I did a massive burnout in the parking lot of my warehouse, hoping to true up a wobbly rear tire. It didn't make much of a difference in the tire shake, but it was still a fun attempt. Probably the first time that truck ever spun the tires its whole life.

I had a tire like that on the front. I took it back to the tire shop and asked for a rebalance. That fixed mine.

I went over to my buddies place, and looked behind the seat of dad's truck. Sure enough, the old 22 rifle and a spare set of keys were right where he told me they were supposed to be.
The 22 rifle was given to him, by his dad, when he was still a wee lad. I was given the chance to shoot it when I was 6.

RW - You are probably right since you are a Holley aficionado. :-). But I really thought the vacuum closed the secondaries and the spring opened them. Anyway, you are absolutely right about a screw in the linkage. Back in '69 I put said screw in the linkage on the Holley on my Super Bee thinking it would be just the ticket to better performance. But, the performance suffered as it bogged if you nailed it under 30. And, the gas mileage went from 15 to 10. Further, the rear bumper turned blue.

Actually Gary, I'm no holley fan. I don't like them. I know how to work on them, and can tune them, I just don't like them. They're great for racing, once highly modified.
Chevy's are the same to me. I can work on them, and make them right, but I just don't like them.

My dad hates Holly carbs cause it made his '86 mustang convertible catch fire! Need-less to say he had to rebuild the whole car.

RW - I knew about your "love" for Holleys, which is why I had the smiley face in there. And, as you know, I share the sentiments.

As for my truck, having changed the temp sending unit out, Dad and I took it around town making a bunch of stops here and there running errands. It stayed below the O of NORMAL and didn't lose any coolant. On the other hand, it did fail the cooling system pressure test, so there is a problem somewhere. Guess I'll have to put pressure into the cylinders and watch for bubbles in the radiator, as several of you have suggested, to see if that's the culprit.

Yeah, it's a love-hate thing. I love to hate them.......

About the pressure check on the cooling system, any signs of where the pressure was going, as in green dribbles?

No green dribbles, nor any dribbles at all. Pulled the plugs and all looked very good, reddish tan, except for #'s 3 & 4 which were darker. Spun the engine and no water came out of any plug holes. Oil isn't frothy and the level is staying the same.

So, need to take it on a longer jaunt to see what the temp does. The last time I took it out after it overheated was to T-town and it used some coolant and the temp climbed when I slowed down. But, that reading was w/the old temp sender and it was bad. Need to see what it does, temp wise, when on the highway.

Hmmmm. Might try rechecking the torque on the head bolts and the intake bolts. In the proper sequence, of course.

Duh! Hadn't thought of that. Good idea. I'll check the bolt torques before driving it again. Now, why didn't I think of that!!

You did think of it, I just used ESP to read your mind...... LOL.

Today Clyde got a wash and a rub down prior to leaving for our bi-annual trip to the mountains west of Trinidad, CO.
This year we try out the new 3" exhaust with a DynoMax 17789 muffler that was installed last week.
Hopefully it will reduce the underbody temps so the gas in the front tank won't boil on us.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...id=242648&.jpg
Lookin' pretty good considering it's mostly original and will be twenty-eight years old in October.
Still works for a living towing our 10,000# fifthwheel camper.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...id=217396&.jpg
This is a shot from our last trip in '09. The final pull up to the ranch.

Changed the thermostat and have coolanton the top of my block, I can vaccumn it up and in 15 mins or so its back. I am praying its the gasket on the housing, but I am praying that it isn't the timing cover on the water pump that would suck! So close to getting it done. Also the fuel filler neck hose on the flatbed isn't getting enough angle flow tested it so I have to figure out how I am going to get enough angle. Plus I've got to drop both tanks to get the hose on, not looking forward to it but whatever.

Have you looked into any kind of heat-reflecting material you could put around the tank, or perhaps some sort of muffler heat shield? I recall some passenger cars having muffler heat shields from the factory, which probably wouldn't be too difficult to fit to your muffler so long as it's somewhat similar in shape.

Maybe a header wrap would work? It comes in rolls and you'd just wrap the muffler as though it was a big header tube.