Final Install: '91 Suburban Gets Its 383 Stroker And 4-Link Suspension

(Marc)>> You're watching Powernation!

(Marc)>> Today on Music City Trucks.

(Brandon)>> It's beginning to look like something.

(Marc)>> I'm giving us a new fuel system. [ MUSIC ]

(Brandon)>> I'm breaking out a new cowl and hood. [ MUSIC ]

(Marc)>> And then we'll show you how to install a four link suspension. [ MUSIC ] [ engine revving ] [ MUSIC ]

(Marc)>> Hey everybody welcome to Music City Trucks. You may recognize some of the parts laying around here. We've got all the four link, 14 bolt, and king pin Dana 60 that are going in our 1991 Suburban project that we're calling Unbreakable.

(Brandon)>> Now it might sound like an impossible task but we figured that we're crazy enough to try it, and we've gotten a lot of progress on this project, but we can't lie. It's been an uphill climb. Yes! [ air chisel buzzing ] [ welder crackling ]

(Brandon)>> There we go! Ow, ow! No turning back now.

(Marc)>> I have no idea what I'm doing. You know one tons, four link, and coil overs are awesome but this rig would be all knees and elbows if wasn't for our friends down in Engine Power.

(Brandon)>> Let's just say I don't have to make engine noises anymore.

(Pat)>> You ready?

(Marc)>> Let's do it! [ engine revving ]

(Marc)>> The boys down in Engine Power whipped us up a 383 stroker small block Chevy that makes 490 horsepower and 492 pound feet of torque. [ engine revving ]

(Brandon)>> Not bad! So let's quit playing around. Let's get the flex plate on, get the transmission bolted in, and get this stuff in the truck.

(Marc)>> With the kind of torque this stroker makes we decided to upgrade our flex plate to an s-f-i spec from B&M. We installed it with some ARP hardware and torqued them to spec. [ MUSIC ]

(Brandon)>> Let's get the transmission on. [ MUSIC ] We're also using ARP fasteners to attach the transmission to the block. Like it was meant to be. [ MUSIC ] Maybe come down just a little bit. Speaking of the transmission, it's a Gearstar 4-L-80-E built to accept our 203 range box. [ MUSIC ]

(Marc)>> Alright you go ahead and go up a little bit then. [ MUSIC ]

(Brandon)>> Just careful, hold on, let me back up. [ MUSIC ]

(Marc)>> It was nice that we left everything loose but a lot of wiggling. [ MUSIC ] The angle looks pretty good. [ MUSIC ]

(Brandon)>> Until we can make our crossmember this tube will hold everything up. It's off.

(Marc)>> It's in there, woo!

(Brandon)>> It's beginning to look like something.

(Marc)>> So we just need some fuel, and cooling, and electrical, and starting, charging. We'll get there. Coming up, it's a new fuel tank, pump, and lines for Unbreakable.

