K10 DD and eventual donor

[spectre6000]

Things have started rolling along nicely, so I guess it's time to start a build thread.

Backstory:

I got an '84 M1009 CUCV a while back with the intent of building the ultimate machine for my needs, uses, purposes, desires, etc. I wanted to be able to run on neat biodiesel, got good fuel economy, be able to keep it running with just tape, shoestrings, and bubble gum, and have the ability to tow/haul whatever, wherever, whenever. Things were going great until I noticed an odd exhaust pulse on one cylinder stronger than the other 7... Turns out it was a lifter just starting to fail (#6 exhaust). I pulled it and was going to essentially finish rebuilding it, and discovered the block had cracked in 3 places... GM's 6.2L diesels are known for cracked blocks because GM thought saving a few cents on the alloy was worth more than making a good engine... I'm not bitter at all. Fortunately, AM General bought the rights and all the molds for the engine when GM stopped making them in '99, and set about building them properly. What's more, they continued developing the engine and beefed it up for use in an 18.5 Ton behemoth in a contract bid for an MRAP type thing. They didn't get the contract, but they still have the engine... It has the same physical dimensions as the 6.2 it's ultimately based on down to even the bolt holes all being in the same place. That means direct bolt in retrofit! It's not cheap, but that means I have some time to build up the rest of the truck a bit while I save up.

Meanwhile, I still need something to drive... I moved my '57 Karmann Ghia to daily driving duty, but that wasn't the most ideal situation. I sold it (for a profit!) at the beginning of the year, and downgraded hard (value wise) to an '86 RX7. There for a bit, I owned an air cooled vehicle, a naturally aspirated mechanical diesel, and a rotary. I have a thing for cool engines... Anyway, the RX7 was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of work to keep happy. The engine was flawless and never gave me a hint of trouble, but the electronics were a nightmare... I got tired of messing with it because it was keeping me from working on the CUCV, so I traded it even for this K10.

Here are the photos from the ad:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/jWHkc2QZVb8i1PGnK3oRi5uKg-9ABuNrS4Z3vncTLuw=w600-h360-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_2y_ZvoFCF-gACfz25w3fHJu3f8_oLsqgTp1a7QwGhM=w600-h360-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/gjexgdpZryCgekO-lcguVXtakauggPnDY6bdEQ0adS0=w600-h360-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/PiQF8vHFX09Cb_jITZ8ML0rBCaK2XSv9DlIz-h8k7O4=w600-h360-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/yyn8vI5PfVy-tj8T2ksVMPfDglfF7ekt7dQKnPNXv1w=w600-h360-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_m3mXszO0sUH05hElU9T9Y_KCE7qsDzFECYTxENgJ2A=w600-h360-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/h4ru1eaJ-Y5eHkJlu0zKj65Vqrem_NI7eCClDHorZFg=w600-h360-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8eAgYZaj_3JLvhUhyWb4RBwphkI9LV_qz11a23abFgE=w600-h360-no

The first thing I did was partially disassemble the interior for a thorough cleaning. Just vacuuming and getting rid of junk initially. Nothing especially interesting really. It cleaned up pretty nice. The next thing was to try to stop the oil leak at the back of the engine. I figured it was the rear main seal (which always leaks on engines like this), and did some poking around to make sure I got the right parts before I started. Turns out, the 305 SBC it's supposed to have was replaced at some point with a 350 out of an '83 C20 pickup! Cool! There were a few engine possibilities there... All had four mains (stronger and awesomer). One was a two bolt main block, two were four bolt main blocks; the latter would be really cool.... Between those two options, one had a tall deck and the other had a short deck. The tall deck would be strong, but not really great for making a lot of power. The latter is about the best starting point for a Chevy small block you can possibly find yourself with... The oil leak could have been coming from a few places other than the rear main seal, but replacing it would allow me to figure out exactly what engine I had... Before I got started, I verified that it had a short deck! That could be awesome, or only OK depending what I found when I dropped the oil pan... What I found was... FOUR BOLT MAINS!!!! WOOO!!!!! Also, the ad I bought the truck from stated that it had been rebuilt 10K miles ago. I never believe these claims, but when I got in there, I'm actually starting to believe that might be the case! Great! Not only that, but it didn't really even put up much of a fight! Some aftermarket hardware didn't like the lip in the PSR corner of the oil pan, but that was sorted out with a larger socket and a BFH.

This is right after I got it home and otherwise representative of the state at this point in the narrative:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/JuEg_uqpWZvhAuPnxxfe-bZLF0YZOwZ0Nk0Xuog_ZAQ=w640-h480-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Tpk0yWe1bPYMQRmNZrutp3x03z_aSmZgnsF2y2kq2EM=w640-h480-no

After the RMS job, I figured I would take care of the cracked tires and ugly wheels. The tires on my CUCV only had about 300 miles on them, so I figured it would be a quick and easy upgrade to simply swap them over... Nope. Not at all or even for a second...

23 of these bastards:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/0xfCfl3L6u3NloA8Akli-mSAANd5KA3du-IwDP4Ds-o=w480-h640-no
led to this nightmare (http://www.frontrange4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?23619-Crazy-Security-Lug-Nut-Removal-HELP!).

