More is better, but upgrading just the low beam lights may provide enough improvement that the existing high beams can be left alone. Might not need to replace all four right away.
More is better, but upgrading just the low beam lights may provide enough improvement that the existing high beams can be left alone. Might not need to replace all four right away.
Cooter said:JeremyJ said:it will be pretty costly to install these.
Especially since he would have to buy a different grill.
They come in different shapes.
That said, I do like the older round headlight style.
In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :
1979-80 trucks could be had with a different grille with the round headlights, but it's not just a simple grille change. Core support is also different and need to be swapped. And swapping the core support also means that the fancy new radiator I bought won't fit anymore; it uses the skinny 22" core radiator while mine uses the 26"core type.
Besides, I like the quad 4x6 headlights. Someone paid extra money for these when it was new, so who am I to argue? 
Dusterbd13-michael said:Youre right. Its a cs130. I get this stuff jumbled up sometimes.
Application is right, series was wrong
I've seen guys swap in the SI as well. Seems like it fits pretty easy, too. Those can be had in a 105 amp model that would be more than enough for this thing.
Quick update:
I ordered a new harmonic balancer. I just don't trust the stock one; the wobble is really bothering me. As annoying as it is, I'll have to pull everything apart again to install the new one, but it's cheap insurance to make sure the engine lasts a bit longer.
New balancer showed up, so now I get to pull just about everything I installed and drain the new radiator to get the balancer in there. While in there, I'll also seal the leaky bolt threads. Hopefully, I'll get this done quickly. Then, I can confirm timing for the 97th time and start tuning again.
Yesterday, during my lunch break (I love working from home, BTW), I started the balancer swap. Radiator came out easy after draining, and since this is old hat at this point, I had the old balancer off in about 15 minutes.
The design is slightly different than stock, but the snout, bolt holes, and diameter were dead on. And I noticed that the rubber on the old one was downright chunky, so this was the right choice.
PRO TIP: Paint your timing mark with something white so when you're pointing the timing light at it, you'll be able to see it easily. I didn't have a paint marker, so I used some spray paint and a cotton swab.
And then, bad things happened.
This truck was once equipped with a plow. The pulley setup for the plow pump was run off an extra pulley on the crankshaft, which required a special pulley that sits on top of a long spacer. You can see it here in this photo:
That requires an extra long balancer bolt that's 6" long. I noticed when I took off the balancer the first time that it was only held on by a few threads and had no washer. That means that torquing it to spec was something that was likely impossible, as clamping force changes depending on bolt length and other factors. Great! After I pressed the new balancer on, I tried attaching the weird plow pulley again. And this happened:
Bolt stripped and that chunk came out of the crank. OOOF.
So, panic started to set in, so I told a buddy about it, who's been a Mopar guy since we were kids. He said he's never seen a Mopar crank bolt that long, and it should be around 2.25" in length. He then said to wait a few, and sent me this:
He had a spare one from one of his old 318's. The washer is a bit thin, so I'll have to hit the hardware store for a thicker one. A quick inspection of the crank showed that the first thread that the chunk came from was slightly boogered, but if I can get past that one, the new bolt will go in fine. So, I'll be hitting up the hardware store for a better washer and hopefully I'll have it back together soon.
Quick update:
Washer obtained. Crank is too boogered to get the new bolt in. Going to try and find a 3/4-16 tap & die and pray that I can clean it up. If that doesn't work, well, I'm just sending this truck off a cliff. Getting really frustrated with having to constantly wrench on this thing every free moment I have.
I usually use whiteout for the timing mark.
You can grind (or file) down the end of the old bolt and use it as a tap to chase the threads. I also use a hacksaw blade and cut a couple grooves down the length to help clear out shavings and extraneous chunks.
And I would delete all of the plow stuff from the truck, especially any brackets and extra pulleys if you aren't going to be using it for plow work. Especially since it is apart now.
