1993 C1500 Stepside

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I've gotten some more things done on the 93' the past few days. The brakes were in bad shape. The master cylinder was seeping from the gasket between the reservoir and the proportioning valve. I replaced the master cylinder with an AC Delco from RockAuto.


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The drivers side slider pins were locked up pretty good, which resulted in the passenger side pads being almost metal to metal on both the inboard and outboard pads. I ended up replacing both the calipers too. I went with the Durlalast's from auto zone. At $50 for the pair it seemed like a good idea.

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The rear brakes were dry as a desert when I cracked the bleeders back there, I really don't think they were working at all. I pumped the brakes and got the fluid flowing. I always gravity bleed my brakes, seemed to work well again here. The old fluid looked like used motor oil, glad to get some fresh fluid in the system.

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I took the 93' up to PA for a work trip this week, put almost 1,000 miles on the truck. She is running well. MPG seems to be up quite a bit. On the drive from DC I got 18.5 mpg. Mixed driving between going to work and hwy has been around 17 mpg. The last city tank I did was about 11mpg so I think that TBI base gasket has helped a lot. The exhaust is still smoky but it smells like dry, burnt oil, it doesn't have that super rich gassy smell to it anymore.

I can still smell some gas in the cab with the windows open but I think its just fumes from the filler neck or gas cap. 75% better that it was a couple of months ago but I still have some digging to do.
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I've been in the process of flushing out the coolant system. Very dark green fluid and a good amount of rust has been coming out of the system. There is a service sticker date from 2002 on the fan shroud with a mileage of 240k so this truck has only been driven abut 50k in the last 17 years and I wouldn't be surprised if the coolant was that old.

The A/C does does technically work but the compressor sure seems to be putting a heavy load on the belt. I don't trust it right now, I'm afraid its going to blow and tear up the belt.

I did buy a set of drop shackles this week to temporarily get some of the rake out of the truck, these will eventually go on my 88' though. I do plan on doing a 4/6 drop on this 93', hopefully this year yet, but I can't do a 4/6 with these 10" wide wheels so I picked up a nice set of 15x8 Rallye's with new tires while I was up in PA this week. Which adds insult to injury that I had to buy the Primewell's when that tire blew.
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I finally got a free afternoon to install a set of 2" drop shackle on my truck yesterday.

My before and after measurements only gave me a drop of about 3/4" in the rear but I also removed the trailer hitch and the spare tire so I probably lost almost 200 lbs in the rear. I need to fix a slow leak on the spare, it will be going back on the truck eventually so I'll probably have maybe a 1" drop from the shackles which is certainly less than I expected.

Before:

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After:

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I also tried out the rally wheels on the back. It's definitely a different look. I'm torn on going to a full 4/6 drop now, I'd have to run the rally wheels. I do like the look of the wider 15x10 and I can keep it at this height. I do think the truck would drive better, or at least turn better, with the narrower rally wheels and tires. Having the big 275's on 10" rims in the front, the truck does some weird things when turned full lock which I'm assuming is the big tires. The 10" rims and the paint scheme really give it that 1993 vibe though, which seems to be working for it.

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The hitch and spare off the truck.

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Drop shackle installed:

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I also disrupted my exhaust and I think one of the welds for the hanger broke, so that sucks, I have no way to weld it here.


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Big picture wise, I'm kinda of torn about which direction to go with the truck next. I had assumed that I would be doing the 4/6 drop within the next year but now more mechanical things are coming up so I'm thinking more about a LS swap. The A/C had been working, but now its not blowing cold air. I need to get a set of A/C gauges and check it out. With the exhaust needing some repair now and 290k on the 350TBI maybe it does make more sense to try and start piecing together a swap. I just don't want to throw a bunch of money at the TBI setup only to do a LS swap in a couple of years and again have to fix the AC and exhaust anyway. But on the other hand if I can get this exhaust welded and get some A/C gauges and only have to recharge the A/C myself, it wouldn't be that bad.
 

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Got some more things done on the truck the last few weeks. I was able to source a dash locally, I just needed to remove it from the donor truck. I was able to grab the door panels, 40/60 bench seat and the jack kit too.

Much needed dash swap from my truck that spent 25 years in FL. The original one disintegrated in my hands when I pulled it out. The new one I got isn't prefect either but 100x better than what I was dealing with. It was also nice to get and clean much of the HVAC system out. Also swapped in some new 4x6's in the dash. The old ones were so sun rotted the foam was completely gone.

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I've been driving the truck a fair amount, put almost 1,000 miles on it this week actually for a work trip. I changed the oil before I left with 15w-40 Rotella. I also sea foamed the motor and changed the coolant. The truck doesn't seem to be smoking anywhere near as bad as when I got it in Feburary. I've have to see how the oil consumption is. Over the last 5k oil change I added 3 quarts but I started with 5W-30 and started adding the 15W-40. I've put about 6k miles on it so far, just officially rolled over 290,000. I've been averaging 18 mpg on the hwy, probably can't ask for much more.

Took Some pics in PA today after the rain went away. Beautiful fall afternoon here.

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Lots of interior work this fall. Shortly after I installed the new dash I had wanted to get the 40/60 split bench from the same donor truck installed. The 40/60 was in much better shape coming out of a 100k mile truck compared to mine at almost 300k. I rented a carpet shampooer and went to town on the both of the bench seats and the carpet. I ended up removing the carpet from the truck and literally took a hose to it. The floor pan is in pretty good shape. I did buzz off a few minor surface rust spots and hit it with primer. This truck always had a musty smell to it. Some of the insulation under the caret was damp. I debated buying a new carpet and insulation pad but I reinstalled what I had and so far I've been happy with that decision.

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I also buzzed the rusty risers on the new 40/60 bench and hit it with some fresh paint.

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Freshly painted and installed.

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Carpet reinstalled with new 40/60 bench seat.

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