Talk to me about 2 door Tahoe/Yukon's

mtn wrote: Bringing this back to ask about the earlier ones. I realize that they're down on power and get worse gas mileage, but 95 and prior do not have to go through emissions testing in my state. And I have had vehicles not pass emissions, and it has been a pain (or expensive) to get them to pass. How down on power are they? Are there any easy fixes? Same with the MPG. I don't mind the older dash, personally--I actually prefer it to be honest.

How old do you want to go and how much are you willing to pour into it? Not as easy, but you could find '70's and '80's models and swap a later truck LS motor in it?

Otherwise, almost all with have a 350 of some sort. Should be plenty of power up to about 5000 lbs. regardless. And, with the older cars, simple upgrades from a Jegs/Summit catalog would be an easy button.

The bigger thing is what kind of shape is it in overall? Mine was a '96. Motor ran great. Transmission was suspect but worked until the cooler line popped spewing fluid all over the highway. For me, it was the other stuff. Seats were nasty even after steaming them. Back seat folding cable didn't work well and was difficult to replace. Drivers door sagged. A/C fan, even after replacing, never blew very hard. Also did brakes, shocks and new radiator. It was just worn out. Again, I'd have kept it, but couldn't chase fixing it on weekends because that's when I was using it. Couple of items I had to take it too a local shop because I didn't have time which drained the funds.

All of it was fixable. Most fixes were just time. I'm 99% sure the A/C issues were blockages in the system, but required me to remove the dash. No difficult, just a full weekend job. Door sag was just a few new bushings, but again, a least a day to do.

Parts for them are found everywhere. And junkyards are full of similar year Tahoes/Suburbans/C1500's. So interior bits would be easy and cheap to find.

-Rob

I was thinking still of only 92-99, but maybe not ruling out the earlier ones (92-95) specifically because of the lack of emissions testing.

Worn out stuff I don't think will change from 95 to 96. I can find interiors from other vehicles to put in there if the seats are all worn out.

The hope here would be to find one that has been maintained its whole life, babied, but with high miles bringing the price down. Oh, and it would be in the south. I don't want to deal with the rust here.

EDIT: While not necessary, I would like 4x4. Did the system change at all through the years? I see the later ones had a push-button selector.

Assuming you are looking at models with a 5.7 liter gas V8 (99% of them), up to 1995 you are looking at an L05 TBI 350. That motor was rated about 200hp. I don't think it is a roller block, although I think the same engine in certain cars (cop caprices?) was.

From 1996 on you are looking at an L31 which has the much better Vortec heads - so good that they are a common junkyard swap for earlier SBC's. These were rated for 255hp. The downside here is that they used some sort of funky spider injection system. As you can see from earlier posts some folks replace this entirely with marine intakes, etc. so it's not a universally liked system. Of course if you are in an area where those models are subject to emissions you are stuck with it.

So on paper you are looking at about 55hp increase, but as far as I am concerned I would be way more comfortable with the good old TBI system. You can mod a TBI to equal or exceed the power of a stock L31 pretty easily. There are even manifolds to let you use the Vortec heads with TBI if you wanted to go that route.

Of course if you aren't wedded to the idea of a 2-door, you could just look at 2000+ GMT800 Tahoe/Yukons, which came with the LS-style 5.3 (6.0 in Denalis/Escalades) from the factory. In my area, the GMT800's have dropped in price a lot, but of course there were no 2-doors.

SEADave wrote: Personally I prefer the earlier dash and the familiarity of TBI, so was looking at 94 and earlier trucks. I agree the design has aged really well - for GMT400's in general and the 2-door SUV's in particular.

I am in the same boat. I'd have a hard time not jumping on a clean 92-94. Lucky for me they're all rusty up here. I love them.

Having owned many gmt400's and several 800's, except for the gen3 engines nothing is better about the newer platform

ProDarwin wrote:

KyAllroad wrote: https://nashville.craigslist.org/cto/5912188004.htmlLinky The dogs might have to jump pretty high to get in....

They are supposed to be lowered

Nothing new to add, but this looks amazing! 90%+ of the ones I see are lifted, and I would argue they are doing it wrong

Getting power from an emissions exempt TBI 350 is easy, you just throw away everything except the block, crank, and rods and rebuild it without any swirl port smog crap.

My parents had a 94 k2500 with the TBI 350 for a number of years, until my dumbass sister drove it into a tree and killed it. I drove that truck a ton, and while it was hardly a rocket ship, for what it was it never wanted for power. It would peg the 85mph speedo no problem (actually, come to think of it, I got my first speeding ticket in that truck.) Plenty of torque for hauling a trailer or a ton (literally) of hay bales in the bed. I swear you could watch the gas gauge move if you stood on the throttle and looked hard enough, but I don't think it ever needed anything other than exhaust manifold gaskets once.

So, reliable, decently torquey, kinda thirsty. In short, exactly what you would expect in a good old American truck motor.

The early dash is fine until you go to use the HVAC control head and discover it's completely idiotic in design and use. And then you go to put a new radio in the thing and it has to be installed in the center of the dash because GM's Tron-like garbage that matches the previously mentioned HVAC controls is just narrow enough to stop you from putting it where it should be.

The later dash is where it's at.

If you want a fun little project, you could buy a Vortec Tuned Port Injection manifold base from Scoggin-Dickey, or could in the past at least, and then mix that with Camaro or Corvette parts to ditch the plastic fuel injection trash that came on the L31. Maybe I shouldn't call this a little project... but you could do this with all factory parts save for the ECU.

95s are gonna be your huckleberry. Modern dash without passenger airbag (1 year only!) and OBD1 so no emissions.

Rigs like that pull a premium before race wars. Or something.

Bump.

SWMBO has wanted one since high school.  We accidentally stumbled into an opportunity to pick up a '95 Yukon that had a Goodwrench long block swapped in 40K miles ago.  Owned by a family friend, and cheap.

It has some dents and dings, and allegedly needs a driver's door.

I assume the doors on these are the same as any other GMT400 truck?  If we pull the trigger on this, am I going to be stuck looking for a door from another 2 door Tahoe/Yukon, or can I just pick one off a 4 door, a pickup, or Suburban?

3.5 years after this thread started, these aren't getting easier to find and certainly not getting cheaper. 

I'm not sure if front doors are the same. If the same as anything, maybe the same as GMT-400, single cab pickup 

All the front doors across the board are the same from pickups through suburbans

i want one bad, always have, preferably a yukon gt, but I don't need one.