So I might as well go for broke and order the harmonic balancer and pulley and do that at same time to... I cannot believe I have to pull all this crap off just to change a freaking water pump pump.. this is ridiculous
You might want to plan on renting a HB install kit from a parts house. The adapter that’s in the kit ain’t exactly right but close enough to install it. Or you can get a longer HB bolt (M16x1.5 if I remember right) and use it to install the HB and then pull it out and replace it with the original bolt once the HB is close to being in place.
Ok.. ironically I'm sitting in AutoZone parking lot right now...sorry guys I know they are the sworn enemy of this forum..lol.. but they had my timing chain..before I can do all that I'm delayed again on this job because I have to find a ACDelco harmonic balancer and pulley.. I have one parts House local left to try if they don't have it I'll order it from RockAuto and pay the money to have it overnighted..... My wife is getting sick of me being home..if I don't get back on the road soon she's going to divorce me..lol
The “while I’m there” repairs can be devastating.
Making the decision of how long you want to run the rig ahead of time makes a big difference here.
My hummer: till I die. So the added “expense” becomes a long term investment that at point “X” will pay for itself.
So fluidampr and Leroys billet pulley will never be rebought.
If you knew you were going to sell it before 30,000 miles and have a bad balancer a doorman or used delco with known mileage would be the smart choice. Want to go long time but will probably never hit 100,000 miles then Delco. The seal, I would still do because it is like $10 or so and not hard at all. Ensuring no leaks for you and potential buyer is worth it.
Not using timing gears- dont buy any gaskets.gears require the gasket for proper thickness of idler gears- but not for chains. I always used permatex the right stuff for all of it and never once had anything leak.
Okay this is going to sound like a real cheapskate question... So are you saying that if I put a brand new doorman on.. I'd be fine for 6 month or so...Which would give me time to save up for a fluidampr and some other upgrades I want to do... Because like the timing gears I want a fluidampr it's just not in the budget right now... But then again if I remember right to get the AC Delco harmonic balancer and pulley was like 150 or somewhere thereabouts..
I don’t remember, is your current balancer toast? If not, just run it another 6 months and don’t bother with all the other inside stuff until you have the cash.
Otherwise you could do the doorman for a year safely, yeah.
There are guys doing hummer ls that could spend $10k and not remember they did it next week, but they still don’t bother with fluidampr because their hummer only gets 2,000 miles a year as a toy.
Spending top dollar on everything isn’t always best choice. Your use, your level of abuse, how long you need it to last.
powerbond sold through Oreilly's seems to be better than dorman. They also make a race version for the 6.5 and can be had cheaper than the fluiddamper. I put one on my dually and it looked like a pretty good unit
Well I looked into how much a doorman would cost.. keep in mind this is buying it from AutoZone not online.. for the balancer and pulley would be approximately 150 something.. ironically I got on their computer tonight (been paying attention to how they use it LOL) and I found ACDelco harmonic balancer and pulley.. through them it would be $211..don't remember if that included the tax or not but they always give me the courtesy discount which basically gets rid of the tax.. thru RockAuto the parts are $154.I'm assuming there's tax on top of that plus shipping charges I don't know because I've never ordered from them.. I'm going on to screenshot that AK sent me a while back.. so really I'm not saving anything bye getting a doorman... I already have the power steering pump .the timing chain.. and the water pump.. I also bought a set of 195 degree thermostats and a new plenum gasket.. the thermostats are under warranty so I'll get my money back tomorrow for them.. Tried to find a lower temperature ones but nobody seems to carry them..I'm just figuring that since I have to spend a whole day tearing the truck apart and a friend of mine is being kind enough to help me so I don't get myself jammed up, I might as well change everything in one day get it over with so it doesn't have to be taken apart again.
As an added bonus.. I took it to Mavis today to get the tires rotated. (I bought the tires there so I get free rotation..) thankfully (matter of perspective) they're mechanic (that I let touch my truck) caught a problem.. my passenger side upper control arm is shot..if you push on the tire you can watch it move in the brackets where it meets the frame... Not an excessive amount but enough where it's going to start tearing up my tires.. he suckered the manager into putting a new tire on for free..lol . So that's another thing that's going to be fixed relatively soon.. but he said letting it go for a month or two shouldn't make too much difference..
I agree about the 180 stats. You do get better mpg with 195 in there, but if 195 lets you hit 205- swapem.
I found a bunch of people are hard set against going to the 180- but they usually never worked their truck hard in crazy desert heat then tried the different stats.
The ambient lower temp opening will buy a few minutes in heat up under load that makes a monster difference in my experience.
Going from 195 to 180 stats doesn’t usually make it run at constant 180, but usually 185 ish.
I will give up mpg for a little more safety from overheating anyday.
Okay so I haven't updated this.. so hopefully y'all are still following.. FINALLY was able to get all the parts together to take the front end of my truck apart to change water pump... Parts list included.. high flow water pump..spin on fan clutch (temporarily borrowed) lol.. timing chain.. ACDelco harmonic balancer and pulley.... Power steering pump... 180 degree thermostat.. new front main seal.. 12 pack of Budweiser... Pack of Band-Aids.... Clayton..(lol).. seems like I'm forgetting something..
Upon tackling this job we immediately realized this is going to be a pain in the butt.. the disassembly process went pretty well .. usually does... We got everything taken off... We're standing there looking at the engine tore apart and just had that thought that something did not look right and we could not figure it out... The old water pump seemed fine..we tested the old thermostats they seemed it to open and close properly in hot water..
Hmmm... I honestly don't remember which one of us noticed it... But on each side of the water pump there is a water jet that is about as big around as a quarter going into the front of the block.. the one on the passenger side had a little coolant sitting in it that we could clearly see... The one on the driver side was bone dry.. so we pulled the thermostat housing off.. I guess you would call it the y-pipe that goes down both sides the front of the engine.. lo and behold the passenger side hole under it is empty because the coolant ran out that side when we pulled the water pump... The one on the driver side was still full of coolant... So it's full of coolant at the top and bone dry at the bottom...not good...beer time...clays dad shows up.. his philosophy.. something's pluging the bastard.. whatever it is has to come out.. turn the air compressor up to 190 psi( I'm nervous now).. he put two small freeze out plugs.. the rubber crank in style ones.. into the passenger side holes... Shoves the rubber boot off the top of a shock in the top hole on the driver side so it still has the small hole in the middle of it.. put the blower nozzle into the little hole and pushs the lever.. nothing happened for a couple seconds then bang.."IT" came flying out the lower hole..
You know the big rubber boot I guess you would call it on the stock thermostats that basically in cases most of the thermostat... Evidently at some time in history one of them had got sucked off a thermostat and it was stuck down in the water jet..
So in all reality.. none of my parts were actually bad.. but you better believe every one of those new parts went in that truck..
With the OBD2 reader plugged in... I've pulled some of the biggest hills in our area since putting her back together... (With 180-degree thermostats now). I have not been able to get her over 191 degrees.. and that was with chugging her up a very steep Hill just trying to challenge her...
many thanks to all you guys who have been trying to help me .. I've never seen anything like that in my life.. on the flip side.. now everything that can go wrong has already been fixed LOL
You ain't kidding that was funny to watch that thing come flying out of there..lol.. BTW..AK.. wife just told me I got a package at the house waiting for me... I appreciate it my friend....
And you will be getting an envelope in the mail..
on a side note does anybody know the exact size belt I need for the vac pump delete.... I was going to delete the vac pump and AC pump but I think I'm pushing my luck doing that..