An entire day essentially lost to... The 80s and a forgetful PO. Given the good care that was taken of everything else, and the bonus muscle car engine and 12-bolt axle, I guess a day lost to crazy lug nuts is a small price to pay. I had intended to spend yesterday replacing fluids and filters (where applicable) in the transmission, transfer case, and both diffs, but the lug nuts stole my thunder.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/WuFuqqhN6fryp60uE5Na2OwE1WmlTPbglGVt33NV8WA=w640-h480-no

[spectre6000]

Today while I removed the tailgate, associated hardware, and bed rails, then did an alignment (and discovered the noise I'd been hearing was the PSF wheel bearing... add it to the list). Meanwhile my wife cleaned the interior out beyond simply vacuuming. She removed and disassembled the passenger side door panel, and went to town on it with degreaser and a tooth brush. We went to get this around 1, and didn't get anything done on the truck after that:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/zIa7-kncOyRv02hNeBdwQXlDM_vbMxbmm6USMeMzEhU=w640-h480-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/A0R_r8CqiN0a8fCy6WqqSvb3ULkv8QAMHhgZTL2m1HE=w640-h480-no

My wife and I drove coast to coast (not all at once) in our '62 VW bus back when we first got married. Now that we're here in Colorado, the terrain in the area is a bit more conducive to a slightly more rugged and capable means of conveyance. To get an idea for the long term plans for this camper, think Westphalia bus. For now, the plan is simply to remove the decaying wood paneling and insulation, fit it properly to the bed (which I discovered may involve modifying some sheet metal), seal it up, and go camping!

[Patrolman]

Looks like it will be a great rig. Making good progress so far!

[spectre6000]

I've been super busy lately between work during the week and wrenching on the weekends. Haven't even slowed down enough to take photos... Not super cool in this day and age.

Anyway, trying to get the thing running and campable before it gets too cold for the season. One trip is all I want. My wife is helping out with the camper related stuff every other weekend, and I'm busting tail on the truck-specific mechanical stuff the rest of the time. It's been a helluva month!

First off, we pulled the top off, and my wife removed all the rotted wood paneling and the fiberglass insulation. While she was doing that, I straightened the bed sides, and discovered that it's actually possible to get water blisters under your fingernails if you use an angle grinder for however many straight hours it takes to remove an entire pickup truck bed's worth of insulation. 9 of my fingernails are messed up, and I'm going to lose two for a while. Looks pretty gnarly. I wore all the safety gear and then some... Respirator, safety glasses, ear protection, a shady hat, a set of impermeable gloves, and a set of leather work gloves. Did not know the fingernail thing was a thing or I would have worn... A third set of gloves? After all that, we combined forces to get the bed painted... Would have mostly finished too had we not run out of paint (I figured 6 each of primer and paint would be enough... I was wrong).

The next weekend was some shop cleanup/catch up. I've been busting tail for months straight out there, and things tend to get a little chaotic in a small shop if you aren't fastidious about tidying up. I took care of some of the project backlog, then I took care of the wheel bearings I discovered were toast when I did the lug nuts. Sun up to sun down Saturday and Sunday that weekend...

After that, we pulled the top off again, my wife stripped the doors, windows, and aluminum siding while I welded up all the random holes and other 'modification' that had been made to the bed. I really have no idea how or why there needed to be so many holes in that bed... I also stripped out all of the crumbling seam sealer and resealed it with some stuff that hopefully gets the job done. Actual automotive seam sealer is really hard to find, and expensive when found. The only holes left in the bed are the two drains up in the front corners. At some point soon, I intend to go to the FLAPS and see if I can't find some good plugs. If I need to make the holes bigger, it's no big deal. That should eliminate any drafts, water leaks, and means of insect ingress from the bed end of the equation. Then we finished painting the bed, and put the camper frame back on the truck.

That was Saturday and Sunday, Monday (holiday) I wanted to try to knock out some mechanical stuff since I had the extra day. My temp gauge never seems to get up to temp, and the PO mentioned that he used to drag race AC VWs and that 'they run cooler if you remove the cooling tins'. Since he had a track record of cooling system numbfuckery, I figured he probably removed the thermostat. I picked up a thermostat and reusable gasket (my first purchase from a FLAPS go fast wall!), and on the way home passed a young lady with her hood up. I pulled over (it was all of a quarter mile from my destination) and got her back on the road. She had busted the upper radiator hose in her '01 Civic, and kept driving until it more or less died. We replaced the hose, got some coolant in it, burped it (I have a magic burping funnel that makes it a quick and painless affair), and it was still running poorly. Since it's newer than what I'm used to dealing with, I wanted to see if it would be possible to do a compression test, so I pulled a spark plug wire... Unfortunately, that's all I pulled... The part that attaches it to the plug was melted and fused to the head... Her sister and sister's boyfriend had shown up by then, and they went back to the FLAPS for wires and plugs while I went back for more tools. We eventually got all the melted plug connectors off, replaced (and properly greased and torqued) all plugs and wires, and she went on her way.

By this time it was noon or so, and that meant a late start. I started to pull the thermostat housing, and noticed the reservoir was empty... Actually, that's only partially true. It had no coolant in it per se, but it was chock full of rust. Apparently, I had neglected the cooling system in my pre-purchase inspection and had been so tied up in everything else that I never really gave it much thought. I popped off the radiator cap, and all I could see was rust. No coolant in sight. Balls. I had hoped karma would be on my side, but karma's a *****. My truck is now officially down (I had also started disassembling the induction system), so I grabbed my wife's car before she needed it, and ran around getting distilled water, coolant, and chemical flush... When I got back, I set about draining the system. Unlike the 6.2L diesel in my other truck, the block drain plugs are actually accessible without removing the engine, so I removed the DS plug and pulled out of the way hoping to avoid the stream of rusty water... Only... Nothing. I know it must have SOME coolant in it because it's been running just fine (it sounds really good actually). I figured it was just clogged with rusty crap or stop leak or something (wouldn't be the first time I'd dealt with that nasty stuff), so I grabbed a screw driver and shoved it in there, again ready to pull back quickly... Only... Still nothing... Not only that, the screw driver wouldn't even really go in that far... WTF???? I get a flash light and get up in there and... It's this really hard solid black stuff in the shape of the end of the plug... Definitely not anything resulting from neglect or... WTFingF????????? I think I'm not the first person to realize that my 4-bolt main SBC is a great starting place for a big bad burly engine... The block's been filled!!!


https://youtu.be/fgQki37uXoQ

It's a drag racing thing where they put this stuff they call concrete in the coolant passages of the block from the bottom up to the base of the freeze plugs. It's not an area that really sees much in the way of heat from the cylinders (just the skirts), and by solidifying that area they make the bottom end much stronger. Supposedly it doesn't do much to hurt cooling in the process, but obviously makes coolant flushes a bit more challenging... So... I'm not really sure how I feel about this discovery to be honest... On the one hand, it doesn't seem like it can really hurt much, but on the other it's definitely not helping anything either in my application...

