My Truck's engine blew on the way to MCACN...

[luzl78]

Steve, why didn't you stick with interstate batteries?

[SuperNovaSS]

That's what I was thinking. They served you so well!


Jason

[njsteve]

Didn't have a local guy anymore who dealt in them and I needed them in stock, ASAP.

[njsteve]

I found a really nice used bumper on Craigslist for $120. It came off a 1996 Tahoe. I spent the week descaling the back of it and then painted the back side with POR15. Those things a really heavy! The mounting bracketry is welded to the bumper core. No wonder they are so expensive. After getting it all ready I then removed the original bumper off the Suburban. Planned obsolescence by GM created a nice area behind the licence plate mounting point that is unwashable and unreachable with a hose, so they just start rustng internally from day one.

I also spent last weekend replacing the tranmsission cooler lines, which, Iike the factory steel and rubber oil cooler lines, leak fluid at the crimp joints where the steel and rubber lines meet. BTW, Dorman makes better replacement trans and oil cooler lines than the AC/Delco lines, which leak after only a few months. They are also held in with those crazy little, wire C-clips.

So now every steel line that was rusty or could rust in the near future has been replaced: brakes, fuel, oil cooler, and transmission cooler.

Next week I install the last of the gifts: a new Diamond Eye high flow exhaust with a 3&quot; turbo down pipe and 4 inch exhaust and muffler. This is the system that all the 6.5 guys use. Got it from Summit Racing with free shipping. According to the guys who have installed the system, it's good for an extra 1 mile per gallon. When your'e getting 14.5 mpg, every little bit helps. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

Installed the DiamondEye 4&quot; exhaust with muffler today. Got it from Summit for $259.97 with free shipping. Went in surpisingly easy. Hardest part was getting the clamp ring on the turbo. That took 45 minutes of finagling with two of us groping around above and below the truck (on a lift, of course). Sounds great and feels a little bit peppier than it did with the factory installed, crimped 2-1/2&quot; downpipe and a 3&quot; muffler and tailpipe.

All the hanger clamps lined up correctly when we put the trimmed to fit, straight pipe ahead of the muffler instead of behind as pictured in the not-so-detailed diagram.

Took around three hours to install. Finished just in time to drive home in yet another snow storm.
[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]