94 silverado 350tbi 2x restoration project

docdubz · September 23, 2017

I picked up a 2 wheel drive 94 silverado 350 side step with (according to the odometer.. who knows really) 120k miles on it. Trucks in pretty good condition engine is running rich but sounds and feels like its in great shape and the tranny is fine but needs an overhaul I was gonna put $2-3000 into her.

Most of it is just stuff that takes time.. lot of surface rust but nothing that an angle grinder and some duracoat wont solve. Just replaced some hoses and gave the engine compartment a bit of a clean up and somehow I accidentally fixed the air compressor and the a/c is blowing strong. But.. I let the a/c run for 30 seconds and the engine started surging for a second every about 10 seconds and then it started choking itself and trying to stall.

Now what I cant figure out is.. is it surging like this because the compressor is working now and the alternator is shot... or maybe the compressor itself is slowing down the belt or am i gonna need to borrow my buddies engine lift and prepare for bad news.

Bigfutz · September 23, 2017

95 2500 alternator made an awful sound when AC was on at idle speed. Replaced the alternator. You also may want to observe the idler to see if it's bouncing. But, it sounds more like a fuel/throttle issue, reacting to the added load of the AC at low RPM's. (I have no idea of how any of that works.)

barry G · September 24, 2017

it may be airing up, but not getting fuel right.

docdubz · September 24, 2017

Im not hearing anything from the alternator. There has been a very very slight squeak coming from the pulleys but as far as squeaky pulleys go they sound beautiful. And now that I think of it once I tested the AC the squeak went away. so maybe its not even the pulleys but the compressor itself that the squeak was coming from.

As far as airflow goes shes running fairly rich not a ton but noticeable. And the way the engine choked after surging Im thinking it may have been a low airflow problem. Son of a.. I know what it is. The "nice fella" that I bought her from was into the loud bass music and did some real silly **** with the wiring that I was saving for last to fix. Who knows what he was thinking but what ever he did resulted in a bunch of shorts in the dashboard... Turn the headlights on and sometimes the wipers come on too and the gauges all start reading 25% lower... switch on a turn signal and the gauges 'blink' along with it. I bet ya the AC kicking on lowered the voltage going to the o2 sensor.

For a truck in such good condition youd think this guy was living in cuba the way he doctored things up. Had some buddies over while I was doing some quick work on the suspension you shoulda seen the looks on their faces when I pulled the old bushings off and they saw that they were f***ing pieces of pool noodle and electric tape.