Atlas

And a 1500 with a 3.0 can achieve over 30 when driven for maximum fuel economy. An equivalent one ton today with a 6.6 Duramax can do just as good as those old trucks while being heavier and with vastly increased towing capacity. I'm really failing to see your point here other than you continually insist on talking about old, non-GM vehicles and family stories in EVERY dang thread.

They don't get as good of mileage as a newer 1500 with a 3.0. They just don't, sorry. I'm sure your trucks are nice. The newest one of the two you mentioned is 26 years old. Know what happens to old things? They eventually fall apart no matter how much you try to keep them up. ... Try not to take things personally. That old fluid pump of yours probably doesn't need the stress.

I'll take a newer truck over either of the aforementioned bricks any day, all day and nope a one ton diesel isn't getting high 20's (or even 30) average. Hear the same thing all the time on RV forums. "I refuse to own a diesel that uses DEF because they're so unreliable!" Uh, ok Karen, well, you enjoy your busted 20+ year old rigs, nevermind the backbone of this country rides on modern diesels. But sure, let's talk about your ancient Cummings some more. (and yeah, that was an intentional misspell).

Speaking of stupid arguments, why haven't fuel economy standards been rolled back. Or if nobody is going to enforce them, why havent auto manufacturers saved themselves a bunch of headache by reverting to naturally aspirated 6's and 8's in everything again without any of the "30% more expensive" stuff?

My fullsize truck is averaging over 26mpg so I'm pretty happy with the increased fuel economy targets. When I had my gas Silverado (2020 5.3) it was averaging 21. Again, for a fullsize truck, that's very different from the 12-15 these things used to get 30 years ago. Whine all you want, increased MPG is a good thing.

87 down as low as $5.14 here... winning!

Progress... sort of. Intake is disassembled, spider is out, fuel lines removed. Used a torch on the stripped screw with the lower intake off, much easier when I've got the intake sitting on my workbench, I made it talk. Walked right out with a pair of vice grips once it was nice and toasty hot. New parts are piling up on my service cart waiting to be installed. Distributor, temperature sensor, new gaskets, fuel line kit, themostat, water neck. My new pickle is I don't want to spend $600 on a replacement spider. I'm not sure IT is bad. I'm probably splitting hairs. Or it's $300 to send mine away and another 3 weeks of the truck just sitting. I have half a mind to assemble everything with the old spider to see if I can get away with just replacing the fuel pressure regulator to be safe. The obvious issue was the gushing high pressure fuel line which will be replaced. Getting to the spider really isn't that hard, and now I know what I'm doing , swapping it would be a breeze should it absolutely need one. Stupid, or smart? The part that gives me pause is replacing the distributor. Well, it's already out. And I didn't mark it, whoopsie! Engine was at TDC when I removed it, I know that, so upon correct reinstall the metal tip on the rotor should point to the TDC mark on the distributor because that's where it was pointing on the old distributor. Worst case I'm a tooth off and have to re-stab it. But then, what? I assume the truck will start. It doesn't appear the timing can be set. Here's the problem: These distributors can't be rotated but a degree or two, by design. What I read is Cam ****** needs to be -2 to +2 degrees, ideally at 0 (and checked/set above 1000 rpm). There should be enough wiggle to get that properly set, but checking the reported value is another potential issue. My Actron 9185 scanner says it supports enhanced GM PIDs and Cam ****** is one of them but it's unclear that I'll be able to correctly see it over OBD 1.5. I can see why people end up junking these things with life left in them. They're an absolute nightmare with tweener-year diagnostics/electronics and unobtanium parts. Fingers crossed it starts and idles nicely. There can be hope, right? I'ma buy a lottery ticket the same day just in case. Next steps..DO IT. I have not installed an intake before so I've been reading and watching a lot. Some say NO RTV except on china walls, some say DO RTV on water ports but not fuel/air intake. 1/4 or 3/8 bead on China walls? I think my strategy will be, obviously, RTV china walls with overlap on the gasket corners. Chapstick-style RTV the water ports. Leave intake ports dry. The only set of intake gaskets I could find locally are Edelbrock performance gaskets (uh...for an asthmatic 190hp V6? LOL) so we'll see how they do. #NoToolLeftBehind. It took an hour, but my recovery mission for my deep 10mm socket was successful. It had rolled down the bellhousing and wedged itself between what I think are the fuel lines? I couldn't see it at all, but with a junk antenna I had laying around, I blindly went poking/sweeping for it, heard it clink, raised the truck, and caught a sliver glimpse of chrome with a flashlight way up there in Narnia. I had pushed it farther along the lines holding it captive, but within access of severely improvised tools, poking and cursing at it to finally knock it free to where I could get a fingertip on it to bring it home. Not much to see.

