Hello all, first a bit about myself. I am 32 w/3 kids, married. I own a '78 3/4 ton GMC, an 87 Berrettta, an '89 Buick LaSabre, and an 86 Park Avenue. Up until 5 yr. ago I was working as a mechanic/manager at a local shop when my heart screwed up suddenly and I had to have a transplant. I was working towards my ASE cert. but I have no plans to pursue that path, I am in school now majoring in electrical engineering.
I have looked through your archives and found a lot of info that I was wondering about but I am still have a few concerns about the questions and info I need to look for next Wed. when I go to look at this vehicle.
My college prof. has an '89 Suburban, 350, (R1500?), 2 wheel drive, with a 1 yr. old engine replacement. I know the rep. of the guy that put it in and he is well qualified and trusted, but I assume that it was replaced with a Jasper block but the Prof. doesn't know ( I will find out for sure).The body is perfect (paint is dull) except for a dent in the drivers door that "appeared" after he had the engine installed. Everything is original stock, but he doesnt' know a lot about cars so he can tell me very little about it, except for the problems he knows of which are mainly interior stuff, like 2 of the window switches or motors no longer work, a strap is broke, and the headliner is falling, etc. As for as anything outside the interior he only knows the air lasts about 2 yr. between charges, and it is very dependable. He did say that it was probably due for a brake job and other maintainance, normal stuff, but it was fine now. It has at least 150K on the tranny and body, and it also has an upgraded tow kit and luggage rack. He said it had 2 Ds so I am pretty sure it has the 700 tranny.
He is only asking $800 for it.
I am thinning my herd down to 2 vehicles, ( I have 3 others that I won't mention) and I want one of them to be some type of truck/suv for the towing advantage.
The other reason I like this is that I love working on vehicles and want something that I can fool with at my pace. The replacement engine bothers me because I am not sure what I need as far as specifing upgrade kits., i.e. cam kit, rocker arms, etc., although I am pretty sure I can still simply specify the make/model for parts, I just don't trust my memory. Although if I find some one to run the block numbers I could figure that out.
As I am not going to be towing but 2-5 times a year, (gravel, etc) I think I should upgrade more towards gas mileage than simply raw power, and as such what would be recommendations towards this goal? I don't know about the rear end yet but what would be the best ratio? Also I would like to add some locking spider gears as I don't even know if these things are posi-track or not.
Anyway, he is the 2nd owner and it has been handled gently, at $800 I think it is a pretty good deal. I am looking for questions that I should ask him or things I should look for, cause I haven't had a lot of experience with this year and don't know if there are things that are specific to this model/yr and wanted to ask someone that doesn't know me well so I don't have to feel like such a dumba**, it is always helpfull to ask someone with experience!! Thanks, and I am sure I will have more questions to ask if I end up getting this one. Thanks again!!!
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