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The Great Smaug

Overview Gallery Discussion
campfire said:
Hmm. I'm not sure what the big difference would be. I know my climate is fairly cool, but we're still talking 85*F during this hot season.

After it's warmed up, I can sit out about one stoplight cycle before I start noticing movement of the temperature gauge. That's about all I ever see in this area, so it has been working fine for my usage pattern. If I have to sit through 2 light cycles I will see some movement of the temp gauge. By the time I get to the next light it's back to normal again. Only time I've had to shut it off was when I was waiting for a train one day.

So...idling = not good. Driving (at any practical speed) = OK.

Trailering a K5 = ???

I need to get that fixed pretty soon. :rolleyes:
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So you're wagering 3 stoplights against 4 bolts.....:popcorn:
 
Richcz28 said:
So you're wagering 3 stoplights against 4 bolts.....:popcorn:
Click to expand...

:haha:

Saw that one coming. :rolleyes:

Yes, I need to get it fixed. I do have a fan with appropriate 4-bolt mounting pattern. But it has too small of a pilot hole bored into it. Anyone know why? :popcorn:

I've been assuming I can bore that out and bolt it on. If this is a bad idea, please speak up soon! :whistle:
 
Given the traffic patterns around here, I'm not sure how possible it is to get stuck at the same light for 3 cycles. I've hardly ever seen even 2. And that's when a big rush of folks leave one of the local factories all at the same time. The train is a much more likely occurrence.
 
I would drill it out in a drill press. If that thing is off balanced at all its going to shake and fly off into your radiator.

What happened to the original fan?
 
The small bore fans for a small block are standard rotation, and won't fit the shaft of a reverse rotation water pump. Not sure if there is something similar with the diesels.

I wouldn't worry about driving without a fan for a little while. I drove a Camaro one whole summer with a big four core radiator and no fan.

Martin
 
campfire said:
But...but...but...WHAT DID YOU DOOOOOO that worked out fine? :rolleyes:

I assume you mean you ran the stock 13" drums and 3/4-ton 10-bolt calipers, and that worked fine? :dunno:
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I ran my 1988 V10 Suburban with a 14bff with factory drums and stock front calipers. Then I switched to rear disc brakes, so I moved the factory 1/2 ton calipers to the rear, and bought larger 3/4 ton calipers on the front.

It worked fine.

Martin
 
Richcz28 said:
I would drill it out in a drill press. If that thing is off balanced at all its going to shake and fly off into your radiator.

What happened to the original fan?
Click to expand...

Something kinda like what you just described. :doah:

The clutch seized to the shaft (so the fan was always turning). I did not think that was an urgent problem (I even know at least one guy who deliberately welded his fan when his clutch failed), so I put it at the bottom of the priority stack. I bought the replacement fan but did not install it. Then I got a call from my wife one day while she was out running errands. She said it was losing coolant, and she was having to fill it up at each stop. I swap her vehicles and discover the fan is loose in it's shroud, in contact with the radiator but not the spindle.

While reinstalling the radiator I took the new fan and discovered that it was not going to fit over the water pump shaft.

And that brings me to where I am today. Took these pictures a few minutes ago:

Picture of Suburban water pump:

IMGP6987.JPG

Shroud with non-broken fan. Non-broken fan is slightly smaller than broken fan. And less broken. And the bore is too small to fit over the water pump shaft. This is a random find from a random person's garage sale. I don't think he even charged me for it, as I was buying some other items from him as well. No huge loss if it doesn't work, but I was thinking it was going to be fine. :dunno:

IMGP6988.JPG


This is what Big Blue looks like (assembled and non-broken):

IMGP6989.JPG

And here is what broken fan looks like:

IMGP6990.JPG

IMGP6994.JPG

IMGP6987.JPG

IMGP6988.JPG

IMGP6989.JPG

IMGP6990.JPG

IMGP6994.JPG
 
I was also reminded how nice it is to have a nice, mostly-unmolested K10. Excepting a couple things that I did, the wires and lines go where they're supposed to go and not much is missing.

The Suburban is a rescued hack-job. So wires and tubes hang all over where they're not supposed to be. The lack of fan doesn't really look out of place under that hood. :doah:
 
82355 said:
The small bore fans for a small block are standard rotation, and won't fit the shaft of a reverse rotation water pump. Not sure if there is something similar with the diesels.

I wouldn't worry about driving without a fan for a little while. I drove a Camaro one whole summer with a big four core radiator and no fan.

Martin
Click to expand...

This fan, while undersized, is configured for the correct rotation direction.
 
82355 said:
I ran my 1988 V10 Suburban with a 14bff with factory drums and stock front calipers. Then I switched to rear disc brakes, so I moved the factory 1/2 ton calipers to the rear, and bought larger 3/4 ton calipers on the front.

It worked fine.

Martin
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So...you did not have to adjust the proportioning valve, even when switching to rear discs? This defies the other advice floating around the interwebz. :dunno:
 
campfire said:
So...you did not have to adjust the proportioning valve, even when switching to rear discs? This defies the other advice floating around the interwebz. :dunno:
Click to expand...

People like to spend money and buy fancy parts.

Martin
 
I threw away the factory prop valve/block as it seems to be more problematic than good. I simplified things and went with an adjustable prop valve on the firewall that goes to the rear brakes...a couple turns of the knob and its dialed in...set it and forget it!
 
82355 said:
Put a bigger caliper on the front.

Martin
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Talk me through the theory on this, just to make sure this makes sense (before I rip the truck apart).

larger caliper piston = more force for a given pressure, but also more fluid volume must be displaced to move the piston a given distance

smaller caliper piston = less force for a given pressure, but also less fluid volume must be displaced to move the piston a given distance

If I swap out the calipers, I'll move from the second category to the first. More force is good (what I'm looking for), but doesn't the larger displacement requirement mean that it will be applying the force to the wheels later yet in the pedal stroke? That sounds like I'm moving in the wrong direction.

I understand why tweaking the prop. valve has value, but changing the calipers doesn't yet make sense. This is why I ended up sticking with 1/2-ton calipers last year...I couldn't quite grasp what difference the caliper choice made.
 
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