1997 GMC Suburban - Diesel - 4X4 - 3/4 Ton - K2500

1997 Chevrolet Suburban K2500 Description

I picked this up about 5 months ago with the plans of turning it into our awesome family hauler. I bought it from a fellow in Oklahoma who described it as a great running and driving vehicle. I can now say that this IS a great running and driving vehicle. Prior to purchasing a new Chevy van with the D-Max I was planning to have this forever and worked to get it up and running as if it were to be my own. But having purchased this new van it is time to thin my fleet of vehicles and I don't need two full-size, diesel family-haulers. My wife prefers to drive the new van so here's the suburban.
When I first took delivery of this suburban the injection/timing system and wiring were a mess. I'll go through the litany of items I have corrected below to give you an idea of how much work has been done recently and how well this vehicle is now set up for another lifetime of service.
- Rebuilt DS4-5521 Injection pump from SSDiesel w/ a 1 year warranty was just installed about 100 miles ago. This was installed correctly with base time set to 3.5 and the correct TDC relearn procedure completed with the GM Tech II Scan Tool. The timing chain is within factory specifications and holds time well. The prior injection pump would not accept a TDC relearn and the stepper motor (which tested functional) was not correctly adjusting the pump timing for the actual timing to meet the desired timing. The new pump and timing are working perfectly now. There are no diagnostic trouble codes for any system on the vehicle.- Correct #5 resistor added to a relocated PMD (heat sink on PMD and PMD is in good working order)- The glow plug system was non-operational when I received. This wiring has been corrected and the correct fuses installed. The glow plugs now work well. They heat in about 3 seconds and the afterglow feature on the vehicle works perfectly.- Replaced wastegate solenoid.- Replaced master cylinder.- New water pump.-New high quality lift pump (pump is providing excellent pressure (around 5-6 PSI, and a strong volume of fuel - about 1.5 pints in 15 seconds of running.- The previous owner had relocated the fuel filter assembly to the driver inner fender - I have no clue why as it was plenty easy enough to change in the factory location... but it has been returned to the factory location behind the intake manifold in the valley pan area. The entire assembly was disassembled and cleaned out prior to a new filter being installed. The original factory plugs for the water in fuel indicator and the fuel heater were re-used from the prior owners relocation and correctly placed back with splices and heat shrink.- The fuel tank was dropped, flushed, and a new sending unit installed. The fuel tank looked pretty good, however the old sender/pickup had a leak on the supply side that was allowing air into the fuel lines back by the tank and limiting pressure and volume supplied to the old injection pump.- Replaced front pass. caliper as it had a slight leak. Brake system has been bled and drums adjusted in the rear.- Transmission (4L80E) pan was dropped, the trans flushed, and filter changed.- Starter is new within the last year per prior owner. The support bracket for the starter was missing and it was not installed with the correct hardware. All the correct brackets and bolts were sourced and the starter installed correctly. Works great now.- Alternator appears to be new as well. It was not wired correctly up through the dash to the voltmeter and tach so the alternator was not being told to charge and a signal not being delivered to the tachometer. I corrected these issues by running a new wiring harness to the back of the dash from the alternator in an OEM style plastic loom. All gauges on the vehicle now work. Oil pressure is good, charges strongly, the tachometer appears very accurate. Idles warm at 650 rpm's, shifts at 3500 rpm's under WOT, and cruises around 2400 rpm's at 75-80 if memory serves me right. I believe the rear axle ratio is either 3.42 or 3.54... I can't recall, but I did include a picture of the line ticket/build sheet/RPO codes/whatever you want to call it so you can look at all the options it was equipped with.- Battery cables - made and installed new battery cables and terminals so that the vehicle can accept higher CCA top-post batteries (group 65). All battery wiring was replaced and routed nicely throughout the engine compartment. Factory hold-downs are missing but could still be used with these new, larger batteries. The alternator did not have the correct wiring previously up to the pass. side battery. I corrected this wiring and installed the correct factory fusible link.- As a result of the above this suburban now starts, runs, drives, charges, idles, pulls, shifts, torques, you name it, very well. It starts just as well cold or warm. The high idle functions for cold starts and it idles around 900 until operating temp is reached and it drops back to 650. This should now achieve pretty solid highway fuel economy given the thorough go through and tuning it has received.
