87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

So I bought this gem on a whim. A good friend knew that I am a Suburban nut(#Burbslut) and called me and said the neighbor had a burb for sale. Naturally, I had to go look. It is a 87 V20 Chevy Burb. 6.2 Diesel(non Turbo)/th400/np208.
I drove out to The location to take a peak and got the info. The sellers ended up flaking on me, and after the second failed attempt to meet up i gave up. A few days later I got a call from them and they apologized about flaking on me. So I went and looked at the truck.

So I love the stacked 4x4 headlight front clip so I was sold already. Silverado, Tailgate, F/R a/c, power everything, and no 700r4. The headliner was shot but the interior was nice. It has some funky dents on the roof but no real issues that I could see then. Just a stock truck.

Batteries were dead. One was a tiny battery from a Honda, and the other was 20yr old deep cycle. It wouldn't take a jump with no surprise. I told the dude I would come back with a pr of fresh batteries and a cash offer. The For sale sign had $1800 listed.

I show up and wait 30 min just to find out the dude is passed out in his house. He comes out, talking up the truck that doesn't run yet. I put 2 newish yellow tops in, wait for the glows, and it fires right up. It smoked lightly for 5-10 min while I did a walk around. Only the rear tailgate window rolls down. Ac blows cold.

I took it for a test drive and it drove so nice(after getting diesel). No play in the steering, no suspension clunks, brakes worked great. The transmission shifted tight too. So I headed back.
After much haggling I told the dude this. "So I have been out here 5 times now, brought $400 in batteries, installed them, had to get fuel, and I know that this thing has been here for sale for 4 months. Regardless, I only brought $750 cash.


So I came home with this.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

The day I got it.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

So I drove it for a yr before things started to fail. I was having a overcharging issue and was popping headlights. After tracking down a bunch of bad chassis grounds, problem fixed.
A radiator failure on a Road trip to the monster jam world finals in Vegas had me getting a 4 row metal rad drop shipped to my hotel in Vegas. I literally changed it out the desert. The oil cooler hose failed On my way out of Vegas. Thankfully the In/out Hose has the same ends on it so I was able to loop it back into the block.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

So I drive this truck everyday. It is also our family Road trip rig. We travel to Medford OR 4-6 times a yr, Mountain Home Id once a yr,Booners Fairy ID 1-3 per yr, Yucca Valley, Winnemuca NV, Tahoe, and anyware else. I put 10-30k a yr on rigs. The fact I can get 18mpg in this thing is amazing.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

But with the kind of miles I put down and the fact it is a 87. Things are going to fail, I was prepared for that. It only had 108k on the odo(documented company truck) but a few yrs on her.


Water pump, fan clutch, t stat, belts, hoses, radiator, ip and lift pump, injectors, glow plugs,controller, glow switch, starter, starter brace, starter cables, alternator, headliner and dash pad. It's been a $$$$ trail.

Most recent the crankshaft pulley and harmonic balancer failed and I nearly called it quits with the 6.2. Those two items are $$$!

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

I left it alone and stock for about a yr. All I did cosmetically was vent visors and paint the wheels black. I drove the sh#t out of it.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

I bent a front leaf spring hitting a pothole in Quincy, and then a blow out in Grants Pass took out my fender and running board. I kinda miss those steps. Well since I needed a leaf spring, I somehow justified a 4" lift! I wanted a 2.5" lift but I had all the parts for a 4" .

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

After much searching and trading, I found a cherry pr of bumpers and some factory tow hooks. I would have figured that the tow hooks would have been factory equipt on a Silverado 4x4, but I guess not.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Hm. Wheels and tires. I had the stocker size tires for a yr after the lift. For a few Road trips I ran 35/12.5/17 Toyo mt's. They were a bit big and rubbed slightly off road so I found a cheap option for the stock rims.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Even found a warn winch bumper. 8274 is now on the wish list!

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

I had to part with a rusty 78 bod

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Nice looking rig. Also have a similar rig that's also an every day driver. Best rig I have ever had and at 50k miles of driving per year, I'm half ways to 1 million miles. Highly recommend the Cummins engine conversion for saving money in the long run from less repairs and better fuel economy. But I did like the 6.2 diesel back in the day.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

I definitely have considered the 12v swap. It is just out of the budget. Sounds like a sweet truck. Do you got a pic of the beauty?

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Finding an inexpensive donor truck and swapping everything over yourself is normally the cheapest way

to do this conversion.

Here she is after I painted it and the trailer. The paint has held up good even out in the TX sun.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-C...0063.JPG?gl=US

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

This is my kind of rig. Did you replace the cooler lines yet? I've read the best route is to have custom lines fabbed.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

She is a beauty. I almost scored a complete wrecked one at a killer deal once, but couldn't come up with the funds quick enough. Those deals come around rarely. Are you running the stock 10 Bolt and semi 14? I should have waited and gone with the 2.5" lift vs the 4".

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Here she is bringing home the latest project. I blew out the semi float 14 bolt a wk later.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

I needed some cheap all terrains so I went with these. Not the best tire, but the $600 mounted and balanced price was in the budget.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

I blew out my semi float rear attempting a burn out in 4lo with the front hubs unlocked. Full float swap was then justified.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

I blew the spiders out and chipped a tooth off the pinion gear.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

In the midst of it all. I swapped the wrong ratio 14bff! I put in a 4.10 where a 3.73 was. Super lame. Over $600 to swap the right gears in. Gggggrrrrrrr. I didn't count right. So the dilemma now is to rebuild a 4.10 10 bolt front I got laying around or find a 3.73 ratio srw 14bff. I would prefer to get a 3.73 rear because of the rpms on roadtrips. I already was keeping the speeds below 60mph due to fuel economy and having the th400.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Pic

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

Yes. I had a line failure on a road trip and was able to bypass the cooler and route it back into the block with the other hose! I eventually made a whole external cooler setup with a 30" finned flow through cooler with Parker hoses and fittings. I mounted the cooler between the frame rails behind the bumper in direct line of moving air. I covered the lines with dei heat wrap. I no longer sorry about that part of the system.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

In the process of by passing the radiator oil cooler I decided that I wanted to monitor the oil temp. So I ended up getting a Cvr oil filter sandwich adapter with oil cooler fittings and proceeded to hawg out the internals to make it a flow through design so that I could use the oil cooler line holes for oil temp and pressure.

Re: 87 V20 D/D and Road trip Burb
 

I bet every square body lover wishes these were in production.