Jsdirt

When I used to wax my '88 S-15 when it was only a couple years old, the rag used to turn blue. Every time I waxed, more paint would come off. I think GM used Aqua Net as clear coat in those days ...

Might be good to you - good enough as they say - but, there was a time when it was much better, IMO.

I agree. I've noticed this as well. My buddy who's a bodyman said the same thing too. Yet another way manufacturers save a buck at our expense. Then there's the EPA coming down on paint emissions, resulting in poor quality paints. Then on top of all that, the new water-based paints make it impossible to paint at home anymore, unless you can afford to build and pay the electric bill on a heat booth. Completely impractical unless you plan to do it as a side business. A lose-lose for the consumer, as usual ...

Shots on the house!

We wheeled it up to a field on neighbor's property to watch the eclipse last night. Put a few more scratches in the extremely weak black paint ...

Matches the truck nicely. Great concept, those 2-seaters. My wife would just continuously punch me in the ribs, so I opted for the single seat.

Smart man - thing will last forever not seeing road salt. This January we've owned our Grand Marquis for 13 years. Only drove it 2 months of the winter of '03. The repair folder I keep on this car is 1/10th that of the S10 Blazer & the Silverado.

Water content was my main reason for doing the analysis too. Since I hadn't changed it in over a year, I expected some high levels. Truck sits parked for long periods of time too. To my surprise there was zero water! I think most of it probably boiled off with all the towing runs I did this summer. I think had I changed it in winter, it would have been way up there. It was brutal out this way last season. We ended up with a minimum of 7' of snow total over the course of the winter. Miserable! Was surprised at the high levels of aluminum and iron - I didn't expect that one, but I had been running the crap out of this thing with a few extremely heavy loads. 9k + lbs. of coal for my parents, a few 5k lb. SUV's, and a 10k lb. Case 580 with bucket and backhoe (luckily that one only went about 10 miles), and probably 20 regular cars. Trailer itself weighs 2k lbs.. Was WAY over my towing capacity, needless to say. I would imagine running a conventional oil that long would've been REAL bad.

I try not to. Driving in MA can be bad for my stress level ... Ryan, what oil do you use? I just got my results back a month or so ago. First time I sent one in for my truck. Running Amsoil Signature Series 5w-30 on this test - I've since switched to 10w-30 to slow burning, and maybe provide a little extra protection. With all the heavy towing I had done that year, I stretched that oil way too long. Was almost at 10k miles, but it had been in there 16 or 17 months by the time I changed it and took the sample.

I turned 81k the other day on a road trip to NY, lol.

Been real dry down here too - lots of leaves coming down already. Depressing ... means winter is right around the corner. After last winter's 7' + of snow I'm not looking forward to that one bit ...

Airbags are where it's at - you will love them. I've got the Firestone RideRite 2430. My springs would sag with just me standing on the tailgate, and now I can throw a 2,400 lb. pallet of coal in the back and keep the truck dead level. Normal driving I only keep 4-5 psi in them. With my weight distribution hitch for my flatbed car hauler, I normally never change that setting. I think a weight distributing hitch would be a better way to go, especially if you tow a lot. It changes the handling unbelievably, and it will level the truck out as well. Towing feels like your driving a straight job. Feels like the trailer is welded to your truck's frame.

Yeah she's a blast. I've never been stuck anywhere, lol. She's become more of a tractor the past 7 years or so, jockeying trailers and boats around the yard, dragging brush, plowing snow, etc.. The first 4 years I really beat the hell out of it, racing around local trails. It's got so bad up here with abutters to the powerlines blocking the trails (not even their property!) that we've ridden for over 30 years, others calling the cops, the state enacting stupid laws, and land disappearing to condos and $750k mansions, that she stays home most of the time. Thankfully I've got a neighbor with a few hundred acres I can ride on if I need to blow off some steam.

