1991 V3500 Project Heavy Hauler

['63GENIII]

Alright Buddy, it's been 10 hours now. I'm on the edge of my seat....

One other thing and I'm reluctant to admit it was 18436572. The darned firing order kept me from starting it for a week or so. The firing order is on the cap and it's different than the older ones. But I know you didn't make that mistake.

In retrospect, that's when I got good at tearing off that plenum! Lol

[MTCK]

Problem solved. There are TWO timing marks on the front cover. Don't use the one on the bottom. I was about 45 degrees retarded. Took it all apart, noticed the timing mark up high, confirmed valves on #1 were set properly and away we go.

I noticed my oil pressure is pegged at 3:00 so I think I need a new sending unit. I beat it around pretty good to get it to its new home. Maybe I'll take the top of the intake one more time before we go to get our pop up camper this weekend. I do t like not knowing my oil pressure...

Thanks for the help and suggestions!

[y5mgisi]

From what i gather, its usually the oil pressure gauge that fails and not usually the sender. But thats just from some gathering around the internet and not from personal experience.

[MTCK]

This one was actually the sender, but through no fault of its own. It got beat up a little bit going in and out of the truck with my various attempts at building the correct combination of fittings for it to fit. The electrical tab actually broke off the top, hence the open circuit. New sender is installed.

Also bed is wired for camper, mounts and pad are on and tailgate is off. Tomorrow is the day. Wired the lights from the rear using a 25' 4 wire trailer kit, and power and ground from my auxiliary battery with 10 awg wire and fuses at both ends.

[Greenlee]

Sweet! Have a safe trip and post pics of the new camper.

[MTCK]

Where to start... I guess I should probably say that nobody got hurt, and the camper is awesome. Other than that... holy cow.

Hit the road early Saturday AM. My wife and son flew down to Anchorage the day before to do a little shopping and visit friends. Around 150 miles into the trip I noticed my trans temp starting to climb. With much drama I limped back home in 3rd gear at about 50 mph. I had to push the truck back into my driveway. Transmission is cooked. I knew this was coming but thought I could nurse it along a little further. The GPS had good vision on our ETA.

[MTCK]

Pushing this mission back was not an option. My and my wife's work schedules are not the easiest to align and the camper had been squatting at a friend's house for over a month. When I got home I rented a 2004 F350 crew cab diesel. It was the only long bed in town that was available.

I picked up some wire and plug ends from Napa and built an umbilical to run from the trailer plug up to the front of the camper. By noon I was back on the road. All in I did a little over 700 miles on Saturday.

More tomorrow.

[watahyahknow]

maibe buy a towbar and rent a bigger dually , that way you can get the whole combo back home
couldnt you just stop for the day and let everything cool off

[Greenlee]

Damn. I am sorry to hear that. I clicked on here hoping to see pics of the old girl with the camper on the back.

These old trucks can test your patience at times. We have a camper and a boat and my old k10 was my only tow vehicle for the last few years. A fuel pump that I had recently replaced crapped out on me on a vacation with the boat. I ended up having to have the truck and boat towed off the highway. Then I had an electrical gremlin that would cause the entire truck to lose power. The last time it did it I had it towed home. As soon as I got it home, it fired right up. I actually think the old truck is pretty reliable and we just had some bad luck. Even so, I bought another vehicle I can tow with a few months ago because I was tired of hearing my wife ***** about it! The "new" tow vehicle is a 2012 Yukon Denali AWD with 6.2.

[MTCK]

Yeah it's frustrating when you are counting on them to work and they don't. Keep reading though, new vehicles are not immune to problems!

Sunday mid day we headed over to pick up the camper. Getting it installed was fairly uneventful other than the mount brackets being too wide to clear the jack legs. Then the fun started. Plugged in my umbilical for lights, and no lights. The plug on the truck looked terrible and had about four different adapters between the truck and the plug. Two hours, a multimeter, two fuses, and a solder gun later the camper was hard wired to the truck.

['63GENIII]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Where to start... I guess I should probably say that nobody got hurt, and the camper is awesome. Other than that... holy cow.

Hit the road early Saturday AM. My wife and son flew down to Anchorage the day before to do a little shopping and visit friends. Around 150 miles into the trip I noticed my trans temp starting to climb. With much drama I limped back home in 3rd gear at about 50 mph. I had to push the truck back into my driveway. Transmission is cooked. I knew this was coming but thought I could nurse it along a little further. The GPS had good vision on our ETA.

