I don't like TTY fasteners in general nor the lack of anti corrosion properties associated with such fasteners. I prefer grade 8s for the same torque values.

As for increased torque / loading: I don't exceed the OEM recommended torque ratings and, in this case, the reason for the change to grade 8 was purely to alleviate stretching and loss of torque that I encountered with the TTY fasteners as well as improved anti-corrosive properties.

 

i got it up to temp twice, once on flat ground to fill it with coolant and once with the front passenger wheel up on a hill to burp it.

a few minutes ago i took my poor man TB off because i need to make some bigger plates for it (idle won't drop below 1000rpm) and put the stock TB back on.

after that i checked the torque on all the intake bolts and they didn't back off at all, so thats good.

then i took it for a test drive and all i can say is wow. big improvement.

cmckenna, do you know anything about pcv valves? i heard a whistling and wiggled the pcv valve hose because i figured it was closed again. sure enough it was. when i wiggled it, the pintle in there opened and is making an odd rattling noise from the air rushing past it.
so my question is when is the pcv valve supposed to be open or closed? i asked this before and didn't get a clear answer, and if i did then i can't remember.

 

if you're talking about the little "ball" thing in it, mine moves freely, i replaced mine when i did plenum, as well as the breather. and they were caked with sludge.

on a good note.

just went 341 miles to this tank. 26 gal. tank. so thats 13.11 MPG's and the funny thing is, i cant get the heat sheilds off the plugs,so those havent been changed. i bet when i change my plugs ill get even better MPG's (speaking of the Dist. Cap had corrosion in it, and my plenum was BAD so they're probably soaked with oil.) and this was about 80% city 20% highway.

i got some gasket residue in the motor so i changed the oil, and i took alot of peoples advice and put it together. instead of the 70 dollar Mobil 1 change i do, i got a Mopar filter, Quaker Full Syn. 10w30, and this was only 25 bucks, and my oil PSI is still consistantly over 50, so i guess ive been wasting money with the Mobil 1 and he Lucus...

 

thats my oil combo too. my pressure was around 40-45 with a bad plenum gasket.
now with a good gasket it is more like 50ish and 55-60ish when i first start it.

the only bad thing about my plenum job is that now i have a slight intermittent squeak in the front of the motor that i can't track down with the stethoscope. i dont know if its from coolant being splashed all over the place from the fan when i was bleeding it or what but that is going to be my next endeavor with my truck.

 

The PCV valve is a floating position type of valve and, that position directly correlates to the intake vacuum amount. The PCV valve is never 100% closed even when bottomed out in the chamber. When idling, the vac found at the intake overrides the spring pressure and causes the valve to be sucked into the chamber thus collapsing / compressing the spring. However, even seated all the way into the chamber, there's two orfices that allow air to go around it on either side. The rattling is normal and does not mean that it is defective. After a while, it will stop rattling as time goes on. However, if you have a chattering valve, that indicates that there's a vac leak or, it could be a strong spring.

When that happens, it is just on the verge of seating and it chatters as it slams closed then opens, slams closed, opens etc etc. This case: R&R the PCV valve due to defective spring pressure.

Rattling is normal though. IT's hard to describe the two sounds but, one is a rattling with an air sound and one is a loud clack, clack , clack followed in between by a loud hiss, hiss, hiss.

The rattling and air sound can be heard inside of the truck but, it's nothing to worry about. Let it wear in and it should calm down once the spring has some thermal cycling on it.

The second mode is open mode. As rpms increase, the vac drops thus allowing the spring pressure to become greater than the vac pressure thus pushing the valve open to allow the same amount of blow by and fumes to enter into the intake. Again, this amount of movement / travel is directly proportional to the amount of vacuum at the intake.

Hope that helps.

Chris

 

Hey there "95Ram360", if you need any help,(when you do your front end), ...I just finished doing, (on my 1995 Ram Sport 1500-4by), my whole front end, (steering linkage...tie rods, sleeves the works!), even got a Rancho RS-5000 steering stabalizer shock, total front+rear brakes, axles out checked and detailed, cleaned the steering knuckles+ lightly honed the rust spots off,....basically if ya need sum ADvice,...give a holler!

 

Anyways, good luck with the build...your truck looks great! (p.s.: Lucas oil additive is #1).

 

this is the first oil change in 3 years i havent used Lucus in any of my vehicles. i was toldit doesnt do anything, but i HAVE noticed a difference, and i wanted to see if id notice a difference without using it.

 

Almost everything that Lucas makes is low fi, low budget. They also make fuel injectors that are cheap, have poor characteristics and are not very good. I have tested them and, I would not be surprised to find the same could be found with their chemical products as well. It would be interesting to send their products out to the lab and start conducting real ASME and 4-ball wear tests per industry spec and see what the numbers are.

IF I had the extra cash, I would pay to have it tested at one of the many labs that I use for testing work related products and then post back the results on this forum for all to see.

 

It could just be the placebo affect.