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The Green Machine - parked

Overview Gallery Discussion
mrk5 said:
Have you talked with Stephen about custom rear springs yet? Last time he and I talked about it, he said by the time you set up a rear spring pack to ride nice and not axle wrap, you're money ahead to just by the Tuff Country EZ ride springs. At least that was the case a few years ago when I asked about it.
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noJeepshere said:
OK so the front axle is finally in! For good this time. Still need to figure out the bump stops, but the shocks line up nicely and the tie rod clears the factory cross member, so I'll be good to go soon. Saturday should be the day I can finally drive my truck after nearly 3 months! I'm stoked :cool:

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These are the Tough Country EZrides I bought from ord back in the day, they rode like a Mack dump truck, they never controlled wheelhop, and as you can see, they used to arch up, now they sag to the point they look like stock squarebody springs, so bad in fact, I had to install zero rates to pick the front back up. The rear spring setup might be a different story, but as far as I'm concerned, the Tough Country's were a waste of money. Given my experience, I'd rather spend the coin on quality. My dad has Tough Country EZride springs on the rear of his lifted suburban, and he complains they ride like garbage.

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I'm with you @noJeepshere , I had Tuff Country on my '70 for years and after getting some spec'd out from ORD, I don't believe that I will ever buy off the shelf springs again. The difference in how I feel about my truck while driving is worth the money. If they last longer as well, I will be even more happy!!
 
So I did a thing that needed to be done, I replaced the steering box with a reman box and put a 2" drop pittman arm on to make the drag link parallel to the axle. What a difference! Instead of a wandering, twitchy steering wheel with lots of bump steer, it's now a bit tighter and without bump steer. Very worth the time to do that. That and I replaced the I forget how old steering fluid so there's that too.

And I realized I forgot to do a trip report on the mud rally in Afton, Wyoming on Independence Day weekend, I'll do that tomorrow.
 
Sorry guys, just been super busy with all that's going on with work, the engagement, and my side job. Most days I leave the house at 530 in the morning and don't stop moving until 9pm. I barely have time to breathe right now, much less talk to you chuckleheads. And you're right, she's a lot more enticing to be with than a bunch of dudes talking trucks on the internet.
 
But that being said, here goes:

Went to the Star Valley Mud Rally, hosted by Eric @blazinzuk in Afton, Wyoming over the Independence day weekend. Had lots of fun, several CK5ers were there, and the pit was sloppy and deep. Keith Blazer went first and went about a truck length, and most trucks had progressively better luck until the Jesus Bronco drove on top of the mud and barely even flung any chunks. Seriously, that thing was impressive.

By the time my turn came up, the pit was a bit drier but the ruts were really deep. Even so, I did surprisingly well, getting about 3/4 of the way through the pit before I lost momentum. Lyndsay, my girlfriend, ran in the powderpuff class, and somewhat embarrassingly (for me) went further, in my truck!

Overall it was a great time and I'm planning on going back next year, but with big life changes coming up, we'll see what happens.


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Back to the busyness that is life, it took me a week to get the time to clean the Yukon off, so to start, I grabbed a 2 foot long 2x2 and started poking. 90% of the mud came off in chunks without water in about an hour. Then I started hosing the truck down, and that process took two hours and involved removing the wheels to get inside and behind them. Then I did a normal wash with soap and all that, which took another hour. Then finally cleaned the driveway, which took yet another hour, mostly because the outside faucet sucks and has no pressure. That was a long day. But the Green Machine was green again.

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Still need the video of Lyndsay giving you the whalop
 
noJeepshere said:
Nobody took one, and I was in the truck with her coaching her on what to do.
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“Ok baby! In the mud, here’s what you do: shift into 4WD, shift down to first gear, hold gas pedal to the floor. Hope that mud flies and parts don’t. If engine is still running when you come to a stop, then you won!”
 
Trip report from Moab and Blazer Bash:

Truck did alright. The Bash was great fun as usual, and no body damage to report this year, other than a broken sunvisor clip. But it was friggin hot! The official temp for Friday was 102° in town, so a few degrees more on the Hell's Revenge trail, which is mostly solid rock with no shade. The mirror thermometer read 128° at one point in the day...

Can a fuel injected motor experience vapor lock? Because that's what it was acting like. Fortunately it never acted up on the trail, but after I had got off the trail for the day each day. It would lose power, not idle, stumble when I gave it throttle, then die. After several seconds of cranking it would come back to life and run great for about 30 seconds then crap out again. Thought maybe the fuel filter got some crap in it, nope. After letting it cool, life would be great again, but I was not happy with that because I towed a camper trailer down with the Green Machine and really didn't want to deal with that issue on the highway. Cooler weather has since set in (thank goodness) and it's run great since.

Couple pics from Hell's:

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And some from the top of Metal Masher

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To answer your question, yes a FI motor can still experience vapor lock. If the temps get hot enough, the fuel can start to vapor before it gets to the throttle body and start to stumble.

Literally, two weeks ago I was towing my boat with my SAS'd burban (TBI454) and it was almost 100*F in the afternoon when I was towing. My motor starting doing the exact same thing. Would idle just fine, but if I tried to give any throttle input, it would stumble like crazy and try and fall on its face. Especially after sitting at a light idling and the temps would rise, it would have trouble getting off the line. But once I got going, the air flow would increase and cool everything down and it would run fine. And since then the temps have dropped a lot over here too, and the motor is running just fine ever since.

I'm gonna chalk mine up to the fact that the new exhaust I built after doing the sas, on my driver side, the exhaust tube in one particular spot is somewhat close to the fuel lines. I think in my case I'm gonna heat wrap either the exhaust right there or the fuel lines to try and have that not happen again.

Also, something else to think of is I know your rig is a vortec motor, which means it's pushing ~60 psi fuel pressure. Because the pressure is higher, it usually means it's less likely to vapor lock since the fuel is flowing at such a faster rate, the likelihood that it has a chance to turn to vapor is much less (but that doesn't mean it's not possible, especially on Hells Revenge trail where 128*F is totally realistic in early September). Mine being a TBI means I'm only pushing ~9-15 psi, which means it has more of a chance to vapor lock than a vortec setup. But as I already said, that doesn't mean it's not possible on any FI motor.
 
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