Yep, you're exactly right. It's all coming out and if something doesn't work afterwards, I'll put it back until it does lol. I hate electrical soo much

 

Well made it up to Ohio and picked up some parts that were much needed. Thanks so much Matt!

Now we are looking for some doors. If anyone has a line on all 4 or even well priced singles let me know! Only thing needed is rust free. Small dings, scratches and things of that nature are acceptable!

Sorry I've not updated this thread much. Been crazy busy, I'll post all the updates soon!

 

Hey again guys. Sorry I've been out of the loop for so long. Life has been INSANE the past couple months in preparation for deployment. That being said, I wanted to show the ol' girl some love before I left and went to turn her up and get her all nice and clean. So I cleaned the engine bay all nice, focusing on the areas where I'm going to be doing work when I get home. Then I got this bright idea to do the EBPV tube cleaning.. Let the saga being:

So there I was getting ready to knock out this 20 minute job (Tops, right?) and I get my wrenches out. Well I can't get it to turn and think, "Man, everyone says to use crows foot wrenches. Time to go get some." So the wife and I head off to the tool shop, get the wrenches, have a nice lunch together and head home. I go out to the truck, all happy that I'll be able to get this done and maybe get those couple of MPGs back that I've been steadily losing. I get the 9/16 on the bracket nut and put my handy dandy crows foot wrench on there (3/4, I believe?) and twist.. Crows foot falls off and INTO the water pump pulley. Don't even ask how this happened, it just did! Me being me, I grab a long magnet and attempt to fish this thing out. No dice. Damn! I can't move in this tiny space! I'm going to make room by taking out the fan shroud and that pesky fan.

Since I have some awesome parts just sitting waiting to be installed I figure, let's just turn this into a project. Won't take more than a day and I need the break from the grind anyway. So I pull the radiator, fan shroud and fan out. Seems easy, right? Nope. My transmission cooler lines are one with the connections. The rust was so bad I had trouble figuring out if it was one piece or not. Tried to do it the right way and separate them but of course the line twisted and I ended up just cutting it. Now I've got to do that. Ugh!

Onwards and upwards, though. New transmission cooler line is on order (thank you guys for the part numbers even though you didn't know you helped, I still love you all) so let's work on this cooling system since it needs to be done anyway AND I have this cool filter thingy I need to install. So all hoses come off, no problem. Radiator even comes out easy and fan shroud too. This is gonna be a breeze! Fan wasn't bad at all, ol' ratchet strap and a 24" adjustable wrench (oh yeah... it's BIG ) and pop, off comes the fan. Now I have plenty of room to get that damn crows foot out (almost forgot about that didn't ya). Anyway, a super strong magnet on the back of the pulley, lots of cussing, 30 minutes and some bleeding fingers later and I have it out. Awesome. now time to remove that stubborn EBPV tube, since I've got all the room in the world. Well men, long story short, I had been turning the F*ng wrench the wrong way. As soon as I pulled my head out of my 4th point of contact, it came off easy peezy. Fine whatever, it's off, cleaned and reinstalled. Next step, thermostat.

I've had that billet thermostat housing and a new thermostat sitting downstairs for months. So, let's put it in.. Oh, all 3 bolts are seized you say? No problem for Mr. Dremel! Well turns out I'm fantastic at notching bolt heads and just strong enough to promptly snap them off.. WTF do I do now. I know from past experience I'm not drilling this out. Just ain't gonna happen. Well, looks like we're doing the waterpump, I'm 75% done with the job as is anyway. Why not? So I ordered a new waterpump get all 8 of 9 bolts out and one strips.. Fun. Joy. Happiness is mine. I spent a solid 20 minutes just cussing out Ohio since that's where the truck and rust came from. Calmed down and figured out a plan. I've got a bolt extract set. Used it, worked well. Bolt out. Thank god.

Radiator hoses suck. None wanted to go back on but in the end they did. Thank you Dawn dish soap. Reassembly of everything was easy and not worth lengthening the post. Truck runs great now. Filled the coolant with Zerex and followed Goochs plan. That required some cleaning of the nastiness under the truck but it got done and I love that man.

Anyway, I'll still be browsing around a bit and getting some ideas. But goals for the trucks remain the same and I'm slowly working towards them. This upcoming deployment will have me gone for a while but I want to thank everyone for all the help, advice and laughing along the way. Matt you stand out and thanks for everything you've done. I hope to be in touch soon.

 

Safe travels, and looking forward to seeing your thread grow.