Unfortunately the train has already left the station on that. Today is my first day of vacation. Wife won't let me work on it until Friday and the engine has to start going in if I'm going to get things all done next week. Probably I'll regret it later, but getting it running again before I run out of vacation so we can use it in the snow has to be is my focus.

 

Just a thought on the oil lines, but I completely understand your situation I was given the same suggestion, or should I say "orders", about working today & tomorrow. If she ain't happy, nobody is happy Project is looking good, keep the pictures coming, we all love pictures.

 

Thanks! And Merry Christmas to all!!

 

Ready to go in. Right manifold off to clear evaporator and allow for easy starter installation.


In place


New heat shield on evaporator case


Another idiotic repair job found.

 

Nice job with the vacuum line. Is that for the secondary air system?

 

Yeppers

 

Why yes it is!

Les

 

Ha, fixing that might get rid of that nasty P0410. I hope you did it while the engine was removed

 

Sorry, no P0410 to fix. What I had was a false P0304, presumably due to a very loose thrust bearing whacking out the crank sensor. I will know for sure soon!

Found the pinched vacuum line after engine was in but no fan or radiator yet. I just cut the line on both sides of the idler arm bracket and spliced it back together with a plastic splice connector.

 

Fired the engine first time last night. Ran 30 minutes on Comp Cams 10W30 Break in Oil at 2000 RPM. Zero leaks so far! SES light came on - PCM set a code P0300 but not a P0304. Oil pressure really good - even at idle >40psi. Smooth.... quiet....

Changed oil/filter today - Quaker State 5W30 with a bottle of Camp Cams Break-in Additive. Old oil looked normal for new engine break-in - typical cloudiness.

Using HP Tuners software on my old Netbook, I did a CASE Relearn. Drove 10 miles! No more SES light!! It has always come on even before I got out of our development in the past. YAY!!

I forgot to say that I put a rebuilt torque converter in it, and now you can really tell when it hooks up and when it disconnects. Before I could never get it to hook 100% for whatever reason. I am betting that is where a lot of my fuel mileage was going. Don't know if old torque converter was inoperative because of the P0304 code, or if it was truly bad. It is also possible that the torque converter took out the thrust bearing and started all of the mess with the engine. There is really no way to know. I just didn't feel like taking things apart later for any reason and for $150 I felt replacing it was good insurance!

Now to put the hood on and finish things up. I am a very happy camper!

If anyone is interested I'll try to summarize the things that I have learned and try to give some tips on OBDII misfire codes, getting that engine in/out of a 4WD, and rebuilding a Vortec 4.3. Just let me know if the interest is there.

Thanks for listening.

Les