My addiction is coming back together (not 56K friendly)

[skippy]

josh,i did not have this issue when i removed my heads durring the summer.is it possible you got the head gaskets or intake gasket on wrong?i hope it is air trapped in the water passages.sucks man.

 

[JoshT]

The way I see it right now anything is possible, I'm just narrowing it down as quickly as I can. I'm checking the T-stat tomorrow; rain, snow, sleet or hail it will happen. If that don't work then it's off with the heads, as to when I'll get the chance to do so I haven't a clue. Since I work swing shift (2:30pm-11:00pm, waking up at ~9:00am and leaving the house at 1-1:30 am) that has my days a little screwed up and leaves me with only
about 3-3.5 hours to work on the truck (that includes getting to the shop pulling everything out, doing the work, putting everything up, cleaning the shop, and cleaning myself up) . Originally I was planning to dig into the motor (if necessary) this weekend, but then I find out at the last minute that I got drafted to work. Hell I even found a more experienced mechanic who wants to take my place but will they let me off... sure doesn't look like it, but they did tell me to check back tomorrow (AKA come in Saturday). Heck if I were on day shift I'd go in then spend an all niter on the truck, but being on swings kills that notion (my whole weekend to be more precise).

Sorry for the rant,
-Josh (little ticked in case you can't tell)

 

[JoshT]

Little bit of good news. Before I went to work today I fired up the truck with the T-stat uninstalled and running straight water, it didn't overheat yahoo. In fact in 35-45 minutes it never got but a needles width above the bottom line on the norm range (aka about centered between the M and the bottom line or maybe a bit lower). Pretty much points to a bad T-stat, so I picked up a replacement 180* unit on my way into work. Something I've read about a few times and will probably do is drill a 1/8th inch hole in the top part of the T-stat flange. The hole is supposed to help purge the air from the system by preventing a bubble forming around the T-stat which would stop it from opening properly.

 

[84Ranger4X4]

I think some of the T-stats come with that hole already in it.

 

[JoshT]

Yes they do from what I hear. I installed the drilled thermostat this morning and filled it with water. I know there was hardly any air trapped this time as I backfilled the radiator through the engine and T-stat, it was slow but it made sure there was no air bubble there. Ran the engine for about an hour with no overheating so I'm pretty that problem is cured. I was going to take it down the road, but it was backfiring a little so I decided against it. Now all I have left to do is hook up the vacuum advance to get the timing right, recheck the valve lash, and adjust the carburetor. If I get done getting a new battery for my motorcycle early enough tomorrow I have to remember to stop by the junkyard and get a drive shaft bolt to replace the one that fell out and a few header bolts to replace the ones I lost. I would work on the truck, but I'm about at the point I need dad's help (I know next to nothing about tuning a Holley, getting him to teach me) and we work opposite shifts so he can't help me during the week. The bike on the other hand only needs a battery and it's still warm enough to ride here (at least is will be until I get the battery home). I'm also going to stop back by Pep Boys sometime this week to see if they still have any of those gauge sets that they had last month.

Oh and even with the engine running rough as is at the moment I can still hear the cam a little can't wait to get it tuned.