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Preamble: This is a sort of a project thread but please shitpost about poo poo (or not) trucks ITT. A few years ago I got the dumb idea in my head that I wanted a sailboat-mainly because it is slightly problematic to drink beer with my buddies on a motorcycle. What does this have to do with trucks? Well, don't live close to the water and my toy-budget is limited, so my boat was going need to be trailerable. No problem, I thought... my V6 Camry can tow 3,500lbs. However, after my brother helped me tow a Catalina 22 down from the mountains with his chonky Pathfinder I realized this would be a terrible idea.  The boat and trailer dwarfed his 3'rd gen Nissan so I knew the Camry was a terrible idea. I needed a truck.... But I didn't want to spend a lot of money. This lead me to consider a bunch of things, midsize trucks would work, and an SUV would be okay but I focused on 1/2-ton RWD pickups. Pickings were slim, and just about everything on the market was at or above my $5k budget. Spent a month souring the local ads. I missed out on a couple of F150 grandpa specials, but eventually I scored a 246,000mi 2001 Silverado 1500 form a curbstoner in a Walmart parking lot for $2,700. It drove fine and the AC worked and it left some cash in my pocket in case I needed, say a transmission, so I bought it and crossed my fingers that the DMV would let me register it. They did and I was off to the  I spent that summer towing the boat to local lakes, and learning to sail. Towards the end of the summer, my friends and I planned a big camping trip up at a high-elevation lake. My buddy and I were going to take off early Thursday to claim a spot and setup camp. The highway we normally took was being re-graded and had a 10 mile dirt detour, so we went the long way around. This was fine, but we underestimated the grade that route put us on. Half way up, the little LCD panel on the left side started displaying a message about trans temp, so I shifted down to 2nd and slowed down a bit... then right as we got to the summit, the message turned red and flashed, "OH gently caress STOP NOW!" We did, and idled for 15 minutes, and the proceeded down to the campground. Launched the boat, made camp and had a great weekend. Come Sunday morning we packed up camp and brought the boat around to the ramp. As soon as I went to bring the boat out of the water, the friend who was spotting waves his arms and says, "I see smoke!" I got out, looked under the truck and saw the slightest wiff of smoke. Since I didn't see flames, I popped the hood to look for a leak. Nope, no leaks. Restart the engine, every thing seems fine and we pull the boat out without issue. Spent the next hour prepping the boat to do 55 to windward, and we headed back down the road to the highway. It was all downhill, and the last few bends before the highway it started making a noise so I pulled over. I quickly determined that I could not put the truck in reverse, and all gears were a very unhappy sounding forward. Luckily, I was right by a rest-stop, so I pulled in and my friends drove me to the lakeside lodge down the highway to call AAA. AAA said they'd be there in two hours, and my brother could be up in three to tow the boat home. I got to work finishing the leftover beer in the cooler while my friends headed back home.  If you're going to break down, break down <100 miles from home. Eventually, I took the truck to an ATRA member shop and the rebuilt the 4l60e. Ran great at that point, but I didn't want to get into that situation ever again so I invested in a transmission cooler and spliced that in. Truck ran great for three more summers and I never saw the trans temp break 210-degrees. There was one problem with that setup. These trucks use quick-connect fittings for the cooler lines so I couldn't just connect a hose to a barb. I ended up cutting a hardline, and jamming a 3/8" trans hose over it and cinching it with a hose clamp. This worked until my buddy borrowed the truck to go pick a Christmas tree back in December....  To be continued...
