Long, slow build of my truck

[Will L.]

As long as no water loss: water in oil or exhaust no panic yet.

The trapped air is compressing and keeping from building pressure possibly.

Best is to pressure test cap and system. If you dont have tester, most all parts stores have loaner program.

 

[pacificdrumma]

Video showing the lack of upper hose pressure and what i get if I bleed it. Im gonna pressure test it tomorrow. I have another set of stats to put in it if needed.


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[Burning oil]

Any leak like at gaskets in crossover, tiny hole in freeze plug.....etc it will not build pressure. Get a cooling system pressure tester and pump it up then listen/look for leaks.

 

[pacificdrumma]

Any leak like at gaskets in crossover, tiny hole in freeze plug.....etc it will not build pressure. Get a cooling system pressure tester and pump it up then listen/look for leaks.

Roger that. When I squeeze the upper rad hose I can hear it "breathing" in the coolant jug


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[pacificdrumma]

Okay so we pressurized it to 16 psi. Holds fine. Upper rad hose is solid as a rock. I guess I'll try a different cap and see. The temps have mellowed out today and are much more consistent.


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[pacificdrumma]

Okay so here is a more in-depth synopsis of whats going on with the truck.

This morning I went out to start it, parked nose down. I cracked the bleeder, got water. Drove the truck 20 miles to school, temps all over the place just like yesterday. Got to school, cracked bleeder.. water. Let the truck sit for about 4 hours. Cracked bleeder before leaving.. nothing. Squeezed upper rad hose and got water. Tightened bleeder and went on my way. Probably put about 40 miles on it and it seemed better, didn't fluctuate as much. Idling it would go 195-200 up and down. Pressure tested it, 16psi as stated in the earlier post. The lower rad hose is very slightly loose. Enough that if you wiggle it while under pressure it will piss out water. Gonna put a different clamp on it tomorrow. Also the truck is very slowly dripping from under the drivers side, near where the lower control arm meets the chassis. Cant see any visible leaks. Next thing, the upper rad hose doesnt get pressure when the truck is running. Only got pressure when we pressure tested the system. I was thinking of trying a different cap because the only variable in the pressure test is removing the cap. The cap is a brand new one that came with the Heath kit. I have a new Gates one to try tomorrow.

 

[Husker6.5]

Find anything further out?

 

[pacificdrumma]

Find anything further out?

Nope, only thing left I can think of is try a different coolant tank in case there is leakage when the cap is in that is circumvented by the design of the "cap" part of the pressure tester. Held pressure fine when pressurized, but no pressure on its own. No leaks, runs correct temp, has good heat. Im gonna run it and see.

 

[pacificdrumma]

So one thing I had wanted to do was install secondary gauges for water temp and oil pressure. The factory gauges are fairly accurate, but mine suffer from a collective voltage drop when the lights are turned on, turn signal, etc. I have had excellent luck with the Auto Meters on the pillar, so I figured I would stick with the Sport Comp 2's for these additional gauges. But then came the question: where to put them? I had thought of a dash pod, but did not like the vision obstruction. I did not want them under the dash due to the strange contour of the lower dash section; it would have forced the gauges over to under the cup holder for sufficient room. So I figured I would try an overhead console from a Suburban. Fortunately my local junk yard had one for $20 that was mint! So we popped out the front section, made a template and cut out the base. Now I considered making the gauges flush with the panel. This would have been the easiest, but also resulted in poor vision from the driver. So as it turns out, 2" ID galvanized conduit fits a gauge fairly well. A couple wraps of electrical tape, and we had a nice snug fit, similar to a pillar gauge. From there it was a matter of cutting the pipe to the desired angle, in my case 30*. The cab already had holes to accept the console, we just had to pull the head liner and cut out a few small sections. Also, my high idle switches migrated from the dash to the console. My temp stays right at 195* which I'm very pleased with. Oil pressure is a different story. Warm, my dash gauge ranges from 15-35psi. The Auto Meter ranges from about 5-45psi. So my idle oil pressure is crap, but my top end is good. Go figure. I'm gonna change back to 15w40 for summer time, hopefully we can get that idle pressure up a bit.

Also, I scored a power drivers seat for $60. My truck had power lumbar already. The power seat is plug and play if anyone was wondering.

Anyway, some pics.

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[Husker6.5]

Getting back to your cooling system pressure test. Did you notice that coolant drip by the driver's side control arm pivot after the pressure test or before? I'm thinking if after, you have a leaking freeze plug or block heater.

 

[pacificdrumma]

Getting back to your cooling system pressure test. Did you notice that coolant drip by the driver's side control arm pivot after the pressure test or before? I'm thinking if after, you have a leaking freeze plug or block heater.

