Well I haven't posted anything about this truck in about two months. So here is an update!! I ended up not buying that crew cab, the guy ended up selling the entire truck before I could make the trip down to Sacramento to pick it up. Oh, and today was daylight savings time and I hate it, less time to work on my truck
My oil cooler was leaking, so I bought a new one from Pick N Pull in Sparks, NV and surprisingly, there were 2 6.5L trucks there and of course a bunch of other trucks and suburbans, and out of 30 or so trucks I found only one oil cooler I needed, from a c1500 with a 350 nonetheless! And the truck also leaks coolant going into the heater core, so that is another thing I (still) have to deal with. Also, I fixed the fuel tank issue. More on that later.
I was at the truck a week or two ago, didn't do anything to it but it fired right up! Connected the batteries, waited for the glow plugs, and away it roared.
So my fuel issue. I ended up taking the hardline from the parts truck and replaced the cracked line in the 6.5, and in order to do so I needed to lift the bed or drop the tank. I decided to drop the tank although halfway through the nut thing on the other side of the strap broke so the bolt decided to just spin. Then I decided to lift the bed, and I ran into an issue. The gooseneck hitch needed to be unbolted which used 1" bolts, and I attempted to remove them but I couldn't, even with a 5 foot pipe to act as a breaker bar. We didn't have an air compressor or power where I was at so that idea wouldn't work either. Then I resorted to unbolting the left side of the bed so I could lift it up just high enough to access the top of the tank and used a hi-lift jack. That trick worked well, although when I went to lower the bed I accidently went up one notch and it kinked my bed. So the bed is toast I'll need to buy another one at some point. It's not lined up with the body lines because I haven't rebolted it to the frame (and probably won't since I'll just be putting a new bed on it).
Oh that push bumper in the background will be going on this truck, I need to make brackets first though.
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So, let's move forward to today. I'll just start out with this image that I took on my way to the truck. Keep in mind today is November 6 and Christmas is 8 weeks away.
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So I fired the truck right up and ran it for a minute. Then the first thing I replaced was the oil cooler, and then added fresh new 15w-40 oil to the truck (I drained it prior to replacing the oil cooler). Then since everything up front was completed I changed my turn signals in the grille from my previous 98 k1500, and added the front bumper. The truck looks much nicer now!!
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So I decided to fix my coolant leak, and I had some rubber hose that I wanted to run from the heater core to the thing under the thermostat, and my plan was to replace it with a nipple (on the second photo, that piece is from the blown up engine), so I went to remove the hard line and the god damn cast piece snapped with the threads still in the coolant piece. I tried doing what I could to remove it but I couldn't. I'll figure out some plan to remove it the next time I go out there.
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I still have a list of things I need to do, checklist for later to remind myself:
- Fluid for Transfer Case
- Front Driveshaft
- Fix Coolant Leak and fill with Coolant
- Reinstall Hood
- Fix wiring for front turn signals
- Wipers turn on when turning on high beams
But that concludes my update for now. I hate that my truck looks beaterish, but once there is a new bed and paint on it I won't be saying that! Oh and the truck has very very little blowby which is awesome, the old engine had wayyy to much the rings were shot probably 150k ago on that thing. Parts truck will be going away soon, going to haul it to another friends house so he can rob what's left on it for his 89 k1500 RCSB. All I want is the rear axle at this point, the truck served me well!! Looking back, I should have just fixed that truck and drove it and not have even bothered purchasing the k1500 back, but whatever. My fault