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Feb 20, 2021 01:08
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Boys who love boys
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Truck status: Friend was driving the truck, with his partner giving chase in her car. She called him because she noticed a little bit of smoke coming from the truck and then the truck started to lose power. Eventually came to a stop and he had to be towed to the shoulder by a good Samaritan. It was a quick diagnosis...   Yeah, that ain't good. I reconnected the line, dumped in 12qts of juice and took it for a test drive. Drove and shifted fine, so I though I had dodged a bullet. I haven't been driving it much, but last month I ran a longer set of errands than normal. On my way back through my neighborhood, I noticed that my revs would climb if I dipped into the gas... First and second seem fine, but 3 & 4 slip when warm. drat. The good news is my boat lives in a slip now so I don't do too much towing. The bad news is I've just learned it's not 2001 anymore and I can't buy a car that is interesting and not beat to poo poo for under five grand. So I guess I might as well fix this thing. Good things about the truck:
Where I am right now: Well, first course of action will be to fix the transmission. I've been watching a lot of Precision Transmission on youtube so I'm really tempted to buy a 3-4 burnup kit for $80 bucks and try my hand at fixing my own 4l60e. Local shop quoted a hair $2,500 for a ATRA backed rebuild and that's definitely an option... but If I can fix it myself and spend $2k on LEDs to Dekotora this poo poo to hell and back that sounds like a better time. I know I'm standing next to the metaphorical well right now and thinking about climbing down with a shovel. If you've got any advice or just want to talk about trucks please post away.
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Feb 20, 2021 02:28
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rdb posted:Its too bad its not 4x4 because a clean, rust free truck of that era is getting hard to find in the north and midwest. Another 20 years and it might be a classic, lol. Also, those are decent, probably the best long term choice of the era. Lots of small issues, but generally stout. 250k out of an automatic transmission is fair, and the second failure is kinda not a design issue. That particular truck just wasn’t optioned for towing. Yeah, that's kind of my feeling on it on GMT800s. Maybe not the best truck on the market at any specific criteria, but it had the fewest cons and they're relatively cheap. They also hit the goldilocks spot on technology (it got good EFI, but not AFM,) size and styling... or maybe that last bit is just Stockholm syndrome talking because there's a billion copies of this front end on the road today. Figured this truck will still be pretty useful to me as a beater/tow pig* for a long time, it's easy and cheap to maintain, so I might as well fix it even if the transmission equals the value of the truck. *I only tow a 4,000lb trailer, plus a bed full of camping gear so a 1/2-ton gasser is plenty to take me to my IT job in the city. Y'all right about diesels... When I was shopping CSB was at work on his truck... I was inspired. Pulled over to look at a couple bricknoses, but I figured I already had a enough cash-vaporizing displacement to worry about with a boat. Godholio posted:
Hell yeah! If I could go back in time to talk to my teenage self I'd say buy one of those and go snowboarding. gently caress career or love advice. Yeah, so back to the 4l60e. When it was rebuilt 3 years / 12,000 miles ago the shop offered some basic upgrades. They came well regarded by another 4x4 shop in town and the build sheet makes sense, shift kit, big band, hardened sunshell- all the poo poo Precision Transmission talk about installing while they talk poo poo about some other shop's work- so I'm optimistic that there's a good trans to be salvaged from my mistake. I've never swapped a trans before (done a couple engines, bunch of heads) but I think I've got a lead on a jack and I'm game. Only thought I had before ordering that 3/4 kit was maybe getting a line pressure gauge to confirm that looks normal because if it's more than just glassed clutches I'm inclined to leave it to the pros. I'm down to use every DIY repair as justification for more tools... I'll order some better snap ring pliers and I can always use more picks.
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Feb 20, 2021 04:58
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Yeah, that's an option and god knows I've been looking at 6.0L+4L80e dropouts. It would take at a minimum a shorter driveshaft and a new crossmember. I've been watching local FBM/CL but most of the 4l80s are for 4x4s (necessitating output swap?) and priced as cores. It would be nice to have something bulletproof, but I'm not sure it's worth the expense. My trailer is under 4,000lbs, and I don't see myself pulling more than 6,000lbs (car on uhaul trailer) and that would probably be a one-off deal. I think my 'built' 4l60e should have been plenty for that if I had kept the fluid inside the circuit and not rustproofed the passenger side of the truck. Just to muddy the waters on this project, my budget is basically the equivalent to a down payment on a newer ride ($4k). Sensible thing would be to give it to the shop and be back on the road Friday, but that's kind of boring. I'd rather sweat and swear bunch, buy some tools and have enough cash left after fixing the transmission to start building up a new Gen III for the truck. That last part is pretty much the subtext of this project. I've always wanted to build an American V8 and this sounds like a good opportunity. (I'm in CA and need to smog this truck so it'll probably be pretty stock but deffo painted red.)
