Sveins 1999 6.5 Suburban that´s getting "everything I ever wanted" eventually

[svein]

I´ve been keeping a build thread at another forum, until I recently needed more diesel specific help and got great help over here!

Thought I´d copy the beginning of the build thread over and continue the postings over here. Nice to share my experiences with nice people!

This summer, after many years of saving and considering what would be the wise way to go for a new car, I bought a 1999 Chevrolet Suburban K1500. It has 250000kms on it, but there was (almost) no rust, and it had an old webasto type diesel heater (that did not work).

I am so happy! I have several plans for upgrades for this car - I want it to be the perfect "do anything"-truck, and my aim is to treat it right from the start, and avoid all the mistakes I´ve made with my previous cars. And it´s still a 6.5 diesel, so I kind of know the beast - even though I´ve never been much of a mechanic.

My dreams and plans include:
installing a custom wvo system
headlights upgrade and new labeling and relays for the headlights
wiring upgrade from ptsolutions for the glow plugs and mains wiring, and a new glow plug controller
replace all door hinges and the barn door catches needs replacing.
new 2din radio with apple airplay

I got the truck this summer. This is my first sight of it:

The first things that turned out, was that the previous owner had been sloppy about the bulbs, so I had to swap all the turn signal and parking lamps in the front, and add bulbs to all the courtesy lights in the doors and under the dash. I am contemplating putting in red bulbs in these positions - I think that could look nice, plus some red led bulbs could be brighter than the 3w bulbs that I currently have in. I´ll have to have a think about that.

The next thing I did, was to put in a new 2din dab radio. I went for a pioneer ash-z3000dab, and added two pioneer backup cameras, and a dab antenna. I also ordered a metra dp-3003 dash kit bezel. I have to say that it sure wasn't a perfect fit. Next time I have to take it off for some other wiring, I will try to use the original metal fasteners from the original dash.




I hadn´t thought about the differences in the dash colours. I made a decision to just go a head and try the "easier version", so I used rubber spray to paint the ash tray and the air vents black. The air vents have lost some paint, because it is scrubbing the dash bezel a bit when you turn them. I´m thinking I would need to trim the holes a bit in the bezel at some point.

<>

I had to chop out quite a bit of plastic to make it all fit together. I used a drill and some wire snips, not the most elegant solution, I have to say.

But having a 2din with proper dab radio and apple airplay? Amazing. Looking forward to getting the reverse camera installed as well. I am debating a bit where to put it, but I think the best place would be on the passenger side rear barn door, just next to the handle. I could make a hole for the wiring trough the handle and cable it trough the door, but it does sound like a lot of work!

I´ve been away for work for some weeks now, and I have the new wiring from ptsolution plus headlights and the who system waiting for me when I get home. Might have to build some big extra fuse/relay boxes, though.

 

[svein]

I have just gotten home from a long work travel. I spent my evenings the past month planning and buying everything I need to go ahead and upgrade the car to accommodate my wishes. My very patient girlfriend had been swamped in deliveries the last days before I got home, and the week I´ve been home I´ve been collecting two packages a day! Haha!

As Soon as I had a possibility, I went ahead and swapped the headlights. I went with a pair of Anzo clear crystal headlights from rock auto. I have to say it was a nice swap! I will revisit the topic later to upgrade the headlight cables.

It took the evening to finish off the project. I have to say that I am not very impressed with the quality of the anzo lights. While fiddling with the adjustment, I noticed that the corner of one of the park lights was broken. Turns out that there is two tabs with air in between - they are designed to break!


At last I finished for the evening: Ill shoot better photos later, when it´s not dark!

 

[svein]

More has happened the past week! The who conversion project has started for real now. My multi talent mechanics and welding friend dropped by. He can pretty much help me with anything mechanical, as long as I get the thing out of the car and onto his workbench! He made a quick sketch of the new fuel tank for the veg oil:

Later, the shipment from PlantDrive arrived! All neatly packed into a small box was a world of parts that will be between the tank and the injection pump!


The car has an old diesel heater installed. The sales ad said it was a "webasto". It turned out to be an ancient "Ardic 91-D" fuel heater dated 1996. It was manufactured by Volvo Aero, commonly used in boats. They were later bought by eberspächer, so I believe it is quality stuff, even though it´s old. I found a guy who is a wizard on these things. He sold me a new circulation pump and a repair kit for the lift pump in order to get it up and running. It still didn't´t work, so I had to dig out the pins for the flame guard and short them in order to verify that the flame guard is broken. Will have to order a new from him on Monday!


