2020 Suburban Premier w/ 250,000 miles. 11,500$

[Jetskier77]

All fluids are good, trans fluid looks fresh, oil looks great, no leaks, I am a little bit surprised.

On the list of things to do:
- Diff Fluids
- T Case fluid
- Trans fluid drain and fill.
- Oil change with Valvoline Restore n Protect. 5W30 from now on, may even jump to 5W40.
- Fixed the burned out tail light. Quoted 775$ for tail light and 1.5hrs of labor so near 1000$ for tail light. It was a burned out fuse.
- Mud flaps on order.
- New key fobs 40$ on amazon.
- Snow tires ready to install.
- It was polished before I picked it up so it will get ceramic coating.
- Bi LED headlights, I will build a set for it, maybe upgrade the tail lights we will see about that.
- Wireless CarPlay for sure coming next.
- 4 piston brakes will be swapped over from the escalade.

And that's the plan for now, let's hope we can hit 400k in the next few years. This is a heck of a car for this $$$$$.
View attachment 476269

Nice find. Hope it continues to serve you well. I'm interested in your headlight upgrade. I've got the HID's as well and need better lighting at night. I've learned that its not as simple as a bulb swap when the factory housings are designed for a different lighting technology.

 

[LSCALADE]

Nice find. Hope it continues to serve you well. I'm interested in your headlight upgrade. I've got the HID's as well and need better lighting at night. I've learned that its not as simple as a bulb swap when the factory housings are designed for a different lighting technology.

I have them on order, and as soon as they get delivered, I will throw a few pictures and my plan for how we are going to install them. In some vehicles, I was able to cut open the lamp from the rear, then reglue the cut off piece without having to touch the lens and if its a direct swap that should be the fastest and easiest thing to do. I hope I dont have to open the lens but if I do I will probably add some sort of internally mounted DRL and turn signal switchback LED strip.

 

[LSCALADE]

This may be the first real experience driving on fresh snow, its been ice and slush roads up to today and I am quite happy that I picked a suburban with 4x4 system. The 50/50 power split gives so much more confidense than my Escalade whcih is AWD and tends to send more power to the rear and on a few occasions on hard forward accelaration the back end wants to step out and it can scare the living c*ap out of you because it acts like a Mustang. But while it does scarry stuff it also likes to rotate under power and even drift which is fun. But the suburban is the better choice for people who dislike side movments when moving forwards.

Also as a side note all RAM and Wagoneer wheels are same bolt pattern and slitly tighter hub bore but also 10mm or so higher offset which gives these things the perfect stance. Tires are flush with the fenders and I love how they look.

 

[philbar715]

Swapped the tires for the winters and this thing is a beast in the snow now.





Also disabled the DOD and did some trans tweaks.

You wouldnt happen to be interested in starting a new thread in the performance section to discuss these changes and upload an example file of yours would you? I have a 2015 5.3/6l80 combo that I also use hptuners on to get the shifts just how I like and do some other things so I would like to compare if you dont mind!

 

[fasteddy]

Cool Cruiser......Car market now is very depressed with SUVs at the bottom of the lows. I see lots of high mileage 6.2s going for 9-12K.
Saw an 18 escalade ESV at the gas station yesterday.....lifted 4x4, but with a horrible satin gray paint job. $9K with 370K miles LOL. That's diesel longevity.
Had been DOD deleted at 80K. Good Luck with the sub.

 

[LSCALADE]

This weekend the weather was brutal around -11F and wind and snow so it was time to take the truck to a heated shop and do a top down inspection.

Replaced engine oil with Valvoline Restore & Protect 5W30.
Transmission oil filter and fluid was replaced.
Transfer Case fluid repalced.
Front diff fluid looked ok. Will be replaced in the summer along with the rear diff.

Transmission internals looked good if not excelent.

Installed mud flaps becase behind the rear bumper there had to be 25lbs of snow/ice piled up deep behind the bumper.
and gave the old girl a wash.

There were codes for catalytic efficiency P0420 and P0430 and both of those have dissapeared and the engine is runnign very smooth but I did run through 2 tanks of Chevron Techtron injector cleaner and whatever that did it smoothed out the idle and removed every hint of vibration from the engine.


Replaced the thermostat. It was showing as if it was 185F on the gague but in reality it was sitting at 145 on the OBD scanner.

Oil catch can is next on my list of things to do.



And all 3 chilling in the freesing temps waiting to be driven.

 

[LSCALADE]

Installed a flex fuel sensor so we can run some E85 on the L83. GM says that on E85 this produces around 385hp which would be a welcome gain.

Installed new MagRide rear shocks. The difference is incredible. The old ones were working fine but the air lift was leaking and this now rides fantastic and the air leveling works as it should.

Full inspection. Car checks out from all aspects and it now has 248,000miles and is ready for the journey to 300k.

Front diff fluid was a little dirty but is now changed and the only thing left to do is rear diff which will be done another day.

 

[LSCALADE]

Tuned thorugh HP tuners to enable the Flex Fuel sensor. I was at 9.77 on 87 fuel. After 2 gal of fuel added it jumped to 16% so its reading perfectly.

 

[BigPac]

All fluids are good, trans fluid looks fresh, oil looks great, no leaks, I am a little bit surprised.

On the list of things to do:
- Diff Fluids
- T Case fluid
- Trans fluid drain and fill.
- Oil change with Valvoline Restore n Protect. 5W30 from now on, may even jump to 5W40.
- Fixed the burned out tail light. Quoted 775$ for tail light and 1.5hrs of labor so near 1000$ for tail light. It was a burned out fuse.
- Mud flaps on order.
- New key fobs 40$ on amazon.
- Snow tires ready to install.
- It was polished before I picked it up so it will get ceramic coating.
- Bi LED headlights, I will build a set for it, maybe upgrade the tail lights we will see about that.
- Wireless CarPlay for sure coming next.
- 4 piston brakes will be swapped over from the escalade.