This vehicle now has perfectly functioning fuel/air systems and the boost and fuel delivery are working well together. There is almost zero soot from the exhaust. The vehicle passed AZ emissions with under 5% opacity on the snap idle test.
This is now definitely one of the most mechanically sound 6.5's I've ever seen or worked on. Ready to get up and drive anywhere.
The suspension and steering feel surprisingly tight. The front end and steering bushings (control arms, ball joints, etc.) are all pretty tight and intact. The 4x4 works well with no weird clunking or grinding. It's nice that this vehicle still has the floor shift t-case prior to GM going to the electronic shift on the fly type design. It could use a new set of shocks to help dampen the 3/4 suspension, but it's perfectly driveable as is.
The vehicle has the full skid plate package (front diff, t-case, and fuel tank). This suburban does have the 42 gallon tank giving it a well over 800 mile cruising range.
It has a nice set of alloys that I'm guessing are off a newer truck but could be original as I'm not sure how far back they made these wheels. The spare is on right now, but the 4th alloy wheel is in the back of the vehicle. The tires are all the same size and in usable condition. They are all AT tires but not all have matching tread.
It cruises super nicely without pulling to either side. You can putt it around town and it moves nicely with traffic. If you get on it, it's really surprising how hard this motor pulls. The motor sounds tight with no odd noises and has a nice idle.
The vehicle is equipped with engine oil, transmission, and power steering coolers. I'd assume this was an HD option.
The AC is not functional as the prior owner (or fire department) installed a bypass pulley. I DO have a brand new compressor from summit that I'll include in the sale. The condenser, evaporator, drier/received, and all the lines/plugs from the AC are present. The new AC can be installed with 4 bolts and should be able to be charged up and work fine. But given that it's time to thin my fleet (going from 7 vehicles to just 3 primarily due to wanting to free up time to focus on family... I'm trying to minimize the additional time I spend working on the vehicles).
The rest of the HVAC system works well. The fan control for front and rear both work as well as the heater.
The interior is livable. Has rugged rubber floor liner from the FD. The interior is dusty as I have not gone through it thoroughly in the time I've owned it and it does have wear and nicks and dings consistent with the age/use of the vehicle. The windows all roll up and down well. A few of the locks are sticky and the left rear door takes a little finessing to open up. Should be able to adjust the cable to correct. The vehicle does not have the 3rd row seat but these seats are available aplenty on nearly any local craigslist. The headliner is starting to come down right toward the front of the sun visors. Should be able to be glued back into place easily and the rest of the headliner is good. Radio works, headlights, tail lights, brake lights, and turn signals all work. This vehicle is nice in that it has the sealed beam headlights on the commercial front end so you never have to worry about the headlight housings hazing over.
The coat of paint that is on the vehicle is thick and durable and looks great from 5-10 feet away. Up close it's clear that there wasn't a ton of disassembly or masking done - I'm guessing by the outfitters that retired the fire truck and removed the lighting (there are a handful of patches on the roof as well that were plugged and painted over.
As far as history goes, I did pull the car fax report before I purchased it. It looks like it was originally ordered/purchased by the City of Long Island FD and used until either 09 or 2011 (I can't remember) and retired from service right around 100k miles. It's changed hands a few times since then between Florida and Oklahoma. It looks like the FD that owned it maintained the undercarriage well as there is minimal rust and no signs of rot on the rockers, frame, suspension, driveshafts, etc.
I did my best to take the most effective "24 pictures" that I could to give you a good idea of condition. I do have videos of a cold start, warm start, idling, and driving away that I can send to a serious buyer that is looking for proof that it does all of the above. If you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll get you an answer to the best of my ability.
I am available to assist with loading should you win and set up a shipper to pic the vehicle up. I'm familiar with the process. I'll need certified funds within 7 days of the close of sale and the deposit is due within 24 hours of auction close. I have the clean AZ title notarized and ready for the new owner.
Of course, this vehicle is sold without any warranties, expressed or implied and all sales are final. I've done what I can to thoroughly detail the vehicle. Overall, it's a good, solid vehicle with a pretty darned straight body (few small baseball type dings here and there) and is an excellent candidate for anything. I've done my best to describe everything about the vehicle that I have discovered in the short time I've owned it. Vehicle is for sale locally so should it sell locally at the reserve price the listing will be ended.