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Feb 21, 2021 22:47
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angryrobots posted:Here I'm using my towing mirrors. Aww yea!  My truck on the left, your truck on the right. meatpimp posted:I've got a number of things to do to it, just haven't had time. Most recent one is an electrical burning smell when the blower is on full... haven't looked to see if that's indicative of the blower motor or the resistor, but I figure I'll find out soon enough. I'd bet a Bud Light or three on you finding a spicy connector behind the dash, because what Raluek said.
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Feb 23, 2021 20:32
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Not sure. Somehow I've made it 4 years without taking off any part of the dash/trim. I'd start by looking at the connectors on the resistor since you can get to that by sticking your head in the pass footwell (on a Silverado at least).
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Feb 25, 2021 18:55
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The 3-4 burn-up kit is in transit so I decided to check the trans line pressure so I'll to have a baseline to compare to after I take this poo poo apart. Pressures were all normal 80psi idle, 180psi in D and ~320psi in R. Easy test but a pain in the rear end to get the gauge on the port. And then on the removal I managed to get Dex VI in 40% of my faceholes and brushed my forearm against a hot downpipe eleventy times. Would not recommend.
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Mar 3, 2021 03:03
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Lol, yup. ATF isn't so bad... doesn't burn like gas and they don't put a bitterant in it like antifreeze.
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Mar 3, 2021 21:04
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Thank you CSB for the perspective. Happy to be doing this poo poo in the driveway with the luxury to give up for a while when I run into trouble. Speaking of which, parts have arrived, it's a sunny day and the truck is up on stands and I'm ready to go... unfortunately the first impact socket I'm going to need (15mm deep) is AWOL so it's off to Napa (and the deli for a Reuben).
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Mar 6, 2021 21:14
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First NAPA was out of 15mm deeps, deli was slow and I had to drive across town for the socket. DIY Experience is on pace.   Not so bad, a Rueben in the sun The exhaust manifolds are the rustiest part of this beater, so I was expecting a fight but the exhaust came off smoothly. Diff yoke bolts were kind of a bitch because I couldn't get a ratchet on them, but by far the hardest part of day one has been that I cannot select the correct tool for a given faster in fewer than three tries. A lifetime of wrenching on Japanese cars and bikes has me pretty good at eyeballing fasteners but what the gently caress- 11mm, 13mm 15mm? Who asked the monkey paw to have GM switch to metric hardware? Also found the first PO poo poo of the job...  Looks like somebody broke the clips and fixed it with RTV. Luckily I could get a wrench behind the switch and left it dangling. If I had half a brain I would have ordered a 15mm ratcheting wrench, would have made the flexplate bolts a lot easier. I'm glad I watched a bunch of preparatory youtube... I would probably still be in the driveway right if I didn't see a video a mobile mechanic made where he used like 4' of 1/2-drive extensions to pull the bellhousing bolts. I used like 4 extensions to get at them, but it worked.  Took four and a half hours to get the 4l60e on the table.  Probably enough for today.
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Mar 7, 2021 03:03
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Torque Converter, Bud Light edition. Tinal was right too, fucker kept burping more atf out while sitting as pictured.