Unsure what to do at that point, I sort of just got the flush going, figured it needed to go for a few days, and just buttoned it back up.

This weekend I'm really really hoping to be able to wrap up the baselining... Usually I try to get all of this done pretty much immediately, but this one has been running so well and I've been so busy that it's simply fallen down the priority list a bit... I'm really hoping to get it out on an easy trail for a shakedown run sooner than later... Maybe even next weekend. We'll have to see how things go tomorrow and Sunday.

[Fatboris]

That's going to be an awesome rig, nice!

[xaza]

Don't know how I missed this until now. Nice break on the 4 bolt main, helluva capable engine. You been busy but it is paying off, nice rig.

[spectre6000]

Well... Busy weekend, but not as productive as I would have liked. It's taken me a while to come to this conclusion, but it's come to my attention that I might be a bit ambitious with my wrenching plans. I had hoped to get the carb rebuilt, reseal the valve covers and intake manifold (it's leaking quite a bit of oil while running... at least I hope that's where it's going), replace the transmission fluid and filter, re-fluidiate the transfer case and diffs, grease all the zerks, do a toe alignment, and finally flush the brakes... I only managed to do the top end reseal and the carb rebuild, and I didn't even get around to tuning it up after the fact...

To be fair though, with the truck inop I needed my wife's car to run errands and she was in it all weekend (how dare she drive her own car!), so that represented a pretty significant source of delay. The other major source of delay was that the big American V8 carburetor was too big to fit in the carb cleaner bucket, so I had to do the entire thing by hand with the spray cans and a shop rag...

It's always interesting getting into a new-old car. They're nearly always filled with surprises. Sometimes it's the bag of pot hidden under the bench seat of your '62 VW Bus that you only discover AFTER being thoroughly hassled by some small town cops for being in a '62 VW Bus, sometimes it's the rats nest fire hazard of an electrical system gifted you by a wannabe EE, and sometimes it's a little tin toy Mercedes car from the 50s that fell up behind the dash decades ago. This truck has been quite fruitful from a mechanical perspective with the 4-bolt main and the filled block. It seems that the happy surprises (I'm calling the filled block happy for now) stop with the bottom end though. The carb was a mess. Missing parts are less than ideal, though they don't seem too important in terms of operation, but what was pretty annoying was the brown goop smeared over some of the passage plugs... Not sure what that was about, but the carb was not-so-lovingly messed with in its past... I contemplated binning it and getting a new carb (preferably one that's a bit more tunable), but decided that since it was functional before, I couldn't really do worse. I put some fresh goop on the passage plugs and buttoned back up...

I also discovered that the heads aren't super hot. A quick googling of the casting numbers tells me they're some of the least desirable heads from a performance perspective. Not great, but I guess heads aren't too big of a deal. Cheap enough and easy enough to replace, and it's not like I'm taking the thing to the strip (ever) so it is what it is. When this engine eventually finds its way to something more sporting it'll likely get a new set though.

The last road block of the day was another PO gifting of the less desirable type: the harmonic balancer is incorrectly marked for TDC. I had to take the distributor out to do the intake manifold. NBD. I stranded myself on the 8th floor of the Venetian parking garage in Vegas on my first cross country road trip via vintage automobile by not knowing how to properly install a distributor, so that lesson had been thoroughly learned. Unfortunately, no matter how hard you set the engine to TDC, if the mark indicating it as such is off by 30° you're going to have a hard time... I had previously discovered this fact during my initial check up when I found initial timing to be somewhere around 38°, but a lot has happened since then and it totally slipped my mind until the damn thing just wouldn't start. Eventually I got my wife to come out and turn the key while I turned the distributor, and it eventually started to catch with the vacuum pot nearly inside the carb. I initially thought I had the distributor off a tooth somehow, so I pulled it and attempted to realign the oil pump drive slot to the next cam tooth while muttering "I really hope I'm not making a mistake here" over and over, then I remembered the stupid harmonic balancer mark!!! Crap! I hadn't aligned the engine back to "TDC" before I pulled it, and now the oil pump slot was off to boot. What an idiot! So I discovered my spark plug socket was the wrong size, broke one of the spark plugs using a regular deep socket, and eventually got it back to TDC with the help of my wife. She stuck her finger in the #1 spark plug hole to feel for compression while I was underneath turning the engine over, and then felt for piston movement to find actual TDC. I marked it, aligned the oil pump drive slot, reinstalled the distributor, and the thing fired up immediately... and idled super fast because I forgot one of the vacuum plugs in the back of the carb that's hidden by a bunch of bracketry, another larger vacuum line, and the carb itself. Plugged, it fired right up and seemed pretty happy about it. I had to fix a few leaks here and there (fuel line not tight enough, coolant at the upper rad hose, and... something else... or maybe not, I forget), and by then it was getting dark so I called it a day. I'm taking today off to try to finish up everything I can.

I'll start with replacing that upper radiator hose, then set the timing, then I'll head up to the FLAPS and start a tab on vacuum lines and such in the parking lot while I go through and replace all of that crusty mess. With that done, I'll come back and see what I can get done as far as the rest of my list before the day is out and I have to push the rest to this weekend.

[spectre6000]

Well. Wrapped up for the day insofar as the truck is concerned. Yet again, not as much done as I would have liked.

