fastboat
08-16-2008, 09:12
I almost can't believe it. After many months of work she fired off last night without too much trouble at all, and runs surprisingly well. I have a few more things to tidy up, but I was really chomping at the bit to see if she would fire. There were a few tense moments, like the first turn of the key when I only heard "click":eek:. Just a loose battery cable, which I'll get a new bolt and cable ends for. After playing with that, running the lift pump a little while (thanks Robyn) and getting a few good long cranks, she started to breathe. Only about 10-15 seconds of moodiness, then the smoothest sounding purring I have ever heard from this truck! I started poking around with the light, no apparent leaks or problems, everything was looking better than expected:D. I do have a question here- after about a minute to 90 seconds, she started knocking a little more than I would like to hear. :eek: I'm wondering if there is some kind of a delay in the brain while she warms up, and then the timing changes a little? The only timing I have done is static, with a chisel mark across the pump and cover, which is dead on. The knock goes away with very light throttle- almost sounds like when my balancer went bad a few years ago, but not quite that loud. The noise seems to be coming from the dead center near the top of the timing cover, but my ears could be fooling me.:confused: So after idling for several minutes and seeing no leaks or problems in the gauges, I decided to cross my fingers and grab the shifter (those of you that were following my TC thread know where I'm coming from!)......No loud bangs, grinding, clunks, or anything but smooooooth:cool:. A conservative cruise around the block turned into a few romps down the country road, with a few full throttle tests, and nothing grenaded!! I fired her off again this morning to see if I had that same first smoothness with a knock coming in at a minute or so, but the knock was there to start. I have not heard this thing run in 18 months, so maybe my memory is off on how it should sound, but boy did she sound sweet that first minute or so! I was planning on having to take it to a dealership or knowledgable local tech to check/ set the timing since I don't have a scan tool. Is that 100% necessary if she runs well now? I do have to check the exhaust in the daylight while driving, but in the driveway she is pretty clean- normal one puff of white upon start, and a little white with a goose of the throttle, but not much. It smells quite different, though- I imagine the 1/2 tank of 18 month old fuel is the cause. I did add 5 gallons of premium fuel and two quarts of treatment with Cetane booster (that's considerably more than the recommended dose) to the 20 gallons of old crap, so hopefully that will get me through. I know this is long winded, but I'm really happy with the early results, and I thought it would be nice to put out some good news here for once! Much love, props, kudos, high fives and thanks a million to those of you who held my hand through the scary times and dumb questions!:D
Dave
Dave