(Marc)>> We're doing a great job at getting the big stuff taken care of on our Suburban here, like the major drivetrain components, the engine, transmission. We got all the axles fit but we took those back out because Brandon is working on getting them painted up now as well as the front clip, but while that clip's out of the way and this thing is able to lower down on the ground here this is great time for us to take care of some of the supporting systems like the fuel. The e-f-i system that was originally on this truck was that throttle body injection, t-b-i. Less than ideal. You'll probably remember it broke down on us when it was out in the field when we first got this rig, but it wasn't the e-f-i's fault. It was actually bad wiring, but while we're at it it's a good idea to go ahead and upgrade the e-f-i as well since we're upgrading everything else, and what we're gonna go with this Holley Sniper e-f-i. We went with the Super Sniper 650, which is capable of supporting up to 650 horsepower. Whether you're talking about a boosted application or naturally aspirated like we're doing. The e-c-u is built in. That's what's here on the front. So it's a nice compact unit that's easy to install. They take a lot of the guess work out having the wires already terminated. With these pigtails here you just need to plug in the harnesses. The main one is this power harness here. You only need to connect a few wires. It even has the relay built in and a power feed to your fuel pump. So that takes a lot of the guess work out. This unit right here is the touch screen handheld, which goes inside the vehicle. You can configure this to your application. You can do things like have your tach up there. If you want to monitor your air/fuel or something like that. You can also do programming through this unit if you so desire although this is a self tuning unit. You don't need to do that. The way it does its self tuning is mainly with these two sensors here. We've got a coolant temp sensor and a wide band O-2, and both of those need to be installed to get this unit to run properly, and then you've got this optional harness here which has inputs and outputs which you can also program through your handheld. Now what I like about this unit especially is if you're doing a swap from a carb to e-f-i this is ideal cause it's got the 41-50 base plate. So it's a real simple, easy way to install and you can use just a standard four barrel intake manifold and it bolts right in, and just hook up those few wires and you're on your way. Well for the wiring we're gonna save that until later when we wire up the rest of the stuff here in the engine bay. For now I want to focus on the fuel delivery itself. There are four ports on this unit here. You can see two are capped off. If you're running a boosted application you might want to use those but if you're doing naturally aspirated like we are the easiest way to set this up is to use this as your feed and then this as your return. They're both dash-6. Now this one you can see it's got this weird shape. That is the fuel pressure regulator. That's not adjustable and it's set to 58.5 p-s-i, which is exactly what this unit requires. We'll we're gonna be doing something a little bit different on this. So we are gonna dead head into the feed here. So we're gonna eliminate the return. We just need to cap that off and then we can move on to the rest of the fuel system. Now to replace this fuel system on our Suburban front to back completely we only need three part numbers. The Sniper e-f-i is number one. Number two is gonna be what's on the table right here starting about right here down. It is the e-f-i conversion kit. It's actually made for '82 to '87 Jimmys and Blazers, but it also works on the square body Suburbans. Comes with the tank of course, brand new. New straps to get it installed, and then in these three holes here it's gonna be a new filler neck, new sending unit, which we'll have to adjust and the same with the fuel pump assembly here, and it comes with this 255 liter per hour pump. That's gonna be more than enough to feed our 383 stroker, and of course all the stuff to get that installed including this rollover valve here. The last part number that you need would be this e-f-i delivery kit. It comes with this vapor guard hose. Really all you need on something like this. The fittings, hose ends, and the clamps to clamp the hoses to those fittings, and even this filter that will go somewhere in between the rear and the front before it gets to the engine, but the one thing that we opted for on our rig here is gonna be this fancy little piece right here. It is a filter regulator assembly. It's really cool because the fuel that comes out of that fuel pump will go into the filter here, and once it comes out of the filter it'll go through this regulator that is non-adjustable and regulates the fuel pressure down to 58.5 p-s-i. Again exactly what we need at the Sniper, and that 58.5 p-s-i will come right out of here, go toward the front of the vehicle, and then out of this port is the return back to the tank. That's nice for us because we can mount that here in the rear close to the tank. So we'll have a really short return, and we'll only need to run one hose all the way the length of this big vehicle. So that's really nice. We just need to get the tank assembled with all of this stuff here, and then we can get it hung, do some plumbing. The fuel level sending is first. [ MUSIC ] Once we get it snugged down we'll install the filler neck. [ MUSIC ] Now the pump assembly can go in making sure the ports are facing the direction we want them. We'll install the hoses and get the tank hung. [ MUSIC ] Transmission jack probably would have been good but it would have blocked where my straps are gonna go. With the straps tight we can move on to getting the filter regulator installed, which we're bolting directly to the frame. It's in there. Now we can plumb the feed and return lines, and finally the supply line to that Sniper. [ MUSIC ] And that was as easy as it looked. We do have a few wires to hook up when we get to that point, and then throttle linkage and that system's all done.

(Brandon)>> Up next, it's time for a new cowl and hood. How do you like that fit?