I started by setting the timing (sort of... more below). There was a vacuum leak for sure at the PCV where I accidentally broke the plastic part with my elbow, but also everything else was pretty crusty. I did what I could, then headed to O'Reilly (my FLAPS of choice) to set up a tab for vacuum lines. I essentially went in and out over and over getting the lengths of various lines and plugs, etc. I needed to take care of all of the vacuum lines, and there are so many sizes and lengths that it would be hard to get what I needed without having to come and go a billion times. For better or worse half the staff has my phone number memorized, so it wasn't a really big deal I guess...

Before this weekend, the temp gauge always read very very cool. There's the middle line, which is supposedly optimal operating temperature, then there's one line on either side to represent the high and low end of the safe operating range, then there's stone cold and pull-over-now hot. It's been reading about halfway between stone cold and the lower end of operating temperature. I thought it was because the thermostat was missing, but it was actually in there (and coated with rust and a bit on the sticky side as a result). It could also have been that the temperature sender was coated in rust (which is insulating and would prevent it from getting fully up to temp at the gauge) or the block filler is even deeper than it would normally be... Finally, factory temperature gauges are notoriously inaccurate...

Once I started driving the truck around I was not really sure what to make of the fact that the temperature gauge had finally started reading close to the proper operating temperature. It was certainly possible I had fixed it, but that would only be the case if it was in fact reading inaccurately in the first place (which I have no way of knowing really). If that wasn't the case, it could be that it's now actually running hot! CRAP!

I realized the only way I was going to be able to know one way or the other was to get a means of knowing the actual temperature. I drove down to O'Reilly, and by the time I got there, coolant was running out onto the ground. Surely this means I'm overheating... Except maybe not (so many maybes!!!). It was coming out of the radiator cap... That shouldn't happen even if it were screaming hot, because it should actuate the pressure valving and run into the overflow and if it's super expanded, run out onto the ground from there. That meant the radiator cap wasn't sealing and wasn't holding pressure in the cooling system...

They didn't have a thermometer, so I gave it some time to cool, then headed down to Home Depot (who did have one... sort of), and then headed back home. When I got home, I put the gun on it, and it was definitely running hot. Crap. Oh yeah, another thing... I didn't really have a chance to really get it fully burped, so there was a chance of an air bubble. Also, once I got back I noticed I had left the vacuum line to the distributor unplugged during all of this. AND THEN, as I was inspecting things trying to figure out what was happening, I realized that I had the engine rotating backward in my brain!!! Instead of 8 BTDC, I was... I guess right on TDC? I'm not sure... I was lining it up to the wrong line, but I was also advancing things in the timing light... I generally don't wear my glasses when I'm working on cars because grease is really hard to get off and it does nasty things to the coatings. My eyes aren't that bad, but in this case they were bad enough...

It's worth noting that it felt pretty fine during all of this... Reasonable amount of getup. Once it got fully up to temp it felt like the accelerator pump needed to be adjusted, and it actually died at one point trying to start from a stop, but it always seemed to have adequate power... It's worth noting that even with this supposed drag racing engine in there, I drive like a grandma (comes from daily driving an old VW bus in Dallas traffic), so power is a very relative thing, and I never really get too deep in the skinny pedal.

I didn't feel like waiting for everything to completely cool, so I did the rag and glove trick to get the cap off. I could hear it boiling inside (not holding pressure still, and now also low on coolant), so that brought the temp down a little (and made a mess in the driveway). I put the burping funnel on there, and got it filled, then got the timing set for real while it burped. After that, I hit all the grease zerks, then took it for a drive. It ran fine, and although the temp gauge did get up higher than it had previously, the temp gun said it was happy. About 190-205 between the thermostat housing, upper radiator hose, and hot side of the rad. That said, I noticed that the temp gun reads way high... When I initially used it, it said the same places were 240-something (definitely not good), but it also said my arm was 105... It was a hot day for sure, but I wasn't exactly sun bathing, nor was I hallucinating, so that didn't seem right. I went inside and shot it at a few things that should have for sure been at the thermostat indicated 72, and they all read in the mid-80s... Is that a set number of degrees off or a percentage??? Worthless... It least it's more accurate than the temp gauge though, and if it's reading high that means it's pretty happy right now. I didn't get a chance to really drive it around much because rush hour was starting, so that will have to wait for tomorrow.

[spectre6000]

Well... Another day of wrenching down. Still scratching my head a bit.

I started by topping off the power steering fluid and replacing the transfer case and diff fluids because I needed an easy win. No real drama there. I spilled a little gear oil on the driveway up front, but aside from that all was pretty copacetic. I had expected to find one of the latter three to be in poor shape in terms of fluid level or quality, but they were all filled and fine (old, but fine). So I have this whining/borderline grinding bearing-esque noise when coasting that I can't quite track down... It's just going to have to complain a little louder before I can track it down.

Then I set about driving the thing. I still don't have much of an idea what the temp gauge is trying to tell me, so I essentially just drove it around a bit and kept an eye on the temp gauge. Every now and then I would pull over and check the temp of a few places; namely the hot side of the radiator (tops out around 210°), the radiator hose (tops out around 190°), and the thermostat housing (topped out at 225°). That last one seems a bit on the hot side... The coolant inside could be a little cooler though since there's direct contact between the thermostat housing and the cylinder heads though... Hard to tell. I'm not super stoked, but also not completely concerned just yet.

I ultimately ended up getting a new distributor. There were clearly problems with the one in there, and the new distributor definitely smoothed things out and made everything a bit happier.

