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82 stepside. Thoughts and crazy ideas

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Well, the screams are getting louder. It's gonna be a busy weekend for me.

I was walking past the truck around lunch time when I saw an oil spot on the ground by the one rear tire. I say spot but the mark was about 8" square. Take a peak in the wheelwell and find oil slung all over the place and the drum covered.

So I go digging through my pile of parts and I found that I do have a spare wheel seal.

Work ends, I pull the wheel off. Then the drum/hub assembly off and I'm greeted by this.
20230829_171823.jpg

Well, that explains why the brakes pulled.
It was obviously leaking for a while but not getting past the drum and there was no burning oil smell.

So a spent an hour cleaning everything really well. Lots of fresh grease in the bearings and a new seal. Then put it all back together. Topped off the gear oil and drove it home.

Guess I'm doing a full rear brake job on the stepside too. Shame, the shoes barely looked worn. But the drum was getting some grooves in it. That I could feel.

Now to find bearings as this is a late 70s axle.

Oh well. At least I caught it this time.
 
And so it continues.

The past few weeks or so I have noticed a very slight coolant smell. I wasn't seeing anything, just smelling it. Check the rad when cold, down a few inches. So I top it off and make note to check it once in a while.

Few days go by, same thing. I smell it but don't see it. And again, coolant is down couple inches from the cap.

The overflow bottle has maybe a 1/2" deep worth of coolant in it. Nothing crazy.

This goes on for a week or 2. Not much changes.

Tuesday after labor day I had to go to a Dr's appointment that had me taking the parkway for a good 15 miles. Cruised right along at 70, no issues.

Do my Dr visit. When I coming back to the truck I noticed a puddle on the ground basically right under the right side headlights.

It's coolant.

I start looking and I find the overflow bottle, has overflowed. Bottle was full to the top.

The rad was cool enough that I popped the cap off and found the rad down a solid 6" or so. I had a bottle of distilled water with me and it took the whole gallon jug. Was hot that morning 90+.

This weekend I cleaned the engine off and empty the overflow bottle, 5qts worth, to see if I can find the leak.

After driving today, still no sign of a leak.

But it's still losing a quart or 2 of coolant every 50 miles.

Which leads me to think it's either a headgasket or a cracked head. But, i cN say for certain just yet.

The upper rad hose does get firm, but you can still squeeze it some. And it'll stay that way for a good hour or so once the truck is off. After about 3 hours, the upper hose is completely pliable.
 
Pressure test the system and see if it leaks down….could be a bad radiator cap, do you get any bubbles in the radiator with it running? White smoke? Under the headlight sounds to me like it pushed coolant out to the overflow….
 
Chickntrk said:
Pressure test the system and see if it leaks down….could be a bad radiator cap, do you get any bubbles in the radiator with it running? White smoke? Under the headlight sounds to me like it pushed coolant out to the overflow….
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I replaced the radiator cap. Helped, but didn't solve the issue.

Oh, it definitely pushed coolant out of the overflow.

Zero white smoke. Touch of grey/black on "cold" start. Just black haze if under a decent load.

Pressure test. It'll lose around 1-1.5 psi in about 30 minutes.

I have not checked for bubbles in the radiator. I'll have to do that tomorrow.
 
Truckman4life said:
Get one of those combustion gas testers from napa, I've had good luck with them. https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_7001006
Opening my radiator cap on my 6.2 while it is running I would swear it's got combustion going into it but it's been that way for years and doesn't consume or lose coolant so I just figure mine is fine.
View attachment 457199
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I’ve found many head gasket issues with that kit. Though you do need to get it up to temp for the solution to work right. The change in color is noticeable if combustion gasses are in the cooling system.
 
I used it exclusively on diesels so it works there no problem. We even tested leaving the fluid out that had changed colors from combustion gasses and it turns back to blue. I would probably still not reuse it though lol.
 
Well, I had pressure tested the system and found a leak right at the coolant crossover. So I was hopeful. But when I ran it with it open. This is what I found.

Bunch of bubbles on the driverside. So, it's looking like I'm going to be doing headgaskets. Oh yay.

View attachment 20230923_120751.mp4
 
That sucks. Do those always sound like that with the intake off? On the video it sure sounds like when you have an intake valve issue on a big diesel.
 
Yep, it sucks. I'm going to spring for new heads. As stock gm ones are known for cracking between the valves. Which is more then likely where this broke.

The part that really sucks, is because of the headstuds and how i got them to seal. I have to pull the engine out. So I'll upgrade the piston rings to gapless to help with the blowby and oil consumption it's been having.


These do make a fair amount of noise with the intake open, but I have been chasing an intermittent intake valve issue. It comes and goes. I finally said **** it, and just been running.
 
Well, the old girl has been down for at least a month. Between the burb and house stuff it had to wait a minute.
This week and weekend it was finally time.

As you can see, the engine has been having an oil control issue. Coupled with a few leaks in the intercooler. Budgets reasons have forced me to not buy new heads nor new rings. But, I do have the heads from the burb which are actually in pretty decent shape. If I need to swap them out.

