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8-4-12 John at DPS had some other jobs he shoved ahead of me. He assures me he is NOW working on it, as of Friday, and I should see it THIS Tuesday, Right. My first mechanical thing when I get it back is to redo the puke tank with a pressure cap on the upper tank, whatever that requires. 8-10-12 Got the truck back late today. The AC does not work, the EGT reads only in the low 100 range, and that does not seems correct. There is also still the leak in the right rear corner of the pan at the block, supposedly corrected (NOT) by the Lancaster seller. I’ll contact them Monday and enforce their 90-day warranty. 8-17-12 I spoke with Jerry, who confirmed they had emptied the AC system. I also spoke with Moe, the owner of A-1 Auto Dismantlers, who was adamant he would stand behind the motor. I talked with Fonzo the next day, and Fonzo agreed to send a flatbed to pick up the truck. I don’t know when that will occur. I will wait to recharge the AC until after the oil leak is fixed. 8-21-12 Yesterday the dually broke its left lower A-arm on the freeway. BIB bang! The mechanical repairs are about $700 at Mike’s Frame, using a used (no new available) A-arm. Nick will view the crumpled left front fender tomorrow and write an estimate. I spoke with Philadelphia/Grundy and it appears a claim will not affect my rates or insurability. I will confirm this before making the claim. I left a message for FONZO to hold off on the flatbed until the truck is repaired. I asked Mike if plating the underside of the A-arm would help for the future. He was uncertain. I will research this on my own. 8-25-12 Mike finished it yesterday (Friday the 24th) for a mere $1103. He noted the right frame rail was sagging (twisting) from the engine swap cutouts from years ago. Sad, because had I known, I could have done mods to that area when the motor was out Anyway, it’s back running. I cleaned it up today, and laughed as the so-rough paint pulled nap off the microfiber towel. The truck desperately needs some paint touch-up in several places, and clay bar and buffing. Notwithstanding that, the paint still shines and presents nicely. Monday morning I’ll attempt to get Val at Arrow AC around the corner to recharge the system, I also have a case of H-11 or whatever high efficiency refrigerant here, and might try using that I will call Fonzo momentarily to let him know the truck is ready for HIS repair. There are numerous little things to fix on the truck, aside from the motor: 1-The two crushed rear fenders from a year ago 2-the twisted frame rail 3-the left door pull and trim panel 4-the reinstall of the hifi amps and headliner 5-some misc rubber stripping around windows, etc. 6-AC system tune-up, including adding one more duct on the passenger side, checking the interior door functions, blower, etc. It is just not up to snuff, and I see no reason why I shouldn’t be able to hang meat in there. I rented a new Malibu for a day, and the AC was set at 60, and I had the fan at about .4 on a scale of 10. That’s less than the first setting of one, on a trip to Visalia and back, up the grapevine and back, 80 mph, at 100 degrees ambient. So something CAN be done. Again, finding the right guy is the deal. 7-Cure misc rattles 8-Fix the hand hold above the passenger door. The screw broke the other day on it. 9-Correct the hanging windshield washer hose on the passenger wiper. 10-Replace the door handles with flip out unit so my poor thumbs can pen the doors. 8-29-12 I got the dually recharged yesterday, and it just does not move much air, so therefore does not cool well. It’s gotta be in the interior doors, as the fan motor is fresh. As noted above, it’s about finding THE right guy. There are still some odd rattles in the front end. Perhaps once Nick fixes the fenders these anomalies will disappear. 