Jsdirt

Sounds right to me - an internal short will do that. GM really hit it out of the park with the location of the pump unit ... This vid should help:

City vs. highway driving is more a factor of total miles driven. City driving will decimate any vehicle LONG before 200k miles. Chevor's truck is a testament to highway miles - it's alot easier on everything to just maintain a steady speed and let the odometer spin.

Nice - will be able to pass that history along to some lucky person in the future. I'll be surviving on those type of vehicles from here on out. I've sworn to never buy anything new EVER again. 1973 is my cutoff year. There's still quite a few low mile vehicles out there. Some 70+ years old with double digit miles on them. Of course, none of us could ever afford to own one. On eBay right now ... '63 Corvette with 1,820 miles! http://www.ebay.com/itm/1963-Chevrolet-Corvette-/142177153648?forcerrptr=true&hash=item211a6b3270:g:W5gAAOSwB09YJnSm&item=142177153648 Or a '29 Benz with 3,484: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1929-Mercedes-Benz-Other-GAZELLE-SSK-SUPER-NICE-ORIGINAL-UNRESTORED-GEM-/262754648363?forcerrptr=true&hash=item3d2d65c12b:g:AggAAOSw4GVYStGp&item=262754648363

You guys are catching up to me, and my truck is 10! At 88k, and 6 or 7 hundred if I remember right. Can't break 'em if you don't drive 'em.

I used to use that stuff when it first came out. Was great having the rain bead up and blow right off the windshield. I'm sure they've changed the formulation over the past 25-26 years, but back then, the stuff would "wear" off, and make a pretty dangerous situation. I recall scrubbing my windshield with a soapy sponge trying to get the residual off - nothing worked! Had to keep using the stuff. Made the wipers streak something fierce, even with new wipers! I wasn't too happy about that. Around that same time they came out with an anti-fog bottle - I used to use that in my dirt bike goggles. Worked great ... again ... until it wore off. Then they'd fog up 10x worse than before.

Well, that's because it was built in the 21st century.

Sorry to hear that, man. Sucks. We had a similar storm roll through here in '08 - knocked out power for a week. Want to see a pampered society melt down? Shut off the power in Massachusetts for a week! That's the only thing that will get people off their asses and into the streets today ... Some pics from that '08 storm. Beautiful, but boy did it do some damage. Cost people lots of money. Thankfully I wasn't one of them, aside from a few oaks that came down. I could hear branches snapping left and right when I woke up that morning - knew something was wrong ... :

Today's the day for hauling Fords, I guess. Just grabbed this gem for my neighbor. Free. Drove it on and off the trailer in 4-low too. '93 F150, 302, 5-speed. Man .. I remember when these things were brand new sitting on the dealer lots! Seems like just yesterday. Time hasn't been to kind to this one. 24 years of MA winters. I watched the front bumper corner flap up and down over every bump. Only crappy part about dovetail trailers. Very low ground clearance when the tow vehicle is on uneven ground. Turned it into a plow ... Doesn't help that it's 45° out there right now. Heat wave!

Always a possibility - intake leaks = LEAN, lean = hard starting when cold. Could be any air leak - vacuum booster hose, etc., bad o2 sensor, coolant temp sensor .... Best course of action is to get a scan tool on there and read the live data. Gotta own one if you own a '96+ anything, because you WILL need it eventually - like death and taxes, I can guarantee it.

I let mine rattle away for over 40k miles before I started running premium. I just backed off the throttle when I heard it. Eventually, I got tired of backing off the throttle - I want to MOVE! I need to actually get in there and fix the problem, though. My band-aid solution has cost me thousands of dollars in unnecessary fuel costs. These trucks should run on 87 - they're naturally aspirated, and have a reasonable compression ratio. I'm still not 100% certain if this sensor is sold separately from the fuel pump assembly on my '07. Have lots of other things on my plate. I need to look into that ...

I have to run premium in mine, because when I tow, the engine sounded like it was going to grenade from detonation. BAD! Could very well be what you were hearing. I didn't even think in that direction - that's the trouble with internet diagnostics. Is that a flex-fuel vehicle? Is that even an option anymore, or are they all flex now? I believe my problem from day one has been an out-of-spec alcohol sensor. Always reads 18-24% alcohol content. On a full tank of ethanol-free fuel from NY, it still read 12% (filled up with fuel warning light on - it was empty). If the computer thinks you've got high levels of ethanol, it will not only increase fueling, but advance the ignition timing too - that's why the spark knock happens. The more ethanol it thinks is in there, the farther it will advance timing.

Oh yeah forgot about that place!! I lived there too, so I've seen it first hand. God help you guys over there. CA is in competition with MA as to who can go full-communist first.

HAHAHA! I love palm trees ... only because it means I'm someplace warm that isn't governed by left-wing moonbats.

The green reminds me of the old days. I'd like it more if the odometer backlighting could match. Can't have everything ...

You go hammering on a cat with a steel hammer, if you didn't have a rattle before, I can almost guarantee ... you will now!

Thank you for your service, Corporal. I agree with Darryl on this one - that was my first thought as well.

