2006 Suburban 2500

[imi4tth3w]

Hello everyone!

This will be the beginning of my build thread for my newly acquired fully loaded 2006 Suburban 2500. I just picked it up for $3750 (which is a steal for these things) and it definitely has its fair share of needed maintenance/TLC. I will try and document as much as possible. It was used as a farm truck by the previous owner but only seemingly for about a year or so. Not sure what the history is with the owner before him but I think it didn't have that hard of a life until recently.

I owned a 2000 Tahoe from 2008 to 2018 and really loved that truck, but always dreamed about owning a 2500 Suburban. So I've been on the lookout for one for quite a while. When I saw this one, that ticked every box I had, and at the price it was listed, I knew this was the one.

Specifications:​

- 2006 Suburban 2500
- 6.0 LQ4
- 4WD
- Leather
- Factory Navigation/Rear entertainment
- Sunroof
- Factory Power/Heated Tow Mirrors with turn signal indicators
- Rear lift gate
- Captains chairs 2nd row
- Heated front seats with full electronic control


Here she is the next morning after a long 20 hour journey the previous day picking it up from 500+ miles away. Still fresh with bugs and farm dirt.



Gave her a bath shortly after (I'll be power washing clay/dirt from this thing for months..). She's definitely a little bit of a scratch and dent special





I'll continue with updates further along this thread. I've got some pretty big plans for this thing and look forward to documenting the process with you guys!

 

[imi4tth3w]

Exhaust Upgrades: Round 1​

So the first thing I had to do was change the exhaust. The previous owner installed some really hacked glasspacks.. In addition the smell of exhuast fumes from this thing is pretty bad. So the entire exhaust system needs attention.





On my 2000 Tahoe, I had a cat back exhuast from Magnaflow I really liked, so I ended up ordering one for the Suburban. The magnaflow exhaust is designed to directly fit to the OEM setup, but unforunately the previous owner had mangled much of that. Much of the needed factory piping was gone, as well as a couple of the exhaust hangers.



So I took it to a shop to have them install it and fix the exhaust hangers. Unfortunately, the shop i went to was incapable of doing anything other than sh*t work and did practically nothing of what I asked them.

The exhaust hangs about 10 feet lower than it should...

 

[imi4tth3w]

My guess is they clocked the exhaust wrong up to the muffler. I'll have to get under there and fix it myself. Here you can see the rubber isolator appears to be in the correct position.



Here you can see the muffler and the welding they did. They installed the two magnaflow supplied pipes at the front of the muffler in the wrong locations (longer one is supposed to be closer to drive shaft and use a slip/clamp fitting to the OE exhaust..) and the longer pipe also appears to be installed backwards (it should be 3" at the muffler side and taper to be slightly bigger than 2.75" to clamp over the OEM exhaust).


And not only that, the pipe they used appears to be 2.5" pipe when the factory pipe is 2.75".



And to add insult to injury, they never fixed the broken hanger or added the missing insulators like i asked.


And this is why I have trust issues with anyone working on my truck. But I also don't have a welder or a means to fix the original piping (right now).

My thinking is that I'll get this fully sorted at somewhere that isn't completely incapable of taking instructions when i get the new catalytic converters in. I'm assuming the heavy smell of exhaust fumes means the cats installed currently are either gutted, or just no longer functional. I also need to fix the usual sheared bolts on the exhaust manifold so those are next on the to-do list for exhaust work.

 

[imi4tth3w]

Fixing Door Lock Actuator​

Next up is a much easier one. The door lock actuator in the driver's side rear door went out. After tearing the door down, I saw just how dirty it was and figured I would just take it down all the way for cleaning.

Before:


And after:


Now the actual door lock actuator is a simple cheap part, but if you want to buy a replacement from Chevy, they make you buy the whole thing ($200+!!). Luckily, Dorman sells a cheap replacement of just the actuator so you can fix it yourself. I saw comments about some vehicles having some additional lever on the actuator (in which case you might be SOL and have to replace the entire assembly). Luckily for me the dorman part was all I needed.

Dorman 746-017

Here's me installing the new part (with the old part in the background). Just a couple of torx bolts and alignment of the gear and you are good to go!



I also used some white lithium grease for the window tracks, and some dry silicon spray from 3m for the door lock gears and rubber of the window tracks. Window works better now but still pretty slow going up. Will further diagnose later.

Now all I have to do is tear down the other 3 doors for cleaning... and strip the rest of the interior for cleaning... another day...

 

[imi4tth3w]

Engine Maintenance: Part 1​

Next it was time to tackle some things under the hood.

