Rich, sounds like you are tireing, hang in there, I feel your pain..1 1/2 years to build a motor or should I say getting it to run right,not knowing "is it the tunes" or other issues, hang in there and you will enjoy the fruits of your labor...Now, off to the dyno for me..

 

Rich, here's the friggin' deal. If you, or I could find a trustworthy dealer or a mechanic to do the job right for a reasonable price, we would and probably should pay them to wrench for us. But, I am sorry, often we cannot.

You are not (or were not when you started this process) a mechanic. So, you cannot expect to go as fast as a "professional." Rather, you are an "amateur" - which is, essentially, a person who engages in the activity for love or pleasure, rather than for financial benefit.

You are also a perfectionist.

If you, or I could find a dealer or a mechanic who would be a perfectionist while working on our rigs, we would and probably should pay them to wrench for us. But, I am sorry, often we cannot.

Go slow! Don't lose your love or pleasure or perfectionism for what you are attempting. Step away for a few days or even weeks, if you have to.

It should take you at least two weeks. Be happy in knowing that the result will likely be better than what many "professionals" - who need to get the vehicle in and out of their shops quickly - could, or likely would, do.

 

well said.

 

Not to hijack this thread but it sure is true that I would much rather pay some one to fix my truck than have to do it my self.

I seems to be a hit or miss deal with dealers. Some are good and provide service while some could care less.

Ironically the only good dealer I have run across was a Chevy one. They fix our company truck under warranty quickly and cleanly.

Keep plugging at it is all I can say.

 

You'll have her up and running probably before you read this. I'll tell you right now, while in the middle of it it sucks, but once you can look back and say I did that myself, and I didnt pay for anything other than the parts, well its more satisfying than looking at the dust covered buckzooka laying in the corner.

 

Back in one piece, eh? I certainly hope you just have tuning left, instead of even more mechanical issues. Congrats!

I am lucky in having two very capable shops, plus the dealership within a 5-minute-drive. I know the diesel mechanic at Ford, he has a 7.3L and he's a modder like us... but he has a Ford logo on his shirt and all the cost that comes with that. I tried to pawn off the cup job, but nobody in town would touch the cups with the heads still in the motor. I don't freaking think so. I wrestled with the cups to save myself from a mushroom cloud of green confetti out the Buck$Zooka... not because I wanted to tinker with big wrenches in a knuckle-busting confined space (while balancing on a ladder... and seeing my breath).

My OCD does serve me very well, I confess. It's the kind of trait that gives me a job that pays well enough to install the semi-auto feature on the Buck$Zooka. I'm used to people giving me a hard time on how OCD and stubborn I am, yet come to me with the toughest of problems because they need those very traits I have to solve the problem. Once I pointed this out to my coworkers, they saw the humor in the situation and it makes for a better rapport.

Speaking of ****, I finally have pink-ish stuff in my degas bottle... with a pump and a pressure gauge sitting at 12 PSI overnight. I have to work today, so no sticks in Stinky yet.

I would agree... but wrestling with the completion of a stick-up every week for 5 months straight is fuuu-messed up.

I have more pictures that I need to take and post... I forgot to mention something when I started this most recent round of the project. Thank you all for the words of encouragement, it is helpful.

 

I just checked the gauge on my degas bottle test and the pressure was precisely where I left it 12 hours ago... 12 PSI. If you ever conduct this test, be mindful that air pressure will rise and fall with temperature changes. The temperature was stable here last night, so I was spared taking that into account. I fired up the S.N.A.P. to look in the cups and it's a desert in there... cacti would die. Stinky's cups are done and double-tested... without any redos (other than the screwup I immediately caught). Brand new flow-tested injectors go in tonight (after work) and Stinky should be running tomorrow.

Fingers crossed that "Frankenstinky" is in the rearview mirror.

 

 

 

Ya Buddy... by chance, and i know its a far stretch, but you gots a pic of the degas pressure tester

 

Oh boy! The fluids be flowin again soon!

 

BWST loaned this to me [LINK]

 

Thank you, Sir.

 

Pretty amazing Rich, you have half the forum world hanging on waiting for how this all turns out. No other truck has as much good karma being sent it's way. I can't believe how much I have learned.
With your gift for prose a book really should be written. Or at least a how to manual.

 

Tug, knowing where the problem lyes, do you still regret the a/m injectors? Alot of people / members, buy the a/m since price is 1/2 what new ones cost, plus, if there "was" a problem with a/m, wouldnt the supplier not even offer them up.