What did you do with your truck/shop today

[white1500]

I took her to Costco today to get a nail removed from the right rear, luckily I caught it in time and didn't lose any air pressure. It would have sucked to get a flat out on the road!

 

And I don't know how long this has been going on but today I noticed quick puffs of white smoke for about 5 seconds upon starting her up. Although it didn't happen every single time either so I suppose that's comforting. Thoughts?

[GPGuy]

Finally installed my front floor LED lighting.....I was planning on doing the rear seat also but I have LED's in my dome light and they provide enough light to see clearly on the rear floor.

 

I like it. Very nice touch

[Jsdirt]

.....

 

And I don't know how long this has been going on but today I noticed quick puffs of white smoke for about 5 seconds upon starting her up. Although it didn't happen every single time either so I suppose that's comforting. Thoughts?

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.

[white1500]

Yeah it could be coolant but it was literally just a few seconds worth of really light white vapor so who knows. And she had been sitting for over 24 hours at this point.

 

 

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/car-parts-and-accessories/where-theres-smoke/index.htm

[Jsdirt]

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?

Edited September 21, 2015 by Jsdirt

[white1500]

I'm in the valley.

 

And I'm definitely not pulling apart the engine for something this insignificant, especially when she's at 234k miles. Haha

 

Ideally I want to get her out of regular rotation in year or so. Although the process has slowly begun this summer since she has only been used for getting to work and short road trips, otherwise we use the Versa for everything else. I even left her at home today since the wife probably isn't going out.

[Jsdirt]

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 ....

Edited September 21, 2015 by Jsdirt

[BlackZ71Silverado]

Last nights project was installing my low beam HID's. Thought it would be a really simple job but I had to remove the grille to get at the lights.

6000K 35W low beams with LED fog bulbs. I have HID's for the fogs, just didn't get them installed yet.

 

 

Can see much better than with the OEM bulbs.

Had to readjust the aim though, don't want to be a hazzard blinding other drivers. They

Also removed both DRL fuses so my ballasts last longer. The constant on/off isn't good for HID's. They also don't like the lower power that comes with DRL's.

 

Sent from my crappy iPhone 6

using Tapatalk

Edited September 21, 2015 by BlackZ71Silverado

[Jsdirt]

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?

[BlackZ71Silverado]

That's my black 2010 Silverado, same one I did the front floor and bed lighting. I just snapped a quick picture after I got finished aiming the lights onto the garage wall............I don't think I am going to do the V-Max because I mainly use it to tow my camper and horse trailer. With the heavier loads, the headlights would need constant adjustment with HID's depending on what I was towing so oncoming traffic would not be affected. Going to leave that one alone for now. Having the extra light is nice but I do not want to be a road hazard by blinding people (I hate that and it's usually people with blue/purple headlights that think they are cool)!

If I can get ahold of a good set of projector headlights for that one, I may do LED highs and lows. If not, I am not going to mess with the headlights.

 

I actually ended up going with HID on this truck because I needed to replace my driver side headlight bulb and it was actually cheaper to buy a the OPT-7 Lighting HID kit than it was to purchase a set of Sylvania Silverstar Ultra bulbs.

With it being a PITA to change the bulbs, having HID's I can just replace the ballasts if the need be. I run cheap 35W Xentec HID's in my ATV's and they have held up to abuse the past few years just fine so I figured they should last quite a while in a pickup.

Edited September 21, 2015 by BlackZ71Silverado

[Jsdirt]

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.

 

 

 

[Victor Ferreira]

Bulb changes should be a simple in-and-out deal, with NO tools.

 

 

This. The right headlight is so inaccessible it drives me nuts. If that bulb went out during a road trip, you'd be stuck for a while, having to remove the air box and all the things that are in the way of anyone who has the hands bigger than those of a 14 year old girl.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Conky Conky]

Sweeeeet - nice ride!

 

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

 

Thanks for the reply ya its nice and very fast and powerful but having a 700cc and only weighing 420lbs wet makes a difference. But that 800 of yours must be a beast with 4x4 and winch eh?

[Jsdirt]

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.

[LongrangeLauber]

I mean, since we're introducing our quads here's mine [emoji6]

 

 

Outlander 1000 XT