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Mar 8, 2021 21:45
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Been lazy the last few... Didn't think to order a Torx Plus bit so I'm waiting on those. In the meantime I started cleaning some of the parts I have pulled off the truck. The engine seems to leak oil form everywhere so things are well protected from rust. I scraped off a 1/8" of crud from the starter and dealt with the grime that was built up on the transmission. Next thing to look at was the driveshaft:  The good news is the center u-joint is okay. The aft u-joint is hella stiff, as is the carrier bearing. And the slip yoke should consult it's doctor since it's been like this for more than 3 hours.  Pretty heavy scoring here so it probably seeps ATF, but given how much oil the engine drops IDGAF. Three u-joints and a carrier are on order. Hopefully the torx bit will show up tomorrow and I can dig into the transmission this weekend.
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Mar 12, 2021 00:40
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Wasn't planning to change the rear main- every seal and gasket on this motor is shot. If I can get this POS back on the road cheaply, the plan will be to find a new LM7 and refresh/rebuild that.
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Mar 12, 2021 01:32
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Yeah, I'm hoping I can pick up something local, but worst case there are tons at the breakers down in Rancho Cordova. First though, I need to do something about the well that I am presently repelling into.   I'm hoping that's just my 3-4 clutches and steels. Welp, committed now.  Most of these parts were replaced when the trans was rebuilt in 2017... The accumulator looks like it was upgraded, and the plate has reinforced checkball seats. The harness looked a little darker than I'd expect, and one of the pillow switch seals stuck to the valve body (and is warping).  I can put the seal back in place, but I'm thinking I should probably replace that.
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Mar 13, 2021 00:28
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Went rippin' n' tearing after dinner last night. Pump was a sonovabitch to remove- I think I might have missed pulling an o-ring on the imput shaft   The reverse drum and clutches look like I would expect. Band is in good shape too.  To paraphrase the podcast with slides I was listening to while I worked on this: Well, Here's My Problem...  Input drum clutches, extra crispy. Hopefully the new clutches and some scotchbrite on the steels will get me back in D again.
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Mar 13, 2021 18:14
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Thanks for those diagrams CSB! To be honest, I have to hold my hands in front of the monitor and peek through my fingers and only look a fraction of the diagrams at a time lest I lose my mind like I'm reading the Necronomicon. cursedshitbox posted:fwiw that's the front-most reverse apply clutch, there's a second reverse (lo/rev)apply clutch alllll the way in the back transmission body. It can be a bear to remove due to the circlip having hard access. Well, the good news is I'm not going to mess with that. I run out of parts right here:  These are those parts, laid out from left to right as in the diagram   The overrun clutches look alright, but t the forward clutches get worse as you work right and the 3/4 are destroyed. The little bit of friction material left on the clutches can be smudged right off. Looks like a bit of bluing on the steels, but it has been helpfully polished off.  The inside of the assembly shows signs of temporary use as a waste-oil furnace. Luckily nothing else seems to show obvious sign of excessive hear or inadequate lubrication. cursedshitbox posted:mmmm toasty. There's your problem. Probably worth shuffling the steels as well. As in, change their order or replace? I was going to clean them and sand them with red scotchbrite pads. I'll check em for flatness and hot spotting when I do. Always grateful for any pointers or things to check.
