Another Burb project...another GMT400

[woody90gtz]

https://youtu.be/2EbyinqJoKY

Getting rid of that 06 Burb did leave me with a couple situations (like buying a stove in the winter) that really would have been nice to have 8' enclosed cargo area. Like last year when I used it to get plywood and interior doors on a nasty winter day with salt flying everywhere - not the best time to use a 6.5' bed with the gate down.

So when this OBS Burb popped up for sale on marketplace I was intrigued. Super clean rust-wise (GMT400s are all rotten around here) and a smokin deal. Guy listed it for $2800 and I got it for 600 when he whined about all the reasons he had to get rid of it (thanks homeowners assoc!). Has a dead L31 Vortec 350 and the 4l60 is a 4l60. But I have a few 5.3s laying around, and LS swapping these is pretty easy. Fitment and wiring are both straightforward, and that NV4500 that I have and the floor shift 4x4 will go in a lot easier than the 06 would have.

Also scratches my GMT400 itch ever since selling my 94 Z71. So it's getting a black Chevy grille and maybe even a black/green 2tone job with some rattle cans. I like that it's not pristine cause I'll use it like a truck. And the wife isn't interested in driving it so I can build it exactly how I want. Works for me!

It's also an opportunity to sell more clutch pedal stuff. The S10 clutch pedals and pins I've been selling have taken off way better than expected. And the pedal bracket from these is no longer available from GM, so I designed my own improved design (fits early, late, and Wilwood/Tilton master cylinders) and maybe that will be my next cash cow. My buddy lasered some steel and it looks pretty good. We'll see how it goes.

[Rettax3]

Very nice! A friend of mine (well, he downgraded himself to 'acquaintance' with a neat little trick he pulled with me a couple of years ago, but it was his right to do what he did -a different non-story though) has a same-era P/U, and he is sick of the drivetrain (350 Vortec ~300k miles runs great, but he wants a carb on it). I'll look into your conversion parts for him when you green-light the setup. He want a five-speed in the truck too. Won't get rid of the rig, it was the first truck he bought new.
I'm gearing up to do my own pedal assembly for the my Seville STS, but I have no interest in fabbing one for someone else's truck.

I definitely like the two-tone black scheme. Good call, that should look about right!

[woody90gtz]

I've confirmed it works for the 96+, and I have a buddy with a 94 I'm going to test it on.

Don't go carb. Wiring an LS into one of these is cake, and those are proper sequential port fuel injection...not the stupid poppet injectors like the 4.3/5.7. The LS going in this one was $300 and it doesn't need any of the "car" parts to fit like my Beretta did. The gen 3 99-06 engines literally drop in the 88-98 with a pair of $30 conversion mounts and the intake manifold, exhaust manifolds, accessories all fit. I was going to backburner this project, but it just looks too damn easy, and it'll be nice to have the closed cargo available again. Just picked up a couch yesterday. lol

[Rettax3]

Don't go carb. Wiring an LS into one of these is cake...

You can lead a horse to water... Carbs can run plenty of power, can be very economical, and extremely reliable. This guy's truck specifically is not my call either way. He is.. We will say, 'seasoned'. I don't think he wants anything to do with LS-Series engines (I've finally come around to being interested, but as yet I don't even have one). And he is fed-up with "all the electronic B***-S#!t". Can't say as I blame him, either. The electronics in his truck have been very unreliable for several years now, too much corrosion in the wiring, BCM faults, etc.

I don't have a problem with carbs, I still have them on a few of my own cars and all of my motorcycles, but have not retrofitted any to 'originally EFI' vehicles myself, it just seems wrong somehow... My '89 RS Camaro had been swapped to an older 350 with a carb, and I wanted none of it. The P/O kept the drivetrain, including the TH350 that he retrofit into it... but I got to keep the rear-disc Posi B/W 9-bolt rear-end and tubular-steel torque-beam (attaches to a linkage and plate that mounts to the transmission tunnel, instead of to the transmission itself). I swapped to a T-5 five-speed and dropped in a 5.7 EFI Police Special I got from a "Detective car" Caprice (unmarked, but with a plastic rear-seat and.. Interesting.. goodies, lower mileage and less hammered-on). Fast car, until I built my GTU and my Turbo LD9 Z-24 at least.

I agree the CPFI systems on the Vortec 5.7s and 4.3s suck. I've had to replace spiders on the older S-10s/S-15s because of the plastic lines cracking, the mid-90's rigs were absolutely notorious for it. Just not a great idea. Have you seen or used the MPFI conversion kits offered on those? I haven't looked at them for the 5.0 or 5.7 V-8s, but was eye-balling one for a customer's '01 S-10. Pretty nifty, comparable price-range as replacing the spider, too.

[woody90gtz]

Understood. And the early LS engines are right on the cusp of the "too much electronic BS" cliff. The 99-02 trucks are the sweet spot, less BCM crap and still cable throttle and more commonly floor shift 4x4. (Except the introduction of the 8.1 and Dmax in 01 brought DBW before the 03 changeover for the LS trucks...and my 8.1 just started giving me electronic throttle body problems - time to convert it to DBC). That 2006 Burb had elec throttle, pusbutton 4x4 (that didn't engage 4lo usually) and sometimes putting the column shifter in D didn't actually engage drive...you had to put it back in P and back to D. Adios pendejo!

I had a carb on my Camaro and eventually ran into the issue where they are really difficult to tune for a high hp/ci ratio. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't get my 600cfm to MPH anywhere near a 750 in the 1/4, but I couldn't get the 750 to snap your neck on the street like the 600. Like ~420hp from a 355ci just couldn't do both. That's where EFI helps...it's not dependent on air velocity for fueling.

Yeah the CPFI is junk. I'm sure that was why my junk Blazer started running horrible. But if that happens in the 4.3, I'll just 4.8/5.3 it for about the same price.

[woody90gtz]

Doesn't look like a whole weekend of work, but I got the small block/auto/pushbutton 4x4 out. My helper demanded to be there, which was nice. This is the second 4l60 she's taken out of a Chevy SUV now...only 1 behind me. I did pull out a 350/4l60 from my 94 Z71 exactly 15 years ago now. That was my very first auto to 5spd swap.

Got all my powertrain stuff corralled in the corner to get the Burb on the lift. Bolted up an old SBC clutch to use on the LS. My LS1 Camaro flywheel had 12mm bolts, but the LR4/LQ4 Silverado flywheel had 3/8-16 like a small block. Nice.
PS don't forget to unhook the PS. haha