6:28 PM Randy suggested it might be clogged from years of tree leaves in the inlet. I do have good screening, but I need to remove the hood and cowl, and see what gives there. I took the dually to Sam at Allstate radiator, and asked if he could check the radiator, as the truck is still doing the heat-up on moderate throttle. Clearly this is NOT an engine specific problem. Sam suggested the catalytic converter. I could not find an open muffler shop late this afternoon (Saturday of labor day weekend), so I’ll either cut it out and run wide open, or wait (probably) until Tuesday morning. Dan and I visited Nick at Hamrick’s the other night, and he claims he will get to the truck around Wednesday or so. I also spoke with Fonzo about fixing the oil leak, and he was embarrassed that the truck had not been picked up, as he claims to have put it on the board schedule for pickup. I suggested they pick it up, remove the engine, get paid $500 for doing so, refund my money, and return the truck, They don’t buy used trannys, so my Allison is of no interest to them, although he quoted around $700 if I wanted to buy a working unit. While I have been entertaining parting the truck out, it appears I’ll fix it. If I can get the heating thing cured, then I feel comfortable keeping it. I WILL change the cooling/overflow system if I keep it. I will be looking around for a used 2006 or so Duramax just to apprise myself of what would be needed to move into another truck. 9-4-12 I had Kenny cut out the cat today, for a mere $70 (ouch). NOT the problem. DAMN! I have set the Edge to stock setting, so I see no possibility of that being the issue. So back to Allstate Radiator. It HAS to be packed with oil sludge. If not that, then I cannot fathom the problem. I will remove the hood, wipers, and cowl later tomorrow and look at the air intake for the AC. I HPE this is clogged with leaf debris. Otherwise, I have no explanation for the low air flow. I had a thought about putting the spare Duramax AC system I have here under the dash. This would be a MIGHTY deal, but might just be worth it. The rattling in the right front is a loose blower motor access panel in the fenderwell, easily corrected tomorrow with a single bolt ¼ x 20 bolt. 9-8-12 We removed the radiator, took it to Allstate, and he pronounced it clean. I ordered a BRAND new GM (more expensive unit for $427, and we installed that yesterday. We have misplaced one clip that holds the shroud in place, so I will run it without it for now, and without the hood. I will see this morning if this has cured the heat-up or not. If not, I will be completely lost as to what is wrong, and likely part out the truck, If cured, then good, and we’ll finish off some details. Nick will be doing the bodywork anyway, starting this morning at 11 AM. 9-8-12 NOPE!!!!!!!! Damn thing is still overheating, maybe worse. I went online and researched Duramax overheating, and this appears to be a well-documented problem, particularly with the early motors, such as mine. It appears the turbo inlet is too small and develops a lot of heat. There WAS a secondary radiator available (no longer) which claimed to cure this problem. I hit the throttle up the Woodley hill, and the temp jumped from 189 to 205 within 1000 feet. Man, this just sucks. So I still took it over to Nick, but I think the truck is history. I guess I could go back to a gas motor. Shit! Nick feels the truck is too good to junk. Some serious pondering to do here…. Just went on the web, and now IT has gone down! WOW!!! 9-9-12 OK, back up. Picked up the dually from Nick, who wants it back Wednesday evening. I asked that he research some easy-open handles. He opened the door and shook it, noting the hinges were shot, and that each hinge is about $100. I said order them, and do you want the money now? No. I will hound him again in the morning to get the hinges. I nearly ran out of fuel coming back. I JUST made it to a station, putting in $260 (34.5 gallons of 40 total). I consider that empty. And, it was hesitating on acceleration. Whew! The air needs help, even with the cowl off. I researched used engines and trucks on Craig’s List and Ebay, just to get my mind able to decide if it is needed. Nick urges me to fix the “beautiful” truck. I need some SERIOUS research into the heating problem, industry-wide. And I will do just that. Meanwhile, I have a demand letter ready for A-1 to replace the motor. 9-11-12 I spoke with the owner, Moe, at A-1. He assures me he will give me another motor or fix this, whatever is needed. John at DPS says replace the fan/clutch, as it is obviously defective and may not be spinning the fan at correct speed. He also said get a bigger air filter instead of the “Honda 4-cylinder” unit he claims I have now. I went to DPS twice, John was not there, and Jerry was unwilling to mess with the vacuum lines without John present. Basically, there is a vacuum pump which powers the EGR valve, and this valve is not being used in my application. The tap for the vehicle vacuum (AC) comes off this, as both were disconnected and broken. John said bypass all of it and just run the pump into my lines. Jerry wouldn’t do it. I’ll call again, and if John is in, I’ll run back over there. NOPE. So at this moment, I am again leaving a message. I ran it without the air filter, and it is running warmer. I am going to plumb some cold air ducting through the fender. I need to find a filter location and a bigger element. I’m also considering switching the puke tank and passenger side battery locations. 