Well, I'm almost finished with putting my truck back together after the blown oil cooler disaster a couple of weeks ago. I've been picking away at it a few hours a day for a while now, and I just have to reinstall the radiator and flush the cooling system tomorrow. Besides the oil cooler, I decided to take the opportunity to do the KDP, deal with my squeaky belt tensioner, replace my flaky oil pressure sending unit, adjust the valves and replace the rear brakes.

Besides the time and hassle, here's what it has cost me:


towing truck home, fuel and trailer $200
having shop tow it and look at it $120
service manuals w/ shipping $220
used oil cooler with shipping $47
oil cooler gaskets from dealer $48
thermostat/gasket $11
radiator hoses $38
belt tensioner $134
belt $60
oil/air/coolant filters $58
KDP kit $54
oil and drain plug $36
oil pressure sending unit $27
rear brake shoes and cylinders $90
bearing retainer nuts for rear axle $33
rear axle seals $20
VC gaskets $36
tools and shop supplies $100

total $1332


Things I learned:

adjusting the valves was so easy and fast I felt like a dunce for not having done it already

the shop manuals might seem expensive, but worth every penny and if you look at it another way, it's only $15.70 per pound, or $31.42 per inch of thickness.

It took more time to clean everything than it did to actually do the mechanicking.

This is one sturdy heavy duty engine! The valves hadn't been touched in at least 80,000 miles, yet they were all uniformly loose, only by about .003" .

having credit cards is not all bad...

hopefully by tomorrow afternoon I will have a truck again...

 

Liked it... Mind if I quote you on that from here on out?

 

Well worth it! Now you know EXACTLY what you're driving and don't have to worry about what's going to happen a few miles down the road. Plus that's without a MUCH fatter truck payment, increased [read that ridiculous] insurance rates and other hassles that come from 'trading up'. Glad it all worked out for you....

 

Good writeup, but you forgot one thing on the list:

'Sense of humor--Priceless!'

 

Been there. It usually takes me more time time to finally decide to actually get started on a big job like that, than actually doing it!

 

Yeah, when things like this would happen to me 20 years ago, I would get REALLY stressed out about it. Now that I'm so old and wise I just plow through it as best I can and try to skip the stress.. My sense of humor is much better developed now

Fortunately, so is my credit rating..

especially when the truck is covered in hard frost every morning! Sun should be on it in another 45 minutes or so

 

Oh, and my KDP hadn't budged at all in 265K miles... it sure looks like a disaster waiting to happen though, if one did come loose. Perched right up there above those gears...

Glad I don't have to worry about that anymore!

 

That's what happens to me; I spend more time dreadin' the project then working on it, especially the frost . I'm a spoiled brat livin' here in California for the last ten years.
When I finally do get started, the job moves right along

Jim

 

Well, speaking of age's contributions: I spend far more time looking for tools and digging through parts stashes trying to find THAT part than I do actual wrenching. Seems like memory is just a memory anymore.....

 

Mine was snug and cozy at 400k. Tabbed it while I was in there.

 

I never hear it mentioned but when I made the tab for my KDP I also found one timing case-to-block bolt less than finger tight, 2 finger tight and 1 with maybe 3 lbs torque on it! I pulled, cleaned and Loctited all of them. Just as nasty as the dowel pin as they take a quick trip through the gears....

 

I did the ones I could get to. There was one behind the cam gear that I didn't see any way to get at. None of mine were particularly loose. The TST kit instructions advise this as well.

I also have the problem of spending more time looking for parts and tools than actually working, but it is not so much my advanced age (41) as my disorganized shop, with too many things stored in there and too many projects occupying the same space.

Finally started the truck up today, and ran soapy water through it for about 1/2 hour or so, then drained it out. Yuck! I can see that I will need many more cycles of that before it is clean enough to put antifreeze in.

truck sounds great though, no more valve noise, no more squeaking and screeching belt tensioner. I can actually hear the turbo now, and my oil pressure gauge is back to normal.

it will be many months before my credit cards recover though...

 

cool , always feels good to finish up , clean up , drive it. just think of all those folks that just gotta have new with 3500 bucks worth of wheels and tires then the lift kit and so on. not anything wrong with that just cost alot . i just took my radiator out of my jd loader tractor and went to local car wash with dish soap. some real ickey stuff came out . good flush til it ran clean got it bolted back on the tractor. our farm shop is wall to wall with goodies. used to be full sized 24x36 now its about 16 by 30. wish i could of gotten over to lend a hand and learn a few things. gonna do the dowel pin thing on mine this spring. my brothers 97 pin came out and knocked a hole in the timing cover. 1000 dollar shop repair.

 

let me know if you want someone to hold your beer while you work. I come to portland a lot.

 

i'm around the farm dinking on something most the time . let me know if you want to stop by. out a couple miles south of hillsboro.