Thanks guys, I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Got the bumper lifted yesterday, going to add a piece of threaded rod to the 4x4 shifter today so I can get back into 2HI, then I should be good to go have fun. Today's my birthday, so I got it done just in time for some bday muddin' down on the farm.

edit: shifter **** did not need extended. t-case shifter linkage needed adjust approx 1/4" to allow the shifter **** to move freely. works great now.

 

Back to work...

Got to have a little fun muddin it around, but it was chuggin' oil and obviously needed a plenum fix.

All the cosmetic sheet is done, now I've gotta fix the real problems.

Starting with... the plenum, and all the goodies that are accessible at the same time.

Take a look at this, might be one of the worse plenums out there.









Gasket completely gone around every bolt. Big ol' puddles in the valley. Entire inside of intake has about 1/16" of oil residue coating it. The only good news is that the bolts came out without breaking.


So, I'm doing the plenum pan/gasket, injectors, IAT (again), thermostat/gasket, TB gasket, all rad hoses, serp belt, water pump/gasket, electric fans. Anything else I'm missing that'll be easiest while this beast is torn down?

 

Good stuff, thanks for all the pics as well

 

idler pulley, tensioner pulley make sure the tensioner works fine, rad cap, check all the power steering lines unless your saving that for when you do the front end.

 

Upgrade to new or double row timing chain.

 

So, I got the Hughes plenum kit installed and it's running 110% better now. Still burning a little oil, but only at near redline RPMs. It's an old truck and I can deal with burning part of a quart every tank or so.

I've got about a 4" lift on it with 33s and there were some pretty serious rubbing issues. The tires just rub the frame at full turn, I think I need to put some spacers on. The tires also rubbed the back of the front fender during a turn/bump combo... like everytime I hit my driveway at more than 2mph.

I got into a good bit of choppin to relieve my body-rub issues.

I got to sawzallin' and disc-grindin and took out a pretty significant chunk of the fenders.



Then I fabbed up some filler corners out of cut-up milk cartons to get back to a factory look while having something that won't mess with my tires when they rub.



After that I tightened up my parking brake cable and added a nice little cosmetic touch to round out my day.




God, I love these old trucks.

 

Very Very nice work. Looks great!!

 

Thanks man, it's really come a long way from when I first got it. Doesn't seem like it took that long, either.


Update on the fender cutting: It needs more. I did a little "testing" today and it still rubs. No where near as badly, but I still wasn't hitting that big of bumps. I think I might need to cut at the lower inside of the wheel well. I also need wheel spacers and new body bushings to get another 1/2" of lift that my crapped-out originals are lacking.

I think 1/4" spacers would be plenty, it's barely rubbing the frame at full turn. It says not to use them for off-road use, has anyone used them for light-medium duty? I don't want to shell out $70+ when $9 would work for what I'm doing.

Pics after my test drive (you can also see the slight difference in cab/box heights):

 

So, I snagged an old lincoln stick welder on craigslist for $50 and have been having a bit of fun.

Here's my first project with it. Definitely got that redneck touch to it, doesn't look real professional, but it'll git r dun.













I've got enough square tube left over to add a grill guard, but I think I'm just gonna rock this for a while until I can budget in a winch and LED offroad lights, to make sure I put everything in the right spots.

... or I might re-do this one out of 2.5 or 3" tube and put this bambi basher on the 2wd.

 

that grill is actually fn cool man, good job