It's still giving me trouble though. Obviously it's running hotter than I would like, but it's also idling higher than it should (and can't be adjusted down). I replaced all the vacuum lines to eliminate vacuum leaks, and all that's left is a vacuum leak in the carburetor itself. When I rebuilt it, it was obvious that it had been into before by someone who was a bit less than... fastidious about such things. Goop in places there probably shouldn't have been, missing parts, etc. I also noticed a design flaw (by my reckoning) in that the throttle shafts aren't bushed (big no-no). I think my vacuum leak is likely due to me cleaning all the schmaltz out of everything such that the throttle shafts themselves are the problem. I dug out the manual, and much to my chagrin it's like a tour of the carb's systems and circuits with the phrases "set at the factory" and "not serviceable" accompanying everything... Now I understand why everything in the carb had been so thoroughly dicked with.

In addition to running hot, and here's the trouble area, once it gets warmed up if I try to start rapidly (pedal down) from a stop, it'll die and NOT START BACK UP!!! I have to put the pedal all the way down and turn the key for a few minutes before it'll catch, die again, then eventually start. While it's doing this, I can see faint black smoke coming from the DS exhaust... Unburnt fuel most likely. Additionally, when I shut it off intentionally after it's good and warmed up, it'll diesel! I really don't like that!

When I rebuilt the carb, I didn't touch any adjustments. It ran... well, not super terrible, just didn't start very easily. I focused mainly on the choke and otherwise just cleaned it. I'm no stranger to rebuilding carbs, so I'm pretty sure I didn't mess anything up...

Going through the symptoms, the shutting off on accel issue... The accelerator pump being out of adjustment would certainly cause hesitation, but it wouldn't make it stop and not start again. The fuel pump looks pretty new, and I replaced the fuel filter in the carb. The thing is though, I didn't TOUCH the accelerator pump save to replace the diaphragm. There's a solenoid associated with the throttle linkage that looks to be associated with anti-dieseling in some years, and I didn't adjust it, but it was literally just hanging by one of the two screws before I cleaned it up... I'm really not sure what to make of it. Anyone have any thoughts?

[spectre6000]

The issue was leaky throttle shafts... I picked up an Edelbrock core, rebuilt it, and that's all happy now.

Just over two months later, I finally buttoned it down for good Sunday (or at least until something else goes wrong)! It's now as good as it's going to get. There is a bad bearing in the transmission that's a bit of an annoyance, some minor electrical things that I'm not at all concerned with, the windshield leaks a bit in the DS lower corner, and probably a few other trivialities. For getting me around while I get the truck I actually want to drive done, it'll do just fine! Unfortunately, it looks like I missed the shakedown portion of the wheeling season by a week or two... Boo...

Here's what I did since the last post:

- transmission fluid, filter and gasket (found some metal chunkies... no bueno)
- alignment (1/32" toe in)
- brake flush w/ DOT4
- new DSF caliper (bleeder was seized and sheared)
- got the coolant to finally stay clean and green (took three flushes)
- got the intake manifold to stop leaking entirely (took three attempts...)
- killed the EGR the rest of the way
- new rebuilt Edelbrock carb
- added an air cleaner spacer
- new plugs, wires, and zip-tie separators
- welded in an O2 bung for wideband tuning
- replaced the DS high beam headlight bulb (badly cracked and missing glass)
- removed all the unnecessary and weird wiring and electrical junk that had been added and partially removed over the years
- fine tuned the carb with my home brew wideband tuner
- new brake pads, shoes, and hardware
- belts
- added a fuel filter
- replaced the turn signal switch/fixed the horn
- replaced a broken dome light bulb
- removed tint
- cleaned the crap out of the interior
- a number of other little fiddly miscellaneous things that didn't make it to the log book.

It's a lean, mean, and clean machine now! I'm pretty much relegated to just driving it now... I have some cleaning and catch up projects to do, then I'll be digging back into my M1009. I need to get back in and strip the interior and figure out some electrical system design details (battery relocation, fuse block relocation, etc.) and fab up some sort of dash... A lot of that is going to require gathering a bunch more parts and materials too... I also need to finish the camper top, I have three chairs to finish, two guitars, a bench, some leather work... It all stacked up on me!

[spectre6000]

Well... I was still fixing things and fine tuning until a month or so ago, and it was finally to where I had enough confidence in it that I had begun leaving the tools at home and not worrying about whether or not it would start when I turned the key and stay running until I turned it back the other way... I jetted the carb to within an inch of perfection, and got a best tank of 17 mpg WITH a 10% correction for the deviation between the speedometer and GPS-based speeds! In a truck with an EPA rating of 12 mpg highway and a reputation for single digits, I think that's pretty damn stellar! I was looking forward to coming out on a test run on an easier trail once the snow thawed a bit. Meanwhile, I got a good month of commuting out of it... Then a Subaru happened.

