Recent content by Hidec

An update on the all vinyl steering wheel: After about 1k miles I really like the new wheel. It has a more textured surface than the leather and wood version, and feels good driving. So far it has not generated a fault code or any dash lights, and I've pushed the steering heater button a few...

I've been holding off sharing my experiment until it proved successful..... I've never been a fan of leather steering wheels for vehicles I actually take off road, and the leather on the wheel of my 2016 was in very sad shape and needed some help. After a bunch of research, I found that the...

2016 - I let it sit for 7 days between drainings

No, nothing more than subsequent drains through the drain plug

My 2016 w/ 75k was shifting harder than I thought it should last fall. Drained about 8 quarts of transmission fluid and replaced w/ OEM. Shifting was much smoother afterwards.

Correct, and it did not flow back through the fill hole while filling. I put in a little more than 8 qt to be safe, and then performed the OBD jumper - warm up - pull the drain plug at a certain time method in the SM. It is a PITA, but about .25 quart came back out.

I changed the transmission fluid on my 2016 last fall at 75k. Pulling the drain plug, It drained about 5 of the 10.7 spec quarts. It was a Sunday afternoon job, so I was very pleasantly surprised when i realized the dealer had given me the incorrect drain plug washer. Luckily I don't daily drive...

PM sent

@Brendan I'm interested in the dual color light for the grey interior on a 2016 200 (non powered lift gate), if any are / will become available

@use2bn83 that head definitely has less pitting than this one, thanks for sharing the pic! And I heard back from Kiwi Cylinder Heads, super nice guy. The purchase price was attractive, but the shipping cost was 1.2x the cost of the head. I thought it was a typo when they replied!

Agreed on the recently rebuilt. The straight edge I’m using claims < 0.003” (0.076 mm) over the 38” length. Worst case it could be contributing and the head is just at or under spec. My bigger concern now is the patterned pitting where the main cylinder seals are. I assume this is a negative...

So now is the next step planning. I've ready many a post about folks shaving the head and using a thicker gasket, but that it requires decking the block also. I would prefer not to remove the engine for this, especially since the block is still under max spec. So then it means a new or new to me...

On to the head. Spec is 0.15 mm or less. This time it was not celebrations. The 0.178 mm went freely under the bridge between cyls 3 & 4 and 4 & 5, with the 0.203 mm scraping, but going under also. So, it appears the PO's excursion into high heat land did no favors for the head. Also, the...

So next was head removal. Once apart, it was evident cylinder 6 was the most impacted, as the piston top was almost shiny! The head gasket on cyls 5 & 6 did not look good For the head and block gasket residue cleaning I used the WD-40 + scotch-brite pad method I have seen in other posts, and...

Progress Update.... I took the radiator to a local radiator shop, and had a good conversation with the owner (said he's been "in the business" about 30 years...). He said they used to fix plastic tank radiators, but now the labor cost doesn't equate to a price most people will pay v/s new...