Motrhedx81
Newbie
Thanks Road Trip.
Good eye on the head intake ports. I forgot to mention that, and some of the history.
I got the truck about 3 years ago. Based on some of the paperwork I saw, I think it lived its life as a ranch truck out in Wyoming and finally there was enough wrong that they got rid of it. I bought it out of Texas with about 195k miles. It still had a truckload (pun intended) of dirt packed to the whole bottom side. It was running pretty rough when I got it. I did a compression test (which was ok-ish), and leak-down test. The leak-down failed pretty bad, basically leaking at the valves and the rings, but the compression test made me think the rings weren’t that bad off. It also had the hard start when the engine was hot (that I think was the fuel pressure regulator), and one of the original injectors was pouring fuel (if I remember right, it was cylinder #6). The intake gaskets were also leaking pretty badly. It really just needed some TLC. Too much for someone to pay a shop to do, but enough for some DIY love.
In an attempt to straighten it up a little I shot the parts cannon at it. I replaced: plugs, wires, coil, fuel pressure regulator (Delco), distributor (Delphi), injectors (Bosch 19 lb), water pump, and probably a few more I’m not thinking about. As part of trying to address the leak-down and that weird sucking/blowing of the exhaust, I redid the heads. I had a machine shop do a 3-angle valve job and decking. I personally did a bit of port matching and smoothing on the intake and exhaust ports (not perfect but I had fun doing it), on the heads and upper and lower intakes. It’s not full-blown polished, but more of just a blend and smooth. All of this did improve performance, but it was still doing the weird exhaust suck/blow thing. Next, I attempted to clean the lifters (because I thought some may have been gummed up or something) by disassembling them, cleaning, and reassembling. I thought I felt some bad check springs in the lifters but I couldn’t confirm, so I just put them back in. Still ran the same.
Finally, I was to the point that it needed to be fixed but I didn’t want to keep piece-milling it and going through multiple disassembly/reassembly sessions and paying for multiple sets of gaskets. So, here we are; cam and valvetrain upgrade, hone and rings, bearings, and lots of mineral spirits, simple green, brake cleaner, scouring pads, sandpaper, and spray paint.
DIY hone, rings, and bearings vs full machining… I was trying to stay within a bit of a budget with this update and didn’t want to throw another $2k+ at machine work, pistons, etc. if I could help it. And if was going that far I may as well do a stroker kit, which is even more moolah, haha. I took measurements of the components as I disassembled and bounced that against the factory manual specs. On the cylinders, there wasn’t much of a ridge to speak of, maybe just enough to barely snag your fingernail, and there were slight scuffs. All of this cleaned up with light honing. And the ring gaps on the new rings all fell within factory spec. I plastigaged all of the bearings for the old and new parts. Everything looked good with the old measurements, and clearances tightened up just a little bit with the new bearings (even after the polishing work I did). Is it perfect, no, but the original bearings didn’t show any signs of abnormal wear, plastigage measurements were still in factory spec, and it was running well enough that I didn’t see the need go further. So, I rocked on.
Other work not engine related: rebuilt the front suspension in 2021, rebuilt the rear axle back in fall 2023 (man, that was way overdue), installed a 2” torsion key and rear block lift in ~2022.
On the intake paint: it’s just Duplicolor “Engine Enamel with Ceramic”, color = aluminum (DE1615). The texture is just the original as-cast part. I didn’t do anything to that, just cleaned it real good.
Good eye on the head intake ports. I forgot to mention that, and some of the history.
I got the truck about 3 years ago. Based on some of the paperwork I saw, I think it lived its life as a ranch truck out in Wyoming and finally there was enough wrong that they got rid of it. I bought it out of Texas with about 195k miles. It still had a truckload (pun intended) of dirt packed to the whole bottom side. It was running pretty rough when I got it. I did a compression test (which was ok-ish), and leak-down test. The leak-down failed pretty bad, basically leaking at the valves and the rings, but the compression test made me think the rings weren’t that bad off. It also had the hard start when the engine was hot (that I think was the fuel pressure regulator), and one of the original injectors was pouring fuel (if I remember right, it was cylinder #6). The intake gaskets were also leaking pretty badly. It really just needed some TLC. Too much for someone to pay a shop to do, but enough for some DIY love.
In an attempt to straighten it up a little I shot the parts cannon at it. I replaced: plugs, wires, coil, fuel pressure regulator (Delco), distributor (Delphi), injectors (Bosch 19 lb), water pump, and probably a few more I’m not thinking about. As part of trying to address the leak-down and that weird sucking/blowing of the exhaust, I redid the heads. I had a machine shop do a 3-angle valve job and decking. I personally did a bit of port matching and smoothing on the intake and exhaust ports (not perfect but I had fun doing it), on the heads and upper and lower intakes. It’s not full-blown polished, but more of just a blend and smooth. All of this did improve performance, but it was still doing the weird exhaust suck/blow thing. Next, I attempted to clean the lifters (because I thought some may have been gummed up or something) by disassembling them, cleaning, and reassembling. I thought I felt some bad check springs in the lifters but I couldn’t confirm, so I just put them back in. Still ran the same.
Finally, I was to the point that it needed to be fixed but I didn’t want to keep piece-milling it and going through multiple disassembly/reassembly sessions and paying for multiple sets of gaskets. So, here we are; cam and valvetrain upgrade, hone and rings, bearings, and lots of mineral spirits, simple green, brake cleaner, scouring pads, sandpaper, and spray paint.
DIY hone, rings, and bearings vs full machining… I was trying to stay within a bit of a budget with this update and didn’t want to throw another $2k+ at machine work, pistons, etc. if I could help it. And if was going that far I may as well do a stroker kit, which is even more moolah, haha. I took measurements of the components as I disassembled and bounced that against the factory manual specs. On the cylinders, there wasn’t much of a ridge to speak of, maybe just enough to barely snag your fingernail, and there were slight scuffs. All of this cleaned up with light honing. And the ring gaps on the new rings all fell within factory spec. I plastigaged all of the bearings for the old and new parts. Everything looked good with the old measurements, and clearances tightened up just a little bit with the new bearings (even after the polishing work I did). Is it perfect, no, but the original bearings didn’t show any signs of abnormal wear, plastigage measurements were still in factory spec, and it was running well enough that I didn’t see the need go further. So, I rocked on.
Other work not engine related: rebuilt the front suspension in 2021, rebuilt the rear axle back in fall 2023 (man, that was way overdue), installed a 2” torsion key and rear block lift in ~2022.
On the intake paint: it’s just Duplicolor “Engine Enamel with Ceramic”, color = aluminum (DE1615). The texture is just the original as-cast part. I didn’t do anything to that, just cleaned it real good.