I was driving home from work SB on 287 in Lafayette a week and a half ago (Friday night before last), and a guy in a Subaru decided he needed to turn left really badly at Isabelle. So badly that he forgot to look to see if there was still traffic coming at him at highway speeds with a yellow light. I was traffic, and took the first 9 inches or so right off his little wagon. Unfortunately, the K10 didn't fare much better.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/4Gbyph_PCD9Fmn6XxD6VNvMmw9k2QT3UQM4PZ0YRkGTYH6Wkq0 aApGagGwg8MmX0GxYyNsFLg-nXCOR3vsdqLplbgXSOH2r-2voA4ilOa515jKaUV8MOcYyyCzU-n1Sp1tDaXQZwrNKRFSPnp_dJeFabUubyuxF8r01YoBdWE_wofb vWtdfOxvnPwkczpEU-vJwMAnI-jf5Y2bmdPoM2Xlh-eM6pYUgc4-yaaVkGEAOQAYy3zslKoFbveTyehTXIncosj9SNnlTAPGkppJng 4Hdpvg4ijvAveGBnJk9loCvyFZ83TcAjqIs67AUm-fy9il0NG7TIpxE4bg_UP2Edkv-HcoEEFjPYBO2AfzyVd1YLvuqSsAysMpzU1ECEj5BNxn87bzuKg mgdXe0tMzBUwtpDtrERkidxjjVAd1mkAiIJkWyuy6enSQntDma cmLKqPduWeLmRQWzcE9nr1hgTM9YLFgGduRnTNDYrK9WN7fyy3 _V38rfNati_mUmxABB3d-_e-iyMpr3cSqALsv_Qt5zsCRA2G0uAY3YVhGvRJnW6qwpuanN-8wyXzckdbNtQTF7W=w1043-h782-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/03cPQVRsbSjejf5EuyBKXCOs6ZPIsuVxesA_2foPt4lK9ifKme T767CQ-7tKsyK9rzKsbEDjHXCIVBtBD5HYddQP-cC4kU04dFU3DHLWMI3eOVFqjmUzhtQiNYyqXWAnLqtsUGUaHli z_3dWFerLj6cL7QgQIX42S3bt8ySX4xlxHodspw_UijjjjbMRJ wZ4xk6zgHAJfa7eb1PJ4SloCMm5OsrfgKwmQtD3447_9Gqxlks EVmJw1jgCAnCzmYOU9kLmGjzYv6MY0UAa3bSup1DmD5iAq3VId QNrJ1a98qtjaTMT3trx3XOgeyVPUi9ctE7uCE6e4Q6dAo7jtzL M8TRziBlGrtQpjuqgHY22EyRjj0fPLJhTKIAFjaxAwDO-uYALzpVI0TldDkg2IpXd2zAJ5OHBORNZcPaUEU-c6p_AgbwL8AWryfjyWbVVhSQ-0sryVtffBj0xKSCPCEiaZxWhjkdjyMXyQgQNfJ5r6PQlm6WE5z wk2xvukMl-dHqqXtDAFAyCDs6UxbwmW9XlCbKZ7aNfcJ0kQ84lhD-f3wM8MkCIl37jM5UyhlHgw82lwPd7=w1043-h782-no

Why yes, the hood is nearly touching the ground, the frame is super bent, and the DSF wheel is about where my foot would have been were it on the dead pedal. The other car didn't fare much better.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ut3Lx8YXBWEMj6BlAs17r_1-vwLPC5g9lPR14VwgLODE2vfyFeOikmoke8_H7K3LSjC_16G3Hy jq5ctBDHMtYU__7ACV35LrxbWEEgJqKLiHFg8aGhXXZgtEpGAY 2yOBWRAyDIwMHQrK3KQ3hc5P7pC2IuBIIY0UUs8dE3qFioQCJ6 peXLDLTGA4bdYvrVY60zn8C2DEZx_Jlxt9LVv_xG2-ETKsIwoKyxQ41hMGI7vv6-5iioPxKyv4sm6EjZIWeiPU2C8wsxMIJYvIuSTbsyOPrbBVeul3 9BtNb6dwee0PTC9TaqK8YWvPtigx13rSJaOJf1sbQseXlifURA KyQQiRkWYrZyov6CHsdvaMvUjwf2riLoNpCup5-gtnc0C48xuYM-fZeR55ouUwBN-SY6F6OthY3bBcilq2aHttHiu09DzwZ2kYd7ElPaNUpfKVHUH0Z 0dgASPrqH_RHRMdlK4aIxhz5DDogCRMGvJXjxtaHOeoklRayN0 7iMBcKCRTEqTWos8ca7ZYfmPmeOxz6navHGMjKevy9RzTufXCA sel6DdN7f2EuyWSLx-m3L7YGdal=w1043-h782-no

Here's his bumper, radiator, AC condenser, and whatever else lives in the first foot or so of a Subaru (it was still in the bed of my truck when I went to the tow yard to get the remainder of my things from the cab).

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/kbQAaFkh3FFCC07CcTmhDnkS617NGLH3wnKTLGyhkZdSyjGy0u x7V-MWj27QlPvUcZhV8epcJiPhSVd6NyJ0cdOGP07KvE9NwbxM6ai2 zedFc-RLk6gYjsJde2qLxFBDZGbdBLIJeXO4fWFwlEHLHsmgAWjXKXO-z_-Q3p_Iin7_vDHVCbBWzWRgffCPRhkX3mXvr4MW8MnapWK235aEe wpqL0yNR6Wzv2TRJzFXrHEucHWkjUpoxjGoWTAlMm6DSzAl2-1vOJ3JLvhtHSEBVmtRxbWUDcXE90neyBADoEe6qsXNgeyh3mm_ fPJjUfEYY69IwCqXtCFebatPrf8ccYePGq086rM8U2bq9o38tB cCbkLwXHjb1cNrJzhlIVoliQGkPmKiuuuzEq-tnR63zoWjNeeqP5iFlnX5vbSJwq-evqETq2T_tCjfIMWafR_cJY6BxlabpxuL8KQqSEWbG6iKN_I7R w6Hh4xKfFQADOP6MsNGgGzfioZP8AYdACV-LEasrrACh2zdJRDbHwhSeE5knsicztcaFR9e3anmPLlhYquLDg pyETd8jB9xZe4sL5Hb=w1043-h782-no