Along with the parts I bought from rock auto came new barn door catches. They were a quick swap, and well worth it! I am smiling every time I open the barn doors!

 

[svein]

Todays big project was swapping the main electrical wiring. I´ve bought the kit PT wiring sells both for the main cables and the glow plug harness. I spent a lot of time reading and re-reading on http://65turbogarage.com - a really helpful site with lots of good info, and felt prepared and ready to get it sorted! At least that was the plan, until my tire wanted it otherwise.


Turns out most of the lug nuts are really bad, and there was no way I could get the 8th nut off. After almost managing to break the nut, it turned out the bolt it self was rotating inside there. So I guess I´m gonna have to cut it off and swap the entire bolt. I am thinking I should probably just go ahead and swap all the bolts and the nuts around the truck so I know they are good. Luckily, I am going to the repair shop with the truck on Monday for a full service, so I am sure they could help me on the way!

Once I got the truck up and running again, my girlfriend sent me on a drive to cool off. haha. At least I got to shoot a better photo of the new headlights! Gonna build a new lighting harness later, and get the original orange parking lamps back!



Last project of the evening was having a 2nd look at the Anzo headlights. I think I managed to **** the sideways adjustment screw on them, so I swapped the adjustment screw housing with the ones from the old ones. Hopefully that will work well for whatever adjustment is needed! I am thinking this might be a sign that I should go ahead and buy some expensive projector headlights. But will it be worth it!?

 

[svein]

Following the disaster with the lug nuts, I spent the next day with almost no work on the truck. Except changing the belt. The old one looked a bit dodgy, and life have taught me that if I think "I better do something about this", I better. Otherwise, it would probably bite me in the tail somewhere along the road, haha.

New belt in, old belt to rest:


Today, I took the truck to my repair show for full oil and filter change on everything that could be changed, and the periodical eu safety control. The truck went trough with flying colors, so I am good to go for another two years! I also discussed some details around the placement of components for the veg oil conversion - lots of good help to get at my local shop!

When they were finally done with the truck, I had a friend of mine help me change the door hinge pins on the front doors.
The drives door was a breeze. It´s probably been changed before. Passenger side door was a pain in the ass, but eventually I got there. When I ordered the pins, I had totally missed that I should probably have a special tool for the springs in the doors. Oops! Luckily, one of 1aauto.com´s youtube videos showed me their cable tie trick, so I got both the pins and the springs installed by the end of the evening! Yey!

 

[svein]

So, I´ve had an intensive 4 days in the workshop this weekend! Some very kind guys have let me use their garage/workshop for some days, and I have been able to deal with a lot!

I started off with getting rid of my big worry - the lug nut. I had to cut it off with an angel grinder, but off it went!


I´ve never removed the caliper before, so that was an excitement. Note to self: I really, really, really need to own a 9mm umbraco bit!

Luckily, I found a usable one and were able to knock it off with a hammer. I was afraid I´d have to remove the entire wheel base, but then I discovered to my joy that I could actually hammer the lug bolts out trough a hole behind the caliper! Good times!

I used an umbraco to stop the wheel base from turning while I tightened the bolts. Job Done! Great!


Then I had a peek behind the wheel, and saw where work really was:

Might as well get to those cables while I´m here and have the wheel off anyway..

 

[svein]

So to continue on my adventures with the wiring. It turned into a very long night:

I was at the repair shop, which is located at the opposite side of town from where I live. No buses anymore. over NOK1000 for a taxi. Thats about $120... The wheel (still with shitty lug nuts) needed to go on in order to go home. I had the cables. I wanted to change them anyway.

I removed one glow plug, just to test it, and it looked even worse than the old ones I had lying around from my express van. I changed them with new ones - and measured them. They all had the same resistance value as the new ones - around 0,8Ohm. The ones in my new suburban measured about 1,9Ohms, so I decided to swap them with the old ones.

To be honest, I am still thinking I could use new ones - and longer glow plug timing. I really need to put the old glow plug relay into the truck so I can get manual override. And while I´m at it - maybe a new glow (thicker) mains feed for the glow plugs? Argh, the potential costs! But it would be better...

Anyway, I went at it. I replaced the entire passenger side glow plugs, and replaced the old harness with the new harness from ptwiring. Then I Replaced the Battery + Positives to the Alternator. It was hard work, and I removed the nut holding the heat shield and tricked the new cable shoe so it pointed upwards, and was kept in place behind the heat shield. I put the plastic pipe behind the heat shield as well, to make sure the cable is not damaged by it.



