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What did you do with your GMT400 today...or yesterday....

Paveltolz said:
Added a magnetic oil pan heater to help with the hard starts of late. It often doesn't light and then takes a few iterations of glow, key off, glow, key off. Not that cold either at 20-30*. When it does start it doesn't want to fire on all cylinders right away. Lots of white/grey smoke...very acrid...loping motor, very loud 'chatter-rattle' and neighbors, I would imagine, unhappy (new twin babies...I get it started and coast out of the driveway and smokily down the hill to not wake them all the way up). Clears up after a while but, it takes a few minutes. I attributed it to all the extra two-stoke oil I fed it while limping home w/o the lift pump (about 3/4 of a gallon fed in there over 500 miles of driving. But, it also feels like the starter isn't spinning fast enough or a cylinder isn't lighting. Block heater helped some so I added the oil pan heater today. Let it warm for a couple of hours and it fired right up, smoked about 30 seconds and didn't even go into the chatter-rattle like normal which helped with the smoke too. Will check timing and such when I get up to Bill's tomorrow. Hope to have an event free road trip. If successful, I'll make another run down to Benson to see 635 next weekend.
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Is this the truck?
 
I put together a homemade catch can and put it on the truck. A thread is coming soon (whenever I can get my 2 and 4 year old daughters in the bed).
 
Big T said:
NAPA had the part. It's called a Turn Signal Return Cam, but it also plays a function for the horn. Got it back together and not the horn works, but the steering wheel is locking while the engine is on. Why would that lock pin be popping out while the ignition is on?
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Now that I do not know.
Might have to do a disassemble to figure it out.
 
Big T said:
Got this fixed. I had bent the footing tabs on the retainer ring for the locking plate. All good now.
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I knew it had to be something quite easy.

I checked the block temp, after having the truck plugged in all night, block temp registered at six below zero. It did fire right up though.
got the old brown 78 K20 out of the garage, run in the 6.5, checked the cord, getting continuity of I wiggled the plug end, clipped the cord and installed a new end, run the truck back out and plugged it in, We shall see what its temp is in the morning. LOL
 
Checked the temp again this morning. Was at 55 degrees after being plugged in all night.
Is it normal for the heater to cool down after the engine is warmed with the heater ?
 
MrMarty51 said:
Checked the temp again this morning. Was at 55 degrees after being plugged in all night.
Is it normal for the heater to cool down after the engine is warmed with the heater ?
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They do cycle on and off to prevent overheating (750 watts or more constantly on would eventually reach the boiling point of your antifreeze mix), so it is possible that you caught it during an "off" cycle as it was cooling back down. 55° is still plenty warm compared to the outside temp and with a cycle of the glows you will fire right off.
 
Paveltolz said:
Added a magnetic oil pan heater to help with the hard starts of late. It often doesn't light and then takes a few iterations of glow, key off, glow, key off. Not that cold either at 20-30*. When it does start it doesn't want to fire on all cylinders right away. Lots of white/grey smoke...very acrid...loping motor, very loud 'chatter-rattle' and neighbors, I would imagine, unhappy (new twin babies...I get it started and coast out of the driveway and smokily down the hill to not wake them all the way up). Clears up after a while but, it takes a few minutes. I attributed it to all the extra two-stoke oil I fed it while limping home w/o the lift pump (about 3/4 of a gallon fed in there over 500 miles of driving. But, it also feels like the starter isn't spinning fast enough or a cylinder isn't lighting. Block heater helped some so I added the oil pan heater today. Let it warm for a couple of hours and it fired right up, smoked about 30 seconds and didn't even go into the chatter-rattle like normal which helped with the smoke too. Will check timing and such when I get up to Bill's tomorrow. Hope to have an event free road trip. If successful, I'll make another run down to Benson to see 635 next weekend.
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Switch to 5W40 synthetic diesel oil and you'll cure most of that thick syrup cranking problem in the winter.
 