tl; dr I've now reached the 6th floor of hell. I'm chronicling my journey for my morning readers. Pulling the top of the intake apart was moderately easy but it involved a lot of parts, connections, and minutae. I was preparing for the new fuel lines to arrive ("nut and bolt kit" it's called). The fuel line connections are notched and held in place by the manifold and a metal plate with a T27 screw. It's on the back of the intake, under the firewall, with little clearance, and two hard metal fuel lines in the way. I was using Franken-tools (weird combinations of 1/4 inch ratchet with/without an extension, with a bit holder for my T27) to get in there. One of my sockets and bits fell off and has yet to emerge on the floor. I lost a second setup and that's when I almost started throwing tools. But that was the point at which I had gotten traction on the Torx head, and it promptly stripped. No more traction. I started humming "1-877-kars-4-kids" because I was about at that point. You know what? I'm $1500 into this thing and I can make it disappear just as quickly. This isn't fun anymore. I had spent a lot of time already "tidying" around the engine bay: Fixing all the "someone's been here before!" BS. The truck has been exclusively dealer- and shop- serviced and I'm reminded of why I never let other people work on my cars unless absolutely necessary. Speaking of dealer service. This truck has a 1" stack of records going back to 1995. I put them all in an excel spreadsheet, date/mileage/description. The CPI spider has been replaced 4 times in 85k miles. The EGR? Another 4. Multiple, multiple O2 sensors. One Cat. 4? Sets of plugs and wires, and I swear half the stack is diagnosis paperwork for "misfire, runs rough, extended crank, dies at stoplights". GM was producing some proper crap back then. And it was still well within the era of brittle/crappy plastic. (Windows 95 was released the same month this truck was sold new, we HAD the technology!!) There (was) a plastic shroud around the evaporator core and HVAC fan in the engine bay. I noticed a chunk of it missing so I poked at it some more and it literally shattered. Touched it some more and pieces were crumbling off. Had a good laugh. Clearly whatever plastic garbage they were using had broken down over 30 years and was literally turning to dust. That was a good half hour of using a shop vac to remove the rest of it. Back to it. I was going to give up for the evening but then decided I'm already level 10 pissed off at the stripped screw: G* D* it, give me my tools back -- and my JOY. We'll do this the hard way: The whole intake is coming off. Blazer won Round II. After finally finding and accessing the 12 intake bolts and using a pry bar to unseat it from the heads, it popped loose in an explosion of gunk and grime raining down into open ports. Awesome. 6 times I reminded myself: Be careful of the temperature sender on the front of the intake. YEAH, I forgot again and snapped it clean off in the removal. Add another $20 to the ever-growing list of new parts this thing is consuming. The shame is, long before removing the intake, I had changed the oil in prep for Tuesday's momentous fuel line replacement that was going to be the magic fix and I'd have a running Blazer to tool around in this next weekend. The intake removal, including raining gunk, also gushed dirty coolant all over the valley. Of course it did. Welp, there goes another $35. I now need an intake gasket set, bolt set, coolant temp sensor, another 5 quarts of oil, some RTV. Don't worry, I've already got 3 new jugs of Dexcool and a thermostat waiting. I'll fill it with clean water first to get it running, dump it, and then add the Dex later on in case... well, let's not go there. I'm only tearing this down once, next time the truck is going on Marketplace for FREE. Oh, and I'm going to need vacuum hose for all the stupid connections placed at the rear of the engine which have since disintegrated. Come on, GM....tell me you don't do that anymore? Oh, and the ears on the distributor where the cap screws down are both cracked. I mean, why not put a new distributor in it too. You get a distributor, YOU get a distributor, Everyone gets a new distributor! This truck isn't out of the woods yet...I'm already questioning how much more time I'm willing to sink in.

