My "94" suburban

I have had this suburban for Many,many years. We use it hard and as an every day transportation. When it hit 200,000 miles it was starting to use oil when we puled the boat. I was working at a parts wholesale house this winter and could get great prices on parts. I got a NEW GM Crate motor and I replaced every thing under the hood short of the trany and transfer case includes Starter,alt,PW staring all the idlers,belts,hoses,AC pump injectors,ERG,had the radiator and heat core re built every thing.Installed it put me back $3500, not to bad and it comes with a 100,000 mile 5 year warranty. Now this is were it starts to sound weird, Be for the redo I could get 10 mpg pulling the boat and 19 mpg on the highway.With the redo I'm getting 11.5 mpg pulling the same boat, and I gust got back from a quick trip to CO Springs. The trip was 1785 round trip and we had hard wind both ways mostly side and head winds and rain. We used 102 gallons of gas thats  17.5 mpg not bad for 5 people and a new motor with only 3000 miles. The strange part is I set the speed control at 65 to save gas the trip down it took 15 hours and used 56 gallons of gas. the way back we set it for 75 and only used 46 gallons and took only 14 hours. The weather was very similar if ant thing it was windyer going back , but at 75 we stayed in overdrive with out shifting down as much ( auto trany) It must be a momentum thing, but I'll drive at 70 or 75 now .

At 65 in OD i'm running 2300 and at 75 I'm at 2500

Fella's;

It all depends where you are on the torque curve.  Obviously, that engine is in the fat part of the torque band at 2500 or so. 

Considering the price of a new FWD these days, regardless of the discounts because of gas prices, I think you did the smartest thing you could D.

 900F

I drive a 93 burb with 221000 miles and counting. Original engine and tranny.... It doesn't use any oil and the running gear is doing ok. It just has more squeaks and rattles than it use to. If something major died on it I am not sure it would be worth putting the money in it to get it going again.