Got her fired up. Ran really well. Let it warm up a bit. Temperature seemed a little high on the gauge, but rad was barely hot. Thing my temp sender is shot.
Anyway, I made it 5 miles down the road and the truck shut off and I couldn’t get it started back up. Seems to be I ran out of gas oops.
Towed the truck back and am going to mess with it later this weekend...

 

You may have air trapped in the upper hose / thermostat area. I usually just elevate the front end and squeeze the crap out of the upper hose til it burps real good. The gen 9 4.9s are more more likely to have this problem than the gen 8.

 

Thanks Eric, that was really helpful. I definitely still had air in the tubes. I think I got it all out using your method.

So turns out my fuel line popped off the rail. Plugged it back in and I was in business.

I had to drive the truck from buddy's shop 40 miles away to my house. Truck ran awesome for about 10 miles. Had a couple backfires and then it started running like absolute crap. Super rough and was still running a little warm, but the rad cap wasn't that warm...
Anyway I made it the remaining 30 miles back. I noticed that if I was above 2200 rpm the truck smoothed out and ran normal. I also burned through about 7 gallons in 30 miles and the exhaust smells like gas

Pulled codes when I got home. And here is what I got:
KOEO
31 - Evap control sensor below min voltage/ EGR control valve sensor fault
82 - Air diverter fault (TAD?)

KOER
12- RPM at ide out of range/ high
21- cooling temp sensor out of specified range or ECT out of range
31 - Evap control sensor below min voltage/ EGR control valve sensor fault
41 - sensor voltage low/ system lean HO2S

Continuous
31 -Evap control sensor below min voltage/ EGR control valve sensor fault

I also checked for vac leaks at the intake using starting fluid. I couldn't find any. I hooked up my vac gauge and everything seemed normal. Pulled a steady 17. No signs of anything unusual on the gauge...

So now I have a whole mess of problems to sort out this weekend

Any guidance or tips are most welcome.

 

Did some work on the truck today. Installed my new exhaust. Stock setup from CAT back.

Put in a new o2 sensor and ECT sensor. Think I may have gotten bad ones out of the box because they didn't clear any codes, or maybe I didn't let the truck warm up long enough...

Had a ton of gas in my oil and gas out the tail pipe. Changed out my fuel pressure regulator with an extra I had and changed my oil. Seemed to clear up the gassy exhaust smell and gassy oil smell.

Truck is still running like crap. My EGR valve seems functional. I'm going to test the EGR valve sensor tomorrow. I have an extra that should be good.

Hopefully that will clear some of it up. Then I'll pull codes again...

 

Well long story short, I had injectors stuck open. I didn’t secure the FI wires. One melted and grounded out. Fixed that and the truck runs like a top now. Nice and quiet with the new exhaust.

Most of the codes cleared up. I have EGR not closing properly code. Going to pull it and try cleaning it up with carb cleaner. It holds a vacuum and moves freely.

I also have a loose belt tensioner pulley. Easy fix; I thought. I’ll just take the one from my 94 extra 300 block. Nope, guide pegs on the back of the housing are different sizes Theres always something...

 

The tuck had its first big test today since the head gasket. 300 miles trip to go get this old behemoth of a welder. Truck ran great and I gained about 1.5 mpgs since I changed back to stock exhaust over the straight pipe.

 

Looking good man. I'm glad your finally seeing daylight with it. Work out these bugs and I'm sure it will be as dependable as the day is long for you.
Still like those other wheels better. He he.
Just purchased new ones for mine. Can't wait for spring. Took the truck out today for a run. After rain the past couple of days the roads were clean and she looked lonely all winter sitting in the garage.

 

I would love to get my hands on a welder, but everyone wants an arm and a leg, even for the old, old stuff.

 

What can I say, I’m a sucker for the stock look lol. Glad to hear you got your truck out, spring couldn’t come soon enough!


Yea I hear that. Most of the welders I saw were 3 phase old clunkers that people wanted modern welder pricing for and expected you to load (this welder weighs 750 pounds).
I picked up this Miller 330 for about $800. Came with cooler, pedal, 25 ft tig torch, is single phase and it does AC/DC. The guy even loaded it for me. It’s more welder than I’ll ever need. Took me a while to find it.

 

 

 

 

Update on the truck. My transmission is toast. The synchros are torn up and the truck seems like it's stuck in two gears. Sometimes I can move forward and sometimes I can find reverse. The short of it is I had 3 options - Find another T170 4 speed, rebuild the one I have, or swap for a different trans.
I and a mechanic friend had been actively searching for another T170 for about 5 months and we couldn't get our hands on one. I found one on Ebay but the seller wouldn't ship. They're kind of an oddball trans and seemingly hard to come by. A rebuild was more money than I wanted to sink into the trans.
My only other viable option was a 5 speed, either the ZF or Mazda. The T170 could really use an extra gear between 2nd and 3rd and those two trans seem more plentiful. Well fate settled the debate for me and dropped a Mazda 5 speed practically in my lap. Someone right down the road from my house was parting out an 88 F150 with a 5 speed. For a few hundred bucks I walked away with a 80k mile trans and a driveshaft
This spring I'll be swapping it in along with a new clutch. It seems pretty straightforward but I'm sure Murphy will throw a few hiccups in.

 

Good to see a plan with progress. Keep us posted.

 

Hey - that's great! It's a small world, after all.