In reply to Cooter :
Whiteout or a paint marker would have been better, but I was using what I had kicking around.
I ordered a tap and die online, since the only place that has one "locally" is not very local and only open when I'm at work. That should hopefully be here by Sunday. I only have one shot at this, so I don't want to mess it up.
On the plow stuff, Some of it was present when I bought the truck, like the frame and the controls. One of the first things I did was ditch the controls and scrap the frame. All that was left on the truck was the crank pulley and the extra plow wiring, which is a mess. After this crank situation is over with, the pulley will be gone, so all that will be left is that plow light harness.
Yesterday, I decided to hit the local boneyard for a morning stroll. I was there for two things: to see if I could find a cheap 12SI GM alternator, and to grab a spare crank bolt. First, the alternators.
I was talking to the owner, and he said before I go down into the yard, they have a storage shed full of them! So I went and perused the selection.
They only had three of them, and two were seized up. This one wasn't, but was covered in grease and had the incorrect pulley. At $30, I passed, since a new one isn't much more than that and there's no way of telling how many amps they put out until you bench test one. If I change my mind, it's not going anywhere.
After grabbing a crank bolt and washer, I saw an enormous early 70's RV half in the woods. I ventured out to it, fully expecting a squatter to chase me away, but instead, I found this:
Big Blocky Mopar goodness! It's either a 400 or a 440, but likely the latter, based on the massiveness of the RV. Owner told me that it could be mine for $400. I don't have a big block 727 trans, and i think 4WD ones are different than 2wd ones, so it's nice to know it's there. Owner also told me the guy scrapping it drove it there to it's final resting place and it had low miles. Good to know!
ANYWAY....
Yes, that's the correct crank bolt, with the correct washer (not the one from the hardware store), installed in my crank. I had mentioned before that I ordered a tap and die for the crank. Well, Amazon delayed it, so I started looking around online again and noticed that the Hammer Store sold a more expensive Titanium Nitride SAE tap and die set that happened to have the size tap and die I needed. Hoping for the best, I grabbed the kit and got to work. The tap and die both cleaned all the bolts up and made short work of the boogered crank threads. After they were cleaned up, I was able to get the bolt all the way in the crank by hand! I torqued it proper and started re-assembling everything.
And then I quickly became glad that I bought that whole kit.
Both the alternator bolt hole in the alternator and the one that secures it to the head stripped while installing the alternator. Also, the thru-bolt for the alternator to the head's threads were messed up. I enlarged the hole in the alternator to the next size up, and cleaned up the head hole as well as the bolt.
The Hammer Store kit worked great! The cheap one I bought there last year would wear out after a few uses. These taps and dies showed zero signs of wear even after dealing with Grade 8 hardware.
Also, while everything was apart again, I ID'ed all the bolts on the water pump that went through coolant passages and slathered on some thread sealant. I also found two bolts on the intake manifold leaking oil, and did the same thing. No more leaks, as far as I can tell.
So, it's finally running again after what should have been a simple repair. I re-confirmed that timing is accurate with the new balancer, which doesn't wobble, BTW. Now I can finally do some tuning and figure out the tip-in/decel weirdness. Oh, and I can also do Truck Stuff again. Bed's already full of junk!
Glad to see you get it back and serviceable again! Always scary when a bolt your turning goes from hard to turn to nothing. Worst feeling in the world.
Tony Sestito said:Yesterday, I decided to hit the local boneyard for a morning stroll.
{snip}
After grabbing a crank bolt and washer, I saw an enormous early 70's RV half in the woods. I ventured out to it, fully expecting a squatter to chase me away, but instead, I found this:
Big Blocky Mopar goodness! It's either a 400 or a 440, but likely the latter, based on the massiveness of the RV. Owner told me that it could be mine for $400. I don't have a big block 727 trans, and i think 4WD ones are different than 2wd ones, so it's nice to know it's there. Owner also told me the guy scrapping it drove it there to it's final resting place and it had low miles. Good to know!