At 4am in the morning, I had changed all the main positive cables. I had to use adaptors for the cable shoes onto the battery poles on the red top batteries. Later on in the weekend, I changed the negatives, and I stole the batteries from the old van. Proper 75a side terminal batteries. I am planning on putting the new extra fuse boxes on top of the batteries - Short way to the big mains, and easily accessible.

Anyway, it was good going to bed after that night. Got the wheel back on, and just as I thought, I had trouble with many of the lug nuts. I had a complete new set for the entire truck ordered in the mail - I guess that is the problem with shipping parts. I could of course get most of the parts locally, but to a much higher price, and when I am out traveling, I have time to plan and wait for parts!

Just last week, when I had recovered from last weekend, I got around and removed the rest of the spikes from the mud and snow tires I got with the truck. Changed tires and lug nuts around the entire truck. They look a lot better - but they are very noisy! I will however order some top of the line spiked tires to drive on the Norwegian winter roads, So I´m thinking I might at some point swap these tires for a set of more asphalt friendly summer tires!

 

[svein]

I´ve been on vacation the past week. We are 500km up north from where I live, so I don´t have all the new parts with me, but I was able to do add a reverse camera. More on that later.

Before I left, I got several things done to the car. I had a long day with a good work colleague who helped me remove all the rust around the lower body of the car. Unfortunately, we had to stop working on it without getting all the rust removed a couple of places - otherwise we would be trough... I´m gonna do a oil treatment to the underbody of the truck and the inside of the doors later on to try to make it live as long as possible.



I´ve also been two trips to the local "DMV" - to apply for, and to collect new plates for the truck. He wouldn't´t let me get the small signs in the front, but at least it´s not blocking the holes in the diesel bumper anymore. I am contemplating putting a couple of extra hi beams in there, but since this actually IS a diesel I´m worried I might block some air intake I would actually want to have? Does anyone of you guys know anything about that?

It was a real struggle to get the old plates removed - I had to use an angle grinder to get the back plates off, but in the end I got there:

If you look really closely, you can see the rust shining trough the bumper. I thought it had just a couple of small spots, but when I started removing it, it turned out it had just leaked trough the chrome a couple of small spots, but the entire bumper seems to be rusted. I think I´ll just cover it up in rubber spray, and forget it until it one day gets so ugly I´ll have to change it. At least I don´t have to worry anything when making new holes for additional lighting and such!

 

[MrMarty51]

Nice work Svein.
On My 2000 K3500 CC, I had a set of headlamps from a 1988 GM truck, they are the four individual glass bulbs, and they fit nicely into the same space that the originals came in, the grill is even notched for them. I also installed a relay while I was at it, relay is signaled from the bright side of the headlamp harness and powers the dim lamps when the brights are turned on.
The four individual headlamps can be adjusted independently, I have the dims set to a level that oncoming traffic was flashing for Me to dim, I adjusted them down until people quit flashing for dimmer lamps, I have the brights adjusted for about a ten mile range, LOL, and with the dims being illuminated at the same time, it covers the dim and blind areas while the brights are turned on.

 

[Jaryd]

Keep up the good work. Looks good.

The author of 65turbogarage is a member here. @Hink

 

[svein]

Keep up the good work. Looks good.

The author of 65turbogarage is a member here. @Hink

Thanks!
I know - I bumped into Hink in another thread - it´s a small world but a loot of good people giving good advices!

Nice work Svein.
On My 2000 K3500 CC, I had a set of headlamps from a 1988 GM truck, they are the four individual glass bulbs, and they fit nicely into the same space that the originals came in, the grill is even notched for them. I also installed a relay while I was at it, relay is signaled from the bright side of the headlamp harness and powers the dim lamps when the brights are turned on.
The four individual headlamps can be adjusted independently, I have the dims set to a level that oncoming traffic was flashing for Me to dim, I adjusted them down until people quit flashing for dimmer lamps, I have the brights adjusted for about a ten mile range, LOL, and with the dims being illuminated at the same time, it covers the dim and blind areas while the brights are turned on.

The sealed beams are bright as f...I remember them from my old '93 van where I had one "European rebuilt" and one hi beam on each side - crazy light output! For some reason, I have the low beams hooked up to the high beams from the factory. They added a scary little box for automated running lights when it was imported to Norway, so I think that where it happens. I ended up doing 4,5mm2 (≈ 11awg) via relays to the headlights and doing a swap to 9011/9012 HIR bulbs. I have so much light in my headlights now, my halogen offroad lights are barely visible. Haha!

 

[svein]

Mounting the reverse camera!