(Brandon)>> Well I'm back at it again with some more paint work, this time on new sheet metal. I got a new wiper cowl and a brand new hood from Brothers Truck Parts. Now I know some of y'all are a little intimidated by the aftermarket sheet metal world because let's be honest, the fitment isn't that great, but the Brothers stuff actually fits really well and it's gonna cut down a lot of prep time because this stuff comes e-coated. All you've got to do is red scuff pad it and you're ready to spray. [ MUSIC ] All we're doing is knocking the initial shine off the coating and getting a little tooth for that paint to adhere. That's a good looking hood right there. [ MUSIC ] [ compressed air hissing ] [ MUSIC ]

(Brandon)>> Let's turn those black panels satin black. [ paint gun hissing ]

(Brandon)>> We're doing the front clip the same way we painted the body. Two coats, first one wet, scone one medium, and being a single stage that's all it needs. [ paint gun hissing ] [ MUSIC ]

(Brandon)>> Alright before we get that new sheet metal from Brothers bolted on we've got to cut out the inner fenders of the front clip so we can clear these shock hoops we installed. All we've got to do is take a measurement and start throwing some sparks. 39, three and a half, 28. I'm gonna go ahead and use the body line cause it's close enough to the measurement I took. Then just buzz it off with a cutoff wheel. [ saw buzzing ] [ MUSIC ]

(Brandon)>> Alright Frankie, thanks for helping me with this.

(Frankie)>> No problem! [ MUSIC ]

(Brandon)>> Try to get it on without scratching I guess. So while Marc's out camping I snagged Frankie from Engine Power to help put the front clip on.

(Frankie)>> You got bolts for this? [ MUSIC ]

(Brandon)>> We're putting it on the same way Marc and I took it off, with a chain and hoist. This time it's a little different because the goal is not to scratch the paint. Yeah I cut that one off.

(Frankie)>> Awesome!

(Brandon)>> Thanks!

(Frankie)>> No problem!

(Brandon)>> If you can tell aesthetics are not at the top of the list of priorities. [ MUSIC ] But there are certain things you have to have on an off road rig, like wipers and washers. [ MUSIC ] Well now I Jeremy helping me out putting the hood on.

(Jeremy)>> Well when you come down and say you needed somebody a little bit taller to get the hood on here I figured I'd come and help. The paint looks really good.

(Brandon)>> Thank you!

(Jeremy)>> I like how you did that.

(Brandon)>> Come down with it just a little bit.

(Jeremy)>> Big fan of the flat black.

(Brandon)>> It turned out amazing.

(Jeremy)>> And this was Vintage Flatzz right?

(Brandon)>> Yep! [ drill humming ]

[ drill humming ]

(Jeremy)>> Look at that, we didn't even scratch the paint. I like that.

Now you've got to close it and see how good you did.

(Brandon)>> See if we got it lined up.

Alright come up.

(Jeremy)>> Do a little tweaking here?

(Brandon)>> Just a little bit.

(Jeremy)>> I think we've got to come forward on my side just a little bit as well.

The hood's nice and straight though.

(Brandon)>> It came in with not a dent, or scratch, or imperfection in it, which is nice.

(Jeremy)>> That's always one big thing when you've got hoods that show up. What am I gonna have to do to the hood? Oh yeah, you've got it now. Wow!

(Brandon)>> How do you like that fit?

(Jeremy)>> So where did the hood come from though?

(Brandon)>> Brothers Truck Parts.

(Jeremy)>> We used all their same stuff on our tow truck.

(Brandon)>> The floors, and rockers, and everything?

(Jeremy)>> We had the '77 tow truck. So we had both driver's and passenger floors, inner and outer rockers. We had a bunch of little patch panels, sail panels, and stuff like that. All their parts fit really, really well.

(Brandon)>> What we used was the new wiper cowl and this hood, and you can see the gaps and everything. Literally I just scuffed it and painted it.

(Jeremy)>> It looks really, really good.

(Brandon)>> Thank you!

(Jeremy)>> Matches the whole truck. Well do you need anything else cause we've always got stuff going on?

(Brandon)>> That's the last of the heavy lifting for right now.

(Jeremy)>> Cool if you need anything else call Jimmy next cause I'll be busy.

(Brandon)>> Alright! [ MUSIC ] Well we've gone this far. So we might as well wrap up the rest of the exterior trim. [ MUSIC ] Ah yeah! Well it's starting to look like a truck. Now we need to make it sit like a truck and that's exactly what we're about to do. [ MUSIC ]

(Marc)>> Coming up, the front suspension is finally taking shape.