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Mar 14, 2021 19:33
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Update: Trucks are bullshit and I would rather just walk everywhere. Not really, but I definitely found the hardest way to do things while waiting for a new set of steels. Starting with the axle carrier bearing, every guide I found pretty much said 'use a press'. I am a shadetree hack so I disregarded that advice and tried to blue wrench/penetrating fluid/hammer the fucker off. This is not feasible due to design, so I've been hacksawing, cripping away crumbling rubber and now I'm cutting the bearing's outer race with a dremel.  Hopefully when I get the inner race exposed I can just blast it with my $90 fcaw race remover and be done. In all this I've totally hosed up the teflon-like coating on the slip shaft and splines though, so awesome leak grease whatever. The u-joints were also a complete son-of-a-bitch. I guess I managed to pinch the yokes together with the autozone rental tool, because I blew up two end caps trying to get the c-clip land inside the yoke far enough to set the retainer, and the joints are tight in that direction. Cool cool. Hopefully I can get my wife to hold the shaft while I hammer the yokes w/ a drift to get them moving. In better news, the steels and pressure switch manifold arrived. I rebuilt the input drum (thanks again for that diagram!) without trouble. Now I'm ready to put the transmission back together, but faced with the 'where do these seals go' stage of the rebuild. This was a explicit 'bare minimum for 3/4 slip' kit, so I think I should avoid leftover parts. Kit was obviously intended for shops who know poo poo from shinola, so it was helpfully un labeled. Most of the parts were obvious, but there were quite a few I do not recall encountering. Parts:  Starting with the easy, 4 go on the input shaft, as does 5 I believe (old one was brown don't know if that maters) 10 is the seal on the tailhousing (included as an anti go-back measure?) 11 and 12 go in the pump cover I thought 6 was for the filter tube, but no longer think that. 7, 8 and 9 look roughly solenoid sized (I have not removed solenoids from the valve body to compare and I have not seen 1, 2 or 3. They're square seals (except 2). Any ideas? As I mentioned I haven't taken the solenoids out of the pump body, and I also haven't disassembled the pump. I'm kind of thinking that since my truck is a piece of poo poo and leaks a ton I should just touch as little as possible and send it. Does it look like there's anything in this kit I absolutely shouldn't ignore?
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Mar 20, 2021 18:40
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cursedshitbox posted:1-3 look like apply piston inner seals. cursedshitbox posted:if two are identical it could be 538 or 179 inside the pump cursedshitbox posted:5 380? Yep, 380. Thanks for IDing 475! This one has me scratching my head now, so I'm probably going to disassemble the input drum. During the take apart, I came away with two thrust bearings. 229 on the input shaft and what I think was 235... I definitely didn't remove the c-clip 881 but I'll double check.
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Mar 20, 2021 20:13
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No personal experience but these trucks seem to respond very well to bolt-ons - when they're tuned. Worst case you could probably get a set of 'street' headers and a catback for One Stimulus and look cool/sound cool.
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Mar 20, 2021 20:46
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I've got one weird trick to improve my GMT800's MPGeees.... It's calling AAA for a tow.. The manic early-project energy is gone. Now I'm running on pure, high-test gently caress-this-thing. Got the clutches and drums back together. Watched a couple teflon ring installs and said gently caress it. Left the old ones in place (they seem okay and I'd probably just gently caress em up/need to by scarfed seals). Installed the pump, installed the valve body and then realized the pressure control solenoid blocked the harness connector. Didn't realize the solenoid is only held in by the external bracket, so I pulled the valve body again, breaking the 3-2 solenoid in the process.  Luckily I did this at 7:45p so I still had a chance to find one at the Autozone on the far side of town. Slapped the rest of the 4l60e together last night, with no unexpected leftover parts.  Putting the transmission back in place was a little sketchier than removing it. Came close to having it slide off my sketch rear end motorcycle jack + scrap lumber setup. got 5 of 8 bolts in, pinned the cross member so it's safe for now. I'll gently caress with it some more this weekend.
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Mar 26, 2021 21:38
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I wish I could throw a cam, headers and a tune at this truck. I mean, if I ever crack an exhaust manifold, I'll probably pick up a set of Summit Truck headers because they're cheap and have CARB EO's- but as far as I can tell no camshaft satisfy the State of California and as soon as I touch the ECU (and the checksums no longer match) that's out too. Maybe if I could find a cam mild enough that it will set all the emissions monitors with the stock ECU, but that probably won't be a huge upgrade... IDK, that's a future thing. I need to read/talk to someone who knows about tuning ECUs (and resetting them to pass biannual smog checks) because I would like to do some non-emissions change (electric fans) that require a reprogram. In the meantime, yesterday I knocked out the hardest part of the job. Reinstalling the AT dipstick. Holy hell, gently caress that. I had to call my buddy over because I knew trying to have my wife jiggle from above while I worked under the truck would probably land me on the couch for a week. So far the MVP of this job has been my 4l60e installation tool  (I should probabalby buy a 24" or 36" extension) but this friendly neighbor who has come to check on my progress has been a close second. 
