3” wall thickness I believe? I believe its 2.5” tubing they use on it. Would have loved to do pole barn or red iron, but this is what was in my budget at the size we were looking for and the company has a good reputation in my area.
Not quite haha just got tired of redrawing stuff every 10 minutes looking at different configurations. Especially when it came to the home gym and trying to figure out door locations.Do you make engine noises when you move the vehicles around? I know I would
Worked on the Bronco this week, tracked down my brake light issue. At some point my turn signal switch had messed up in the past, requiring me to replace the cam in it. After that the hazards never worked in the rear anymore and I never made the connection that the brake lights run through that switch. After replacing it, brake lights are working, all of my dash indicators now work as well. Now if I can only track down a good ignition source for my PCM to take it off of the toggle switch. In the meantime throwing the dash back together.
In other more expensive news. We are breaking ground on Tuesday for our shop! The company doing it ended up stepping back from doing the loft so I will end up doing my loft myself after we get the floors coated. After struggling to find a solid electrical quote or anybody willing to do the work (still waiting on a reply from one last electrician) I am debating doing the wiring myself as the owner. Trying to familiarize myself with requirements over the next month or so to get through inspection. Main thing that concerns me after doing my research is figuring out where to put the meter base on the exterior and connecting it to the 200 amp breaker box that will go inside. My step-father builds boat docks and does all the electrical when wiring them so if I get in too much of a bind I know I can get an extra hand with doing the work and making sure it's all done correctly. Looking forward to being inside and not working in the sun anymore.
In other more expensive news. We are breaking ground on Tuesday for our shop! The company doing it ended up stepping back from doing the loft so I will end up doing my loft myself after we get the floors coated. After struggling to find a solid electrical quote or anybody willing to do the work (still waiting on a reply from one last electrician) I am debating doing the wiring myself as the owner. Trying to familiarize myself with requirements over the next month or so to get through inspection. Main thing that concerns me after doing my research is figuring out where to put the meter base on the exterior and connecting it to the 200 amp breaker box that will go inside. My step-father builds boat docks and does all the electrical when wiring them so if I get in too much of a bind I know I can get an extra hand with doing the work and making sure it's all done correctly. Looking forward to being inside and not working in the sun anymore.
Been a slow month. But concrete is poured for the shop! Building should be going up starting monday! Going to be a busy month coming up as we get the shop wired, install the lift, coat the floors and build the loft but looking forward to rolling everything in for the first and final time!
The shop is built! They finished installing the doors on Friday. I’ve been working this weekend on getting some temporary cords ran for my lights and started installing my boxes and planning out my runs for wiring. Takes some time doing it yourself. The builders did an awesome job and I can’t recommend them enough. Custom metal buildings out of snow hill nc. I’ve been too busy to take any real photos inside but it’s a mess either way with all the electric stuff laying around. Hoping to have the electric finished by the end of the week.
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Been working on finishing everything up. Got the electrical done last week. Started working on my floors. Picked up our next project. 1970 Bronco. Still plenty of work to do but coming along. Ordered a 2 post lift that should be here tomorrow. It’s going to be a busy week.
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baggednissan
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2010
- Location
- Monroe,NC
Nice work man looks good!
Shreddinlettuce
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2016
- Location
- Asheville
Major garage envy!
Worked on some more of the ship lap and getting more of the wall studs laid out so I can knock them out quickly tomorrow. Not much but took a little bit longer cutting out around the outlets and window and adjusting the single light switch. Hoping to have this wall finished tomorrow. My 2 post lift is also supposed to be delivered tomorrow so might work on installing that this week.
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ghost
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 25, 2006
- Location
- Hartsville/Camden,SC
I've been contemplating a building like that. But I needed an office space. I'd be interested in more details on how you are attaching the wood.
I needed a room as well so we are Building a loft with a room for a home gym under it. But for the exterior walls, studding out the building with 2x3x96” studs (steel tubing is 2.5” deep so it sits flush.) installing the studs 24” on center and attaching to the metal tube with wood to metal screws. Pretty straightforward from there. Once the loft is built (6-6x6 posts to support it) i will just be putting up walls between 2 of the sets of 6x6.
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paradisePWoffrd
Recovering Project Junkie
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2005
- Location
- Newton, NC
Looking great, jealous for sure. Those switches/outlets not being inline would mess with my OCD though.