NOOOOOOOO! You broke one of my favorite bullet proof Square Bodies! Damn Marcus, that blows although I know how it feels. We are leaving tomorrow with the boat, kids and all the camping gear in the '63. My boy said last night "Dad, this thing is gonna run forever". I'm not normally superstitious but......

Hope you get the ol girl fixed soon. Have fun on your trip meantime and be safe!

[MTCK]

It fit. Loaded up the wife and kid and headed north. Filled the propane up and stopped at a new state campground just south of Denali. We popped the top, fired up the furnace and made our beds. It was great being warm and inside moments after shutting off the engine. This is the whole point.

[MTCK]

After some good rest, we grabbed some leftovers out of the fridge (compressor style, 2 batteries and a solar panel of unknown wattage), dropped the top and headed up the road. I was not that impressed with the 6.0 powerstroke's grunt and we only got about 12 mpg.

With about 140 miles to go (close to where I turned the chevy around), I noticed what seemed like a lot of exhaust coming out the tailpipe. I asked my wife to adjust the mirror and sure enough she was smoking. I pulled over half way through a construction site and smelled the odor of glycol. Great. I elected to try to make it about 5 miles to the next town so we could wait for the wrecker at a diner instead of a gravel pit.

['63GENIII]

Originally Posted by MTCK

After some good rest, we grabbed some leftovers out of the fridge (compressor style, 2 batteries and a solar panel of unknown wattage), dropped the top and headed up the road. I was not that impressed with the 6.0 powerstroke's grunt and we only got about 12 mpg.

With about 140 miles to go (close to where I turned the chevy around), I noticed what seemed like a lot of exhaust coming out the tailpipe. I asked my wife to adjust the mirror and sure enough she was smoking. I pulled over half way through a construction site and smelled the odor of glycol. Great. I elected to try to make it about 5 miles to the next town so we could wait for the wrecker at a diner instead of a gravel pit.

No way. Those 6.0s are supposedly great if they get the "bulletproof" kit which involves studding the heads. Guess that's why.

Tell me the story gets better Marcus

[MTCK]

On the drive to the diner, the truck stopped smoking so I kept an eye on the gauges and limped along. Twice the temp gauge started to climb, so I pulled over and added coolant. Temps came back down and every time I started from a stop it belched steam for a mile or two. Finally got home about three hours behind schedule and unloaded the camper. Rental ford is returned so I'm back to one broken truck and one great camper. Hopefully I can get it in for a rebuild before the big 4th of July weekend road and camping trip.

[daddyjeep]

The GPS part is too funny. Sorry to hear about the tranny issues, but that is a sweet camper.

[Dieselwrencher]

Man, what an ordeal. That stinks about the trans but at least you made it back home with it. That's the best kind of truck. The one that doesn't leave you stranded. I'm betting the EGR cooler is toast on the 6.0. Pretty common problem. When I read you got an 04 I was like, yep, I see where this is going. 6.0's are good after you drop $3-5k on them. Then they get 15-17mpg and will live at 375-450hp pretty nicely. Nice to see you got the camper back home. I've had similar starts to a road trip and similar failures along the way. I feel for ya.

[Greenlee]

That camper is awesome. What a trip!

I hope you get the old Chevy up and going before your vacation. On the bright side, once you get the transmission rebuilt the truck should be pretty much worry free since you will have replaced or rebuilt the entire drivetrain.

[MTCK]

Thanks guys. Rebuilt transmission shifts great. Leaves really hard now and wheel spin is an issue if I'm not carefull (totally empty obviously). The love connection is about to happen.

[whitels1]

Awesome man, glad you got her going!

[daddyjeep]

Glad you got it going again. I am not real sure if you need to share pics of the "love connection". That could get a little personal.

[MTCK]

The love connection was tight. If my tires were any wider I would have to do something to spread the front jacks. Rubbed quite a bit. This is t something you would want to do every day.

[MTCK]

This thing is huge. Cab over is about 8' off the ground.

[MTCK]

Stance is pretty spot on. Full fuel both tanks, full propane and water in the camper.

[MTCK]

Closed it up and ran some errands. Rides like a caddy. Can feel the weight. Trans never got above 180. Went fast, slow, even crawled around a bit.