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Our little girl is 5 months old now. She just got diagnosed with an ear infection and woke my wife up every hour last night. I still wouldn't trade her for anything! I just wish she would sleep through the night like our first born did at 1 week old.
Great looking terrain! I wish we would get some snow here. I was supposed to wake up to 2-5" this morning, but instead it rained.
Our little girl is 5 months old now. She just got diagnosed with an ear infection and woke my wife up every hour last night. I still wouldn't trade her for anything! I just wish she would sleep through the night like our first born did at 1 week old.
Great looking terrain! I wish we would get some snow here. I was supposed to wake up to 2-5" this morning, but instead it rained.
Well its been a while, been a lot of long 7 day work weeks in a row. Had a break the other evening to finish the excursion.
To follow up the entire rear suspension and hangers were torched off as they were seized and garbage. The truck now rides like a cadillac, it is awesome. Quite afew people who have rode in it have comments. I ordered the bags and started the install. Due to the cool tanged PMF lift blocks, i get to fab new lower mounting plates, or use a Daystar cradle, however I am not sure if the day star cradles are compatible with the Air Ride bags...
I ended up selling the old lift to a kid, and in turn also broke my toe and now have a pretty deformed nail bed from karate chopping the hell out of it when the spring slid off the trailer. Left my boot on as i thought it was complete cut off it hurt so bad, its been a couple months, and my toe looks like some hobbit deformity, nail is long gone and the new one is half the size and looks like a breaker at the ocean...pretty weird.
Put new 5100s on the front of it, finally got the quake LEDs wired in and used the factory fog switch, they are 10 times brighter than the HID headlights. I am impressed. I rarely use the headlights any more. Besides the bags, front window tint, and the rear tire swing bumper I think thats it...unless the old 366 off the truck goes on it :-)
The blue turd has been beaten to heck. Has some substantial blowby now, burns or seeps a qt every 1000 miles but still pulls and tows like day one when she was tight. Still boosts the same and have seen a few3 40+ hits in the mountains when rung out in 3rd gear. Water will push it to about 46.
Regularly making daily 200 mile trips to the mountains and home with 16-18k behind the truck... even with trailer brakes maxed, it eats a set of hawk pads every 5 months. I have already pulled the old 97 block off the shelf and have stripped it, currently wrapped and ready to go up to our local 7.3 machine pro... outside of the basic studs/springs/pushrods etc it won't go much further than f-ringed heads, coated Mahles, and few other tiny changes.
Injectors are tired too, 2-3 stuck all winter on startup. anytime its above 30 they don't, plan is when they are sent in next fall will be a 467 from Barder with 250/200s. Likely run them till this 96 lets go and then have the 97 ready to drop in.... who knows this 96 block may just keep going...i thought it would have blown up on numerous occasions horsing the crap out of it uphill where the high RPM driveline vibrations make you a bit afraid
Sold the racebike for baby funds, coaxed the wife into letting me go get this to not become deprived and we agreed to next winter there would be another bike build...... Its an absolute blast!
Or you could sell me that 366! haha I know the need for funds... going to be making a move to North Dakota here pretty soon and I am liquidating all the crap in my front yard.
Well one other first I had yesterday... Had a 12,500 lb cat 3,000lb dymex shear, and tiller/ hydro brush hog in the trailer that weighs 7300 lbs itself... You can do the math. I was greedy and didn't want to make the trip twice a 200+ miles and took all of it, Typically do not load that heavy.
We were coming down out of Nederland on a 10-12% grade in 3rd gear after a long strecth of 8% which i rarely had to touch the brakes. I had had a hard time keeping the truck under 40 around 35. First time in my history I smoked the brakes, and completely lost the trailer brakes to get down to 30 to get into second gear, I was worried I'd blow the motor dropping into second. My wife was with me as she wanted to talk about life for the entire ride :-) to get get the equipment, and its been one of the more nerve racking experiences she has gone through in all of 20 seconds. After getting it stopped with 1st gear, ebrake, and a little bit of luck, we let it cool down, Rather than letting them bake we gave it a few were doing 20-25 in second gear and were able to maintain that at about 3k rpm and ticked off quite a few folks trying to do 35-40 which was the posted speed limit. Never have I ever lost my brakes like that, let alone the trailer too... Jake brake may be next... as we are doing a few alpine projects through out the year. Has anyone ever tried an in line jake? Manufactures??? Keep in mind it won't be oe compatible...
Pac Brake? These things are expensive!!!!
Hauling it all back up there wont be as bad, I just know that motor is absolutely going to hate me.
Nick, I have an exhaust brake on my SD that's been on there since the truck was new. It's by a company called Western Diesel. I kinda wanna take it off and get rid of it. I have read and been told that an Ebrake on the 7.3 can cause valve float and isn't the best to use. I have no idea if that's true or not. If you are interested in a cheap setup, lemme know. I know the Jakes are very pricey. Glad you guys are safe! It's nerve racking.
Nick, I have an exhaust brake on my SD that's been on there since the truck was new. It's by a company called Western Diesel. I kinda wanna take it off and get rid of it. I have read and been told that an Ebrake on the 7.3 can cause valve float and isn't the best to use. I have no idea if that's true or not. If you are interested in a cheap setup, lemme know. I know the Jakes are very pricey. Glad you guys are safe! It's nerve racking.
Hunh, Got a link to the article? I guess my question is why would it cause valve float indifferent to any other diesel? I'd be curious to read that for sure!
I always was under the impression that on stock springs it took nearly 65+ psi of back pressure to start floating valves.... I am likely close on that driving WOT on these climbs...
I've heard that too, but I've also heard that if you have stiffer aftermarket valve springs, then you're good to go. I would assume that a semi diesel designed for an exhaust brake would come standard with valve springs rated to handle the extra back pressure, where as the 7.3 was not designed for that.
Hunh, Got a link to the article? I guess my question is why would it cause valve float indifferent to any other diesel? I'd be curious to read that for sure!
I always was under the impression that on stock springs it took nearly 65+ psi of back pressure to start floating valves.... I am likely close on that driving WOT on these climbs...
It was awhile ago I read about it, but I'll see if I can find something. It seems like what Darin said below might apply. I am NOT claiming I know One way or the other, but I do know it's been talked about so it makes me wonder.
Originally Posted by dclack
I've heard that too, but I've also heard that if you have stiffer aftermarket valve springs, then you're good to go. I would assume that a semi diesel designed for an exhaust brake would come standard with valve springs rated to handle the extra back pressure, where as the 7.3 was not designed for that.
I'm not contradicting anything anyone has said, however I have friends with hundreds of thousands of miles with jake brakes on cummins, dmaxes, and a couple with 7.3 ebpv brakes and even a few old 6.9s... Anyways I am not doubting I'm just curious if its a read on the internet thing or if someone truly had an issue.
01-31-2017, 06:55 AM