So it's getting new headgaskets, new rear main seals (6.2s are the two piece) and new seals around the timing cover and water pump. And a good exterior cleaning.

Oh, and the lift point, its from Quadstar. Well worth the money. So much better then a questionable chain that makes the engine want to turn. It stayed right were I rotated it too. Very handy. Especially when you're working alone.

Now pictures.

20240131_173901.jpg20240131_174159.jpg20240131_174206.jpg20240131_174211.jpg20240203_144143.jpg20240203_144154.jpg20240203_163435.jpg20240203_190926.jpg20240203_190933.jpg20240203_192148.jpg20240203_192729.jpg20240203_192734.jpg
 
Well it's been a marathon weekend. I worked on the engine Friday night, most of Saturday and even a few hours today.

Is it back in the truck, no, not yet. But it's 85% together to go back in.

Manifolds, injector lines, turbo, accessory brackets. Then I'll drop it in. It's just so much easier to set that stuff up on the engine stand.

Which, yeah, I had to buy an engine stand because my other one is in Florida and I wasn't able to borrow one.

I bought the geared head one from harbor freight. It has a little slop in the head but works pretty good otherwise. And it's so much easier to turn over vs fighting the old style.

That said, this engine is on borrowed time. It has a lot of carbon build up on the pistons and heads. I actually had to clean it off with a wire wheel on a grinder. The oil you could see a ton of soot in it from blow by. And since I had to pull number 5 main to change the rear seal, engine was out I'm doing it, the bearing is not in the greatest of conditions.

But, it's getting put together and tossed back in and I'm just gonna send it.

Pretty much I need it running so I can do the rest of the front-end work on the burb. Which needs upper and lower bjs and bushings.

As for replacing this engine. Two options come to mind. Splurge and buy a new GEP engine and do a full build on it similar to what Dave, @AgDieseler, did. Definitely the most expensive route but I'll be good for many years to come.

Other option is pull the low comp 6.5 I have out of FL storage and build that. It has a forged crank and fully balanced rotating assembly. Just with 18:1 pistons. Biggest problem is that it's in Florida and I'm not planning on going down until the fall at the earliest. And since I have to go through that engine. I rather start sooner then later.


Anyway here's a bunch of pictures.

20240209_192335.jpg20240209_192418.jpg20240209_192849.jpg20240209_192855.jpg20240210_124520.jpg20240210_124525.jpg20240210_124544.jpg20240210_133623.jpg20240210_173924.jpg20240211_154111.jpg
 
Man, that kind of sucks. Timing rarely works out on these projects, and that bearing didn’t look like it was going to be patient. Bummer.

I think your 18:1 plan sounds pretty reasonable, especially since you have other vehicles to draw on right now. The GEP engine is a huge financial undertaking, and it’s hard to jump to that when you’ve got a somewhat built engine and a forged crank in your different parts stashes.

David
 
Definitely sucks. And timing, timing is never good.
Nope, that bearing isn't long for this world. I cleaned out as much as I could. But I'll have to change the oil a few times to get more crap out.

AgDieseler said:
I think your 18:1 plan sounds pretty reasonable, especially since you have other vehicles to draw on right now. The GEP engine is a huge financial undertaking, and it’s hard to jump to that when you’ve got a somewhat built engine and a forged crank in your different parts stashes.

David
Click to expand...

As much as I would love to do a fresh build like that, it's a ton of money.
The low comp engine I can space out the build, so it won't hurt as much.

Now to just get it up here from Florida sooner then later. May have to ship it.
 
Long over due update. I'm so busy lately I'm lucky I have time to work on the truck let alone pictures or post about it.

Truck has been back together since February. Runs well enough once again. Still has massive blowby, but since I didn't change out the rings it was to be expected.

The work I did over the winter was to get the truck running again. I know it's going to need a full rebuild or new engine. But for now, this will do. Let's me get some other work done to the suburban.

Now to combat the blowby and keep it from choking out the entire intake system. I needed a catch can. I bought. Is small, not proper flow to release the oil vapor from the air. So something better was needed. In true Kris fashion, I can't just use something off the shelf. Won't work and more importantly, won't fit.

So custom one it is, lol .

But, where to mount it. That is the question.
It needs to stay on the passenger side to keep the hoses shorter and there's a bit more room on that side.

Now sure, I could make a simple bracket and be on my way. But no, I can't leave well enough alone. I was never very happy with the current position of the air filter. Pulls in a ton of manifold heat and it let's the turbo be very loud in the cab. Which gets old on long drives.

The solution an air box, new battery tray and a new oil catch can.

Now I'm going to take the semi lazy route and post a ton of pictures. In order, so it'll make sense as you see them.

IMG_4976.jpgIMG_4978.jpgIMG_4979.jpgIMG_4980.jpgIMG_4981.jpgIMG_4982.jpgIMG_4984.jpgIMG_4985.jpgIMG_4987.jpgIMG_4988.jpg20221126_101014.jpg20221126_101021.jpg20221126_101029.jpg20221126_101121.jpg20221126_101130.jpg20221203_110111.jpg20221203_110900.jpg20221203_110907.jpg20221203_112728.jpg20221224_084230.jpg20221224_084237.jpg
 
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