Finally finished the Alero. Went on a 10 mile test run, then changed the oil when I got back. Fixed a vacuum leak at the MAP sensor, changed the bearing in the tensioner pulley (had to dremel that stupid plastic lip they put on there to get you to throw the thing away ... ), and replaced a burnt out 194 running lamp bulb in one of the rear tail lights. She lives to run another day! Quite the difference sound-wise from my last video, lol: http://vid297.photobucket.com/albums/mm215/jjs05polaris/Forum%20pics/0119171315_zpsmvobrxpe.mp4

Still working on the Alero, in between other small jobs. Thing is becoming a royal pain in the ass. Got the Time-Sert installed - that part is good. What sucks is, the lifter is acting like it's pumped to the max. Every time I tighten down the rocker arm, the clearance goes negative and hangs the exhaust valve open. Got down the lifter galley with a borescope - no debris in the lifter. Got a long, stiff wire to try and force the lifter to bleed down. Could see it moving within spec. Ground down on the rocker tip as a last-ditch effort. Didn't work. SOAB. Out of ideas. Pushrod is clear of debris, nothing has changed height-wise with the rocker mounting. Torqued it down and fired it up without the valve cover. Everything is working fine, but that cylinder now misfires due to the hanging valve. Been chatting with other techs. Was suggested to run it a bit and see if it bleeds down on it's own. I doubt it will be this easy. Nothing ever is these days! After that, next step is tear the whole damn motor down just about to reach the lifter, pull it out and inspect. It might have got damaged from running with zero load, and smacking into the camshaft. Thanks for designing another winner, GM. I really appreciate it!

Ended up being exactly what I thought. #1 exhaust rocker stud yanked the threads right out of the head. Thankfully of all the valves on the rear bank, this one is the easiest to access. On a 63, xxx mile engine. YIKES! http://vid297.photobucket.com/albums/mm215/jjs05polaris/Forum%20pics/0114171455_zps730gvskj.mp4 That's not a spring there - that's the threads that came out with the bolt!

Definitely not a rod bearing, unless the thing just completely fell out of there, lol. I think the audio in the vid isn't true to life. If you listen to the cadence of it (the engine is idling at 1,100 rpm), it's in time more with the camshaft. The other noise is just the dead miss shaking the thing around so much. We'll find out soon enough ...

Going to attempt a vid upload ... No idea how to get the damn vid right here in the post - would be easier to view I think. Whatever. Here's a link, at least: http://vid297.photobucket.com/albums/mm215/jjs05polaris/Forum%20pics/0114171130a_zpsgj3lqoyi.mp4

Not yet. Doesn't sound to me like anything in the block - it's a very sharp, loud metallic whack - just like if you took a ball-pien hammer to the intake manifold. When I first heard it, it was constant, going at the speed of the cam. Now it's intermittent - when I fired it up to drive it on the trailer, the noise would come and go, but the dead miss was very apparent at all times. Unless of course I've been hearing the piston smack the head - that's entirely possible!

I'm going to be needing to do mine again real soon too. 30k hard miles on them. When I put the Blizzaks on, they were about 90% worn. Just got back with my SIL's Olds Alero. Had to shuffle a bunch of stuff around in the barn to make sure I could get to a couple snowblowers and an ATV while that thing has the engine opened up. My ears were ringing trying to pinpoint the knock - man, is that bad! Has less than 64K on it - 63k and change.

Finished the Sportsman 700 clutch install, got an ice-auger running, and to start the morning off, I rescued my sister-in-law and her '04 Olds Alero. The Olds has the 3400 pushrod V6. Only 64k miles! Thing is a time-warp - mint condition for up here. She called in hysterics this morning - had to be at work, and said the car was knocking LOUD. Oh boy .... So I get down there, had her fire it up - YUP! That's a KNOCK! Holy crap was that bad - sounded like someone was wailing on the rear valve cover with a 4-pound sledge. Could hear a dead miss too. I suspect a rocker stud yanked out of the head, and the pushrod was just slamming the rocker against the valve cover. Threw the scan tool on just to see what the light was, hoping it would tell me which cylinder can't breathe. The knock was so bad, it threw a random - P0300. I didn't bring the trailer, and I figured the damage is already done, so I had her follow me back to her apartment, which was only 4 miles or less up the road from where she stopped. When we got to the apartment, she said it wouldn't go over 40 MPH - may have made things worse. We'll see soon enough. She was going to call in to work, and I advised against that - told her she'd need all the money she could get to fix the thing. Going to run down there sometime this week and tow it back here. I'll probably end up doing it labor free. Their financial situation isn't what you'd call golden. It's all good. I have the ability God gave me, so gotta give back sometimes - that's how it works. Should be some great pics to follow, I can imagine! Here's a pic of those Polaris clutches - one is new, the other is old (primary) - funny thing is, the new one in the foreground has no spring in it - that's how it will sit with no tension to force it back. The old one in back there is fully assembled! Spring doesn't have enough power to overcome the corrosion on the thing. It looks like it came out of the ocean.

Well first off ... and I tell people this ALL the time - DON'T go to a dealer unless it's under warranty or for a recall! ANY small garage should have been able to troubleshoot this within 3 days and had it fixed once, for less than half what you've paid already. Find a small garage with a good reputation. One that specializes in diesels, even better.