I always wire the stereo so it can't be left on with the key off.
CK5
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'89 R3500 Crew Cab 2wd to 4wd conversion & beyond
- Thread starter mrk5
- Start date
Started out with 2wd TBI350 with SM465 to current 4wd with 454, 700r4, NP241
@doubletrouble said I need to drive it more too. Haha
I do have a cutoff, but ironically I don't use it because I hate losing my stereo presets.......
I defeated that with my airplane cockpit setup. I can't leave well enough alone.
It's all charged up and ready to roll for our snow run Sunday.
I also said that it sounds like you’re not responsible enough to have a stereo.
Drove the crew cab home and back to work without any battery issue. It was below 0 this morning and it cranked and started fine. I was worried because these batteries are pushing 10 years old.
You can wire the stereo with the main battery connection so you don't lose your presets but the little signal wire to turn it on can't be on without the key on.
I'd been having trouble with intermittent poor engine performance. It started at Blazer Bash and I thought I was having hot fuel pump issues like many others. It had one episode on the first day but then never hiccupped all day on Golden Spike. As I was driving on the highway out of Moab it started doing it again, I almost turned back.
At this point I remembered I'd had intermittent power loss happen one other time and that turned out to be a loose injector harness connection. I figured that was happening again. It never did it when I could look at the throttle body and spot the dead injector so I just wired up the other 3 injectors like I had the first one.
I had intermittent power loss again on our last snow run so it wasn't fixed. I tapped into personal experience again thinking about the plugged fuel filter in the C10. I was not seeing a drop in fuel pressure like the C10 but it was definitely spiking lean AFR like the C10. I hadn't changed the TBI filter since before putting the 454 in the truck. It's a real pain in the arse because it's on the frame rail right next to the tcase.
It was still bothering me that I wasn't seeing a drop in fuel pressure like I did on the C10. Matter of fact for the past several months I had noticed fuel pressure was running about 10psi HIGHER than it should be. A quick internet search for "Holley Sniper fuel pressure 10 psi too high" yielded a potential answer to all my troubles.
There's a filter screen on the Sniper's built in regulator and it's known to get debris on it causing fuel pressure to run high. Some people have seen upwards of 40 psi too high, depending on the capabilities of their fuel pump. This could explain how I was seeing a lean AFR with high fuel pressure because the sensor is before the regulator.
The regulator is on the fuel inlet to the throttle body.
Those 4 little screws use a tiny 3/32" allen wrench. And they have thread locker on them. Luckily I had this little tool with small allen bits.
Once the cover is removed, you can see the regulator.
It was a bit of a fight to get out. I used a pair of 90° needle nose pliers to get a hold of it but they did a little damage.
Nothing catastrophic at least.
It's hard to get out because of the oring seal.
The little blue cap/screen pops off the end. It actually stayed in the throttle body when I pulled the regulator. My first thought was "damn I don't even have a screen so that's not the solution!" Then I looked in the throttle body and saw it hiding in the recess.
I didn't see anything on it but I went ahead a blew it out with carb cleaner. Then low psi air.
I also replaced the TBI fuel filter in case you all were worried I was still blowing that off. Incidentally I've noticed the last 2 Wix fuel filters I've purchased are made in China now.
I also took care of the very dirty air filter. It's a reusable filter with the white stripe to indicate when it's time to clean. I couldn't see the stripe any more.
I definitely changed something because the engine didn't want to start without some gas pedal. Fuel pressure is lower down where it should be and it ran fine on the 30 minute drive home. After starting the truck a few times at a couple stops on the way home it's starting like it should.
Since my issue was intermittent, only time will tell if it's fixed.
At this point I remembered I'd had intermittent power loss happen one other time and that turned out to be a loose injector harness connection. I figured that was happening again. It never did it when I could look at the throttle body and spot the dead injector so I just wired up the other 3 injectors like I had the first one.