You may also have noticed that '81 K10s don't have airbags or crumple zones, and if you're familiar with that little stretch of road, you know the speed limit is 60mph. My dog (who was asleep on the bench next to me) and I somehow managed to limp away (with a little help from a healthy dose of adrenaline) from this mess bloodied, bruised, and broken, but alive and mostly in tact after a visit to our respective species-specific ERs. Fortunately, there were some good people on the scene pretty quickly. An older gentleman helped my dog and I out of the passenger side of the truck (DS door was wedged into the body in such a way that it'll need to be cut open) while advising us to stay put, but there was quite a bit of smoke coming from the engine compartment, and knowing where the battery and fuel lines were relative to the state of the engine compartment, and having seen a few cars go up in flames from electrical fires, I wanted out quickly. An off duty EMT was there at the intersection when it happened, threw on his hat and jacket, and was on the scene by the time I had hobbled my way to the tailgate. Another woman had a first aid kit out, and was comforting my poor dog who was bleeding from his mouth (fortunately, he just cut his chin on something on his way into the footwell), had a broken foot, and some lung and liver damage (he's going to be fine). The ambulances and fire fighters were also fairly quick to the scene. I got asked the same half dozen questions (seeing if I had a concussion, internal injuries, etc.) a hundred times by as many people. I had called my wife and she was en route. In the flurry of it all, I thought I had just broken my nose and was going to have her take me to the hospital or something (didn't want to deal with the cost of an ambulance ride, and it hadn't occurred to me that the insurance would pay for it anyway), but conversing with the on-duty EMTs helped me realize that the blood was actually coming from all over my head. I had really been thrown around. My chin had hit the top of the steering wheel and was ripped up, my nose hit the rim, broke my glasses frames, which in turn ripped up my forehead pretty good, and the back glass (the part that slides open) cut a long and very deep cut into the back of my scalp. Not exactly a bloody nose after all...

Interesting displays of the forces involved (because I'm a nerd and this sort of thing fascinates me): The ignition key was bent at a right angle in the steering column due solely to the weight of my keychain swinging 90 degrees with an arc toward the column, then pulled out of the switch (still in the ON position, and not exactly worn out) and thrown into the floor as it swung back out and away from the column. Additionally, my automatic watch began running several hours/day fast, then it would suddenly swing back the other way, then it would stop completely until reset... I'm guessing one of the larger gears bent its pivot... That's a fraction of a millimeter thick by maybe a centimeter in diameter piece of metal (steel?) bending a ~.75mm rod from shear inertia... While attached to my wrist. Somehow I walked/limped away without any relatively major/debilitating injuries.

A week and a half on, I can walk without a limp on flat surfaces, but stairs are still a challenge (my right knee hit the dash pretty hard, and it can't take much weight while bent). My neck and shoulder are still a mess, and while I can get through the day without meds, I can't sleep through the night without them. The stitches are out, and the back of my head healed up surprisingly well, but my forehead and chin have a bunch of really gnarly and knotty scars. My dog has a cast on his broken foot, but his lungs and liver seem to have recovered (more followup appointments and a review by a specialist pending). Still waiting on insurance, but I have rental coverage, so it's not too much of an imposition just yet. I just got the valuation on my truck, and it's pretty sad... No way I'll be able to get another similarly capable vehicle that's similarly reliable... Still working on that one.

Fortunately, nearly a week before this happened we ordered my wife a new JKU Rubicon, so maybe she can be convinced to come out and break it in once it gets here. Unfortunately, that kind of blows the car buying budget for the time being, and this insurance thing seems like it's going to take a while. Complicating matters further, the other guy is trying to say I ran a red light. That doesn't really help his case much, but the goal seems to be to put some of the blame on me so his insurance policy doesn't have to pay the full 100%. One of the first responders saw it happen and gave me his contact information for this exact scenario, so that should put that to bed pretty quickly. His insurance company, upon realizing the conflicting statements, wanted me to call and make a statement about it to them (after I had already done so for my own insurance company and they had been provided a copy), so I did, but they didn't give me the "we are going to record you now" statement... So not really sure what's going on there. I'm hoping she was holding out in case what I said was in any way different from the previously recorded statement, and since it wasn't there was no need... That's pretty much the only positive case scenario, and even that seems like it lacks being wholly on the up and up...

Adding insult to injury, the software startup that had employed me when this happened went belly up less than a week later, and I got laid off along with everyone else at the company. There were signs that things might be unhappy between the c-suite and the investors, but I literally just got a call on my way back from the tow yard telling me it was done, clean out my desk. I guess that's part of the nature of startups, but the timing could have been a little better. Soooooo..... I won't likely be able to supplement the insurance payout unless I can find a new job quickly (I'm a junior Ruby on Rails software developer if anyone knows of anyone or anything that might have a gig). The bright side, if I had to find one, is that it gives me plenty of time to deal with all this insurance stuff, the myriad medical appointments, and generally recuperate.

So that pretty much bookends the thread on my K10... Short, and ultimately not super exciting like I had hoped. Oh yeah, all the parts that were intended for the M1009... Well, the only thing that looks like it'll be salvageable without any damage is the tail lights. Literally. I did get 3/4s of my set of military wheels back... So... I guess that's... Something. If I'm able to talk them up re: the truck valuation, I might be back in something else and ready to wheel again soon, but for right now things aren't looking super great on that front.

[The StRanger]

Damn !!!
Glad you and your dog are OK and still walking (somewhat)
The other stuff can be replaced.

[ColoJeeper]

Sorry to hear about that, and glad you are ok. The rest is just "stuff".

[spectre6000]

Don't get me wrong. I've run it over and over in my head countless times. The forces my body went through were absolutely incredible, as illustrated by the ignition key and my watch. Countless 'what if' scenarios. Asking myself how things would have been different had I been in a more modern vehicle with air bags and such... I'm lucky to have (sort of) walked away. It is absolutely not lost on me.

Given the job situation, the stuff being replaced is wholly contingent upon insurance stuff playing out favorably. It's entirely possible at this point that things could go down such that what I get for the truck all goes to vet bills. I know what happened and I know I'm 100% free from blame in terms of what actually went down, but the other guy/insurance company is playing games, and given my luck of late I don't think it's wise to count any chickens.

[EKXJ87]

Like Colojeeper said "it's all just stuff" glad to hear your doing all right for now, pics didn't seam to load but to total a 80's truck vs a Subaru that mush have been some good contact! Again glad you were able to walk away.