(Brandon)>> Alright in the paint booth one last time and I'm gonna be painting some suspension components on our Suburban project. For the accent color we went with red oxide from Vintage Flatzz. Now I got a little excited and went ahead and put the first coat on, and I'm about to put the second coat on, and let me tell you this color looks sick. Now we didn't want to completely black out the whole truck, and I think this color matches our character of the truck perfectly. [ paint gun hissing ]

(Marc)>> We're making some pretty good headway here on our Suburban. Brandon did a great job getting a bunch of stuff painted up. Since he's finished with that I figured I could come out of hiding and help him get the axle and suspension up under this rig for the final time. Here you go bud.

(Brandon)>> Thanks.

(Marc)>> We've got to go here first?

(Brandon)>> In the front first.

(Marc)>> We've got all of our links set at the proper length. So all we need to do is get them in here without scratching them. [ MUSIC ]

(Brandon)>> Oh perfect! I just straight up stole that bolt. Now you can see the contrast of the red oxide and the black, and it looks good. [ MUSIC ]

(Marc)>> I don't want to scratch this precious paint. [ MUSIC ]

(Brandon)>> Now that all the links are installed we can go ahead and get the coil overs hung. [ MUSIC ] Sometimes the paint makes it a little aggravating to get those bolts in. [ MUSIC ] Now we haven't talked about the steering since I called out Marc for putting the steering arm on the wrong knuckle, which is an honest mistake because the factory one goes on the driver's side knuckle with a small drag link and it's actually push/pull style steering, which binds up off road, which is not what we want. So we're gonna be converting it over to a crossover steering. What that means is the steering box is on the driver's side. The drag link crosses over the axle to the passenger side, and that's gonna keep all of the range of motion while we're inside and obstacle, and all of the geometry stays happy because of how much we lifted the truck.

(Marc)>> Right so we only need a few pieces other than that arm that's on the correct knuckle now, and one of those is that long drag link that crosses over, and then this particular arm, both of which we got from ORD, and then the rest is just o-e-m style stuff. There's a couple of specific parts you need though. This is a steering box for a '91 Suburban like ours except this is for two wheel drive because the style steering it is we have to have that style. The four wheel drive one just won't work. The other thing we did was we got brand now tie rod ends, outer left and right as well as an adjustor here, and those are actually for the Dana 60 for that K-30 that that axle came out of. We got all of that stuff from RockAuto dot com. So now all we need to do is get this steering box installed and then we can get the rest on there.

(Brandon)>> I've got the wrench. Let's see.

(Marc)>> The biggest difference between the two wheel drive and four wheel drive steering box is that the two wheel drive is a swing style and the four wheel drive is a push/pull, which won't work with our crossover steering. [ wrench clicking ]

(Brandon)>> Once the box and pitman arm are installed we can go ahead and finish up the steering with a drag link and tie rod. [ MUSIC ]

(Marc)>> Oh yeah! Now I know we've seen this thing on the ground before but now it's got the front clip on it, and all the weight of the transmission and the engine all in there. It's sitting where it's supposed to be, and I love how it looks, especially with the links all paint up under there. Now I'm 6'4", but this thing doesn't lie, and it says that we are 33 inches from the ground at the rocker.

(Brandon)>> Those are big boy numbers. If this isn't the most menacing four link coil over, one ton swap Suburban in the world I don't know what is.

(Marc)>> It sounds like a micro record but I'll take it either way cause it is extreme. I love it with the black and all the links under there. They're like, I'm ready to party.

(Brandon)>> And speaking of partying, next time we take this out to party.

(Marc)>> It just needs a couple of things.

(Brandon)>> Like cup holders.

(Marc)>> I was thinking like the bumpers and the winch.

(Brandon)>> Rear cup holders too.

(Marc)>> I'm down for the cup holders.

(Brandon)>> If you'd like to know more about our Suburban go to Powernation TV dot come and check out Unbreakable's project page.

(Marc)>> We have current build status, before and after pics, links to parts used, and all the episodes are right there on one page.