9-13-12 John hooked up the vacuum, and I now have full fan power and AC function. I relocated the puke tank to the upper driver’s side of the engine compartment, eliminated one hose, and other than needing one more bracket, it is all in, good, and functioning. The truck runs hotter under normal conditions, about 194, but didn’t heat as much up Woodley hill. So maybe we’ve got that handled. I will fabricate a cold air intake in the right fender area, and put a larger filter there as well. The shroud will go on when I make the missing retaining bracket, and then we’ll know for sure. 9-15-12 I have continued researching Duramax overheating on the web, diesel page, etc. There are numerous and conflicting thoughts and suggestions. What I get to this moment is that a temp of 205 is not hot at all. Rather, 230 and up is considered hot. Also, the earlier (like mine) fan/clutches are better than new. In short, I see little I can do to improve the situation, aside from completing a cold air intake. I will blow out the “stack” of radiators up front, but I doubt that is an issue at this point. Nick has completed the bodywork on the rear fenders, and has installed a new left front fender. He will return it tomorrow, and paint it next weekend. 9-17-12 Got the dually back from Nick. He has replaced the LF fender, and all bodywork, save a tiny bit on the LF door, is complete and ready for paint this weekend. Nick removed my wood/insulated computer box from the left inner fender, and just hard-mounted that unit. There are still some rattling issues up front, and I hope to address those shortly. The truck runs about 192 right now in 95 degree heat with AC on. I still have no certainty on the cooling being good or not. I’ll do some load tests, get the shroud on tomorrow, and see how it goes. I guess I could make a HUGE project out of this and relocate the AC condenser from in front of the radiator/intercooler and find some other place, as I did on the Condor. But this should NOT be required, not at all. I have also not been able to locate the guys in Santa Clarita to whom I went 6 years ago. 9-18-12 The “mounting” of the computer was poor, just some plumber’s tape and two incorrect-thread bolts in some existing threaded holes, and the power box and puke tank were all wrong. I remounted all three components on the left fender: computer, power distribution module, and puke tank. MUCH better. And, I got the shroud back on and bolted. The truck is running 189-190 with AC driving, 178 idling with AC on. I have not yet hammered it up Woodley hill. I had a mystifying “nearly won’t drive” thing, wherein the new bracket on the formerly in the box computer apparently make for some bad connections. It ran like it was out of fuel, nearly identical to what the Tbird did Sunday when its computer-side battery went flat. I repositioned the bracket, and all is well. WHEW! I will be talking with Fonzo tomorrow, and hopefully he will only have to cure the oil leak. 10-1-12 I was going to drive it up to Lancaster tomorrow, a 52-mile trip up the Palmdale grade on the 14. I am going to postpone it a day, I think given some work issues needing the truck. It has been running in the 187-198 range driving around in 100+ temps. I discovered the auxiliary fan for the AC condenser is not coming on. I think the DPS boys unplugged it. 10-3-12 Drove to Lancaster today. The temp peaked at 229 going up the grade, and varied from 183 up and down. Once at altitude in Palmdale (at the top of the hill on the flat), it dropped to 183. I’m thinking air pockets. But if not, then an additional radiator and/or relocating the AC condenser and tranny cooler, as in the Tbird, might be the ticket. I was also thinking of changing the intercooler to the Vortech air/water style, which would save a bunch of room. I’m thinking maybe putting a radiator above the cab. What the hell! Meanwhile, the AC got REALLY cold! Wow! Fonzo has the truck, and I asked him to add a pint of power steering fluid as the pump was REALLY whining. I need PBB to look at where the leak is. 10-4-12 No word from Fonzo. 