I had intermittent power loss again on our last snow run so it wasn't fixed. I tapped into personal experience again thinking about the plugged fuel filter in the C10. I was not seeing a drop in fuel pressure like the C10 but it was definitely spiking lean AFR like the C10. I hadn't changed the TBI filter since before putting the 454 in the truck. It's a real pain in the arse because it's on the frame rail right next to the tcase.
It was still bothering me that I wasn't seeing a drop in fuel pressure like I did on the C10. Matter of fact for the past several months I had noticed fuel pressure was running about 10psi HIGHER than it should be. A quick internet search for "Holley Sniper fuel pressure 10 psi too high" yielded a potential answer to all my troubles.
There's a filter screen on the Sniper's built in regulator and it's known to get debris on it causing fuel pressure to run high. Some people have seen upwards of 40 psi too high, depending on the capabilities of their fuel pump. This could explain how I was seeing a lean AFR with high fuel pressure because the sensor is before the regulator.
The regulator is on the fuel inlet to the throttle body.
Those 4 little screws use a tiny 3/32" allen wrench. And they have thread locker on them. Luckily I had this little tool with small allen bits.
Once the cover is removed, you can see the regulator.
It was a bit of a fight to get out. I used a pair of 90° needle nose pliers to get a hold of it but they did a little damage.
Nothing catastrophic at least.
It's hard to get out because of the oring seal.
The little blue cap/screen pops off the end. It actually stayed in the throttle body when I pulled the regulator. My first thought was "damn I don't even have a screen so that's not the solution!" Then I looked in the throttle body and saw it hiding in the recess.
I didn't see anything on it but I went ahead a blew it out with carb cleaner. Then low psi air.
I also replaced the TBI fuel filter in case you all were worried I was still blowing that off. Incidentally I've noticed the last 2 Wix fuel filters I've purchased are made in China now.
I also took care of the very dirty air filter. It's a reusable filter with the white stripe to indicate when it's time to clean. I couldn't see the stripe any more.
I definitely changed something because the engine didn't want to start without some gas pedal. Fuel pressure is lower down where it should be and it ran fine on the 30 minute drive home. After starting the truck a few times at a couple stops on the way home it's starting like it should.
Since my issue was intermittent, only time will tell if it's fixed.
I've had some customers completely bypass those sniper regulators and install an external regulator to get rid of the issues they cause.
I was thinking about that.
On the snow run yesterday I had a short hiccup on the highway to the trail. No issue after that so I'm thinking it's fixed.
On the snow run yesterday I had a short hiccup on the highway to the trail. No issue after that so I'm thinking it's fixed.
Ever have one of those revelatory moments? "You mean I've had this installed wrong the whole time?!"
I was watching Vice Grip Garage putting a Sniper on the Chevy truck they call Longmire and he said he was connecting the inlet "here" and the return has to come off the regulator. I was like, oops he's got that backwards...... Doesn't he......?
Looked at the instructions and sure enough he's right.
I've been running mine backwards this entire time!
I was watching Vice Grip Garage putting a Sniper on the Chevy truck they call Longmire and he said he was connecting the inlet "here" and the return has to come off the regulator. I was like, oops he's got that backwards...... Doesn't he......?
Looked at the instructions and sure enough he's right.
I've been running mine backwards this entire time!
I just had that moment with my Blazer and fuel plumbing. I had a qjet, removed for a Holley and now just went back to the qjet. While hooking up the lines I realized that things didn’t look like before, after looking at old pics it appears I had the feed & return hoses connected backwards. It ran fine and had good steady pressure but it seems like it should have created some problems. 
Haha, you pretty much did the exact same thing! Obviously mine runs okay too, but I wonder if it was getting fuel starved under circumstances like pulling our camper up steep grades. The fuel pressure also tends to run 6 to 8 psi high, so that could also be why.
I just hope I don't have an issue with line length reaching the correct ports.
