What GMT400 parts are unobtainable in 2019?

Darrin De May said:

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Can't seem to find the rubber gasket that goes with the Center High Mounted Stop and Cargo Lamp Housing to fit my C3500. Apparently it came with discontinued Part # 16522433 (Superseded to # 16520605, also discontinued). It's # 6 in the diagram. It'd be nice if the aftermarket would come up with a decent replacement.

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This guy made his own with a sheet of 1/4" thick neoprene, might be helpful to you.

https://www.gmt400.com/threads/leaking-3rd-brake-light-cargo-light-1995-k1500.44672/

df2x4 said:

This guy made his own with a sheet of 1/4" thick neoprene, might be helpful to you.

https://www.gmt400.com/threads/leaking-3rd-brake-light-cargo-light-1995-k1500.44672/

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Thanks for the link! I copied & pasted my post over there and gave you credit for pointing that thread out to me. Thanks again!

Darrin De May said:

Thanks for the link! I copied & pasted my post over there and gave you credit for pointing that thread out to me. Thanks again!

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You're welcome!

I am like a kid on Christmas Day.

This center console button, I became convinced, was the most rare part on these trucks. It had been missing since I bought the truck, and they’re not available aftermarket or OEM.

It’s the bench seat console, rather than the bucket seat’s. The buckets have a console button that is available everywhere.

Went to the JY this morning and crawled through some K1500s looking for a few parts, and found this beauty on a 98 that had otherwise been ransacked.






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df2x4 said:

To add to the random fuel/ethanol discussion...

I ran ethanol free gas from a small local station in my town for quite a while in both of my '97s. That station did not have top tier gas, however I assumed it was decent. One day I got the feeling that I used to get more miles between fill-ups before I started running the ethanol free. So for the next few tanks I filled up with top tier gas from different stations that contained ethanol. My fuel mileage immediately got much better.

My discovery was that in my particular situation, the top tier gas mattered a lot more than the lack of ethanol. I've been running top tier with ethanol for many years now with no ill effects, both trucks are still running the factory poppet injectors. I'm sticking with top tier supplied stations regardless of the ethanol content. Here's a complete list of them if anyone's interested.

https://toptiergas.com/licensed-brands/

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After reading the last few pages of this thread, I had no idea straight gas was cheaper (and readily available in other states). The Feds mandated ethanol blend in Colorado because of smog on the Front Range--and we get our fuel in Colorado almost exclusively from the Front Range refineries. Also, here in Colorado the octane ratings are a bit lower than most other places. That's because the higher altitude allows the fuel/air molecules to mix "finer" and raises the octane rating (octane rating can vary a lot dependent on temps of fuel and air, barometric pressure, humidity, etc).

df,
Back in the early 90's Colorado was only required to have ethanol blend during the winter. I bought a new '91 K2500 Light Duty with the 5.7 and NV3500 in the spring of 92. With straight gas, an empty truck, and driving it nicely as I could, I got as much as 18 mpg with hwy driving in the mountains at altitudes from 6k to 11.5k ft. That was incredible to me.

When fall came around and ethanol blend gas kicked in I lost 1 to 1.5 mpg. I decided to try midgrade fuel and got most of my fuel mileage back, plus the truck went up the hill NOTICEABLY better. I could go much further up the pass before I had to start downshifting.

Interestingly, when summer came around and we went back to straight gas my mpg gain with midgrade was only a little bit better. Back then there was only 5 cents difference between regular and midgrade. I kept very good track of fuel mileage with that truck and did some fancy calculating of the cost of regular vs the cost of midgrade and midgrade wasn't costing me any more than running regular.

Today, midgrade is 25 cents more than regular here in Colorado. No way it pays for itself. But I do get about a 1 mpg better with my 96 and 97 5.7's and also with my 01 Sierra 5.3. And all three go up the hill better with midgrade than regular--I know, I've tried regular a number of times and can easily tell the diff. Same with my 96 G1500 and 2002 G2500 Vortec work vans.

Top Tier gas does two things: It is the best assurance that you are getting quality gas with the additives that the auto manufacturers require, which in turn will also go a long ways towards keeping the motors clean, won't pre-detonate, help keep valve seats a bit cooler, create less hydrocarbons in the crankcase, etc. Gas that is not Top Tier might be fine for one batch, but not the next because of quality control.

Also, there are Top Tier refiners, and Top Tier retail gas. The gas has to come out of a Top Tier refinery and use the proper additives at the retail level to be called Top Tier.

And......the higher the octane rating, the mo' better the additives--at least for the name brand gas. Allegedly the cleanest gasoline with the best additives on the market in America is Shell premium "V-Power".

I'm going to have to change my opinion on ethanol, after using some top tier straight gas, I actually got better mileage. Got about 15 mpg on my 98, pretty great for a 4x4 3/4 ton! I was really surprised. Going back to ethanol-free.

No big revelation there.
Almost always get better mileage with ethanol free. One gallon of Ethanol does not make as much power as the same amount of gasoline.
So, a 10% blend will get lower power AND lower mpg. Known fact.
The good thing about ethanpl is it has a higher octane rating (less volitable) so it is a great fuel for turbo and supercharged engines where detonation (ping) is present at higher timing settings. E85 makes a great fuel for those engines .... It just takes more of it.


Modern flex fuel engines can sense the ping with knock sensors and reduce timing via the computer. But even with all that going for it, the power output of MOST flex fuel vehicles (both fuels mpg are listed) are slightly lower when using ethanol vs gasoline. Tons of tests were done on this for years.

Here's a couple:

Edmunds test on Tahoe ....
https://www.edmunds.com/fuel-economy/e85-vs-gasoline-comparison-test.html


Government won't lie.....
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/ethanol.shtml