[96EXXLTinCO]

Can't see pics here either. Glad you walked away from that one. Haven't seen a insurance company yet that just pays up what they should. Nope, they gotta low ball the crap outta ya. Keep your head up brother no matter the outcome, you'll find a way to make it happen.

[spectre6000]

I went back and uploaded the images to the forum servers, but left the inline links. They appear in the same order they're referenced in the post.

Long talk with the insurance company yesterday, and they valued my truck disappointingly low, but it turns out that's because the third party company that does the valuations only found two comps.... Clearly they weren't trying hard, because I found 15 in about as many minutes that were all considerably higher than what they found. For what it's worth, my insurance company is USAA, and I have nothing bad to say about them at all. They have to use a third party company for the actual valuations due to the obvious conflict of interest. I'm sure it's probably a law somewhere. At any rate, $3600 including taxes and registration (so actually just $3300). I had provided them with an abbreviated spreadsheet of my maintenance logs (left out fuel fill ups and truly minor things) and nearly 100 receipts totaling ~$2800. I only owned the truck for 7 months, so I think that all counts as "recent". It added all of $300 or so to their valuation. So... That's shitty. It's not like I expected to get it all back, but I'm essentially giving them a mechanically flawless and reliable vehicle capable of doing work, having fun, and general transportation, and it's not exactly going to be a cake walk getting something in similar condition or capability for that money. I was really looking forward to getting to work on my M1009 this spring and summer since I wouldn't have anything beyond oil changes and fill ups to do on the truck, but now it looks like I'm going to be in for yet another project car.

That being the case, I found something last night that tickled my pickle pretty good... I showed my wife, figuring she'd object, but she's just as giddy about the thing as I am. I called the seller and talked him up, and everything sounds completely on the up and up, and well within the realm of what I'm comfortable taking on right now. I'm headed out to check it out this afternoon, and if it looks like something I can justify from the project perspective, I might pick it up. I'm going to keep the exact nature of the beast in my back pocket for now because it's obviously cheap as dirt, but suffice it to say I may be able to forgive many sins behind the wheel of this particular beast.

[Patrolman]

Sorry to see your rig totaled. You had done such a good build on it. What a shame. Glad that you are OK though. Obviously that is most important. It sure could have been worse.

If you decide you want another K-10, and want something older, I still have my dads 1969 posted up for sale. All the mechanical work has already been done. :)

[spectre6000]

Unless the insurance company(ies) see the light and a lot of it, I'm afraid that's more than I could afford.

I checked out the mystery vehicle. It's a '39 Chrysler Royal on an '84 Suburban chassis. Parts of it are really well done, other parts... Not so much. A few too many corners cut. No single issue was a deal breaker, but all of them combined made it untenable in my current situation... Boo... I was giddy over the thing, but in the end it wasn't more than I could chew so much as more than I could fit in my mouth at one time.

There's a 70's conversion van on CL with a 4X4 conversion that's somewhat interesting. Having worked on a similar van owned by a friend though, I'm not 1000% sure I'm quite that masochistic. They really suck to work on.

[dieseldoc]

stupid subaru drivers..... seems they like to crwal there junk up under everyone eleses trucks.
I had basicly the same thing happen to me in aug. 2001.
16 year lod girl made a left turn in front of my '77 highboy f250.
I had just put a 450hp 351 clevland engine in 2 day before her birthday.
T boned her on the drivers side tore the subi near in half, you could work on the rear diff from the rear passenger door, or atleast where it should have been.
Hit that thig so hard it bent the short side tube of the D44hd!

[Brucker]

Sorry to hear of the troubles. Good to hear you and your pup are alright.

[spectre6000]

My dog is healing well, but still another month in his cast. He won't lose the toe! I'm done with physical therapy, and, as of yesterday, back in the shop. It turns out my nose was broken after all, and due to the amount of time it took to get my glasses I only discovered conclusive evidence of this late last week... I can't wear my glasses for more than an hour or two at a go before a sharp pointy bit of bone in the bridge of my nose pinches where my glasses sit. Still not out of the woods, but things are looking up.

Speaking of looking up... The other insurance company finally accepted liability last week. It only took a call to the adjuster's manager (herself a thoroughly unpleasant individual), threat of a DOI complaint, and a call from a lawyer to get them to put it in gear, but things are finally moving again. Awesome. It sounds like a major contributing factor to the accepting of liability is the relative sanity of the other guy. It sounds like he was dodging phone calls, but also calling the adjuster late at night and leaving long rambling voicemails until the machine cut him off (20 minutes). The ultimate call regarding liability sounds like it was an hour of his adjuster getting yelled at, complete with threats to sue my pants off, etc. Then he called my adjuster and left a lengthy voicemail with similar threats that resulted in my adjuster suggesting I screen calls and lock my doors. I'm not sure what was said exactly, but I know courtesy of the State Patrol's exchange of information forms, he has my name, phone number, address, and date of birth (everything required to steal someone's identity save a social security number). Fortunately we're moving in three weeks, so... I guess that part will be nullified soon enough. I'm not too concerned about any lawsuits (it would have to be one seriously desperate ambulance chaser), but the door locking suggestion is definitely concerning.

Meanwhile, on a more positive note the Jeep we ordered my wife the week before the accident is here now though, and things are well under way there! We did our homework, and broke it in properly and gave it its break in oil change this past weekend. We also made a hardcore cargo mat for skis and the dog to ride in the back without messing up the brand new interior. Hopefully we'll be able to come out for a run sometime soon!

[Patrolman]

Sounds like things are really looking up. That is great to hear!

[dieseldoc]

good to hear that something is get'n done.
sorry to hear the guy is nuts.
seems to be that way now days.

we dam near run over a @*&$ bird in the parking lot.....and he got out screaming and tossing westside gang sings.
cant wait to build my dakota on tons and 40's!
go ahead drive around it when its backing out......it will be on your hood!