10-6-12 I took the truck to Lancaster on Wednesday 10-2-12. It ran as high as 228 going up to the high desert. I have not replaced the fan clutch, so I guess due diligence requires that I do that. That will be several hours and another $100 or so plus some helping labor. I thought perhaps I should add another radiator above the cab, like a wing, along with a puke tank and an electric water pump. I think there is some obviously serious air pocket issue here. How to cure that is unknown. But what else, if no air pocket, can one do to keep this thing cool? I suppose that is what the now-not-available extra radiator from someone was about, as noted in the bulletin boards. Oh boy. The AC was FRIGID! So some good there. PBB did not get the rent to me nor did he secure any rims. I will ask Fonzo on Monday when I call if he has found any in his stock. I am currently renting a VW Passat for the week. It is quite different driving and new, needs-nothing car. 10-9-12 I am so straight ahead, and most people are not. Fonzo says no work has been done, other than a certified diesel mechanic came by YESTERDAY and charged him $150 per hour for two hours to look at the truck. Really? I asked who had done the work before. Oh, that was a flaky guy, not certified, and we found other mistakes he made Oh boy. So tomorrow, the good guy is looking to spend maybe 5 hours (Fonzo’s estimate) to correct what was done. Fonzo thinks the girdle was not tightened properly. My $350 per week rental costs were brushed aside because of HIS costs. Oh boy again. 10-11-12 Oh boy YET again. No mechanic until tomorrow. So I have spent almost $500 on a rental for NO work to be done yet. This is getting VERY unprofitable. I have negotiated no return fee for the rental to my local Enterprise, rather than driving it to Lancaster, depending on whether the truck requires more time after tomorrow. 10-17-12 I picked the truck up Monday, paid $677 for the rental car, and motored back. Moe at the yard refused to take responsibility for disturbing the rear seal. John at DPS asserts he HAD to have disturbed it to have done the girdle repair. No matter, Moe reiterated that they do not cover ANY seals, and regardless, John should have changed it prior to install. John of course is adamant that these seals almost never leak. This warrants another OH BOY. It reached a high briefly of 203 on the flats on the 405. Otherwise, it peaked at 196 on the few uphills. This is almost all downhill from Lancaster. We then constructed two new mounts for the puke tank, cut the hood open a little more to allow for the new position, and refilled it. I purged some fluid at the thermostat bolt, but saw no air. The truck is now at Nick’s for the paint work. Kelly and I pulled the grille, fixed some rattles in the parking lights and grille bars, repaired the right headlight surround, and buttoned it back up. Next week I will have Salim pull the trans and install the seal, for about $530. 10-25-12 Got the dually back from Nick yesterday. Today we installed new taillight lenses, reinstalled the marker lights, headlight surround on the left, and verified turn signal and brake light function. The truck looks nice. I will have Miranda redo the headliner tomorrow. 10-27-12 We installed the two amps, got a little sound, but had one MAXI fuse blown, apparently from my touching a ground to the hot side. With some difficulty we located another fuse at Carquest, and then of course found a few in the Durham box. With the fuse installed, NO sound. NOTHING. The amps all have power, but no turn on voltage on the blue wires. The underhood hifi master disconnect is hot, the fuse box is hot, the lead to the head is hot, and the in line fuse is good. NOTHING. My next move will be to pull out the head again and run a direct hot to it and see what happens. MADDENING. I have one front marker light missing. All others are in and functioning. Miranda was overloaded with work when I came there for our appointment today. So perhaps next week for the headliner. JJ and I polished the top of the fan shroud, a large piece of aluminum about 36” wide by 10” deep. We did a series of sandings, starting with a 180 grit disc on an air die grinder, then progressed to wet hand-sandings of 320, 400, 600, 1000, and 2000-grit. We then hit it with some Wenol polish on a cotton drill-powered conical buff, and it looks pretty darn nice Not high gloss polish, but real nice. JJ put a coat of clear coat on it. 10-31-12 The hifi appeared to work fine, then would not turn on again. I have measured voltages right up to the radio, and the hot line in has only 7 volts. I am going to hot wire the input power and see what happens. 