Okay, so things have been a bit busy around these parts, dealing with the wrecks and holidays and all that jazz. So not a whole lot has been done to the truck yet. But some general maintenance is certainly in order because I'm pretty sure the previous owner was neglectful at best.
This is probably the point to say that I have every intention of personally doing as much of the work on this truck as I can. I want to use this as an opportunity to learn about the truck and learn some skills to forward this build myself. My plans are to make this a versatile expedition-style vehicle. Firstly it needs to be DD, but we want to be able to take long road trips with camping gear and, of course, be able to wheel her when the time comes.
I've got big plans, but first things need to start real small and simple; cleaning up PO's messes.
Engine looks pretty clean through and runs smooth.
There's a valve cover gasket leak near the back on both sides (which is to be expected on a 150,000 mile vehicle I suppose). So that will go on the list, but there's no fresh seepage so I'm not going to rush in just yet.
Oil was low and black as the night but there was no definitive sludge inside the engine. Because of the valve cover leak, I'm skipping synthetic and doing a quick interval (about 500 mile) oil change with cheap (but not too cheap) Castrol GTX and a regular FRAM filter. When the 500 is up I'll change over the gaskets, put in something synthetic (Royal Purple probably) and get a Mobil 1 filter (opinions please?).
Oil came out looking like this beer (the beer tastes better).
Plug wires were black Sumitomo with a 2008 stamped on the side. Opened drivers side first found Denso and almost had a conniption (thinking they might still be factory because they looked like crap). Immediately went to reciprocal Passenger side and was relieved to also find Denso. Probably changed in 2008 with the wires. Here is best one. Not so bad.
Replaced with NGK plugs and wires. Beautiful blue.
Thing starts right up and immediately dies. Oh no. What have I done?
Oh yeah, that thing...laying on my garage floor...combustion engines need those. I'm an idiot. Fixed, moving on.
Changed PCV valve. Old one looks okay, rattles okay. Gives me hope that there's no sludge in the engine.
Old:
New:
Next I'll be doing a full radiator flush because there's ambiguous green stuff in there and addressing some of the rust on the underside. I guess Oregon and New York both salt their roads in winter....
Lastly, as new poster, please feel free to make comments on anything about my posts. Advice, hatred, jokes, hatred. I'd like to contribute semi-interesting content to this already phenomenal site so let me know what I can do better (site or truck, stay out of my love life).
Cheers!
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