Hey guys,
So I did a lot of work on the truck today. I started the tear down and saw if the new head would work. It will thankfully.
Dan was right, Felpro sent me two identical intake manifold gaskets to save money. It only has one port, so my intake manifold will bolt right on.
Here are the pictures of what I did with short descriptions. Sorry if it takes FOREVER to load, I took a crap load of pictures. Most of the pictures are for my benefit later so I'll remember where everything goes, lol.
PLEASE stop me if you see something I did wrong. I tried to take the time to plan & document everything so we could catch any errors I make.
It was a brisk 38 degrees, but a good day for working. I started by taking the hood off.
I hand tightened the screws back into the holes in the hood so I won't lose them,
And laid the hood down in the grass for the time being.
Next, I started taking off the air filter housing. The only bolt holding it down...
I proceeded to remove various vacuum lines and hoses (I took pictures of each for later). The first one connected to the valve cover was ripped; I'll buy a new one. Do you think that could have contributed to the rough idle?
I removed the choke heater hose.
Then I drained the radiator and removed the hoses.
Haha, lots of clamps. two closest to port are to hold it on and keep the rubber reducing insert in (the hose was too big). The third farther up is to prevent a pinch that developed there.
When I pulled the lower hose off, coolant flowed out of it, so there must have been extra coolant left in the lower parts of the system.
I removed the overflow hose and took the reservoir out.
I started removing the air pump by removing hoses and slackening & removing the belt.
I unbolted and removed whatever this is. I'm guessing its some sort of air flow regulator?
Unplugged another vacuum line.
Removed the heat shield covering the exhaust header and put it in the bed with the rest of the stuff.
What the engine compartment looks like so far.
I removed the support arm for the air flow regulator thingy and screwed the nuts back on the posts so I won't lose them.
Next I unplugged all the spark plug wires from the distributor and the wire to the starter solenoid. I now realize that I'm gonna have a helluva time plugging all those back into the right places.
I removed the radiator (the mounts were kinda bent and I couldn't get the bolts through the holes... lol
).
I accidentally broke one of the vacuum line T connectors while I was taking it apart, so I'll have to buy a new one.
I then started unbolting the exhaust header.
There was a metal pipe connected to the header that I had to remove. Ugh, that took a few extra minutes...
I removed the air pump (sry, pic upside down for sum reason, lol)
This is where I thought the 2nd coolant port was supposed to be in the intake manifold. Luckily, there wasn't one.
Got the header off and removed old gaskets. They came off clean.
Screwed the nuts back on the posts so I wont lose em.
It started getting dark, so I started cleaning up and called it a day.
The bed with parts and crap in it (haha, got figaurus's thread up on my laptop,
) and engine compartment.
I placed the hood back down on it so nothing'll get wet and packed up & went inside for a cup of hot chocolate.
Afterwards, I realized I forgot to retest the compression. Can I still test it with the header off? Or will it skew the results?
Also, I've seen people remove the air pump and air lines completely. Do I even need that stuff? And what does it do? Do you think that the ripped vacuum hose could have caused the rough idle?
I'll try to retest the compression tomorrow if you guys think I can still do it; and if the weathers good. I was going to work on the luv in my friend's garage, but with the clutch pedal stuck, I can't drive it at the moment. I think that maybe the clutch cable rusted in the line when it rained and it won't budge, so I'll prolly have to replace it. Any thoughts?
Thats all I did today. I'll post more pics as the project progresses. Please let me know if I've down anything wrong. Or, if you have any general tips or ideas for whats left, please don't hesitate to post em.