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@Jsdirt saw a South Dakota plate in town yesterday with your name on it. JSTDIRT

The 2027 orders will be starting up soon, I'm surprised at how quiet these new engine discussions have become. When 2027 GMC Sierra HD Production Is Scheduled To Start

Thanks for the info. I'm doing an oil change today or tomorrow, so I'll check them then.

The extra plug in connector servers two purposes - to connect the lighting circuits from the mirror to the factory connect. This will get you blinker on the glass only. That’s the factory function. That’s what you had before. The amber forward shining light behaves as a running light/park light - meaning it comes on when your headlights are on. If you outrun your headlight switch to park lamp mode, that amber would turn but (in a factory state). Your issue is that you’re not setup for tow mirrors. The door harness in your truck is wired different - so there is a path you’ll have to go down to either modify your door harnesses or replace them with a set and … since your truck is as 2014, add additional wiring inside your cabin of your truck that runs into the engine bay/fuse block. So if you want to get these work, it can be done but will require some additional thinks and effort to get there. You can reach me at HarnessDR.com for more info. Use the “Contact Us” option there.

TFL touted those same numbers back in March. Nothing new there.

Did you physically inspect the brake pads? When my brakes went bad I got a few different messages, one of which was the same as you did, but none of them said, your brakes are bad (or need attention, or anything like that). I actually took it to the dealer because I thought the system was bad. Nope, just some highly worn brake pads.

I used to love working on the old stuff. Mostly Chevys, majority Impalas with a few Novas. Usually for improved performance. Once computers and sensors started showing up I lost interest in working on them. I don’t have the patience. Anyone who can pull it off today has to have patience to do the research and can work in a confined area. Has to really enjoy it. The engine compartment is cramped. I’ve enjoyed the show.

Over the years of having a few in moderation, well almost always. And always fighting my weight Ive tried almost all the brands. Evan Williams takes up the liquor cabinet along side of Fire Ball and blackberry brandy. But in the flavor variety. I’ll admit I love margaritas. But it shows up scale the next day to remind me.

just out of interest, is your truck lifted

Even tougher is the 5.0 / 302. That's what this one has. https://postimg.cc/Z9XRrCSg https://postimg.cc/4n3F3yzY Just realized I had the airbox removed in the engine pic, lol.

Yep! This should be a pin somewhere as @pgamboa really dives into all of this. Thanks for reposting the link!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 they dumb it down to some predetermined expectation of how John Q Public will use it then, that is, under design it to failure, then 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.

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.

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...

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....

I used to work on those 4.6, 2V engines. They are tough.

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.

Got 3 more, I could sell.

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.