Finally, I found a moment to install the reverse camera I bought earlier. It´s a Pioneer ND-BC8 camera that is almost just plug and play with the pioneer 2din radio. I´ve been spending a lot of time thinking about where to mount the camera. I really don´t want to make holes to the outside body of the truck if I don´t absolutely have to. At the end of the day, I decided that the best mounting place was to glue it to the drivers side rear barn door. As center as possible. No screws, and I was able to run the cable hidden away under the center door seal!



I ran a 20mm pipe rom the firewall along the fuel lines and up behind the rear bumper. The cable was JUST long enough from the power/camera signal split point to the end of the truck!



I tucked the rest of the camera cable behind the door panel, and taped the connector and the cable that will be flexing in the door. I can always shorten it if it breaks!



And it works like a charm! I finally have a backup camera on the truck. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to locate the reverse signal anywhere easily reachable, so there is no reverse signal into the head unit yet. I will run a signal from the reverse lights when I pull cables for aux lighting.

 

[svein]

I also shot some photos of the finished rust removal project. Ugly as **** - it´s spray painted black at the moment, but I will eventually rubber spray the entire truck, and it will all be gone, haha! Here seen with 500km of road dirt on top of it. After half a year ( and no rubber spray yet, the time, the time..) the rust has of course come back, so I guess I just have to do it all once again..sigh



Here is a glimpse of the beauty with the new tires on. I think they look good, but MAN THEY ARE NOISY! I really have to look into getting a set of more quiet tires for summer use, but these will do for now. I have to get around and buy a new set of winter tires asap, so that´s enough money on rubber for a while!

 

[svein]

My days at home is coming to an end. I wanted to do so much while I was home, but that time thing..it just flies away! Ive spent the past days putting together three additional relay panels for the truck:

This was in the making - I understand why there are so many nests inside the trucks. There is absolutely no space anywhere to put anything additional! I am putting a this panel under the drivers side dash (above the pedals, where there is a nest of different aux labeling as of today.

I have also made two panels that is going to live on top of the batteries like this, but they are not wired yet:



Tonight, I had a last evening at the workshop before I leave for China for a month! I put in the first of three extra relay panels under the drivers dash, with a keyless entry / alarm module. I went for a Viper 5706 that can do everything including the remote start option. I´m dreaming of putting it one on day, but that will be a potential project for another time. At the moment I am very happy with having my ardic diesel theater wired to an aux relay, and I have pre-wired an aux relay for controlling a block heater as well.

Anyway, this is the finished panel just before I put it into the car:

I put enough slack on all the wiring so I can snip three cable ties and pull it towards me. Makes it a LOT easier to work on when it´s in the car. I ran a new feed from one of the aux outputs in the fuse box with 16mm2 wire...that would be something between 5 and 6 awG I believe.

After about 6 hours of crawling, The complete panel was in place. I did however miss ONE crucial wire to be able to program the viper - the acc feed. 10cm of wire and a couple of cable shoes, and boom:


The car had had an old alarm system, and the heated seats seems to have been some kind of weird aftermarket install. The remains of the old alarm system made it very easy to dig out which cables to connect to. I reused some of the old wiring for door lock/unlock signal and the door trigger. But the alarm system, combined with the seat heaters and the diesel heater and wiring for the extra hi beams, it was quite a nest from before. I got rid of a lot of it as you can see!


I also had a bit of a winter tire project today. Got the alu rims of the old van, and took them to the shop. Tomorrow I will be able to put on brand new spiked winter tires! I also had a stop at the local repair shop and some more lug bolts. Had to replace two more before I was happy with the passenger side front tire, but now It should be a pretty sweet deal to change tires tomorrow!

There might be some planning and sketches going on while I´m going away for work - and then the adventure will continue with the wvo conversion when I get back home!

 

[svein]

I have made quite a bit of progress on the wvo conversion progress.

Last week, I had a lot of help from a fantastic college who is a multi-talent in everything that can be created, and he helped me weld brackets to mount the wvo filters, lift pumps, heaters and vents. I am "doubling" the setup, so I will run both diesel and wvo trough a course pre-filter, trough an acdelco ep1000 lift pump and then a heater filter housing from plant-drive.com. We ended up making the bracket two times before we were happy, but the final version fits snugly over the wire for the parking break on the outside of the frame on the drivers side! Perfect!



The final Bracket tested on the Frame:


My college also helped me with another smaller brackets, before he went all over the new fuel tank and welded it together. Now I only need to have enough time in the shop with him to attach the tank to the car, and I can finish the conversion! Its exciting times!

