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  2. Yep! This should be a pin somewhere as @pgamboa really dives into all of this. Thanks for reposting the link!
  3. I did the new thermostat after doing a 'flip' for a year. Runs as cool one way as the other in the summer but in the winter there is a bit of a floor. Yellow with the new 70 C thermostat. My data over the life of the unit to date. Still need more cooler. Anyway that floor helped both winter fuel economy and shift quality in the winter. I found it a good balance.
  4. Today
  5. Evan Williams Bottled in Bond So pouring the last of a bottle of Evan Williams Black label last night I set off the the state store for a refill only to be denied the by an empty shelf. Rats. What the did have was a bottle of Evan Williams Bottled in Bond. 100 proof. Hum, a few bucks more but a known distiller. Lets have a swing at it. ( I have before ) Cracked it open and pour a serving over ice. Hum.... more heat, yes. More alcohol naturally. But the barreling not the proof brings the taste and this one came up short. Oh is was familiar but the heat ran the barrel over like a Peterbilt runs over a squirrel. Could use a heavier toasting of the oak me thinks or perhaps a longer barreling. Who knows. But what I can say is ice or a water back isn't the answer. What kills one kills them both. Sad. It is a pleasant drink....if you have little to compare it to.
  6. I've had exactly one set of Bridgestone. Lasted five year and 125,000 miles and had I known better 15oK would have been a cake walk. I would have bought a like set had they not tripled in price since the first set. I removed them at said mileage with 5/32" remaining in dead even wear all four. They were fuel efficient, quite, comfortable and predictable. Early on I got a very good alignment checked at least once a year, sometimes twice; kept the tires properly inflated, balanced and rotated. And I've found that many a tire issue can be avoided with great maintenance practices. Lot's of tire dealers will do rotation and balance (simple) for free for as long as you own the tire they sold you so no excuse not to. Bead prep, alloy integrity and stem health have a huge impact on inflation stability. There are more mountings done poorly that perfectly. Finding a good tire guy is gold and as important as finding a tire you like. That 3X price increase now two sets of "other tires' later is starting look like a bargain. Bad maintenance kills more tires than bad tires.
  7. Atlas, you kill me As aggravating as a project like this can be you have been unable to hide your fascination with learning and using that angst against this beast like a Ninjitsu Master. It amuses you, admit it now. BTW, love your writing style.
  8. I gotta say, I'm enjoying your narration. The troubles you've been having are amusing as you describe them. It's good to see that you're finally getting some satisfaction out the old beast though.
  9. Declaring victory would upset the demons that possess this Blazer, so I won't. But I did make progress today--after it put up a fight. Always a fight. I had the day off so I spent the morning cleaning up the shop and I thought I'd get ahead of things by filling the cooling system in prep for the final part I needed to arrive: the driver's side knock sensor. Glug, glug, glug....and then the unmistakable sound of liquid hitting the shop floor. It induces the same chagrin when the sonar and targeting laser temporarily malfunction during a late night bladder evacuation over the toilet with the bathroom light off. D'OH!!! That made a mess... Oh, hey, that knock sensor I removed? It threads into a wet port. Who knew?! Learn something new every day. Put a pin in that chore, I'll fill it the rest of the way later. The knock sensor arrived at about 1pm. I threaded it in, connected the wire, filled up the coolant, checked for leaks, and... drumroll.... fingers crossed for a perfect start, excellent timing, model fuel trims, and ...no squeaks... Here goes..... No, it didn't start. At all. I cranked it a few times and it wasn't sounding good. Furthermore, I heard leaking again. Jesus H Tapdancing Christ, stop leaking all over the dang floor. This time I had accidentally overfilled the coolant reservoir and the churn of the water pump via cranking caused a bit to burp out. Ok, just, breathe... Put the flamethrower down. Dang thing wouldn't burn anyway, leaks too much... Did you know the rotation of a round crank sensor in a round hole, matters? I do now. Took me about half hour to retrace steps and realize what I had done. Then it started right up. No squeaks. The squeak was the old balancer. Once it entered closed loop, fuel trims are dead on, hovering right around zero at idle. No more -30%. I'll credit the injector rebuild on that one. Timing? I think there's an OBD 1.5 translation error with my Actron scanner. It's anywhere from -20 to -30 at idle, sometimes as high as -40 cruising. Sorry, the engine just isn't running that smoothly at -40 degrees ignition advance. It's just not. It's smooth all through the rev range and has decent power. I'm going to have to trust the seat of my pants on this one. The new exhaust is very quiet. The old catalytic converter? Not melted, but definitely not healthy. Rains glitter when you turn it on its end...all the precious metal is flaking out. Once the new exhaust system burned in/smoked off a bit, the engine's exhaust smell is normal again. Not that I'd recommend going around huffing car exhaust, but, you know what I mean? One problem to correct. The new exhaust has the opposite problem of the old spliced up exhaust. It wants to hit the floor where the old one wanted to rest on the cross member. Happy medium, please? Still noodling on that one, need to look at how I can adjust some hangers. I don't know what's next. On one hand I want to run away from this thing as far and as fast as I can -- there have been a lot of NOT fun moments. On the other, now that it kinda drives nice, maybe drive it around for a little bit? Shhh... it's not currently dripping oil all over the floor. I can see just a little wet at the bottom of the timing cover where it meets the oil pan seal. It's not dripping multiple drops with every ignition cycle, in fact, after some driving this evening it has yet to even form a drop that could drip off yet. But the weekend is young... I fully expect this could turn into Exxon Valdez by Sunday. Because this Blazer hates me. LOL.
