Hello all.

[Shifty]

Good to see the beast rolling again Jeremy!

[JohnnyPopper]

Nice progress! X3!

[jeremy.farlow]

Back at home with the rest of his irresponsibly-large displacement friends:


Our fleet probably raises the neighbors median displacement from 2.4L to 3.0L. They're welcome, I'm sure.

Out in the wild.

New transmission is a thing of beauty. The shifts are subtle, but the thing is just always in the meat of the powerband. Most of the time it doesn't even need to back shift, the torque converter unlocking is enough. Theres still a handful of small things to address. I went to spray the windshield yesterday and noticed that neither line is hooked up. At least the passenger side sprayer line is disconnected on the right side of the hood... so it got an "A" for effort in comparison to the drivers side line, which is spraying something, somewhere inside the cowl/engine bay.

I'm sure there'll always be other "little" stuff that pops up.





Be safe



Jeremy

[JohnnyPopper]

Congrats Jeremy! A long time coming, like some of our projects 

Curious, why is 'large displacement' irresponsible?

Sometimes you need more to complete a task/project/building.

While most of these trucks had a mean application, there were those who were built for a specific role.

[jeremy.farlow]

I mean... large displacement is irresponsible for my pocketbook a lot of the time. Not pictured in the 23-liter fleet picture is the little D21 Nissan Hardbody I drive most days. With @ $3/gallon gas you cannot spend more than $50 to fill that thing up. From fumes.

I do not know actual mileage because the Nissan speedometer does not work.

Neither does the speedometer on the Dakota Digital dash in the suburban.

The other gauges seem to work.

Thankfully the fuel gauge in both trucks seem to work pretty good.

No idea on either what actual mpg is, but so far the suburban is looking promising.



Be safe



Jeremy

[Mike81K10]

Awesome! I have enjoyed following the build and seeing the skills you have.

[JohnnyPopper]

I was 13 when the 'oil embargo' power play took place.

I cut my teeth on stretching every mile from gas, as that was the paradigm from the earlier 2 generations. 

Having said that, when one owns the commitment to their projects/finished cars, fuel is just the lube to push these relics/gems to generate the juice, the curiosity, the FIRE that reminds, at least some of us, that not too long ago, the world was very diffent.

[jeremy.farlow]

I finally got everything aligned well enough to calibrate the Dakota Digital speedometer. I figured a Saturday afternoon was as good a time as any to pull off the interstate at one mile marker. I killed the ignition and ran the gauge pack through its prescribed sequence and finally got a speedometer that seems fairly accurate:

3:73 final drive, w/ 33" tires... seems mostly right. I kinda feel the speedometer may be reading a bit higher than actual road speed, but that's probably good for me. And my license. This truck pulls hard to that 80 mph speed. I'm sure it'll pull well past, but prior experience shows that the fuel level gauge starts getting as much action as the tach and speedo do at higher speeds!

I also finally got around to fully mounting my ammo cans in the back. They'd just been sitting in their place for the earlier pictures. I also changed the orientation, it works better with them mounted solid:






Now all of the lids open fully. I've got my bespoke jumper cables in the farthest forward can, where they'll live their life. The two taller cans take a gallon jug each, plus. One will carry a gallon of Shell Rotella and the other a gallon of premixed antifreeze. Probably a quart container or so of whatever else I deem "essential". Not sure what goes in the final can, I reckon wherever thing that bothers me rattling around on the floorboards.

I think tomorrow I'm gonna change the oil and hope nothing sparkly comes out. No idea how many miles I've traveled, as the odometer hasn't been recording accurately, this oil change is definitely before the recommended interval, but Rotella is cheap and engines are not. I'm also gonna fill the fuel tank up for only the second time since the truck rolled out of the old shop and try to get a better baseline for mpg. I've only burned an indicated 1/2 tank and done a fair amount of driving in mixed conditions. The seat of the pants tells me there's still potential for the white whale as an expensive daily driver. Let's be real here, I may not drive it every day, but as long as it gets better than 10 mpg and stays reliable starting and running, it'll get driven most of the week. I don't see myself getting tired of what the truck has been presenting me any time soon.

It's real good!!! The little, itty-bitty cam doesn't have much after 2500 rpm... but under 2500 rpm handles everywhere I am likely to use the truck, so WIN!!!

I wish it hadn't taken quite as long to get here, but the end result is still proving well worth the wait!




Be safe



Jeremy

[Shifty]

Thanks for sharing the journey Jeremy!



Journey Jeremy? 

[jeremy.farlow]

**Checks notes** yeah... so touches like these I was CERTAIN I was gonna be sharing like four years ago... give or take a couple of months:




I'm pretty good with the rear, as it sits, the fronts are gonna need some help from a far better tailor than me, but I think the point comes across.

The dog approves...

Funnily enough, Siggi... the dog, has only had one ride in the white whale, ever. She is 100% the missus' dog and I am absolutely the "spare human" to her. That said, we took her to get doggy ice cream in the suburban last weekend, and I guess she thought she had an opening today when she jumped right in.

Everything still works good enough that I can do stuff like order Mexican blankets to toss over the seats...




Be safe



Jeremy

[Shifty]

Siggi is a beauty! 

[JohnnyPopper]

Jeremy, remind us of what transmission you used pls. OD? I see you mentioned a 'locking' TC.

I had the same ratio and tire size. No OD. 75-80 was usually screaming 3500 rpm.

Changed to a 3:41 and I can do 85 at 3200.

[ehjorten]

Pretty sure it is just a 4L80e that came with it in 1991. That would be a 0.70:1 OD. With his 3.73:1 rear gears and 33" tires, that would make 70 MPH cruise at about 1,900 RPM

[jeremy.farlow]

Yep!!! Once the torque converter locks up I'm turning just under 2k at an indicated 70 mph.

I've been playing with the air/fuel ratios on the Edelbrock standalone and am getting *close* enough to 10mpg that I can conceivably "daily drive" the truck. It's as much about the range as anything else... with a 33-gallon tank I can reasonably expect a weeks worth of driving between (expensive) fill ups. Goofy as it may seem, putting $100 in once a week strikes me better than putting in $35 twice, or three times a week. Call me crazy.

Part of driving the truck in whatever conditions exist has been that the chrome air cleaner lid poking through the hood will blind the driver in debilitating fashion, if the sun hits it correctly.

So... SOLVED!!!:



Looking forward to leaving work at 3:30 tomorrow with this bad boy in place.






Be safe




Jeremy

[JohnnyPopper]

Speaking of tuning air/fuel ratio, I came across a device that must be a few decades old called 'Colortune', came from the UK, and on this model, it's actually a thick glass bulb that you screw into the spark plug hole.

Inside it has an igniter that you attach your plug wire to.

Engine warmed up, look at the color of the burning gas. Orange/rich    blue/perfect   washed out blue/lean.

I looked online, they are still available in a different iteration but still the same principles.