combatcarl, Dezert_Yota86, and scope103, thanks so much for your suggestions. I really appreciate ya'll keeping me from banging my head on the wall all by myself, lol.

 

If your valve lash was zero cold then at warm the valves were probably hanging open. I'd bet it was that mostly with a combo of the bad vacuum lines.

 

Good to hear it's improved. I was beat after a 12 hr shift, so was hoping I made sense. These engines HATE un-metered air. Probably because the ECU is at its full capacity running the engine in stock form. The simple test for EGR function is to apply vacuum to its regulator at idle. If engine stalls or bogs down, it works. Won't tell you if if its clogged or not, though. And you're quicker than most, most folks don't ohm out wires to see if they're still healthy.

 

And you can disco the EGR vac line if you suspect it is a problem, or get tired of it crudding up your intake. I'll be doing a full EGR/PAIR/etc. delete soon.

 

I thought about just leaving it disconnected but I've heard EGR increases fuel mileage at part throttle. That's a big part of why I love this truck, such good mileage.

Well, hopefully it doesn't go down now that all the air is being metered, haha.

I unscientifically checked EGR function this morning after driving home from the gym (up and down the big hill and no ping!). It felt cold, so I'm not sure it's working. I had already shut the garage door before I thought about looking at it, so I'll try the vacuum test later today.

On another note, power has picked way (relatively) up and I can now accelerate (slowly) in 4th up the big hill where before it would not be able to maintain speed. And my brakes are much more firm now.

 

I've been running with mine disconnected for a while now. Haven't really noticed anything, even mileage-wise. Maybe a little crisper throttle response without. Definitely no more black goo in the intake.
Brakes feeling better makes me wonder if it was a vacuum leak. Check the booster/lines? I hate crappy brakes!!

 

Yeah, I noticed the line off the intake to the brake booster was slightly loose when I was re-vacuum lining everything so I tightened the fit up a bit. The brakes feeling firmer was a nice icing to the cake. They feel like new now.

 

This i find odd because typically a failed booster or lines to it will cause an overly firm pedal vs a soft one. The point in the booster is to aid in applying force to the brakes, otherwise you get a pedal similar to when you use them with the vehicle off

 

Hmm, that it's weird. Well, I'm still happy with the truck!

 

On further investigation, I left the clamp off the brake booster line after I adjusted the valves. Brakes are back to normal now. Thanks!

 

Rebuilt my drag link on Saturday. All the old parts came out unbroken, but extremely dirty. The balls looked good, so I gave it all a good cleaning and reassembled with the new parts. I still get some wander on the highway, but I'm due for an alignment so hopefully that will take care of it.

Decided while I was in the garage and dirty that I should stop putting off cleaning and lubing my speedometer cable. It's been howling in the colder weather and had a pretty steady 3-5 mph wobble. The Haynes and Chiltons were pretty vague, so I just jumped in and figured it out as I went. I was hoping to be able to pull the cable from the sheath but I found out that it's not designed that way. So I disconnected the transfer case side and hung it over a bucket, then pulled the gauge cluster out and zip-tied the cluster end so it pointed up at ~45 deg. I hooked a drill to the cluster end of the cable and I spun it while I sprayed brake cleaner in it. At first it took forever for the brake cleaner to make its way down the cable. But the more I did it the faster it started coming through. There was some pretty nasty looking stuff in the bucket when I got done. It took me about an hour or so until the brake cleaner was coming out "clean enough" on the bottom. I left the whole set-up out overnight in the garage to air dry, and then this morning after church I repeated the process with white lithium grease spray. I knew the grease would take a while to work its way down the cable, so I heated a pot of water to 110 deg F and submerged the can for about half an hour to loosen the grease up. It still took nearly half an hour to start seeing white grease from the T-case side of the cable, and another 20 or so minutes until it came out "clean enough" for me to be happy. I still have a slight (1-2 mph) wobble at low speeds. It starts to clean up around 35 mph and is almost imperceptible at 45 mph. Time will tell if this fixes the cold weather howling.

While I had the dash apart, I pulled the gauge cluster to fix my intermittently operating coolant temp gauge. I didn't see anything wrong with it, but since I put it back together its been functioning fine. I assume there was just a loose connection in there somewhere that I tightened up in the process.

I have been ignoring my PS pump for a little while, too. It's not been bad, just a little whirring a little when cold, but I figured I ought to give it some love. All I did there was siphon the old fluid out of the res and pour fresh fluid in. It'll mix with whats in the lines while I drive and I'll repeat the same process next weekend as well. Took all of 5 minutes to do.

It sure was nice to have a laid back weekend to catch up on some garage work!

 

Mine did this and I went crazy trying to find the reason for pinging. Turned out to by my vacuum modulator. If yours keeps doing it check that. Had to use a vac gauge to test it. But once replaced it hasn't pinged at least if you still have an egr valve.

 

I'll keep an eye on it, thanks!

My metal vacuum lines for the EGR were rusted shut so I don't think the EGR's been working in a while. New vacuum lines all around and adjusting the valves seem to have been the fix for me. Though I'm still not sure my EGR is working or not, I haven't checked it yet but I'll get around to it one of these days.