  10. About that: Once upon a time in a land far far away lived a car company that was shy about taking your money and wanted to be sure that they gave you more that you asked for so that you'd come back. No really, not a fairytale. But after the field got thinned out enough to limit the competition it seemed good enough to give you only what you asked for. Fair enough I say but in such a market you have to give something the others are not or they go to the one who does. Gimmicks or glitz. Oh, fins and chrome. Yea, shinny crow like cars. Yum. Field narrows a bit more and 'brand loyalty' becomes a thing and the minute it does they start thinking to themselves, "Could we make more money if we gave them less than they expect and they will hang in there for brand and comfort with the known?" They gave it a try and da*n, it worked!! Well, what if we teach them, groom them into believing that less is "Normal" and cut some more corners. Will that work? Oh heck yea! I wonder, can we give then WAY less than they expect and make them mad enough to spit nails and STILL get them to pay up? Sure, if we get everyone else to do the same so that the choice is less or nothing at all. How would be do that? Platform sharing. What a concept, right? Steal like there is no tomorrow and it's legal too! Truth is no one is going to give up driving, not for very long. The Gen Z crowd is fine with it and will be as long as someone not Gen Z will haul them around. At some point we all die. Economic voting only works if you cast a NO vote now and again and enough of them to get dumb and dumber to wise up. Well, that's how I was taught anyway. And it should have worked. Would have worked. But the Bail out!! Look, you have another choice if you take that bag off your head. If the dumb it down to some predetermined expectation of how John Q Public will use it the, that is under design it to failure they you use it to a lower stress mode. D'ho! A 1950 Royal Enfield Bullet 500 will go anywhere a Suzuki Hayabusa will and for just as long. But you will have to treat it for what it is and not for what you wish it was.
  11. Yesterday
  12. Maybe I was just too unlucky, but I had nothing but bad luck with Bridgestones. Out of 3 sets, they all started losing a lot of air when they got down to about 1/2 tread life, and at that point also wet traction suffered more than it should have. Also, the only tire I ever had in my 60 years of driving that had a side wall blow out was a Bridgestone. I'm currently running Goodyear Wrangler Workhorse AT and am very happy with them.
  13. maybe when the trip is over, check all the other joints in the front end, like all the ball joints, tie rods, pitman & idler arms, etc...
  14. Thks, and actually it was my bad, because here in this post there is someone showing the correct wire position as well. My bad... But thank you a lot with the help as well. I was able to find and buy a 10 channel VPM that came from a sister silverado of mine. The same year, same mode, same trim, same everything. 2022 Silverado 1500 LTD LTZ (pre-refresh). I also found to buy just the bottom mirror part that has the cameras, so way cheap than the full mirror. + a used front camera. I did test everything together, cameras, cables and the VPM.... everything worked EXCEPT my original Bed camera and the backup grid lines. I think the reason is because now I need to do the VPM reprogram. I sent a msg White Automotive & Media Service to confirm that it is the problem and that they can do it service for me case. Once I get it 100% done I will post here result....
  15. I used to work on those 4.6, 2V engines. They are tough.
  16. Nice! I wish I had something to put them on. Someday when the engine craps out in our '86 Grand Marquis I guess. My truck is diesel, so won't need one for that. The Merc is at 315k miles right now with zero signs of slowing down! I'm more of an Edelbrock guy, though. I like super-simple.
  17. That's a beautiful thing! The one I'm converting now is my winter beater. Only has 114 HP at the crank stock, LOL. 2.3L 4-banger. Pathetic in the power department, but it gets me to work all winter.
  18. Well that's progress! Nice. Man! I hate all this modern crap! Nothing is simple anymore! Since you've tried known-good MAFs, I'm betting on something being missing on one of the 5 wires. Disregard the IAT sensor wires, and focus just on the MAF wiring. Power, ground, signal return. Something isn't right on one of them. I'm doing a carb conversion on a 1994 vehicle right now. Everything is simple, and just works! If something doesn't work, you MAKE it work! Glad to be out of the industry, that's for sure - I don't miss the computer crap!