11-2-12 I did get the system working the other day by hot-wiring the head to the fuse box with a measured 12 volt pin. I later found noise while driving coming from a loose speaker wire dancing on its terminal. With that fixed, JJ and I spent some time working, in some instances in vain, on the hifi and trim pieces. We managed to get three of four (we don’t have the fourth) trim caps SCREWED over the door pull straps. These caps notoriously break, and are impossible to find at this point. So we drilled and put a screw to hold them. They look fine. Now to find a fourth cap. The hifi front amp continues to NOT work once the car brings up the voltage with the engine running. It is NOT exterior to the amp. Rather, something in the amp circuitry cannot handle the more-than 12 volts once the alternator is running. A half year ago I took the amp to Greg at Monolithic, picked it up personally a month ago, and he assured me it works fine. NO. I’ve adjusted the EQ and gotten the system sounding pretty good. There were some noises that sounded like bad drivers, but I think they were hitting the protective grilles. I reset the two rear grilles (the right frame was WAY loose). I got the last marker light from Creative, and got some panel clip nuts from Nick last night. So that’s done. JJ and I changed the bulbs in the top cab lights. We now have ALL lamps working on the truck. 11-16-12 I took the truck to DPS for a rear main seal change, and the leak is NOT the rear main, but the girdle, as John had insisted previously SO I got the truck back, and changed the fan clutch assembly. The weather cooled off, and I have not gone more than a few miles, so I have not idea if this has solved the heating issue. I SURE hope so. I added a third mounting system on the puke tank, and it is now ROCK solid. On the hifi I found a loose positive lead to the front amp, corrected that, and still no sound once the truck starts. I again talked with Greg at Monolithic, who claims he ran it for WEEKS at 18 volts with no issues. I cannot fathom why this thing won’t work. Tightening the B+ lead appears to have corrected some (perhaps half) of the alternator whine. Why this should help the working amps is a mystery. So the truck looks great, needs a little upholstery tuneup, has ¾ of a sound system working, and may have its heating problem solved. I still have a 65 MPH vibration, seemingly from an unbalanced wheel. Some research will be needed there. The right front frame rail issue has not been addressed, but perhaps this coming week I will get it back to Marlo’s and see what he thinks. As I am now unemployed by CEGA, I have more time to devote to these issues. Just not so much cash. 11-20-12 I have gotten A-1 to agree to a whopping $250 allocation towards the $1000 R/R labor on the engine. As I do not have an alternative working car at the moment, it will wait. 12-7-12 The dually runs cool, and it has also been rather cool as well. The front amp remains recalcitrant, and I will attempt to test it one more time using a regulated power supply or some adjustable means of supplying input voltage. But I fear it will be going back to Monolithic. The headliner cover has yet to be redone by Miranda, as I have been driving around with it in the bed. I will take it to Jose tomorrow. I do want to add a few interior touches such as repairing the tears in the front seat. While minor, I think a new seat panel will be required. I will have Jose put some doggie pads on the window sills made of carpet, so the girls do not continue to scratch up the sills. I might also have Jose make some slip covers for the upholstery. ICOULD go to the red marine vinyl I used on my living room furniture. But that does nothing about the hair and dirt, other than making it easier to clean. The engine has a vibration at idle, most likely some contact point near the motor mounts. Otherwise, it runs happily. I may reinstall the catalytic converter.
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