It never ceases to amaze me how dastardly the packaging in truck engine bays tends to be, with so much stuff blocking the access to the engine which is almost always inexplicably very low in the engine bay.
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I do enjoy the bumper acting as step to stand on while leaning into the engine bay. That and climbing on engines adds to the fun of working on things.Originally posted by roguetoaster View Post
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Had to do some work on the truck recently. It all started probably back at the end of October when our first real cold snap came through. I was greeted by a large puddle below the truck. Ignored it for a bit just filling up the coolant when necessary. After maybe a couple weeks of that, my check engine light finally decided to come on.
P0128!
Ok, now I have a problem I should look into. Took a place in the garage and waited to see where my leak was truly coming from. It appeared to be off the back of the engine in front of the trans and that freaked me out thinking my rear freeze plugs were done for. More poking around, I noticed the leak starting from the water pump. So it was time to order everything I needed. Placed an order for water pump, thermostat, t-stat housing, iat sensor, coolant temp sensor, and a pack of freeze plugs just in case. I was trying to wait on a warm stretch of days to start but no luck there. My wife was leaving for a few days so at least I had a chance to use her car and leave the truck apart while I took my time.
Time to begin. Even with a propane tank heater, I can only get the garage to about 45-50F when it's sub 35 out. Terrible insulation, but a couple layers on and this is manageable.
Instantly stopped by not having anything to stop the water pump pulley when taking the fan clutch off. Trip to the store and I'm back on track.
Couple tricky bolts to get to put everything came off relatively easily.
If someone could explain to me what this crude that builds up is, that would be great.
Old unit out.
Struggled to get this upper radiator hose off the old t-stat housing so I just went a bought a new one for $20. Struggled to get the new one on too. Very tight fit here.
"Tuna, all crust" - East coast Paul Walker
New unit. I can't imagine every part in this engine bay being this clean and shiny. Just doesn't seem possible.
And the new sensors. The coolant temp one was the hardest to get to as I had to scoot the ac condenser out of the way with a pry bar first. And then gave it too many ugga duggas trying to tighten it and smacked the plastic part of the sensor so it's mildly broken but still works. I will hate myself if/when I need to re-fix this, or sorry next owner.
All in I may be around $100-150 for the job with the coolant really running the cost up. I think the job is quoted $800-1000. A shop probably only need a couple hours and it took me 7 with floundering around with the wrong tools. If I were to do it over right now, I think I could manage 4-5 hours. Overall it was fun and glad I could do some garage work, even if it was super cold.
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Cold weather wrenching is oh so fun. Glad you got it done. The crud is probably mineral deposits from added water over time.
Have a good new year!Comment
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Wow! Some how I've missed all of 2023 and 2024 with updates. Time to catch up now.
Only thing that it looks like I did in 2023 was replace the front driveshaft. It got extremely noisy and would bind making turns in parking lots. Eventually a noise that sounds like metal jumbling around made me get under the truck and check it out. The u-joints had plenty of play in them. Some places online made it seem like I could replace just the joints but the full driveshaft wasn't a terrible price and I wouldn't have to worry about lining up ends correctly. New piece came pre-balanced. Few bolts up front and spline to slide off in the back, and off it came. Added a new boot and clamps on install.
2024 required a bit more work but still not much. Typical oil change maintenance junk. I try to keep the truck clean and catch things before it breaks but it never works out that well. If I had it my way I'd pop the front bumper off and try to repaint those bad scratches. Sorry no photos of this job.
Next up, I was getting ready to replace my EGR valve as I had been putting off a check engine light. Well turns out, the radiator sprung a leak first. Had just moved into the new garage and this was my first task to tackle here. It's like a 21 ft garage for a 20.5 ft truck. Technically it fits with the door close and if I move my toolbox out of the way first. But for this I figured to just have the bed stick into the driveway and leave the door up since it was still nice outside. New radiator in and 30 minutes of bleeding the coolant, I was back on the road.
And finally the most recent repair. Fixing a CEL by replacing the EGR valve. I have to say, these last few jobs on the truck have been so straight forward and easy, it's actually shocking. Sure I get stuck on a bolt here or there but nothing complicated to remove or work around. Sad to say, anything newer that might come next, probably won't have this level of simplicity haha. Also, check out my drive belt in one of these photos. I replaced it only a couple years ago, looking worse than I would expect for belt of its age. I'm not going to do anything about it but it is mildly worrying.
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It's good that this thread is not updated frequently but all good things come to an end. My exhaust continued to rust and came apart just in front of the muffler. The portion post muffler feel off years ago (mentioned earlier in thread) so I kind of knew this was coming. It would slip off the tube in front but stay attached to the hangers occasionally and I would just slip things back together and ignore the problem. That started happening too frequently so it was time to fix something. I guess I could weld something together but the remaining tubing was pretty bad so I didn't think I would get connections. Easiest solution from that was to get a short segment of tube and slip over both ends and tighten on with clamps. It's not elegant and I'm not sure how long it will last, but it's good for now. Hopefully a new daily driver in the next year or two?? Youtube video of this repair coming soon, be on the lookout.
Best thing about the truck is being able to roll under it without needing a jack or jack stands.
YUCK!
And the fix. Good enough.
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