Big T
Well-Known Member
This is a prime example of the value of this website. Last fall my son hit some back ice in Southern Utah and flipped and totaled his '95 Suburban with 6.5. He settled with the insurance company (much more than it was worth) and bought the wreck back for $400. Then we bought a '94 Suburban K2500 with 6.5 from a member here. Very clean truck, some blowby, but the engine was running great. Winter and spring were spent transferring goodies such as exhaust, shocks, tires and wheels from the '95. Got rebuilt injectors with German Bosch Nozzles. New HO water pump and transferred the Dmax fan and HD fan clutch from the '95. Fixed the gauge cluster and installed the Buddy 4 position tune from the '95. Rebuilt the front end using knuckles and Timken bearings from the '95, new CV half shafts and Moog ball joints, tie rods, pitman, idler, and lot of good advice here. About the only things left to do would be adding the ATT, stainless oil cooler lines, and Fluid Dampener HB which I consider nice to haves.
Before my son decided to tow his 22' fiberglass deck boat from Socal to Lake Shasta, I recommended he do a local trip and get the damn pillar mount gauges from the '95 installed. He did and then he towed the boat up to our place in Big Bear Lake, Ca. The climb starts at 1,500' and reaches 7,100' at the Lakeview Summit and the home is at 6,750'. A stock 6.5 would overheat and defuel towing up that. He texted me that it ran great and the coolant temp got slightly over 210 on one stretch (my '99 does the same and that is my benchmark). This is an engine with 245K miles and blowby out of the dipstick, yet it's performing great. This is a prime example of why you should follow all the advice here and address all the things that affect cooling for these engines to ensure longevity. We don't know how long this engine will go, but it is much cleaner than my '99 and we also have the engine (and Trans) in the '95 as a back up.
Based on these results, we'll probably follow-up and see if the '95 Suburban in Palmdale I posted a link for in another thread is still available for sale. Once you know how to address the issues with the 6.5, these vehicles are just too cheap to ignore and we can always use a back up.
Before my son decided to tow his 22' fiberglass deck boat from Socal to Lake Shasta, I recommended he do a local trip and get the damn pillar mount gauges from the '95 installed. He did and then he towed the boat up to our place in Big Bear Lake, Ca. The climb starts at 1,500' and reaches 7,100' at the Lakeview Summit and the home is at 6,750'. A stock 6.5 would overheat and defuel towing up that. He texted me that it ran great and the coolant temp got slightly over 210 on one stretch (my '99 does the same and that is my benchmark). This is an engine with 245K miles and blowby out of the dipstick, yet it's performing great. This is a prime example of why you should follow all the advice here and address all the things that affect cooling for these engines to ensure longevity. We don't know how long this engine will go, but it is much cleaner than my '99 and we also have the engine (and Trans) in the '95 as a back up.
Based on these results, we'll probably follow-up and see if the '95 Suburban in Palmdale I posted a link for in another thread is still available for sale. Once you know how to address the issues with the 6.5, these vehicles are just too cheap to ignore and we can always use a back up.
