Here's another strategy when your EFI idle goes bananas...

Check to make sure you didn't route the TPS connector too close to the EGR pipe. If you did, the connector will may have melted to a certain degree. Now, if you also happen to have leaky heater hose nearby, there's a good chance that it's going to short out when it gets wet and set your IAC valve to wide open.

Fortunately, I had a spare connector I could wire in and replaced the leaking hose. Everything is idling normal again and maybe, just maybe, I got the last of the coolant leaks I've been chasing. (Knock on wood)

 

put my old engine on a cart and rolled it away from the truck. Started to install some items on the new Jasper 5.8. Got the damper on the crank and installed the motor mounts. started to install the exhaust manifolds but had to quit for the day. Hope to get more done tomorrow!

 

Rolled over 200k today. Original 302 no rebuilds.

 

Congratulations on the miles. And as someone who shares the roads, thank you for not taking the photo at speed!

 

Had the "new" tps already fail on me. Warrantied out that one and was given a supposedly higher quality off the shelf store brand. I've already had a couple of idle issues with it, but I haven't been able to pin them on the tps (yet). When I can, I'm getting the motorcraft unit and not looking back.

 

Bootlegger, were you able to pluck that 302 out without removing the hood?

 

I can't win for losing lately. While the weather is unbelievably nice out, I decided to swap out my very worn brake drums for a better pair that I picked up somewhere along the lines. The passenger side looked great, not so much with driver's side. It looks like I'm in for new shoes, one wheel cylinder (seized) and e-brake cables. Sheesh..

 

I had the same mess with mine last summer. I also to repair the pads on the backing plates that the shoes ride on. It ran so long with the left cable hanging up the shoes had cut grooves into the pads. I welded up the grooves, ground them flat then gave them a quick paint job to slow up the rust monster.

 

Luckily the backing plates are solid and the cable is just hung up in its case. Got the parts so I better get to it.

 

My sidekick and I started getting everything ready for the thermostat replacement when the rains hit yesterday. Needless to say, it didn't get done. We did, however, fill it up and go to a parking lot where I started teaching him how to drive a manual. Let's just say that it's a learning curve for him, and that I think I need to change from the basic seatbelt to a 5 point harness before I take him out again. LOL

 

Today I blew up my 302 .......Time to swap in a 351.

 

I don't know whether or not to be happy or sad for you...

 

Hauled an old friend to the scrap yard. No one wanted the old engine and I don't want to store it, plus I had a bunch of other random junk steel to get rid of.

 

This past week, we finally had a decent enough day to get out and change the thermostat to a 195 degree on the 302. Try as we did, we had to rotate the distributor to enable getting a wrench on the bottom bolt of the housing. I marked the base prior to rotating, but after the job was done, and I had rotated it back to the mark, it didn't have much power. I don't have a timing light, so I called a buddy of mine up to see about him setting the timing for me. I drove it over to his house on Friday, and picked it back up yesterday.

Wow, what a difference. The old gal now has more power than she's had since I bought it in 2009. My wife is tickled pink over the power her truck has now. I plan on taking it out for an extended run today.

 

Dumped the coolant and replaced the thermostat and upper radiator hose. Gonna put some radiator cleaner in today, dump it and finally refill the coolant.