Hello!

[Byzantine.Legionnaire]

Hello, my name is Mike. I own a 1998 Chevy K2500 Suburban. It's the 7.4l Vortec... I love this truck... engine and transmission are going strong. The truck has almost 200K miles on it. Recently replaced most of the front end steering components, as well as front calipers, rotors, and pads. As much as I love this truck it is a bear to work on and the gas mileage SUCKS!. It will tow almost anything I need though...

For the increased fuel efficiency and torque, I want to build a Burbamax or Duraburb. My son says that his Daddy wants a "Durban".

Option 1:
Use my 1998 K2500 or a GMT400 Burb

Find and LB7 donor truck and steal everything I can off of it... Duramax Engine and Allison Trans and everything they need.

...maybe even do a frame swap... or just steal the front and rear suspension and box and stiffen the original 1998 frame.

I would turn the LB7 into an LBY (use the LB7 block, pistons, rods and rings, cam, exhaust, oil pan, stealth LB7 turbo from Duramax tuners, LB7 engine computer, etc, with LBY heads). I would need to find a fuse box from a 6.5 Detroit Diesel GMT400 suburban so I could get everything talking to each other.

Option 2.

01-02 K2500 Suburban swapping in the LBY Engine and Allison trans. Cheaper?

Option 3.

03-06 K2500 Suburban swapping the LBZ Engine and Allison trans. Easiest? Biggest Bang for the buck?

Option 4:

2012ish K2500 Suburban swapping in an LMM Engine and Allison Trans (not my preferred choice because I would have to keep all the emissions stuff on the engine).

Mission: Maybe a daily commuter. Primary mission hauling the family to go camping etc.

If I didn't need 9 seatbelts I'd just by a double cab 06 and a half K2500 LBZ pickup and call it a day.

Option 5:

Square Body CUCV Suburban -

LBY engine with Alison Trans

CUCV - Ton and a half straight axles... CUCV Bumpers and paint job

Boxed and Stiffened Frame or frame swap...

Redo the interior and external paint to match the CUCV truck

CUCV style bumpers.

2-inch body lift

2-inch lift kit

Military HMMWV tires.

Mission: Overlanding, Hunting, Camping

What are your thoughts, questions, comments, war stories?

 

[Will L.]

Imo- NO on the military tires. Your gonna have to cut and weld the 16.5 rims to work because of the offset. Then the tires themselves ...
I have been running the military tires on my Hummer for years. I dont want to drive a Hummer without runflats because the 4 wheel independent suspension and a blow out is way dangerous. If I could afford the 17” 2 piece rims I would switch to one of many tire options better than the military tires. They handle worse on road and off. They dont last as long and the bias ones flatspot over night.

Everything else your talking about- you have some good options- I say hunt down the used truck and refresh the dmax before dropping it in. @THEFERMANATOR did a Duraburb and there is a thread on it here