Husker6.5 said:
They do cycle on and off to prevent overheating (750 watts or more constantly on would eventually reach the boiling point of your antifreeze mix), so it is possible that you caught it during an "off" cycle as it was cooling back down. 55° is still plenty warm compared to the outside temp and with a cycle of the glows you will fire right off.
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Thank You.
I didn`t know that they are thermostatically controlled.

Husker6.5 said:
Switch to 5W40 synthetic diesel oil and you'll cure most of that thick syrup cranking problem in the winter.
Click to expand...
YUP, got that done the last oil change, About the time the weather began to cool down.
 
Block heater working wonderfully now. Zero degrees this morning, it fired right up, no hit~n~miss or rough running at all. Almost like it was summertime for the enjun. LOL
 
Final day in Ellensburg. Been a nice visit. Bill and I built up a Hurricane 7 for the Suburban. The bolts on my GM-8's holdingthe center section to the housing wouldn't release so I gave the whole turbo to him to help someone else in need. No shaft play so its still a good unit. Anyway, we hunted around the shop for a housing and tail piece, cleaned up the mating surfaces, searched out the bolts etc. Can't wait to get it on the Suburban. While there, he tweeked the truck's tune a bit. Started up a little easier too. Tomorrow, reverse the road trip home to SLC.
 
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Today I did what I want to do with Nancy Pelosi: choke that bitch out.

I installed the stock GM turbo, vac pump and exhaust with cat converter for my biannual smog check. It’s running. Blows a puff of black on snap test. My back up is a stock tune ECM which on prior tests ran very clean, but it has a different VIN # on it.
 
Added ten gallons of number one diesel, it had about 18gal of no 2 in the tank.
The lift pump is not sufficient for this truck.
Normally running 55 it shows about 3 psi.
Today running about 50 to 55, it was showing 0 psi. I`m thinking the no 1 had not mixed with the no 2 yet and it may have been getting close to gelling. LOL
I`m thinking I had better jump into the credit card and get Leroys Walbro lift pump kit ordered and installed, at the same time install that new Racor filter/water separator/ heater. LOL
 
MrMarty51 said:
Added ten gallons of number one diesel, it had about 18gal of no 2 in the tank.
The lift pump is not sufficient for this truck.
Normally running 55 it shows about 3 psi.
Today running about 50 to 55, it was showing 0 psi. I`m thinking the no 1 had not mixed with the no 2 yet and it may have been getting close to gelling. LOL
I`m thinking I had better jump into the credit card and get Leroys Walbro lift pump kit ordered and installed, at the same time install that new Racor filter/water separator/ heater. LOL
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Lift pump is next for my son's '94. He said it stalled again last week. Then he initially got just a click on the restart attempt. Then it turn and it took "like 30 seconds of cranking, as if there was no fuel." I replaced his PMD which was mounted in the front bumper. It was an old black Stanadyne. It was replaced with the newer beige Stanadyne with the new harness. If there are additional stall events, then it gets the Walbro FRC 10, bought when Leroy initially was marketing them. Also the pre-filter kit and Leroy harness, so I will be watching your posts to see how to do it.
 
And I installed new Bilstein 4600 shocks on the front end today. The old Rancho 5500s were shot, such that I could easily compress by hand and they would not spring back. When new the spring back is such that you need a pry bar to fit them in. Good call Will L.
 
Big T said:
And I installed new Bilstein 4600 shocks on the front end today. The old Rancho 5500s were shot, such that I could easily compress by hand and they would not spring back. When new the spring back is such that you need a pry bar to fit them in. Good call Will L.
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I also too need new shocks on the K3500, I do not know what length to get them though. The front is jacked up by three to four inches and I believe the stock shocks are absolutely too short.
Guess I`ll do a innernet search and see if there is anything to determine how to configure shock lengths. LOL
 
MrMarty51 said:
I also too need new shocks on the K3500, I do not know what length to get them though. The front is jacked up by three to four inches and I believe the stock shocks are absolutely too short.
Guess I`ll do a innernet search and see if there is anything to determine how to configure shock lengths. LOL
Click to expand...

Bilstein 5100s are made specifically for lifted vehicles and are adjustable.
 
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