Turns out it was PS fluid not water. No drips from the cooling system


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[Husker6.5]

Then we're back to bad radiator cap sealing, either the cap itself or the neck on the expansion tank, since you can build and hold pressure with the system tester but not with a radiator cap.

 

[pacificdrumma]

Then we're back to bad radiator cap sealing, either the cap itself or the neck on the expansion tank, since you can build and hold pressure with the system tester but not with a radiator cap.

I've tried 2 new caps and it's the same. I'll put a new tank on it at some point.


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[Husker6.5]

You might want to try checking the lip of the neck for any irregularities. Could be possible to use a sanding block and dress it up, far cheaper than a new expansion tank.

 

[Will L.]

Did you actually test the cap?
I have seen bad batches

 

[pacificdrumma]

Did you actually test the cap?
I have seen bad batches

Nope, not sure how? Fwiw, one is a Gates cap and the other is from Heath.


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[Will L.]

Use the pressure tester you have for your radiator with a cap adapter. The adapter goes on the pump, and the cap on the adapter. Just like when pressure testing a system, be sure to wet the seal.

Pump it up to just under rated pressure and wait to see if it leaks off- it should maintain pressure. Then exceed the pressure slowly, and it should dump the excess pressure and reseal. A 16lbs cap usually dumps to around 11lbs.

This is a crucial part if maintenance. Many caps fail after 50,000 miles.

There is also a vacuum draw test, but the pressure side of the cap is what fails first. If the vacuum side of a cap fails, the coolant resivour will remain above the full mark.- not as much a problem with the new style pressure tanks, it was kore common with an overflow tank.

 

[pacificdrumma]

Upper hose has pressure, guess it just needed run time and heat cycles to work itself out.

Update/thoughts on cooling system upgrades. IT ROCKS! I took the truck on a 700 mile trip to PA and back a couple weeks ago, and it did phenomenal. Well, losing the master cylinder and having no brakes for the 150 miles from Scranton to home wasn't so fun, but the cooling system did awesome. 2 years ago I made the same trip, and on certain sections of I-84 in NY I was seeing 215...220...225* ECT going up hills. I had to pu$$y foot it to hold 210-215*. Same hills this time around I took at 70mph and held 195* with ease. On occasion it would hit 200-205 and come right back down. Adding the the aux gauges in the console really helped too. At times the factory gauges are dead-nuts, other times they are completely wrong. In some cases its a good thing... the factory temp gauge will read 205 and the AutoMeter reads 195 and everything is fine. In some cases its bad... factory gauge reads a tick under 20psi at warm idle.. AutoMeter reads 5psi. But thats the way she goes.

Next on the agenda, I am going to look at a $150 6.2 this week, and hope to begin working on my center mount turbo setup shortly thereafter.

 

[pacificdrumma]

Let's revive this thread, shall we?

Work has commenced on building an OEM-appearing center mount turbo setup.

I took my van manifolds to a local machinist who touched up the faces of the v-band flanges and cut the rear faces to sit better in the clamp. Appears to seal well so far. Flanges are just $20 eBay specials that I ordered. Seem to be decent quality. Anyway, the manifolds got blasted as well and are dummy bolted to the 6.2 for us to begin mockup. I need to order bellows for the up pipes and also try to source some pipe stock that has a thicker wall than standard exhaust pipe, for heat retention purposes. The up pipes will be wrapped anyway, but as we all know, every detail has to be correct to help these engines make any kind of power.

Yesterday we traced an intake manifold gasket to begin making a custom intake. We used 3/16" which I think will be thick enough. The machinist will likely get the finished product once it's all welded to face it and make it totally flat.

Not much else to report for now. Slow and steady.

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[Nosferatu49534]

Let's revive this thread, shall we?

Work has commenced on building an OEM-appearing center mount turbo setup.

I took my van manifolds to a local machinist who touched up the faces of the v-band flanges and cut the rear faces to sit better in the clamp. Appears to seal well so far. Flanges are just $20 eBay specials that I ordered. Seem to be decent quality. Anyway, the manifolds got blasted as well and are dummy bolted to the 6.2 for us to begin mockup. I need to order bellows for the up pipes and also try to source some pipe stock that has a thicker wall than standard exhaust pipe, for heat retention purposes. The up pipes will be wrapped anyway, but as we all know, every detail has to be correct to help these engines make any kind of power.

Yesterday we traced an intake manifold gasket to begin making a custom intake. We used 3/16" which I think will be thick enough. The machinist will likely get the finished product once it's all welded to face it and make it totally flat.

Not much else to report for now. Slow and steady.

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Looks like fun.