Sadly, there's a drought of good 92-95 4.3 cars at junkyards in the area otherwise I would have gone fishing for parts. Not that they don't come up, there's just nothing good in the yards right now. I tore into the intake yesterday evening, easier than I thought, and I might have this problem licked for cheap. Two of the intake studs came up with the bolt on removal, no big deal but that's why it looks funny with studs only on one side. There's pooled gas on both sides of the plenum. Highlights boxed in green. Picture-right side has an obviously split pressure line from rubbing on the #5 injector nylon line. #5's line is worn in that spot but not all the way through. Passenger side intake (picture left), not sure, but I think the pressure regulator is hosed. Rebuilt spiders don't come with the pressure and return hoses so I'll need to replace those no matter what. A pressure regulator is $30 so I'll try that and if I end up having to swap the whole spider, it was $30. I'll be grinning ear to ear if that's all I need. Parts arrive Tuesday. Sure enough the shop was here before. That's a new gasket. Vacuum lines and wiring are a tangled mess, I sorted that out last night as well. Spent about an hour just picking up general slack and shoddy reassembly around the engine bay. Cheek-pokered the battery tray, got it all cleaned up. Sometimes things just need a little elbow grease and a few minutes of time to be right again.

The entry price point and utility/versatility should be a pretty good hit. The initial release is a fad, sure, look at the people lined up out the door to buy one before they're even available. But that's any novel release. The proof of adoption is what happens to the car in the used market and as we're seeing with EV's they're affordable staples of both primary and commuter transportation in populated areas.

The truck is a 1995 Chevrolet S10 Blazer, 4.3 VIN "W" engine. :cracks knuckles: On a whim - because I needed a headache - this truck was for sale so I stopped to take a look. Doesn't run. Well, it does, but barely. Long crank, choppy idle, bad misfire(s), it REEKS of fuel. I can DO this..I'm thinking. Diamond in the rough. One owner until last year. A young guy is selling it, he bought it 6 months ago. It stranded him more than once, he's got a newborn. It was in the shop 10 days ago and he "thinks" they said it needs a new fuel injection system. He can't put any more money into it, needs it gone. I was thinking of upgrading my Macbook, which is a total want, not a need. For less than the price of a new laptop I can have fun for months tinkering on this truck and enjoying it. I'm taking this truck home. The guy was beyond thrilled, his wife was there, she thanked me profusely, I could tell they were hurting. They seemed like good people in a bind. Some parts, a wash, maybe a set of tires, and I can have a few months of fun and then turn it for beer money (or the next project). Sure enough, there's a work order from a shop last week in the INCHES of paperwork on this truck dating back to when the first owner bought it. They put a new distributor in it, fuel injection work describes basically opening the plenum and putting it back together. He said he couldn't afford any more work so he had them button it up and that's when he put it up for sale. I'm not well versed in 4.3. I did discover 1995 uses the 1992-1995 SCPI "Spider" injector which is riddled with issues from splitting lines, clogged or cracked poppet valves and plastic spider legs that crumble over time. Cool. I'll just order me a ne---. Oh, the auto parts store doesn't have it? Rock Auto doesn't have it. eBay? $$$$$$ for used. These are UNAVAILABLE period end of story unless you know "a guy" who's still got one in a box somewhere. Can't upgrade to the '96-'04 injector, it's a different plenum, wiring/pinout and sensor config. There are a few kinda "know a guy" -guy rebuild services for these injectors out there for about $350. Okay, Okay... I'd like to know if anyone has used them? Anyone got a lead on these crappy 92-95 spiders? I also don't want to send MY spider to Narnia and back without knowing if that's truly the problem. I guess I'll need to pull apart the plenum and do some digging. I was also thrown for a loop. This 1995 model year truck has an OBD-II connector. The interface is decidedly not OBD-II. I can read and reset trouble codes and view live data, but there's not a lot of data. Like misfire count and on what cylinder, that's not there. It's OBD-1.5. Nothing is ever easy. Now it makes sense why this guy wanted to disappear this thing for cheap. I'm guessing the shop told him the injector is toast, the part is unobtainable and they're not going to sort sending the thing to a rando offering rebuild service on craigslist, and the kid likely can't be without a working car for 3 weeks even if they'd facilitate that. Experience with these early SCPI's? Stories? Things to check? Sympathy? (..Nah...) This can sit until I sort it. But I haven't had a problem with a vehicle I couldn't easily solve in a long time.

