You found a comp tester that will do diesels huh? I had to make one out of a 500 psi AC gauge and hose. I was too cheap to buy a spendy one from Mac or Snap-On.

Yes Dave, we are trying to keep from floating away over here. I'm on a hill, so no real problems, but getting around has been tough. Seems road builders always put a couple main highways through a flood plain without raising them enough.

Skimballc, no worries here. I could see the invisible smilie on the end.

 

Yup goes up to 1000 psi. - if it doesn't blow up at around 450 Hopefully the replacement will hold up better. Only $17.99 at Harbor Freight right now for anyone who needs one.

Yeah, same here. I live up on top of a hill that's 500-600 ft high. Just about all the fields down in the valley between here and the highway are under 3 or 4 feet of water right now. This keeps up and our hilltop is going to become an island.....

 

Fingers are crossed for you all, I saw you are getting more rain in the forcast.

 

Yeah, it was fairly dry in my neck of the woods today. Only sprinkled a couple of times, and only for a few minutes at a time. The sun even came out for a couple of hours mid-day!

Well, fellas, I have to report complete and total.... SUCCESS today! I finished doing my compression check and all cylinders read between 430 and 490 psi. No big disparity between any two adjoining cylinders and the "spread" was pretty even comparing one bank to the other. I was moving one injector from sylinder to cylinder and just putting it in hand-tight, so the lowest reading were probably due to minor leakage. I'm satisfied that the engine internals are in pretty darned good shape.

Got the new pump in, primed it, and got 'er running. The priming process wore my batteries down pretty far - even with the 1 minute resting time for every 10 seconds cranking - ended up having to jump it from my Jeep before it finally started. Once I got 'er running I timed it by ear as best I could and took it for a test drive.

All I can say is WOW! What a difference! Idles smooth, and at the right RPM, pulls good, DRAMATIC improvement in responsiveness. Heck, on wet asphalt it'll spin the rear tires taking off from a stop now! The big test came when I pulled my favorite local hill - a 6% grade almost exactly 1 mile long. She did me proud! Starting from just under 65 mph at the bottom of the grade, I topped it at 45 mph in 2nd gear! Before it would lug clear down to 25-30 mph in 1st! She got PLENTY warmed up, and no signs of the loss-of-power-problem that started this whole thing.

I'm just happier than a pig in slop right now. It smokes just a tiny bit, but I expect that will improve as the Diesel Kleen does its thing on the pump and injectors. I think that once the timing gets set correctly with a pulse adapter and light, I will NOW be ready to start doing the exhaust and intake mods. Hey Spectramac, you open to the idea of having another FTE guy come visit you up there in Monroe? At this point I'm just itchin' to take it for a good long 80-mile round-trip run on the highway!

Since I was already dirty, it wasn't raining, and I'm not ready to pull the exhaust off yet, I did a little prep work on the intake stuff today. Cut the snorkle off my spare air cleaner and got it cleaned up ready to mount onto the air cleaner. Re-located the bracket for my dip stick to the 2nd & 3rd valve cover bolts - from its original location on the 3rd & 4th bolts (counting from the back) to get it out of the way. Re-routed a couple of electrical cables and hoses. Now all that's left is to move the vacuum ball and cruise module (at least that's what I think it is - a little 2" diameter x 1" high cannister deal with a vacuum hose and an electrical connector - mounted right next to the GP relay), and I'm ready to punch the hole for the hose through the passenger side fender liner. No prep work needed for the driver's side of course. I also cut some small pieces I'm gonna' need to finish welding up the gaps in my Y-pipe - once I get the chance to test-fit it.

All in all, a pretty good day's work I'd say!

 

That is actually a sensor that turns on your brake light if you loose vacuum.

A warning that you have almost no brakes unless you have a very strong leg.

Good deal on the IP swap. Sounds like you have needed one for a while.
Can I come test your hill and see if I can top it at 80?

 

Good to know. Fortunatly I DO happen to have VERY strong legs. They've gotten that way hauling my fat BUTT around all these years.
Shouldn't be a problem to relocate and lengthen the hose 4-6 inches should it?

Yeah, I probably have, but there were so many other things that needed worked out first - like correcting the 180 degrees out of time condition so it would run, and then correcting the 2 degrees ATDC problem so it would quit smoking out the neighbors, and replacing the GP relay & GPs so it would start in the morning, and putting my pushbutton between the controller and GP relay so the relay can never get stuck and burn up my GPs, and getting some decent tires/wheels on it, and, and, and......

As for the hill, come on over dude. I'll ride WITH ya'! I'll even bail you out (with your money of course) when officer friendly hauls you to the pokey for doing 80 mph in a 50 mph zone

 

he-hE-HE!!

After letting 'er sit and cool down for 5 hours I just went out to see how she'd start up. Fired right UP on about the second revolution!

Damn, I'm tickled!

I can hardly WAIT to get the new exhaust and dual ram-air done and installed!

Malcom, you gonna' be around tomorrow afternoon. I'd like to come visit you if you aren't busy

 

Should be no problem at all relocating it.
If I remember right the hose comes from the vacuum tree on the firewall.
Just replace it with a longer one.
My vacuum reservoir is a round ball looking thing near the sensor you described.

I am curious to hear reports on climbing your hill after the exhaust mod and again after the ram air mod.
I would do them in that order I think.

 

Same on mine.

Ditto, that is what I love about the hill I'm talking about. It is a great performance improvement guage - and it is only 1/2 mile from here.

That's the plan.

 

Ok Cheeper....Where is this Hill to which you speak.
I have been reading your posts and have concluded that you are not too far from me (Federal Way side of Tacoma).

 

Go news there Cheeper! I was at a freinds house all day Saturday, so I had a little reading to do this morning.

Sounds like we need another last minute NW IDI meet!

 

An impromptu meet sounds good to me

I'd love to have someone with more experience with these take a look at my truck and tell me what they think of its condition

 

Why are you guys all on the wrong side of the country?
NW chapter IDI specific meeting, we can't even get a WV chapter meeting together.

I guess I will just have to run up and visit Bilder, at least he is on the right side of the Mississippi. Then we can have an east coast meeting.

Barehuggs,
Welcome to FTE and the IDI diesel forum.

 

You're right on that one. I'm on Kent's Scenic Hill - just south of Kent Kangly and west of Hwy 167.

My "test it" hill is 277th between central (west of Hwy 167) and 108th. According to my map program the hill, starting just past the Valley 6 Driveway and just before the Don E. Wickstrom bridge, to the top at 108th, is 1.07 miles.

Going down the hill from 108th is a sign that says "6% grade 1 mile"....

 

Well, we had our second little NW IDI meet today in my front yard. They're getting better, we had two trucks this time!

Be on the lookout for a new NW IDI meet thread. We talked about getting one going in Everett.