6.542762mw
05-16-2005, 18:29
Well I took the plunge and started doing the 97 cooling mod on my 1993 K3500 GMC. I started on the job Saturday around 2 pm hoping that I could finish the mod by Sunday afternoon. Let me give you some advise on doing this job. In an earlier post I commented on the gremlins that each job seems to have. I tried to prepare for this job before hand to keep downtime at a minimum. I ordered a Peninsular throttle bracket in hopes that I wouldnt have to build anything else. Heres the suggestion. YOU CANT MIX AND MATCH DIFFERENT VENDORS PARTS TOGETHER! For some reason the Peninsular bracket will not work well with the angle of the t stat housing I cut and welded. I matched the angles with that in the 6.5 book purchased here. The Peninsular angle for the t housing is much different than what I built. Their housing would angle right into the alt bracket. Needless to say, now I am rushing to make the bracket from the book. Lucky for me, I have a friend who is a metal fab fool and offered to build the bracket for me. Wow that leaves me to change the water pump and other things. Two hours later my friend brings me back a what seems to be a perfect bracket...(here it comes) after finishing the water pump and other small items, I start on the other mods for the bracket just built for me... for some reason the items just dont seem to look right when putting the halfs together...then it hit me, he folded the 3 bends backwards! Oh the gremlins are gathering in numbers... by this time its too late to ask for another build job so I attempt to remake his buy cutting the folds and reversing the sides. By this time this poor chunk of .085 has seen more bending than it should but in a small success I finish the bracket mod. It looks like hell but it should work. I am now into the job time wise 2.5 days...Longer than expected and Im still not done. Nope the Rain gremlin says too bad you dont have a garage big engough to put that truck in when you have to work on it! So until it stops raining so hard I am on hold. First time attempts are always more difficult and seem to take most people double the time it should. Knowing how bad my luck usually is, I plan on at least 10 times the amount of time for me to do it. As always thanks to the many of you who have responded and gave encouragement, (right now I need it) Good thing mamma hid the key to the gun cabinet!
Mark
Mark