People mislead themselves. Statistics are highly useful indicators. Here's the tie-in to this thread. If an oil sample tests shows a wear indicator of 7 using cheaper ACDelco oil, and a wear indicator of 2 (lower = less wear) using a particular brand of Mobil oil, and wear has a linear relationship with engine lifespan, anyone could assume that Mobil is reducing wear by more than 50% (let's just say a 200% reduction for you red state people trying hard to do math) which leads to increasing engine life by 2x. Perhaps, in a vacuum, by itself, when dreamed by AI. Yeah?! That's what the statistic is saying, isn't it? No, it isn't. It didn't come out and say engine life is doubled. That's a very bad assumption, and a case of severe myopia by assuming something potentially untrue about the only data point in focus. Average cost of a new car is 50k. You bet it is. The median cost of a new car is more like 35k. Expensive cars are skewing the perception that "average" now means a $50k price of entry for a very average automobile. And that's not true. People who don't understand statistics twist the living heck out of them to mean all sorts of things they don't actually mean. "Average" new car payment is $1000/month. Yep, it is. And in that number are all the $35k new car buyers who bring significant equity, and the $25k new car buyers who finance the car for a month just to get a rebate, and then pay it off. Know what isn't in that number? All the payments made by people who don't finance a car. Picking one's own data point (don't have a car payment, never paid $50k for a new vehicle, my house cost $170k, I afforded a middle class lifestyle on $4.50/hr) is just a data point. Just like earning $25/hr in an area where the median home price is almost $1 Million is a data point. In fact, it's a lot of data points given that 80% of the US population lives in/around major cities. They're not idiots; the vast majority of them do it to make a living because that's where the big money is. The highs have become higher, lows have become lower, and how your personal mileage varies is not truth for an entire country. At the same time you can't NOT acknowledge the data. While it doesn't paint YOUR personal picture, it certainly tints the reality that you also live in, as does your single data point.

Welcome back! No, it definitely doesn't pass the sniff test. Even "ceasefire" needs an alternative definition these days. $5.29 at Kroger today

Seems like half the stations everywhere don't print out receipts anymore, either broken, out of paper, and they want you to come inside. NOPE. I just wait for the "Thank you / Come Again" screen on the terminal.

LOL!! Truth be told I've only "heard" of the scam screw, but I think this means I can stop looking for a screw sticking out somewhere to keep the pump handle from either seating or shutting off the pump / closing the transaction. I was looking for anything at the pumps with the lift handle at the bottom where you have to flip it up to begin pumping gas. I mean, we're getting screwed at the pump anyway...