I just hope I don't have an issue with line length reaching the correct ports.
Turns out I didn't give 6-years-ago Scott enough credit, the fuel lines are connected properly.
Way back at Blazer Bash I had a cooling problem. I thought a fan had failed. I hadn't been concerned because it was cooling well enough for winter. I recently did some more troubleshooting and figured out the fans and relays function properly. That just left the activation signal to be at fault.
The EFI has 2 fan output channels. Channel 1 for low speed, lower temperature range was working fine but channel 2 for high speed, high temperature range was glitching. The off temperature must be lower than the on and the system won't let you do otherwise. The glitch was that no matter how low I set the off temperature, I kept getting an error saying I wasn't doing it right. So I think this was causing the system not to turn the high fans on.
I figured the best option to try and eliminate the glitch was to update the firmware. After doing that, I didn't have any trouble setting the fan activation.
Way back at Blazer Bash I had a cooling problem. I thought a fan had failed. I hadn't been concerned because it was cooling well enough for winter. I recently did some more troubleshooting and figured out the fans and relays function properly. That just left the activation signal to be at fault.
The EFI has 2 fan output channels. Channel 1 for low speed, lower temperature range was working fine but channel 2 for high speed, high temperature range was glitching. The off temperature must be lower than the on and the system won't let you do otherwise. The glitch was that no matter how low I set the off temperature, I kept getting an error saying I wasn't doing it right. So I think this was causing the system not to turn the high fans on.
I figured the best option to try and eliminate the glitch was to update the firmware. After doing that, I didn't have any trouble setting the fan activation.
I've been loathe to post this because I know what the inevitable responses will be.
On a snow run back in January I managed to bend a front leaf spring.
We were totally baffled how this could happen on a snow run. We were convinced I must have done it on a prior trip and just didn't notice. Looked back at the past run and the leafs were fine. Talked with Stephen about it and he told me about the only scenarios he's seen it happen:
As I already alluded to, I know what you all are going to say the solution is but for now I just replaced the 2 main leafs.
While I was at it, I replaced the bushings. I've noticed the edge of the spring eye kinda tears up the bushings.
So I used some scrap 20ga stainless steel sheet to make a little piece that covers up that sharp edge.
Be interesting to see how the bushings look after this.
On a snow run back in January I managed to bend a front leaf spring.
We were totally baffled how this could happen on a snow run. We were convinced I must have done it on a prior trip and just didn't notice. Looked back at the past run and the leafs were fine. Talked with Stephen about it and he told me about the only scenarios he's seen it happen:
At the time this happened I was pulling the 7000lb Savalanche thru deep snow. I had the throttle nearly pinned running 2nd gear, both lockers engaged, and in double low. I'm thinking one of the times the Savalanche got stuck the crew cab hit the end of the rope bringing the frame to a complete stop but the axles kept pulling forward. And due to the deep snow, there was a good chance the suspension was drooped out on that side.
As I already alluded to, I know what you all are going to say the solution is but for now I just replaced the 2 main leafs.
While I was at it, I replaced the bushings. I've noticed the edge of the spring eye kinda tears up the bushings.
So I used some scrap 20ga stainless steel sheet to make a little piece that covers up that sharp edge.
Be interesting to see how the bushings look after this.
The only correct 2 options are....
Stay off of the skinny pedal.....
Links on everything.....
Stay off of the skinny pedal.....
Links on everything.....
If you ask me staying off the skinny pedal is not a correct option....
While it is true that links are awesome, they have their own problems. Instead of throwing in a few leaves which you can grab from a junkyard, your replacing heims, which you can't get from a junkyard. It all can break with skinny or wear.
But....
You can never bend a floppy spring if you have links.
Absolutely! With links, Bent leaf springs are a thing of the past. Leaves are antiquated Quaker knowledge and links transform your horse and carriage into a machine that one is proud to drive. I do fully support Scott linking his truck.
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