Steve, my 1995 K1500 Cowboy Cadillac.

[MIHELA]

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[MIHELA]

Right before all of this happened we had part of the exhaust fall off on the highway so I replaced the front with a straight piece of 3" stainless, got a 3" Thrush muffler and a 3" Magnaflow rear pipe. I also replaced the rear brake line when it blew near the front fitting. You can see them in this pic.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[MIHELA]

In June of 2015 my next door neighbor's friend was over with his Coupe De'Ville in preparation for our town's big yearly car show. I asked him what kind of mileage he got and the answer surprised me. I had considered an LS swap, but the cost of tuning software always seemed too much. So I began looking at the feasibility of a big block Cadillac engine swap. The more I looked into it the less crazy it sounded. I kept the idea in the back of my head but I figured unless something happened it wasn't worth it to swap out a perfectly good running engine. Little did I know what would happen next...

 

[MIHELA]

In June of 2015 one Saturday I was preparing a load of branches in my backyard to take to our rubble site. The truck sat idling in the yard for 15-20 minutes. When I got in it to drive it away I noticed a funny smell. When I drove it over the curb and got into the street, I looked at the gauge cluster, and the temp had gone well into the red, so I pulled over and popped the hood. The coolant in the overflow bottle was boiling it was so hot, and the fan wasn't running. I bumped the connector for the thermostat switch and the fan came to life and the temp dropped quickly. That fan switch connector had been harvested from the engine harness in my 1991 Calais which I had parted out years before and the terminal must have spread so it made poor contact. I finished my dump run and when I got home, assessed the damage. The heat had split the radiator tank at the oil cooler fitting. Other than that the truck ran fine, so I just prayed that was the only thing wrong.

 

[MIHELA]

So now I had a bad radiator, so I went to one of my local junkyards and pulled a 7.4 radiator from a 3500, with the top brackets to fit.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[MIHELA]

The truck drove great after this. I drove around to a lot of dirt roads and put a few hundred miles on and had no issues, so I thought the engine was fine.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[MIHELA]

I even had the AC recharged, and it worked! The compressor leaked so badly that I could see bubbles around the case seal, but I had AC for the first and last time on the truck.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[MIHELA]

August of 2015, I started working at a different dealership and met my now best friend. I helped him move an engine for his Honda which had driven into water during a flood and hydro locked. When I got home, I noticed the engine making a rhythmic ticking sound. This was the first sign something was wrong. I reset the valve lash which made the noise go away, but the truck started stalling on occasion pulling to a stop. For the first time since 2009, I couldn't trust it to go the Nordstom's Harvest Day in October. I had to cram my wheelbarrow into my Subaru. In my garage I had parts I had pulled from a Vortec motor so at the yard I grabbed all the rest of the pushrods to prepare to swap in the roller cam, since I knew my flat tappet cam was shot.

 

[MIHELA]

Haven't worked on this thread in a while. No time like the present.
December, 2015. Me and my friend started pulling the motor out of the truck. We had gotten quite a bit of snow and it was our first opportunity to work on it.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[MIHELA]

Engine out.

You must be registered for see images attach