Well my build was by no means the first as I was fortunate to have found another one crammed into a GMT-400 just down the road from me to look at before I tackled mine(He's not a member here, but is over at the page as well as another one in a 90's BURB). Mine is pretty basic, but took me close to 400 hours to get it all done the way I wanted it.

http://www.thetruckstop.us/forum/showthread.php?10142-95-SUBURBAN-to-a-01-DURAMAX-ALLISON

 

Through the years you have contributed a great deal to the forum. I guess I have read all your posts and I thank you for your involvement and wide knowledge base.
I would like to know what your Suburban is used for. Family car, driver, RV towing, or grocery getter?

 

I thought it was time to start a club since I see them all over the place. If there is already a club going please let me know(I want in) so we don't reinvent the wheel.

This club is for owners of Duramax powered Suburbans/Yukons/Takoe/Escalade SUV trucks. It will be permissable to join if you owned one but have sold it since you paid your dues. I would like to hear stories of how your builds have gone, what mods you have performed, what you use your rig for and just general information about being an owner of one of these jems.

I choose to not start myself at #1 because there are those that have gone before me and deserve the honor. I will try to keep the list updated so we can keep track of who is a member and the next available number. For now I think this is a pretty exclusive club but I hope in the future it will grow.

We will not allow bashing others, heckling from the crowd, or other disruptive postings. If you are not an owner but wish to be some day then please feel free to post here. If you do not like this form of conversion and think it a waist of time then please keep those comments to your self or post them elsewhere.

1-
2-
3-
4-
5-Boisebiker
6-
7-
8-
9-
10-

Hey Boise,
You need to edit and put your link for your write-up. You also partly to blame in mine for my have a Dmaxed Burb, because you did yours without two post side lift and that is where I got the idea that I could do it.
I think I may have seen one about two years ago, but not sure as I could not catch up to it.

 

Good idea, here is the write up that I offered so many years ago.

I have used mine as a daily drive, tow rig, and grocery getter. Been on the dyno once, never been in a pull, always driven hard and put away wet.

 

Good idea, here is the write up that I offered so many years ago.

I have used mine as a daily drive, tow rig, and grocery getter. Been on the dyno once, never been in a pull, always driven hard and put away wet.

hey just looking into doing this swap on my 04 burb wondering about the electrical. The mechanical exchange should be easy enough its just the electrical that seems the most daunting. Is what the write up said all that needed changed or was there more?

 

Well mine is nowhere near done yet, (but will be on all 4's again this weekend!!) I also read all your posts and they definetly motivated me to do my build.

Mine will be used as a daily driver, tow machine, grocrey getter, kid taxi, all around fun machine

Skippie

 

Is there a way to edit previous posts, I would like to just keep the list up in the 1st post?

 

PM a mod to update the list.
I can update it any time you send me an update

 

Boise - unfortunately the new forum software doesn't allow you to edit posts after something like 5 minutes. This is a cool idea, maybe some day in the distant future I could join it, but not at this time as our Tahoe is still new (2010 w/ 3k miles). Besides I have to finish my other Frankenstein.

 

I'm in with two incomplete SUV's
Wifes 2004 Escalade ESV 2500 LBZ 4X4
My 2001/2006 Tahoe 2WD 1500 LBZ

 

I cant wait to see how those turnout. Building a truck for yourself has to be a change. At least you dont have someone else telling you what to do and you can through your own creative flare into the trucks. Most of all you guys deserve to have the best because of all you do for all of us. Looks like the wife gets the show and you get the go. Now i will have no choice but to have nick and his crew go to town if im ever gonna keep up with that tahoe. Time will only tell but lets make damn sure duraburb has the fastest and most powerful duramax suv's around.

 

I would be proud to just be a part of the club. Everyone knows my build eric deserves all the credit for it and nick for the programming. I am a very proud owner and drive it everyday.

 

List updated

 

Thank you guys im happy to be on the list let alone one of the top ten...

 

Boisebiker,

Count me in. It was you, theTDIguy, and thefermanator who inspired me to build. Been using mine as a daily driver, to tow my 10,000# TT, and to meet people.

 

How are we all doing on fuel economy?

8mpg towing 14,000# Toy Hauler
21mpg highway
15-18 mpg in town, seems much better in summer and was the best in Florida
Of course I have been making oil for over 3 years now, we will see after injector replacement.

 

I average 14 in the city. Havent figured highway yet but i drive hard. Still the new toy. It might ware off one day but i doubt it...

