Putting My Truck to Bed

[LTZ C20]

Well, the time has come to put the my old truck to rest. I have suffered yet another major engine problem and I have finally decided it is in my best interest to retire the truck.

Back in July, we had a strech of weather here in central CA where the temperature was over 100° for about a week straight. On one of those days I used the truck to tow a 75 3/4 ton 4x4 rolling frame on the shop's flat bed trailer. I had the a/c going and all was well, then I glanced at my gauges and found the temp was pegged on max, when I came to stop, I started to get steam from the front of truck, radiator cap area. So when I got the truck home I found the coming fans had failed. One fan motor froze up and wouldn't even turn by hand, the other was making a terrible bearing noise and sounded like it was about to grenade itself. This also caused the wiring to become over powered and melted. Being these fans were less than a year old, I was discounted the price of the fans on a newer, much more expensive, better set. So I installed the new fans with new, better wiring all was well.

Then my transmission took a poop. Some of you may have seen my 4L60 rebuild post. So I got that all fixed up and kept driving the truck. Before the trans went, I never had any temperature or drivability issues after the new fans were in use. After the rebuilt transmission was in, it was working well but I kept having overheat issues. The truck kept running warm and overheated twice. I found coolant in oil.

So I removed the intake and found a blown out coolant crossover gasket at the right front coolant crossover passage. Got that fixed and started to get the oiling system cleaned out and I then started to get thick white plumes of smoke from the passenger side exhaust pipe. I have dual exhaust on the truck with no crossovers, each bank of the engine is independent of the other. So I did some diagnostics on passenger side chambers. I found cylinders 2, 4 & 6 had 175 psi compression and 8 had 165 psi. I also found that cylinders 2, 4 & 6 spark plugs were normal but cylinder 8 was heavily coolant fouled. Then using my boroscope, I found the same 3 forward chambers looked ok but the #8 chamber had coolant in it. So I removed both cylinder heads and inspected them BOTH cylinder heads and BOTH head gaskets were in good shape. No cracks, no damaged, the gaskets were in very good shape. So I was standing there, examining the deck surface and noticed that the #8 piston looked a little odd, I mean, I think that this would be considered odd.



So trying to figure out where exactly that chunk had gone, I dropped the piston to the bottom of the stroke and found another issue, if that's what you want to call it.



So now I've got 1 pinky finger sized piece of a piston that has vanished into thin air, most likely small pieces blown out the exhaust port and 1 credit card length crack in the piston wall. So now my 1 year old short block is toast and I need a new one. That being said...

I am at a time in my life were my priorities far out way my ability to keep the truck going. It's becoming very expensive and time consuming to keep it on the road. It's all consuming. It would actually be more cost affective and smarter to be making a monthly payment on a newer truck than trying to keep mine in running condition. I have multiple appointments with multiple law enforcement agencies and it is imperative that I can relay on my transportation. Not to mention I still have to be able to get to my current job reliably.

So I have decided to "package" up the truck for storage to sit for an undefined amount of time until I have the funds and ability to properly and slowly restore it. I will most likely sell off the heads, intake, transmission and fuel injection setup to help pay off some bills and put myself in a better financial situation.

Sunday nite I bought a used truck. It's a 2002 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD, extended can, short bed, 4x4, LT. It has a LQ4 6.0L & 4L80E. I would have preferred a Duramax but it serves no practical purpose and the 6.0L is still an excellent choice. It has 163K miles and needs some TLC but it's actually a really nice truck. For the price, I really got a great truck and I'm really loving it so far.

Here it is.








I got the bed cover from a coworker who just sold his 05 short bed Duramax. I do have a short list of small things to fix and a few things I want added to the truck. Also, those are the wheels and tires of my square, I swapped them for what came on this truck as mine were much nicer and newer. I plan to replace the missing fog lights, put telescoping tow mirrors on, add an aftermarket touch screen radio that has satellite radio, Bluetooth & rear view camera. Also plan to add an alarm kit that has security and remote engine start using the factory key fobs. I may even get some chrome nerf bars or power folding steps. I haven't made up my mind on the steps yet.

The truck is an LT so it has leather, heated, full power seats with memory positions, basically fully loaded for the day, off road and towing packages.

I'll keep anything I add or do to this truck on this thread, other than the stuff I want, I'm just going to enjoy this truck as it is.

I WILL continue to be a regular member on this site and help as much as I can. I would like to thank every single person who has helped me in any way with my squarebody up to this point. Your help has been greatly appreciated. I will NOT be getting rid of the truck. It will live to see another day, tho I have no idea when that will be. I've had it since I was 16, I can't bring myself to get rid of it. I'll post more pics of the new truck as I get the interior cleaned up and little things fixed.