It's a 440. I've never seen a big block MoPar motorhome that didn't have a RB engine in it. Since this doesn't have the raised water pump that the industrial 413 used, it is a 440.
The 4wd 727 is different than the 2wd, and the one in this motorhome is likely different than either of those, with a short tailshaft and a parking brake on the back of it. However, the LA (small block) 4wd 727 Torqueflite tailshaft and housing can be used on the 2wd B/RB trans (Loadflite in this instance) to convert it. As an added bonus, the motorhome's Loadflite is a very robust transmission, with more clutches than the usual light duty stuff and usually will have 4 planetaries vs 3 in the lighter duty stuff. The only caveat is that there was a running change in the shaft diameter around '74, which trips a lot of people up.
Glad to hear you have it running again. It's always good to have your "junk" safe in your own bed.
In reply to Cooter :
Good stuff to know. According to the emissions decal, this one's a 1973. I offered this one to my buddies, since two of them have big block Mopars ('72 D100 with a 440 and a '70 Town and Country wagon with a 383) and I think I'd probably just do the Magnum 5.9 swap if I did anything.
The Magnum swap is a much better choice for real world use. It will make more power stock than that motorhome engine with less fuss for less money while getting better mileage.
Just had to do some "Truck Stuff" and the engine is noticeably smoother in operation. It revs and idles much better now. And while the tip-in issues are still present, it's easier to deal with.
About that... going to get some data logs and possibly contact Holley Tech Support. From what I understand, this is a common issue, but there are a number of factors that could cause that. Hopefully, they have some insight.
On MegaSquirt, they have AE or Acceleration Enrichment that works sort of like the power valve on old school carbs.
It is either adjusted via MAP values or TPS values and there is a curve to it based on coolant temp and RPM.
Do you have/use vacuum advance on the distributor? If so does it do the tip in issue when that is disconnected?
In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :
Sniper EFI has basically the same thing. I've gone through and tweaked my fuel and timing maps to deliver smooth power, and other than tip-in and decel, they are great! I know there are some values that I can tweak that acts like an "accelerator pump", and I did mess with that before, but it ended up affecting the entire map. It's going to end up being a trial-and-error sort of thing until I get it right.
So, let's talk about ECU tuning on a 42 year old pickup truck.
After looking at old data logs and my current tune, I noticed something. At cruising speeds, everything seemed ok. The lean spikes would happen only sometimes when I gave it throttle. Then, I looked at my Throttle Position Sensor data and noticed that while at partial throttle, giving it more would not cause a lean spike. If throttle was close to zero and I cracked the throttle, it would lean spike every time. So, I Googled, and found that there's a set of tables in the Sniper EFI software that act as the "accelerator pump" on a carb and other carb circuits.
Here are some screenshots from the tune I was running:
This one is the "accelerator pump". There's two things of note here: the space between the 0 and the 7 on the X axis and the "AE vs TPS RoC Blanking" number. First, note that there's not a lot of acceleration enrichment going on between 0 and 7 % throttle. When I overlaid the log over this graph, I was getting exactly ZERO enrichment until the throttle was nearly floored. This is because of the "AE vs TPS RoC Blanking" value. From what I understand, this defaults to 15 out of the box, but it really should be anywhere from 5-7 for a value. When it's this high, you don't see ANY enrichment until after 15% throttle. I first lowered it to 7, then to 6, and then raised the curve a bit and evened it off toward the top (I'll have to get pics of the "after" when I'm done tuning). The result is tip-in lean-out isn't nearly as bad as it was and still well within safety. Nice!
Then, there's this screen. It's basically the same deal, but referencing MAP signal instead of TPS to add enrichment. From what I've read, people don't do much here except change that "AE vs MAP RoC Blanking" number to match whatever the "AE vs TPS RoC Blanking" value is.