  19. Just an update, I bought a one VIN subscription to sps2, installed the PCM from the 2007 donor vehicle and programmed it. It started right up, and seems to run more normally now (It doesn't die as soon as you start it, it just starts and runs every time, no more misfires too), however, the MAF is still showing the same strange readings.
  20. Hey everyone, For anyone looking at roof-mounted lighting for the Hummer EV, we wanted to share our M&R Automotive 50" PRO Roof Light Bar for the 2022+ GMC Hummer EV. The curved 50" bar sits close to the windshield rather than sticking way up above the roofline. The mounting position is designed to keep the setup relatively streamlined while minimizing wind noise and maintaining full use of the factory windshield wipers. A few details: 50" curved PRO light bar Fits 2022–2026 GMC Hummer EV Spot + driving beam pattern TIR optics White main beam Amber DRL backglow Approximately 15,410 measured lumens through the lens Mounts to factory accessory locations No cutting or drilling required Wiring runs down the A-pillar toward the AUX connections Designed to minimize wind noise Lifetime warranty Off-road use only The 50" is an interesting middle ground for anyone who wants the visibility and mounting position of a roof bar without stepping all the way up to the larger 60" setup. For the Hummer EV owners here, would you go with the 50" for the lower-profile look or step up to the full 60"?
  21. My son got a hatchback withe the aero package for like 17k new. Great little car with amazing MPH
  22. Yeah, I've given up years ago with that! I was able to load a few when I first joined the site sometime around '07. Then after maybe 20 pics, it said I exceeded the limit. Now every pic I try to post says I've "exceeded 1mb". ONE MB??? That's Windows 95 ******, lol!!
  23. I get the same results with pictures. Then I figure it out. Then I forget. Screw it.
  24. I guess I'm the only one on this forum who can't get effing pics to load here! Do you have to resize them to post, or am I just blocked from uploads? I have the same luck with automotive electronics ... but this is the ONLY site on the net that I have this problem! I'd post pics of what I'm working on ... but I CAN'T! Just fabbed up the kickdown cable (had to extend the cable mount WAAAY out from the throttle shaft to get a full pull), and parts arrived for the fuel lines on the 940 carb conversion project. Should be able to drive this thing by the end of the day. If not for work, I'd have had this thing done SIX weeks ago. Got the jetting sorted out last week. Had a real bad tip-in bog that I couldn't seem to correct. Friggin float height was over 11mm too HIGH! eBay purchase, so no wonder everything is screwed up right out of the box! I ended up with a larger dual-squirt accelerator pump jet anyway instead of the single. Also moved the 70 primary idle jet (4 sizes too big out of the box) to the secondary idle circuit, and installed a 57 in the primary. Runs great on the fuel bottle! Still using the computer for ignition. Going to drive it first and see if I want to go through the project of installing an intermediate shaft with a distributor drive gear, so I can install a block-mounted distributor and run points, 100% computer free. I should do that anyway just from a simplicity / reliability / tunability standpoint. The electronics left me stranded last year a couple times! I can't tweak the timing to my liking right now because of the computer. Tried twisting the cam-driven distributor already ... and the damned thing just reverts back to where it was! That's infuriating. But if it runs well enough I might save that for next season. Just driving it in and out of the shop to work on other projects, it feels 1,000% more responsive with the carburetor. Also fires MUCH faster when cranking. Can't wait to drive it and see if I got more than 114 ponies, lolol. Hopefully these don't go 404 like the last post ... https://postimg.cc/gallery/MjhrmZS Seems like that site went back to dial-up internet! Maybe they'll fix that some day ...
  25. Triumph makes me think of cars not bikes. Especially with model names like the TR7, that was a Triumph car model too. Peak TR for me was the TR250. You could retain the post-war roadster looks, with an optional surrey hard top, but with an inline 6 engine instead of the TR4's anemic 4-cylinder, but still have a 4 speed, optional overdrive. I know almost nothing about Triumph bikes, except that they exist. Good looking bikes though. I don't know if I could just have one vehicle. The Silverado does it all except for fitting anywhere. But it leaves a void in real driving enjoyment, unless driving an extremely large sofa is your thing. What did I do to my 'other' (muslce car - which one!?) vehicle lately. I took my '23 SS for a drive. It's only got 1600 miles. I keep reminding myself I shouldn't be so precious about this car. It likes to be driven. Needs to be driven. Life is short and if I don't enjoy it, someone else will. The other half calls it "the garage ornament".
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