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Mar 28, 2021 17:47
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:I wonder if there's enough garbage in the ECU rom to be able to brute-force a valid checksum after a tune. I'm imagining a config that runs great, passes smog, but the headlights are controlled by the passenger-side window switch. Well, everything's poo poo. Had some time yesterday so hosed around with the truck a bit. I picked up a double-flaring kit (HF, of course) but I can't get it to work for poo poo without using a bench vice (so not great for doing the work-on truck) and the shop didn't have flare nuts so I think I'm just going to score the trans cooler hard lines, jam the hose on and double-clamp. I'll put in some reference marks so I can tell if it's working loose in the future. I also went to bolt the flex plate to the torque converter and found I couldn't move either. The brain trust has informed me that this is hosed up and I might have killed the pump. I'll pull the fucker again later. Also, in non-truck related fuckery I just found out that California only sells poo poo-tier propane, so my new-last-year 5hp outboard is probably going to get hosed up by excess propylene in the mix. Cool, cool.
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Apr 1, 2021 22:04
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Yep. I killed it again. One tab on the pump is broken, the other is just hosed up.
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Apr 4, 2021 01:50
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Split my pump in to pieces / this is a hosed up part  Yeah, I definitely had the TC slip off while I was gorillia-ing the transmission into place.  Interesting wear. This was ~12k and then 2 miles on no fluid.  Clearly, the pump did not like being run dry. I actually checked the line pressure before I pulled the trans and it looked okay. I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten many more miles out of this if I had reinstalled the transmission successfully.  Another angle, and note the wear on the bushing. I think that means my lm7's crank is drooping. No surprise there.  This angle really shows the scoring. Not sure it'll buff out.  Other side looks better, there's still some scoring Back to CYOA time. A big part of me wants to just punt and buy a crate transmission from the autoparts store for $1500 because have low confidence in my half-assing this transmission back together again. The rest of me is a cheap gently caress who says to buy this cover...  ...because it's VIRUS PROTECTED and a new rotor but it's feeling like good money after bad. Like more than normal.
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Apr 14, 2021 02:24
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poo poo's on order. Hope the protective virus is something I've got antibodies for.
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Apr 14, 2021 19:31
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Good news, the viruses did their job and the pump parts arrived safely. I reassembled the rotor, vanes and slider:  I didn't have an alignment tool, or 36" worth of worm drive hose clamps so I just kind of eyeballed it. Got the transmission back up on it's tail...  ...jiggled the input shaft to settle the drums back down, installed the pump. Then as I was grabbing the separator plate I noticed this on the bench:  Cool cool. Did all the above steps again. Installed the valve body...  ...installed the solenoids and accumulator, connected the harness but I forgot to connect the shift linkage to the valve piston Holy poo poo I'm going to be so good at taking these apart and putting them back together when this thing explodes after 600miles. Got that straightened, installed the pan and tail piece. I'll install the servo, bellhousing and brackets tomorrow - and gently slam this poo poo back in the truck.
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Apr 24, 2021 04:42
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Yep. Watching that channel's vids helped me to believe that automatic transmissions aren't eldritch puzzleboxes. Installation #2 went a lot smoother. Not because I've learned a drat thing, but, well, like my shirt says:  Thank you CSB for parachuting in and helping me out (and for letting me gawk at your badass rig.) Dude's a force of nature and we had the transmission from bench to test drive in about three hours. Took it around the block, the trans shifted nicely. No leaks, no codes, no taking everything back apart because I forgot a step. Turns out the secret to easy shade tree wrenching is to call in a ringer. Thanks again CSB! After he left I drove the truck around a bit. Still shifting good after 20 miles, but there is an increasing vibration over 40-ish mph. Hopefully it's a flat spot on the tires from sitting, but I might have hosed up something in the driveline. Going back out in a bit to confirm no leaks overnight, then maybe get wild and take a load of trash to the dump. Figure a bed full of palm fronds will be a quick and painful way to determine fix/no fix.