Lastly, we have this screen. Here, you can raise overall enrichment based on the TPS percentage, so I raised it up a bit on the low end to give it the fuel it wants.
The result: tip-in is A LOT better than it was, and the truck pulls great through the gears and makes actual power for once! Driveability under throttle and during cruising is better as well, but my adjustments did result it in being a tad rich at cruise. I did notice this getting better as I drove, so I'll give it a little while to learn. I still need to do some fine tuning, but this is big progress. Being able to see what the engine is doing instead of guessing and throwing parts at it is completely awesome.
Yep, that will do it. A bit more tuning there and you should get most or all of that sorted out.
Impressive how similar the screens look to MS/TunerStudio:
https://www.diyautotune.com/support/tech/other/accel-enrichment/
I guess tech is pretty similar in that segment (its also very similar to the Wolf3D system that was on my old Porsche 951S, but it was older and much less intuitive).
Took the truck for a drive to run some errands this morning. It's running better, but with some concerns. Mainly, there's an intermittent knocking sound. It's most prevalent at idle, and I can't really tell where it's coming from. It runs smooth and revs fine, but sometimes that knock can get ugly loud, like something's going to birth itself from the oil pan. At one point, it was squealing! The oil pressure sensor is pretty much useless. I noticed today with the engine OFF that it climbs to 40PSI and just stays there. The oil is not glittery or anything and is fairly clean since I changed it recently. I did add some Sea Foam to the crankcase to clean out some of the sludge buildup, so maybe I need to change it again and toss some Lucas in it. I don't know if it's detonation, but the timing was confirmed correct on the gun and the ECU readout and the logs show that timing is good.
Then, there's the water pump bolts.
I re-sealed all the bolts when I was changing the harmonic balancer. One of them is leaking, and not the same one that was leaking before. I pulled the bolt out and it was missing the thread sealant that I put on there, which is supposed to be safe for coolant. I tried some red RTV this time, but nope, still leaking. Going to try yet another type of sealant at some point.
So yeah, I'm going to just drive it until parts come out for air and then it's Magnum 5.9 time.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
Any chance the offending knock and squeal are coming from that water pump? It's possible that a moment's inattention in that area could result in untorqued fasteners, lack of sealant, loose fan clutch. And coolant leaking past that bolt might be finding its way onto a belt and making a godawful squeal.
If you do go to a Magnum, Uncle Tony says it's not too big a deal to adapt an LA intake manifold by drilling and tapping the heads with the LA bolt pattern, if you still wanted to retain the old timey carb vibe.
In reply to DarkMonohue :
Possibly, but unlikely. It sounds more like it's in the back of the oil pan or in the exhaust. It's been making this noise for a while and was doing it to a lesser extent before I messed with anything. When you start the engine, it rattles a little and then settles in, so whatever's causing that is likely the culprit. It's probably a rod knock if anything, but I've never had an engine with a rod knock run this well. It idles and runs fine and there's no glitter in the oil.
On the Magnum heads: I know people drill them out for older intakes, and there are a couple options for intakes that natively fit the Magnum heads. Haven't decided what I would do yet if I go that route.
Tony Sestito said:In reply to DarkMonohue :
Possibly, but unlikely. It sounds more like it's in the back of the oil pan or in the exhaust. It's been making this noise for a while and was doing it to a lesser extent before I messed with anything. When you start the engine, it rattles a little and then settles in, so whatever's causing that is likely the culprit. It's probably a rod knock if anything, but I've never had an engine with a rod knock run this well. It idles and runs fine and there's no glitter in the oil.
On the Magnum heads: I know people drill them out for older intakes, and there are a couple options for intakes that natively fit the Magnum heads. Haven't decided what I would do yet if I go that route.
Pull the transmission cover and check the flexplate. I know on Chevys they will crack and make you think you have a rod knocking. Cheap but not entirely easy fix (transmission has to come out to replace the flexplate, flexplates themselves are less than 30 bucks. )
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