This seemingly museum-quality 1985 Chevrolet Suburban Silverado in Spokane, Washington comes to market as a never-restored, barely used, and highly original people hauler! In addition to the Detroit Diesel V8, this 3/4 ton Suburban comes loaded with the Silverado package, four-wheel drive, automatic transmission, air conditioning, power windows, and more. The seller says it runs and drives “great” including the operation of the four-wheel drive. The listing here on eBay shows at least 13 bidders and a market value above $11,000. The white 16 inch wheels with dog dish hub caps give these square-body GMs a purposeful look. Look at the shine on that paint, amazing after 37 years. A host of pictures disclose nothing to dispute the odometer’s 42,035 miles.
I rode in dozens of GM trucks of this vintage, and never saw one with power windows. Cruise control, air conditioning, and front bucket seats with a sizable center console round out the comfort accessories.
The Suburban could be ordered with Panel Rear Doors, often called “barn doors,” or a tailgate with manual or power glass. Thanks to GMHeritageCenter for some details. These doors make it easy to load heavy objects directly into the cargo area, but some drivers complain about the door frames blocking visibility in the rear view mirror.
Twin batteries and a host of other changes accompany the economy-minded 6.2L (379 cid) Detroit Diesel. Sans turbocharger, the engine made horsepower and torque similar to small-block V8s while delivering fuel economy of the base six cylinder engine, according to Wikipedia.
This handsome rig is almost too pretty to put to work, but it could enjoy a long life of service in suburbia, in accord with its name. If you’ve no interest in winning a boat-towing drag race, and tire of today’s technology-laden full-sized SUVs, you could do worse than this fully-loaded Chevy. Plus, while your neighbor’s new Tahoe loses a fuel tank worth of value every x days, this ’85 might hold its value or even beat inflation, especially if you continue the amazing care it’s enjoyed to date. Where would you rank this super-clean 1985 diesel Suburban among sub-$20,000 full-sized SUVs?
I remember, when these came out, all the hoopla was on the dramatic fuel savings you’d enjoy, as diesel in the 80’s was usually much cheaper than gas. Well, diesel just went over $5/gal here, with no end in sight. Big deal, you say? This truck got maybe low teens, significantly less pulling something,, with fillups costing over $100 bucks now, 2 or 3 times a week, diesel bugaboos aside, who would want this?
No one is buying this to daily it or work it, it is firmly in collector territory, and older trucks are hot now. And yes, it feels strange to me too to realize 80s trucks are now OLD, like we are.
A square body Silverado Suburban was the best of the best in 85. This truck presents beautifully and the 6.2 will give you better fuel economy than the 5.7. I don’t think they would pull as much though. It was GM’s first attempt that gave people PTSD over diesels. The 6.2 and 6.5 were okay engines but underwhelming in power with IDI injection and no turbo. I worked on a customers 96 Suburban with the 6.5 turbo diesel and it ran pretty good. Customer had me install taller gearing and relocate the PMD module which was what you did if you didn’t want to walk home unexpectedly. He was getting upper 20’s on the highway and his goal was to get 30mpg. Pretty impressive given the size and weight of the vehicle. Buy this truck and take good care of it. You won’t loose any money and I suspect the value will go up as this generation becomes harder to find.
This is a collectible piece.
I had an 84 and an 87 4×4 6.2 in the 90’s. They were very reliable and easy to take care of. Drove them many miles with no issues at all.
Mileage was 16 around town, maybe 20 on the open road.
They were not high 20’s mpg ever. That was the 5.7 in passenger vehicles.
I drive a 96 Suburban 6.5 daily and my mileage is 16-18 combined city/highway. I have never gotten 20 mpg with any 6.5 I’ve owned
You’re running about the average with those engines. Working for GM I was amazed at the unrealistic expectations from the customers. So many never bothered checking mileage in their lives until they bought a diesel, and then they bought a calculator and checked every fill-up. More than half of my customer complaints were fuel economy. I actually laughed at a customer when he insisted that his truck was only getting 4 mpg. I told him that he had to have a significant leak in his system because the injection pump could NOT pump that much fuel. It was a positive displacement item and could pump a specified amount. I checked his truck and calculated his mileage at 19 mpg. He accused me of fudging my calculations and calling him a liar. I told him that I was finished and no further work was necessary. As soon as he left I called the GM Zone and told them. It was a good move as they received a complaint less than 12 hours later…
The one that gave people “PTSD” was the 350 Olds diesel. The 6.2 is a REAL diesel built by Detroit Diesel and was quite reliable. I had one in a 1984 GMC conversion van and while it was no race engine, it averaged mid 20 mpg on the highway with a TH-400 and 3.73 gear ratio in that brick. If I was in the market for a ‘Burb, this would be one I’d look at hard. If I need and/or want more power, Banks Performance still offers a turbo kit for them.
Yea Alphasud IIRC that 6.2 was a dog when it came to pulling. Used to drive a flatbed 1 ton chevy with the 6.2; sucked fuel like there’s no tomorrow, I had a small Backhoe bucket on the back, and I actually had it all the way down in Granny first gear to make a steep hill. Think Chevy’s time with their diesels was bad until they started using the duramax (Isuzu). Forewarned is forarmed- I’d drive this beauty before plunking down the cash unless you want to do a gas conversion. Good luck and happy motoring.
Cheers
GPC
3 degrees with an 11 mph breeze this am.I can hear it groaning to a start and then limping away:-)
There is a trick to the detroit, hit it for 30 seconds and wait a minute, hit it again for 30 seconds and wait a minute, it will start on the third try, the friction will warm it up enough to start.