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Apr 25, 2021 16:33
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Dump run was a success! Overnight rains never came so I let my buddy know the dump run is on. That immediately cued the rain but it was just a brief shower and we were able to make it out to the dump and unload while things were still friendly to a RWD truck on street tires. Rain kicked up right as we were leaving the dump, so I know the gods of truckfuckling are smiling upon me. Truck ran good, trans didn't slip and the vibes were less noticeable with a load in the bed. Joints look to be in-phase, the mid-line slip yoke was keyed so I think I'm good there. I miiight have flipped the u-joint at the diff 180 because I'm a dumb rear end in a top hat who couldn't find his paint pen and tried to mark poo poo with a sharpie, so I'll probably give that a shot later when the ground is dry.
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Apr 25, 2021 18:48
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Proof of life:  I love going to the dump  Trucks been sitting covered in leaves and pollen so I took it to the coin wash. I have to go on rainy days because otherwise the owner runs me off for trashing the place with paint chips  Hmm, it's been about 70 miles... I should check for codes  Ok so normal.
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Apr 25, 2021 21:53
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Knock sensors weren’t too bad. Messy job though cleaning under the intake manifold, but that’s more of a my-truck thing. Elmnt80 posted:
Heh heh... Guess what I’ve been dodging for 4 years
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Apr 26, 2021 05:59
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Flipped the driveshaft, and the vibrations at 40 are gone... there's a little something happening 55-65, but it's slight. I should probably pull wheels to inspect my brakes (did I put speed bleeders on this yet?) and rotate my tires. I'll see if that changes anything. It's nice having the driveline out of the garage. Figured I'd use the opportunity to fix the grille. It's held in place with clips by the fenders, plastic cams in the corners and one bolt with a big washer high and center. My clips are awol and the plastic cams have a lot of slop so this part where the grille is bolted to the truck flexes. Mine's cracking: https://i.imgur.com/vRV3R5O.mp4  Scuffing up the back side  Why yes I am a two pump chump  Allow the West 205 to age to a deep caramel before using / cloth is 1708 because I had a lot laying around.  Not my best layup... or clamp job
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Apr 27, 2021 05:28
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Oh, if I need a new grille... or 
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Apr 27, 2021 06:57
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 Didn't get great adhesion on the top, but the sides look good and that's what matters PEEL PORN  Looks alright  Just a little flash to clean up That bit should be bombproof now, so I'm sure my grille will break in new and exciting places (and I should buy clips for the fender parts so it's not so stressed).... Applebees Appetizer posted:So how bad does the detonation wear on these motors, my brother seems to think it's not worth fixing. How bad is it? Is his truck throwing any codes? I get slight pinging with high load/hot days/high rpm and a misfire or two randomly (any/all phases of driving) if I watch my scan tool but not enough to throw any DTCs. IIRC, when the knock sensors were pure rust, it did throw a code but didn't light the CEL. In my case it's easy to 'drive around' the pinging so I'm not worried, but if it's frequent... that can't be good. I did dump a can of Seafoam into it but that didn't change anything. I should really pull the plugs and take a look (I'm a hair worried one cyl will be steam polished) but I should pick up some wires for reasons mentioned above. Shame the ACDelco wires are boring gray, it'd be a lot cooler if they were red.