Here's the parts list breakdown:
Volant 350603 Closed Box Air Intake w/Scoop
Fel-Pro VS50504R1 Valve Cover Gasket Set
Fel-Pro MS92465 Valley Cover Gasket Set w/knock sensor seals
Fel-Pro MS98016T Intake Manifold Gasket Set (w/ throttle body gasket)
AC Delco 41-962 (8x) Spark Plugs (best LS plugs)
AC Delco 9724GG Spark Plug Wires (check the stamp on your coil packs to ensure right length wires)
Dorman 917-033 Knock Sensor Harness
AC Delco 213-3521 (2x) Knock Sensors
GM 12615914 PCV Hose (Driver Side)
GM 12556932 PCV Hose (Passenger Size)
AC Delco 214-1105 Vapor Canister Purge Valve/Solenoid
GM 17113552 Fuel Rail O-Rings
GM 12570619 Fuel Rail Cap + Schrader Valve (my cap was missing)
GM 217-1588 Fuel Injector O-Ring set
AC Delco PT2782 Replacement MAF Sensor Pigtail
AC Delco PT1798 Replacement Pigtail for Water Temp Sensor

Additionally, a new intake from Volant is on the way (on backorder...) to replace whatever this is...



Okay i'll tell you what it is. It's the factory intake cut short (why???!) with some random filter slapped between the MAF and whatever is left of the factory intake. Oof. Surely it can't get worse?

it can.






Okay not so bad now



Here's the pigtails I replaced.. falling apart.. missing seals.. exposed wires..

 

[imi4tth3w]

Here's the water temp sensor pigtail harness nice and new again (getting cozy with an exhaust manifold leak). Solder splices make sure the connection stays good and dry.


Now more fun stuff. Check out these old spark plugs...





Plugs installed were just a cluster. 6 crappy auto lites, an ac delco 41-962 and an ac delco 41-100. The delcos were in much better shape. But its all getting nice fresh new 41-962s now and fresh plugs.

Here's the engine with much of the parts installed, just before replacing the MAF pigtail.



I didn't get any pictures after this, but I will say it is running 10000% better.

I also picked up an MPVI2+ from hp tuners and have been learning/playing around with the scanner. Eventually i'll start tweaking the tune but i'll most like wait to get a wideband before i do any engine changes.

 

[George B]

Nice work.

 

[Tonyrodz]

Seems like you have mechanical skills--that's good. I can't believe you drove 500 miles without incident. Now you know why everyone loves the LS platform. Was the cel on? GUARANTEED the shop that did your exhaust didn't think you were going to take a look at their work! What a $hit job. Did you pay them? I hope not--or if you did, not wha6they billed you for. What state did you buy it from? Not sure how your interior looks, but just based on your door, I'd just take out the entire interior--not really a bad job--and power wash and/or replace as needed. Def gonna need to power wash the carpets.looks like it's gonna be a fun project. What's your mileage? Also what's 8oil pressure at? Imo the only real down fall of these motors is failing oil pressure.

 

[imi4tth3w]

Seems like you have mechanical skills--that's good. I can't believe you drove 500 miles without incident. Now you know why everyone loves the LS platform. Was the cel on? GUARANTEED the shop that did your exhaust didn't think you were going to take a look at their work! What a $hit job. Did you pay them? I hope not--or if you did, not wha6they billed you for. What state did you buy it from? Not sure how your interior looks, but just based on your door, I'd just take out the entire interior--not really a bad job--and power wash and/or replace as needed. Def gonna need to power wash the carpets.looks like it's gonna be a fun project. What's your mileage? Also what's 8oil pressure at? Imo the only real down fall of these motors is failing oil pressure.

thanks for the reply!

it has… a lot of CEL codes… I’ll list them out when I get home from work later today. So yeah I was pretty surprised it made the whole journey home as well. Also didn’t make it any easier that the fuel gauge is out (might be stepper motor but there’s a CEL for the fuel level sensor for tank 2?).
Oil pressure is actually pretty good 30psi at warm idle. Not bad for 240k miles.

will definitely be stripping the whole interior. Came from a farm in south west Oklahoma.

 

[Miami-Dade]

Excellent work!

I love the 2500 Suburbans. Looked at a 2013 2500 Suburban before I bought my 2016 Tahoe. They are days I think I should have bought it. Especially when I drive the pot holed streets in NYC and New Jersey as I am up there often. With that said I am very content with my Hoe.

I generally do not keep up with this section due to time restraints. But since I started from the beginning on this thread will do my best to keep up.