'ole bobby. (a boring M&R thread.)

[ericjon262]

years ago, I had a 1970 GMC, I called it Cotton, being named after Cotton from "King of the Hill", because it was old, crusty, ran like it had no shins, and just wouldn't die. I had intended on installing a Vortec 4200 in it, and building a rad Daily driver out of it. After about a year or so of faithful service, the 400 SBC spun a bearing at a time that I didn't have the time, or the money to replace it, and at a time that I couldn't not have semi reliable transportation.

I was caught in quite a predicament. at the time, I didn't have time, space, or money to keep Cotton, so I made one of the more important decisions of my adult life, I bought the first "modern" vehicle I have ever owned. After searching high and low for a reasonable truck to replace Cotton, I had only a few basic requirements, simple, inexpensive, 3/4 ton or heavier, and 4x4.

Since the last truck was Cotton, it was only fitting that the comfortable, 36 year younger truck be named "Bobby"



I picked the truck up for $13,000, it was the first vehicle I had owned to have had working AC. I found it at a used car lot in Ladson, SC,

Right off the hit, it needed new tires, at which point, I made a decision I wish I hadn't, I bought a set of Micky Thompson Classic II rims, and a set of BFG All Terrain KO2 Tires. there's nothing particularly wrong with the combination, they're good rims, and good tires, but, I should have stuck with stock parts. Unfortunately, while literally on the phone with a tire store ordering tires, my back right tire blew, crunching the bedside...



#bodyshop



I beat the panel as straight as I could, and Honestly, I'm pretty happy with the results.



the truck then filled DD duty for the next few years, somewhere in there, I put a cranked up torsion keys, and 2" lift block in it, until I got orders to Pearl Harbor. I loaded the truck with anything I didn't want to take to Pearl including my Fiero, and parked it on my dad's farm near Pensacola, where it would sit for the next year, most of which I would spend underwater. and then transferred again, this time to Washington, where I would acquire another DD, "The Pig Rig". I found myself needing an actual truck more and more, so I flew back to Pensacola and brought it, and my Fiero to Washington.





I got out of the Navy last year, and moved back to South Carolina, making another cross country trip in Bobby. Since 2015, I've put about 85,000 miles on it, a set of brake lines, 2 sets of BFG tires, front brakes, a water pump, and an alternator.

Earlier, I mentioned wishing I hadn't bought the wheels and tires, and recently, I decided to go back to a stock wheel/tire package, and pull the "lift" out, this week, I put stock sized Firestone Destination XT's on it, on a set of stock 16" wheels. I've grown tired of the truck being taller than it needs to be, for no reason other than to look good, next step will be to remove the lift blocks, and get a set of stock torsion keys/shock mounts, which will bring the truck lower, and far more practical for what I need the truck for, "farm" duty, and towing. lowering it back to stock should also help improve fuel economy as well.

in addition to improving functionality, and fuel economy, putting the truck back on stock tires will also let me have a full size spare in the stock location again. The old BFG's would tuck under the truck where the stock spare would go, but the larger diameter, and wider width caused the spare to hit the differential, I haven't had a spare for a few years because of it, so now I'm going to hit a local yard and snag a new spare for the truck.

This thread isn't really meant to be entertaining, or particularly interesting, more just a log of what's going on with the truck.

[The Dark Side of Will]

www.car-parts.com is a great place to get stock wheels... You're in the part of the country where salvage parts are cheap, too!

[ericjon262]

www.car-parts.com is a great place to get stock wheels... You're in the part of the country where salvage parts are cheap, too!

I picked up a set of stockers months ago off marketplace, they looked terrible, and I had every intention on polishing them before putting them on the truck, but the old tires had a different idea, one of them decided to rapidly let the air out, and force my hand. There's also a local salvage yard that I'm sure would have anything I could want or need for the truck. I need to hit them up for a spare rim, and dumb as it sounds, lug nuts. The Dorman replacement lug nuts have external threads to hold the hub caps on like factory, unfortunately, they're the wrong OD, and the nuts on the hub cap don't actually engage them.

[ericjon262]

I'm working on a couple of to do lists, the truck is almost at 200,000 miles, and it's needing a bunch of attention.

engine out maintenance list
x-timing set+
x-oil pump/pickup oring
x-front/rear seal
x-OPSU+
x-clean everything
x-oil cooler lines+
x-AC stuff+
x-clean out oil pan/under valve covers
x-engine mounts
x-exhaust manifold bolts?

Suspension
x-Factory Keys+
x-Factory shock mounts+
x-Remove rear blocks
x-upper/lower control arms+
-camber adjusters- cancelled, not needed

Comfort(lol)
x-AC+
-Radio/speakers

body
-Side Mirrors
-right rear fender flare+
-remove 4x4 sticker
x-remove tree goo
-do something about the wheels.
-Spare tire/jack
-rear bumper
x-headlight housings+
x-taillight housing+

axles/brakes
-Rear pads and rotors+
x-Front pads and rotors+
-Front diff oil
-Rear diff oil
-Brake hoses
+= parts on the way/here.