Nice - thanks for the info. Yeah don't blame you there - my Silverado with the stock lights used to make people to high-beam me if I had anything over 500 lbs. in the bed. The Firestone air bags helped solve that issue though. These GM engineers must drive Fords with some of the designs they come up with. Either that or they trade them in when a bulb blows ... Bulb changes should be a simple in-and-out deal, with NO tools. HID's are great. The difference in our Grand Marquis was literally night and day. I won't even need to describe the bottom 2 pics as to which one is the "before" pic, and which is the "after". Side by side with the high beam, it makes the high beams look yellow, lol.

That was the very first mod I did to my truck (yanking DRL fuses) - the second it got home from the showroom floor. I hate how I have to hold the switch to the off position every time I start the truck inside the garage - otherwise the light sensor triggers the lights. I might have to look into those HID's for mine. We installed them in our '86 Grand Marquis with excellent results. The lights on the Silverado were so good, I didn't think they could be improved upon. Might have to look into that again. Which truck did you do - the '08 or the '10?

Ahh gotcha. In the valley, your even less likely to see any kind of natural condensate on startup. I'd do the stop leak treatment in your case. You'll probably get another 10 years out of it (or more!) down there, since you don't have to deal with the rust issues. Sounds like it's a very small leak that only happens when the engine is cool - this stuff will work great in that case. I've had really great results with K-Seal - blue bottle with orange label. http://www.amazon.com/K-Seal-ST5501-Purpose-Permanent-Coolant/dp/B001QT9KO6 Back in the day, I used to use Alumaseal - that stuff plugged a 1/8" hole in a radiator in my '78 Cutlass for over 3 years! Never leaked again! Also fixed a leak in my '86 Grand Marquis heater core - didn't feel like tearing the dash out to fix it. 13 years and it's still holding. Problem is, they changed the formulation last I saw - last time I used it, it SUCKED. Used to be made right near you in Scottsdale, but now it's made in a different location that I can't remember at the moment. Must've sold the formulation, then the new guys cheaped out on it. Par for the course today ....

Definitely possible, but that area of the country is extremely dry compared to up here. While I always see water dripping from tailpipes on any car/truck with a cat, I never see just a brief blast of white when starting - even on really humid, cold mornings. Up here in the spring, fall, and winter, after the vehicle is running 10 seconds or more, a constant white fog will come out. That's just warm moist air meeting cold air and condensing into droplets. Colder it is outside, the longer and thicker the fog. I've seen a brief blue blast from my truck starting around 50k miles, but an oil catch can has totally eliminated that. It's possible you have just a small bit of coolant leaking into one or more cylinders over time - not enough to happen when the engine is hot. In that case rather than go through the trouble of yanking the heads and all that, I'd just dump some K-Seal or Bars Leak in the radiator and call it a day. Are you in the valley, or up in the mountains?

I know it can't be from cold weather, especially in dry AZ (and especially the Phoenix area if that's where your at), so it's probably a head gasket just starting to weep. Coolant is the only thing that produces white smoke.

Before my Silverado, the most I ever got out of a set of tires was 12k miles. Got 32k out of the OEM Bridgestone Dueller A/T's - that's my new record. I'd have to live on a highway to get anywhere close to 100k ... and I still don't think that's possible. I'm in too much of a hurry all the time ... Had BFG's on my '94 K1500. Only had about 15k on them when I sold it. They weren't long for this world either. Those wore pretty fast, compared to the glorified car tires I run now.

Sweeeeet - nice ride! Wow ... '16. This means my Sportsman 800 is now 11 years old! Went by in a blink ...

Thanks pal - I'll take that under advisement ...

Funny - mine work great. Probably because they're German and not chinese ...

That thing is sweet! That's what we call a T-bucket up here - anything that style. Like the pickup bed back there.

We put HID's in our '86 Grand Marquis. BEST upgrade we've ever done! Light output defies explanation - like the sun! My only gripe with them is, the place I bought them from only offered 6k color temp. A little more bluish than I like. 5K would've probably been perfect. I wanted PURE WHITE light. Now as they are aging, they have a definite blue hue to them, which I hate. I don't mind the trade off in being able to see well at night, though. The color difference between the HID & stock high beam is VERY noticeable, even on camera:

Gotta love society today. Every man (and woman) for themselves ... Dan, that a T-bucket under there? The profile looks like it ...