I think I'll call her "Just Red" 1994 C1500 Silverado

[someotherguy]

I didn't realize there was a right way, and wrong way for the squealers to go... I wonder if that's why my squarebody front brakes ALWAYS squeal, with now less than 5k miles on them. Which way are the squealers supposed to go? Leading edge or Trailing edge?
Nevermind... found it in the manual for my truck. Now to see if my square is the same.

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The issue with them facing the trailing end is they'll never squeal, until it's way too late. I never even thought about this as I usually go in for other work (tire replacement, rotation, or whatever else) before the brakes go bad.. so the squealers are rarely a factor for me. However, this is gonna be her truck, and she does pay attention to weird noises and lets me know.

BTW.. radiator's bad. I was checking the A/C charge and smelled coolant, noticed it's leaking at the tank crimp, pretty bad. It was just a tiny bit before, couldn't easily tell where it as coming from, so I figured it was the quick connect (it is corroded and seeping a little bit.) Ordered a Spectra just now off Rock and a Gates lever-vent cap. I've already got coolant and a bottle of flush handy since I was gonna go in for the heater hose quick connect fitting.

Richard

 

[someotherguy]

Leaking radiator.. we're gonna ignore those weeping oil cooler lines for the moment.

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...and some doofus been dicking with the minimum air rate screw. so I get to dig in the manual and teach myself again how to set it correctly, then re-learn the IAC. Been a while since I had to bother with this. I was wondering why it would still idle funny (low) every now and then even though I replaced the IAC.. yeah, now I know why.

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Richard

 

[someotherguy]

Mental exercise to see if I remember how to do this - it's been probably 20 years. Disconnect battery to clear PCM memory. Reconnect. Turn key ON (engine OFF) for 10 seconds, allow IAC pintle to reach fully closed position. Turn key OFF. Disconnect IAC. Start engine, A/C and all other accessories OFF. Adjust minimum air rate screw to obtain (___) RPM idle speed.

There's where I'll have to look it up. The desired speed, and at what operating temperature. One would think you'd want it fully warmed up but I just can't recall.

Key OFF, disconnect battery again to clear PCM memory (IAC position will be unknown since key was on while it was disconnected), re-connect, re-connect IAC, key ON for 10 seconds to set IAC position.

At that point I believe it would be key OFF, hook up the Tech 2, start engine and see what the idle speed behavior is vs. IAC counts.

That should be it. I think? No worries; I'm gonna look it up in the FSM, I'm just playing brain games to see how much of this process I remember and if what I remember makes logical sense.

Richard

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

Mental exercise to see if I remember how to do this - it's been probably 20 years. Disconnect battery to clear PCM memory. Reconnect. Turn key ON (engine OFF) for 10 seconds, allow IAC pintle to reach fully closed position. Turn key OFF. Disconnect IAC. Start engine, A/C and all other accessories OFF. Adjust minimum air rate screw to obtain (___) RPM idle speed.

There's where I'll have to look it up. The desired speed, and at what operating temperature. One would think you'd want it fully warmed up but I just can't recall.

Key OFF, disconnect battery again to clear PCM memory (IAC position will be unknown since key was on while it was disconnected), re-connect, re-connect IAC, key ON for 10 seconds to set IAC position.

At that point I believe it would be key OFF, hook up the Tech 2, start engine and see what the idle speed behavior is vs. IAC counts.

That should be it. I think? No worries; I'm gonna look it up in the FSM, I'm just playing brain games to see how much of this process I remember and if what I remember makes logical sense.

Richard

I have that '94 FSM, let me know if you need me to look in it for anything. I'll be in the shop building tomorrow so I can get to it easily.

 

[someotherguy]

I have that '94 FSM, let me know if you need me to look in it for anything. I'll be in the shop building tomorrow so I can get to it easily.

That's the one I have in paper copy, too. No worries.

Richard

 

[someotherguy]

OK, radiator day..

Old one leaking at what I first thought was the tank crimp. Pumped it up with the cooling system tester and shined the flashlight in there to be sure it wasn't just coming from a loose upper hose. Nope, dry above the tank fins.

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Took it out and discovered it wasn't the tank crimp at all, it was traveling around the fins from the front - the tank had cracked up there where you can't see it with the radiator installed.

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Cleaned all the misc. debris out from the core support (wasn't much) but mostly to be sure the drain holes were all clear. Popped the new radiator in there (Spectra Premium, and yes, it's Chinesium) fit was good though and no issues with any of the cooling lines.

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Hooked it up but tied the upper radiator hose back away from the alternator/belt drive and ran the engine until it went through several thermostat cycles. Whenever it would start pumping through the upper hose onto the inner fender, I'd feed it clean water into the tank, slowly, until it would run clear and then close. Repeated 3 or 4 times until it would keep running clear.

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All buttoned up, filled up, fresh Gates lever-vent cap. Ran it a while and now I'm letting it cool off so I can go double check the level, then go for a test drive.

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Richard

 

[454cid]

Interesting place for it to go bad. For me, it's always been around the oil cooler, or the upper hose fitting. I see the small block has the hose restrained pretty well, which probably keeps the upper hose connection safe from cracking.

 

[someotherguy]

Interesting place for it to go bad. For me, it's always been around the oil cooler, or the upper hose fitting. I see the small block has the hose restrained pretty well, which probably keeps the upper hose connection safe from cracking.

Yep. It seems like the crimp puts pressure on the tank, squeezing it a little, and over time as the plastic aged and lost elasticity, it finally just gave up and cracked.

Richard

 

[Caman96]

I salute that 31 year old radiator. When I replaced mine in 2021, I also used a Spectra Premium(dual core). I saved my original, it wasn’t leaking, not sure I’d chance it going forward.

 

[someotherguy]

Tried to go on a test drive and had noooooo acceleration. I mean none. Turned around back to the garage, popped the hood, grabbed the distributor and it turned. JFC how was this thing loose the whole time, who knows how long, including driving it almost 500 miles home from MS? I figure the Ravelco installer must have bumped the distributor while he was in there, and knocked it off wherever it had been set.

So I popped the timing bypass wire loose, marked the balancer, pulled out the ol' timing light and got busy. Set to zero and snugged down, re-checked. I've also found that my distributor wrenches suck on these engines because the MAP sensor bracket and the heater hose quick connect are in the way, so a crows foot on an extension works much better. Then we got our test drive, doing fine.

With that said, it explains the funky idle I was experiencing all of a sudden. Doesn't look like I need to go after the minimum air rate setting after all.

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Now I should've just gone ahead and done the quick connect while I was in there doing the radiator. But, I didn't wanna complicate things and I was already burned out from working in the hot garage. Can I convince myself to go after the quick connect later tonight after the truck, and the garage, have cooled off a bit? Hmmm...

Richard