And that's the plan for now, let's hope we can hit 400k in the next few years. This is a heck of a car for this $$$$$.
View attachment 476269

How did the 4 piston brake swap go? i started mine but even witht the face of the caliper shaved, the factory 22' still hit the caliper

 

[LSCALADE]

How did the 4 piston brake swap go? i started mine but even witht the face of the caliper shaved, the factory 22' still hit the caliper

OEM Chevy wheels from the generation up to 2019 have spokes that dont like the wider caliper. I gave up on trying that and moved ot RAM/Wagoneer wheels which run 10mm on average wider offset so there is zero issues with clearance and the wheels sit flush with the fenders with no spacers.

Unfortunatley you will have to get some small spacers and maybe different lug nuts to push the wheels out a bit. What I dont like about that is the wheel no longer sits on the hub but at least you should clear the spokes. I beleve you can buy 5 and even 12mm spacers but you will need lug nuts that have extensions on them and it just gets complicated and my best advice is get some RAM wheels they are 18 and 20" and all over market place for cheap.

 

[LSCALADE]

Did a trip up north with the Suburban, temps ranging from 0F to -10F, this thing is a beast and was comfortable and warm for the duration of the trip averaging around 20mpg running 40% ethanol. The 4x4 system is arright but its not as good as the Escalade in terms of being locked and being able to turn corners at speeds of 20-30mph the thing just plows and fights you. Escalade system actually allows you to rotate the vehicle with throttle inputs. But for what it is it does work well to prevent you from getting stuck in deep snow.

Next on the list of items to tackle are tow hooks up front and a auxilary light bar mount. New headlights are in the works and I am just trying to find some time to install the Bi-LED projectors and wire them up and will be installing those along with a new grille.

 

[LSCALADE]

Made some changes that I like very much and looks like I’ll be ordering a drop kit and window tint next. Black wheels pictured are off my Escalade.

 

[LSCALADE]

Found the flapper valve seized up, went to try and free it up and the flapper door must have fallen off and rattlign around in the muffler... solution, just throw a new 3" exhaust on it.
Its a little bit loud but it quiets down when you are cruising. I may be adding a second muffler down the road. Overal fit was 10/10 and while on the lift I swapped front struts too. 2hrs start to finish.

And this is the type of road surface I drvie on every day especially in the winter when the groudnd thaws out and these potholes become unreasonalbe.

 

[LSCALADE]

Couldnt wait and I swapped in the summer wheels to see how it will look! Cant wait for good weather.

This thing gets a wash every day and its impossible ot keep it clean with all the mud on the roads around me.

 

[SpareParts]

Wives truck is black. It is forever dirty driven daily on paved roads.
I don't even try to keep it clean any more other than a once a month wash.

 

[RST Dana]

I had no idea that they made an RST (blackout package) and this is what this is 5.3L with 6spd FFV, the 6.2L is awesome but paying for premium and getting 12mpg is not fun. And I think for my driving which is super chill the 5.3 has plenty of power and feels about the same as the old escalade. Now my BTR cammed escalade is a different story but that thing will stay as the fun toy. Im quite impressed by the Suburban and if a tranny decides to fail, so be it. I have a CTSV converter that I can drop in it if that day comes.

I know how to tune for shudder with HP tuners so that will be happening next. The idea is to not lug the converter with high load and low RPMs, so increasing enable speed for the TCC and then unlocking it past 50% engine load does the trick, feels like a half gear downshift and that is while you stay in load and as soon as you return the throttle to cruising speed it locks up. Fixed my shudder on my escalade but it took 9mon of revisions and learning.

Your 12 mpg thought must have come from someone driving like they stole it. My 20 RST averaged city mileage of 17mpg and highway mileage of 19.9 on a return trip from the beach with average speed above 70mph.

 

[RST Dana]

Nice find. Hope it continues to serve you well. I'm interested in your headlight upgrade. I've got the HID's as well and need better lighting at night. I've learned that its not as simple as a bulb swap when the factory housings are designed for a different lighting technology.

Oh ye of little faith. I removed my hids and added LEDs without any issues and had much better light and distance!

 

[LSCALADE]

Your 12 mpg thought must have come from someone driving like they stole it. My 20 RST averaged city mileage of 17mpg and highway mileage of 19.9 on a return trip from the beach with average speed above 70mph.

I think it comes down to use case, steady state driviving yes you can score some of those low 20s without problem. Try starting the truck with remote start, then start it again, to preheat the cabin, load kids, drive on back roads to destination, return home, leave truck idling to let the dog out, then head back out hitting traffic along some busy secondary roads, and then a final stretch of 30mi with heavy back ups on a local free way, 12mpg is a blessing if I get that, I often got down under 10mpg. Thus the Suburban with its 5.3L is actually been doing pretty good about 4mpg higher than the 6.2L in my Escalade. I often see high 18s with all that chaos in my life and I am ok with it, putting premium in the 6.2L was not fun.

 

[89Suburban]

Great thread man nice work to the truck, thanks for sharing.

 

[LSCALADE]

For anyone interested in the factory engine cover from L87 Amazon sells genuine ones for about 77$. I wanted to hide some of the hoses and injector wiring and this was perfect. I have a 5.3L and it fits as if it was meant to have one from the factory.