 

[svein]

So I´ve been doing a lot of progress on the sub lately! It looks like I will manage to get many of the projects done before going on Christmas holidays!


I run a new cable from the front of the truck to the rear end with several control signals for my system. A 7x1,5 in a plastic pipe to the rear lights suddenly gave me a lot of options, and I were able to collect the Reverse signal, and add extra backup lights and some work lights to the side of the truck.

The bonus to this new cable is that I now got reverse signal connected in the drivers dashboard relay centre, so finally my backup camera turns on when I am putting the truck in reverse!

The Side work lights were actually sae/dot approved "backup lights" with two levels of white light directly from china. I cut of the top and the bottom of the plastic around the lights so they fit in height with the roof bars.

In retrospect, I realize these lights are totally useless as work lights, so I´m thinking I´m gonna buy some more of the backup lights and mount on the side at some point. All the money..

I also added extra backup lights to the truck on the roof. They give a bit of shadow on the camera, but they really light the surroundings of the truck so it´s a breeze to watch both in the mirrors and on the camera!


I DO wonder what this resistor is doing! When the car was rebuilt according to Norwegian laws (orange turn signals and for gods sake no red side marker light), they have added this. I am of course planning on reversing this to original, so I´m debating wether to keep the resistor or not? Edit: I did find the answer when I finally did the swap to the new tail lights, they were there in series with the brake lights to make sure they are not so bright. Stupid! They are now long gone!

 

[svein]

The last projects I really wanted to finish before xmas was adding towing mirrors and glow plug manual override - with new duratherm glow plugs. The mirror swap was quite easy, although I´m not sure I´m happy with the viewing angles the towing mirrors are giving me. I guess I have to give them some time to get used to them!

I used the original glow relay that I´ve refurbished and put it in parallel with the stock relay. Yellow and Red wire together on a 12v momentary switch, and voila, manual override!



I do have to say I was not very impressed by the bosch duratherm glow plugs - three of the flat pins snapped off basically just because I looked at them! Luckily, the local dealer had some acdelco 60g copy plugs for sale, so I got trough all 8 of them.


Starting the truck with 8 new plugs and manual glow override is a breeze! I am however debating with myself wether upgrading the main feed to the glow plugs would be beneficial, as the original wires are THIN for such a load! I am however a bit worried that giving the glows a proper feed would give them to high voltage all over - any opinions?

At last, a couple of pictures of the car ready for the long xmas travel:

 

[svein]

Last Monday I had to take the suburban in and to a full cleaning of the fuel hoses and change main fuel filter due to rust in the hoses. That damn "new" fuel tank I bought is full of rust particles and plastic pellets!!

At least I treated myself with mounting new fog lights on the car. The pre-wiring was all done, so it was a quick and easy install:



Spot one mistake:

 

[svein]

So, it´s been a while since I did the actual conversion work on the car. I rebuilt the diesel system and added a wvo system with a separate tank. I now have pre filters, lift pumps, and coolant heated filter on both fuel lines, before the original filter.

It took me a long weekend to get the system up and running - and the wvo side is not functioning properly yet, so I´m still working on solutions!

This is from the Friday, where I mounted the pre made filter bay, pulled the hoses and mounted the tank on the car:
This is the filter bank on the side of my truck.



Mounted and covered with rubber mats and isolation You can also see the electrical wires for my gauges, I have pressure and temperature sensors on both lines:


The custom wvo tank in place under the car:


The filter bank nicely wrapped up. I´m gonna need some running boards to cover this up! Luckily, I have a couple in my garage!

Hoses and electrical pipes in the engine compartment:

 

[svein]

Day two was the longest day. I spent a good 20 hours on the car:
-changing fuel tanks
-running new fuel lines to the original fuel tank
-connecting the wvo vents in the engine compartment hooking up the diesel lines and connecting it to the engine
-Cutting into the coolant lines for the wvo heating

The old leaky tank came down easy thanks to a great guy who let me lend his garage AND forklift to let it down with!


The new tank ready to go up: I cleaned it out (at least I thought I did, haha), removed the tank sock and sealed the tank armature. I also added a bit of paint where I saw that it had had some strain on the previous truck it was on.


All lines routed and ready to test-drive on wvo. It didn't work, the truck died several times..


Temperature and pressure measurement T-ed in after the electrical heater just before the original fuel filter. The Temperature probe in the T didn't´t read anything, so I´ve fabricated a new fitting for it that I will try. I am planning on doing the FTB mod, so I can add measurements between the filter housing and the IP.


Test driving on WVO. It´s a nice little gauges display I´ve found from reveltronics. I really like it!