Well, Bessie is back on the road in style! Finished bolting things together and we put the hood back on this afternoon. Put a flush in the cooling system and took her for a drive after retiming to 7 degrees of advance as I've been running for 5 years (stock is 3).
Unbelievably quiet and dead smooth at idle. I honestly don't think it idled like this when new, but I'm sure it did. The throttle body got a serious cleaning at the same time, so some of this is surely due to the clean throttle valve edges and seat.
As noted, I also had the fuel injectors professionally cleaned by a shop here that mirrors RC Engineering's offering. Graphed flow, cleaned, disassembled and the post flow - all on a chart for me. Now they all flow at 77 (not here to see what that volume is).
Since all the cables were off (cruise, tranny, throttle) I carefully felt them to see if I could feel what the roughness has been for years. I lubed the throttle (to gas pedal) cable once years ago with graphite with no success. Now I can clearly feel it's the tranny cable that's rough, so I lubed it as well.
The difference is substantial from the driver's seat. It starts instantly vs a revolution or three. It has notably more throttle response. But most significantly that 'sluggish' feeling this truck has had compared to the 97 I got it a year ago is gone. It now has the same light and crisp feel when accelerating from a roll, and it seems to need less throttle to get the same acceleration. Most of this would be expected from the throttle body cleaning and head work, so nothing earth shaking, but I'm grinning about it and very pleased.
I ran some errands with water and the cooling system flush in it, then came home and flushed it with hot water from the hose and refilled with Red and distilled water. Restarted and topped it off, then drove around the block and back into the garage for a hot drain of the oil and fresh filter along with crappy NAPA oil which I'll run for a couple months and drain. Makes me feel wierd - first non synthetic in this engine since it shipped from Araco in 1993!
Overall, I could not be happier with this improvement. I will post HG pictures here in this thread later.
I have a few additional tips that will go out in the tip sheet that goes with each DVD and I'll also post them here and email to folks who already have one.
Unbelievably quiet and dead smooth at idle. I honestly don't think it idled like this when new, but I'm sure it did. The throttle body got a serious cleaning at the same time, so some of this is surely due to the clean throttle valve edges and seat.
As noted, I also had the fuel injectors professionally cleaned by a shop here that mirrors RC Engineering's offering. Graphed flow, cleaned, disassembled and the post flow - all on a chart for me. Now they all flow at 77 (not here to see what that volume is).
Since all the cables were off (cruise, tranny, throttle) I carefully felt them to see if I could feel what the roughness has been for years. I lubed the throttle (to gas pedal) cable once years ago with graphite with no success. Now I can clearly feel it's the tranny cable that's rough, so I lubed it as well.
The difference is substantial from the driver's seat. It starts instantly vs a revolution or three. It has notably more throttle response. But most significantly that 'sluggish' feeling this truck has had compared to the 97 I got it a year ago is gone. It now has the same light and crisp feel when accelerating from a roll, and it seems to need less throttle to get the same acceleration. Most of this would be expected from the throttle body cleaning and head work, so nothing earth shaking, but I'm grinning about it and very pleased.
I ran some errands with water and the cooling system flush in it, then came home and flushed it with hot water from the hose and refilled with Red and distilled water. Restarted and topped it off, then drove around the block and back into the garage for a hot drain of the oil and fresh filter along with crappy NAPA oil which I'll run for a couple months and drain. Makes me feel wierd - first non synthetic in this engine since it shipped from Araco in 1993!
Overall, I could not be happier with this improvement. I will post HG pictures here in this thread later.
I have a few additional tips that will go out in the tip sheet that goes with each DVD and I'll also post them here and email to folks who already have one.