I like it but I don’t need a family hauler that big
Rather have the 454 Tonawanda
Run away. I had the misfortune of owning a 1986 twin to this Suburban. The power windows were about the only things to work properly when I got rid of it.
It was clean and well cared for when I bought it and during my five loathsome years with it as well.
But: Three transmissions, a complete rebuild of the fuel injection pump ($1200 in 1994), door hinges that self destructed, horrible fuel mileage, bad wire harness grounds, oil pump pickup dropped out of the pump and the ability to HEAR it rust no matter how much I’d wash it topside and bottom side…
It was the worse POS vehicle I’ve ever owned in the last fifty years of vehicle ownership.
I accidentally came across it in a local junkyard four years after I got rid of it…
I asked the kid in the office about it and he told me that it was due to be crushed within the next week.
I gave him $5 and my phone number with the request for him to call me when the crushing was happening.
I showed up with a lawn chair and a couple beers.
It was my most rewarding day at junkyard in my memory.
I have a 1983 G20 with 6.2L four speed floor shift with 3.08’s and 120 liter tank. Best run was above 1000km on a tank. Love these wideside Suburbans!
…and its gone.
A very popular truck out west back in the day. We sold a pile of Burbs, either diesel or 454 powered. A lot of them are still in service. GM’s light diesels went through some growing pains and a whole lot of misunderstandings. I found out very quickly that there were a lot of unrealistic expectations and you could blame a lot of failures on the owners; some were downright hilarious. I could fill several books on experiences I had in a GM service department with both the 5.7 and 6.2. We had a lot of customers running Mercedes diesels. Interesting that I experienced more camshaft failures in MB 300D engines than I did in GM 5.7s. And we sold a lot of 5.7s…
Everything you’ve said in your posts is correct geomech.
I’m a remodeling contractor and I owned two’96s with the 6.5 turbo diesels in them.
One was a 3/4 ton ext cab long bed, auto with 3.73 gears. The other was a 1 ton reg cab long bed with an NV 4500 5 speed and 4.10 gears. Both loaded 4×4’s.
The 3/4 ton ext cab was the best truck I’ve ever owned and I still miss it. The 1 ton was very unique and was quite a puller.
They both had 300,000 miles +/- when I sold them.
The reason I bought them was because they were cheap to buy, simple and easy to maintain, and cheap to fix compared to the other diesels available at the time, and they drove and looked fantastic!
If you understood that they were designed for fuel efficiency and reliability with decent power, and knew their quirks, they were extremely reliable. I changed the injector pumps in both of them (one unnecessarily), relocated the PMD’s, installed cold air intakes, larger exhaust and replaced the junk vacuum actuated waste gate with an adjustable manual one set to 15 max psi. Those mods transformed the trucks! Didn’t really see any drastic increase in mpg, but it really woke the engines up and made them run much smoother under boost. Best mileage I ever saw was 21 mpg on a 6 hour interstate drive in the 3/4 ton towing my friends new ski boat to his cabin. Typical mileage unload was 17-18, and around 13 pulling a 14’ job trailer.
As long as you understand what they were designed for, took care of them and didn’t expect them to perform like a Cummins you were fine. Wish I could find a nice low mileage example today!
And how about the hundreds of thousands of these naturally aspirated engines that were installed in Humvee’s and saw extreme use? Very reliable engines, but definitely the red headed stepchild of diesel pickup engines!
The 6.2 was not a Detroit Diesel engine. It was a GM engine. I worked in a GMC dealership.
Hi Marty. I included the word “Detroit” because that’s the name of the page that describes this engine on Wikipedia. I also found a second page that says “In 1965, GM Diesel became Detroit Diesel Engine Division,” but this is all second-hand information. https://www.oemoffhighway.com/engines/engines/company/10071695/detroit-diesel-corporation-detroit
Actually the 6.2 engine was under the Detroit Diesel umbrella from ’83 to ’87 or ’88. A lot of 6.2 power units were sold as Detroit Diesel engines in that period. I remember seeing the injection pump specifications showing “Detroit Diesel-Allison, Moraine OH” as the engine manufacturer at that time. I had a couple of injection pumps with ‘Speed Droop Controls’ on them and no warmup devices or external advance controls come into the shop. The rpm listed the maximum at 1854 which is right in line with a generator set application with a 3%-5% governor…
Correct, countless 6.2’s and 6.5’s were used as power units in pumps and generators running 24 hours a day and only being shut down for service. Very reliable engines!
You are correct Todd, the 6.2 and 6.5 engines were Detroit diesels.
I was actually impressed that you knew that!
I agree Marty…..if it was a Detroit Diesel Engine it woulda been a decent engine. Just my personal opinion. Great condition vehicle though.
Someone called the seller with the right price
I had a GMC pickup with the 6.2. It was great in the summer but I had to plug the thing in below 32f even with new glow plugs. And I had it just gel up going down the road when it got way below zero. But, that wouldn’t bother anybody who buys this one because I don’t think it would be used as a daily driver.
The fuel gelling isn’t due to the vehicle, but rather the fuel itself. I’m way up in northern ND and our standard pump fuel is changed in the fall to a blend, and if a person is really worried, you can run straight number, plus additive like I do. I’ve got a 6.6 in my dually and am pretty happy with it. Pulls strong, and mileage for a crew cab long box dually is pretty good. Can nip 20 (empty) on the highway and even 13 to 14 pulling my 28 foot boat. `
They cut fuel here in VT as well.
Paint looks to good for the year