[ericjon262]

parts have been rolling in, some of the stuff, I opted to get OEM parts for, mostly internal parts like the oil pump, and timing set, some of the stuff I went aftermarket.

The new headlights I ordered were OEM style repops off amazon, they are a massive improvement to say the least. the taillights were a huge change as well, but I didn't take a picture of them. here's a shot of the difference in the headlight housings:



I also went ahead and ordered new loaded upper and lower control arms, I have to unload the torsion keys to get the stock ones keys put back in, I figured with 197,000 miles, the bushings are probably a little worse for wear. and to do the lowers, I also have to unload the torsion keys... I know the uppers look pretty rough, so hopefully it drives like a new truck when I'm done.

[ericjon262]

I've spent the past week or so working on the truck, progress has been ludicrously slow, but it's still progress.

I'm not sure what I was trying to document with this picture, but in it, you can see that the engine had a healthy layer of funk both inside and out. you can see that the intake ports were thoroughly caked with PCV sludge, and every exposed surface has lots of grime.



The oil cooler lines are a common enough leak point, and it appears as though mine were leaking. it looks like the front cover and front seal may have also been leaking, but that's kinda tough to determine based on the proximity to the oil cooler lines.





the rear main seal was also starting to weep. the truck has 197,000 miles, I think it's only fair.



this is a clip to hold the evap purge line to the intake, it fell down the number one intake port, right down the open valve, I was able to get it out by compressing the exhaust valve spring with the engine turned upside down, and then blowing compressed air into the cylinder. I was very thankful I didn't have to remove the head over it.



one of the things I should have purchased before starting all of this, but didn't, was engine mounts... I should have known that mine would need replacing, but for some reason I thought I would wait and see. I didn't want to gamble on non OEM mounts, as they are kinda a PITA to install once the exhaust is back on, so new GM mounts were purchased...



pulling valve covers, I found the engine was pretty clean inside considering the mileage. I was half expecting to see a ton of sludge, but I also know that I have always run good oil, and routinely changed it. I didn't take any pictures of the bottom end, but it looked fine. I installed a new oil pump, timing chain, and pickup tube Oring, I also replaced all of the gaskets, and the OPSU that hasn't worked for years...



I spent a fairly ridiculous amount of time cleaning, I cleaned as much sludge out of the ports as possible, and the intake manifold too. I'm not sure if my efforts will be worth any fuel mileage or performance, but I'll feel better about them.





here is more or less how it currently sits, I still need to install the exhaust manifolds, AC, accessory drive, and radiator. since I took the time to clean all of the intake ports as well as I did, I'm also going to install a PCV catch can to hopefully keep some of the muck out of it, I'll just need to remember to periodically clean it out.



hopefully I can get the engine work finalized monday, and then on my days off starting tuesday morning, I can get to work on the suspension and brakes. I ordered a set of loaded control arms that I'll be installing since I have to unload the torsion bars to install the stock keys, I'll install new pads and rotors while I'm there. other than that, I need to fix one of the flares on the master cylinder, it's been leaking, and I suspect it's the main reason I don't have a great brake pedal.

[The Dark Side of Will]

No 4 point coolant bleed?

[ericjon262]

I don't think most of the trucks got the 4 point bleed. I did consider it, but I also don't think it's really necessary, if it was, GM would have installed it factory.

of course I say that and I'm looking at buying this...

https://www.glennsautoperformance.com/c ... inator-kit

to fix GM cheaping out on heater hoses...

I may still upgrade to the 4 point bleed, if I run into issues with the stock parts sealing, I couldn't find the right O rings for them anywhere, and the O rings I installed aren't quite the cross section thickness I think it's supposed to use.

[ericjon262]

Praise the lowered!



I intend on raising the front end to match the rear, when I installed the stock torsion keys, I left them all the way low, because it seems like it's easier to adjust up, than down. I did leave the lower control arm bolts loose so that it would adjust slightly easier. When I finish adjusting height, I'll check everything tight one piece at a time.

Before I can make front end adjustments, I need my new axle U bolts to show up. hopefully over the next few days I can get the rear brakes. I won't be able to finish the rear brakes until my new rear brake lines show up though. for some reason, all of the hoses that came with my stainless brake lines I installed a few years back looked like shit, so I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and replace them. The brakes on this truck have been terrible since I had the stainless lines installed, unfortunately, I was in no position to install them at the time, and I also was in no position to raise hell about the shit work either.

After all that is done, I'm going to remove the 4x4 decals that look like crap, and try and polish the paint up and make the truck presentable, then I'll install my new fender flares.

[ericjon262]

Started scrubbing the tree funk off, man it's a slow process, the stuff is stubborn as hell...

before/early during really....


after:


I'm going to pick up some more bonnets for my buffer and try and buff the truck and get it really looking good, hopefully it will look like a new truck when I'm done.