Thank you very much again everyone!

[Engineer]

Too bad on the square body.

You'll love the '02. My wife has that exact same truck only in red. When I was hauling chat to my driveway I have towed 17,000# with hers. That 6.0L should not be underestimated.

[bd]

Kevin, sorry to hear about the C20.  It's always disappointing when a passionate project looms uncooperative. 

I agree with Engineer, you'll love the '02.  It should provide years of reliable service.

[square81]

 I did that with my truck for a couple years too. Just didn't have the funds to keep it on the road. I bought a supposed rebuilt crate engine for my truck and I ran it for half a summer until the piston wrist pin came loose and wore a thick groove in the cylinder bore. Totally trashed the engine. Grrrrrr. This will give you time to get your truck up and running perfect again. Enjoy the 6.0. Lots of snot!!! Buddy has a tow truck with one. Hasn't found anything it wont pull.

[Stewart G Griffin]

i was in the same boat----it was taking TOO long to get the truck running and i was looking at similar trucks----2000 and newer trucks and/or tahoes/S-10's etc.    Because i, too, felt that it would be more efficient to just make monthly payments or pay for a newer truck outright, or to even buy a running square than to keep jacking around trying to get mine running.

Now that i have the truck running, there is no need to get a newer one.   And it runs smooth.

Not that i don't enjoy working on the truck.  But i just don't have the time, expertise, and equipment for this kind of thing to be practical at this point.

But i was definitely seriously going to go to CarMax, sign on the dotted line and GO.

[Stewart G Griffin]

P.S.   How old was the engine?

[LTZ C20]

Too bad on the square body.

You'll love the '02. My wife has that exact same truck only in red. When I was hauling chat to my driveway I have towed 17,000# with hers. That 6.0L should not be underestimated.

Thanks, oh I know, I'm loving the truck so far.

[LTZ C20]

Kevin, sorry to hear about the C20.  It's always disappointing when a passionate project looms uncooperative. 

I agree with Engineer, you'll love the '02.  It should provide years of reliable service.

Thanks, it's a bit of a drag but one day it it will it's day again.

These 6.0s are great.

[LTZ C20]

I did that with my truck for a couple years too. Just didn't have the funds to keep it on the road. I bought a supposed rebuilt crate engine for my truck and I ran it for half a summer until the piston wrist pin came loose and wore a thick groove in the cylinder bore. Totally trashed the engine. Grrrrrr. This will give you time to get your truck up and running perfect again. Enjoy the 6.0. Lots of snot!!! Buddy has a tow truck with one. Hasn't found anything it wont pull.

Oh that blows.

[LTZ C20]

P.S.   How old was the engine?

About a year or so.

[DustyRusty]

The 2002 Chevy body style and front end styling is one of my favorites

[Irish_Alley]

welcome to the new club lol. sad about your square, imo i would go to a junkyard and get a 350 and put it in for 300 or so. could possibly get away with keeping your heads/cam. or sell them like you said and pay for the 350. do you plan on keeping the square even as its just a weekend driver?

[fitz]

I'm glad that your going to stick around as a member even though the 73 is going into storage.
I always enjoy your post, and your knowledge of the ins & outs of a GM dealership and you access to part numbers has been a big asset to this forum
Maybe the moderators can can open a section for "long term storage" vehicles. I'm laughing as I type this, but I'm sure some members (like me) have some cool squarebobys that were put into storage and forgotten about.
Hopefully once you follow your family's tradition and get a job in Law enforcement you will have the $$ to put a duramax in the 73.

[Engineer]

The 2002 Chevy body style and front end styling is one of my favorites

That is why I have 2. A 2001, and a 2002. Both HDs.

[philo_beddoe]

Ya know LT, I was picking up a friend at the chevy dealer just yesterday, and while he was talking to the service dept. i took a real dangerous stroll. Yup, out on to the lot to see new birth! Wow, i mean talk about pure luxery. I sat in what was like a cockpit, controls and screens and gadgets everywhere, it was a 2017 2500 HD, fully loaded.  Compared to that my 1977 c10 seemed so ancient! But, of course, i had to know what that little number in the lower right hand corner on the window sticker showed. And the survey says....



$52, 485. Thats like $800 a month for the next 6 years. That brought me back to reality real fast. But boy what a driving machine. You could put 200k miles on that truck and do nothing except change the oil every 15k mi. What a difference since 1977. I think you did well, you have a modern truck and didnt pay $52k, and you still have your classic for a little later down the road. Nice job.