 

11.5 - 12.5 towing 10K trailer, 66-71 mph, no wind (aero drag kills)
20-21 empty, 73 mph
25 empty, 65 mph (i had to try it, but dang that's slow)
17-18 around town.

 

Have seen as high as 19 all city driving, 21 running 70-75 on interstate with a heavy foot accelerating. The best I have seen was 23 driving about 35% city and the rest highway keeping it under 65. Towing isn't as good though, 3.42 gears kill my towing milage. Towing our 7K pound travel trailer(very tall with alot of wind drag) gets me 10 at 70, 11 at 65, 12 at 60, and 14 at 55. I've towed heavier trailers at 70 and seen 12-13 with a slightly more aerodynamic tall box trailer. I still want to get out somewhere where I can set it at 60 and go for 500-600 miles without stopping much just to see what it can do. I'm sure I could do better on my current milage numbers by 1-2 MPG if I kept my foot out of it, but wheres the fun in that?(my BURB is seen passing MUSTANGS and such quite often)

 

Count me in. I'm on my phone or I'd look up my first build.

 

Welcome to the club

 

Welcome to the club cdn111. Would be great to see some pics in your garage or right here.

 

http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=338513&page=1 here's the thread on my build. Not sure why pics are down But I'll work on that.

 

Since this is a place for guys who have build a duramax SUV or for guys that want to, I thought it would be good to talk about some of the issues that come up with a normal build. There are many issues that we find when doing an engine swap, and it seems there are almost as many solutions. To start off I would like to know how every one dealt with the fuel system.
For myself I build the pickup/level sender out of a combination of the original Yukon XL, the Silverado, and some Ford parts. I retained the fuel cooler mounted horizontaly next to the transmission. I used all new flexible fuel lines up to where the steel lines come off of the transmission. I modified the fuel tanks to allow gravity flow from the rear tank to the front tank. And finnaly the fuel guage only works off of the front tank, so for the first 200 or so miles the guage reads full.
So tell us about your fuel system and some different solutions you came up with. Then we can discuss exhaust, body lift, electrical, ect.

 

I'm acually right in the middle of doing my fuel system ringht now. I used both the burban and the pickup sending unit and made 1 out of 2. Mine where in bad shape (rust) but I thing i was about to get it good, (going to install them this weekend) With your direction, I too am using a gravity feed system, I used bulk heads from a race car fuel cell, for fitting in the tank, I was thinking i needed a large hose to feed the front tank, so I used #16 fittings, very expensive, but I already had them lying around from my drag car... can afford the #16 line to go from fitting to fitting, so i'm going to use 1 1/4" fuel hose...hoping to have this all done this weekend, I'll update some pics of what i did on the build page next weeek

Skippie

 

Mine was a bit different, but I used my stock fuel tank assembly and sender. I used the old feed line as my new return line since it was 3/8", and bent it so it would return the fuel away from the pick-up tube. I then went and removed and unsoldered my old 5/16" return line and opened the hole up in the assembly to accept a piece of the old 1/2" hard line from my donor truck and installed it into the assembly and put a sock on teh bottom of it to prefilter. I then used some diesel grade wrapped fuel line that is flexible but uses a hard nylon inner line and ran that up to the engine by the turbo as the stock fuel lines that went from the engine back down by the trans to the frame would not clear my steering arrangement how I'd liked it to. I installed a KENNEDY single lift pump inline to help keep it filled with fuel on the top end. Since I already had a 42 gallon single tank in the back, no need for anything else.

 

I really liked the tank setup on the 90's suburbans, that single 42 gal tank sure was nice for long trips. How do you like the Kennedy pump? I keep thinking that this will become one of my future upgrades since I really don't like pushing on that primer button.

 

I really liked the tank setup on the 90's suburbans, that single 42 gal tank sure was nice for long trips. How do you like the Kennedy pump? I keep thinking that this will become one of my future upgrades since I really don't like pushing on that primer button.

I really like the KENNEDY pump as it is SUPER quiet, and has had no problems supplying fuel even when I tried out a race tune. The downside is though it is not a self priming pump, so if you run it out of fuel you will still be out there pumping on the primer until you at least get fuel up to the filter head.

 

Skippie,
I used a 1/2" line for the gravity feed from the rear to the front tank. The fuel transfer at such a slow rate when running that this line has been plenty big. I also retained the original large line across the tops of the tanks for filling purposes. The tanks fill all the way from empty in one try without topping off more than once.