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Apr 27, 2021 18:02
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Yeah, 100%. I used the aerosol can in the throttle body. It smoked less than the old way of poring/sucking Seafoam/GM Top Engine cleaner through a vacuum line. I'm also of the use most the can and then let is stall, and sit for 10 persuasion. That always made teh best smoke. Didn't make an appreciable difference on how the truck ran. ETA: I don't use seafoam in the gas tank, but I do add Techron concentrate on the Hank Hill schedule 
monsterzero fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Apr 27, 2021 |
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Apr 27, 2021 19:06
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Going to need to rename my truck THE CONTENT MACHINE. Drove it into the office and filled the tank on the way because I was feeling positive. Drove home after taking care of business and when I hopped out I could smell coolant... Popped the hood, and took a look. poo poo's wet, and not in a basted with ATF five months ago kinda way.  This is the pass side frame rail, beneath the coolant reservoir - AC compressor and below looks to be wet. I tasted it, bitter AF. The coolant reservoir level was a little below where I left it, and I took a look at the overflow tube:  Ya boy is wet. In lighter news, I probably should have opened an incognito tab last night: 
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Apr 27, 2021 23:40
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Current status: Three cry-laughing emoji https://i.imgur.com/0N7piW9.mp4 Oh drippy https://i.imgur.com/64rzDQj.mp4 Well there's my problem  Problem solved!
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Apr 28, 2021 01:43
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I thought it was just a warming loop for the throttle body, and it's never cold here so fuckit, but I guess the steam tubes prevent air pockets in the heads. You're right, I should fix that. I'm a little concerned because I think I remember the throttle body being plugged with the same clay-red poo poo that filled half the radiator when I pulled the intake a couple years ago. I ran the truck for a minute with the radiator side plugged as pictured and the other side left open, no coolant came out. Another mystery for a future episode.
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Apr 28, 2021 04:27
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I've put about 150mi on the trucks since reinstalling the transmission. So far, so good. No slipping in gear and the shifts all feel good. Already taken it to the dump three times, and I'll go again tomorrow AM. I guess my friends yards were hurting from the truck being down.  That being the case, I'm switching into fix-what-ain't-broken mode:  I've been avoiding touching the plugs/wires for four years. I wonder what I'll find. Applebees Appetizer posted:So I went to run the codes in my brothers truck and it keeps saying "ecu not connected" and he tells me the same thing happened when he tried having the codes read at a autozone. Something wrong with the port possibly? Does the driver-side cigarette lighter on the dash provide 12v?
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May 2, 2021 02:21
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Got lazy because it's been extra windy lately and I can't be outside for five minutes without a whole tree blowing into my eyes. Took advantage of a lull the other afternoon and pulled the plugs.  I see at least one  Left side, 2nd from bottom - ground electrode looks wet.   Truck had been off for a couple days, and the plug remained wet in the garage so I doubt it's fuel. Could be oil, given the extra smoo on the body, and the gray-er insulator. This one is representtitve of the other seven:  I think that looks pretty good. Maybe a hint of preignition (weld splatter on the ground tip?) I suspect the PO did these 15-30k ago, and I won't see any change from replacing the plugs. I did downgrade from Iridium to Double Plat, so maybe I can flip these to offset the expense. Plug wires looked good as well. 5 came willingly, two had the boot separate from the crimp/wire but put up no fight and one boot fell apart and I had to pick the pieces off the plug with tools. Glad I put this off until I had wires on hand. While the plugs were out I checked the compression. I was doing this solo, and had to run from the ignition to the engine bay to read the pressure but all cyls were over 200psi. I tried to look into the cyls, but it turns out my $17 ebay endoscope is garbage and I couldn't see poo poo. I did learn from this, however, that my LM7 will start and idle with one bank of ignition coils disconnected. Fucker wants to live.
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May 9, 2021 21:09
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 08:03 |
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Advent Horizon posted:People pay money for used spark plugs? Lol no, but with the way precious metals are going... that reminds me there was a rebate on the plugs I should file. Rhyno posted:Other than airbags, what can I do to improve the ride comfort? I'm also leaning towards the idea of a static drop after seeing that mentioned in another thread. No idea, but a 2/4" drop usually makes a RWD truck look pretty good.
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May 9, 2021 22:30
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