🔧 BUILD Reviving Grandpa's 1993 D150 Pickup

Jon01

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My dad came over and hung out and we got the tune up done, getting to the distributor on this thing is a pain in the ass. But it definitely runs better.

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We also pulled the headliner to have it reupholstered and started applying sound deadening material to the roof of the cab.
Tomorrow night I hope to get out of work in time to drop the headliner off to be reworked and keep after the sound deadening material.


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Jon01

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No pics from this weekend, had to work yesterday, after that and other chores I was pretty beat.
Today I had some time so I finished the sound deadener on the roof and double lined the insides of the doors.
I also sprayed down all of the suspension hardware with penetrating oil in hopes that it comes loose easy when the time comes.
Wife is gonna drop the headliner off at the trim shop tomorrow to have them reupholster it.
Maybe they can turn that quickly and I can get it back together this week after work.
The parts to do the flip on the rear axle showed up Friday - shock brackets, u-bolts and spring perches, if I don't have to work this coming weekend maybe I can get that stuff installed.
 
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Jon01

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Trim shop apparently no longer does headliners so I picked up the material ($10) and did it myself today.

Old fabric came right off.
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A wire brush made quick work of the leftover foam backing.

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Here it is all reassembled.

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Now I'm chasing a light throttle miss.
I've given it a full tune up, replaced the TPS sensor with a name brand unit and the symptoms persist.
I'm thinking about taking it to my shade tree mechanic and having him dive into it as I don't want to spend what little free time I have throwing the parts cannon at it.

I'm taking next week off so I'll have all weekend to work on it and get other things done. I may jump into the suspension stuff at that point. I also have to get a bunch of spring chores wrapped up and hopefully get the interior back in my C10 so it can get moving forward again.
 

Jon01

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I haven't done much with the pickup lately, it's just been sitting as I have been focused on getting the C10 wrapped up but today I went and picked up ~50 bags of mulch with it and the light throttle miss drove me nuts.

I also found that the AC seems to work pretty well which is definitely a bonus.

I've spent the last hour or so digging into what else it could be and it seems all symptoms point to the plenum gasket leaking which means I get the pleasure of pulling the intake off.
I just ordered the plenum fix kit from Hughes and a bunch of front brake shit from RockAuto.
Hughes is only about 300 miles from me so I hope to get the fix kit mid week.
If work doesn't suck too bad I plan on gradually tearing it apart over the next couple of nights, then once the fix kit gets here I'll toss it back together.
That'll leave me free for the weekend at which point I hope to pull the bed off, double check the fuel pump swap I did a couple of years ago, do the axle flip and install the new lower control arms. That should drop it 3/5.5.

Edit - the silicone where I had run the razor through it and taken most of it off, you guys were right, the rest just peeled off after sitting in the sun for a couple months.
 

Jon01

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Got it apart, took about 3 hours of work to tear it down not knowing wtf I'm doing with this one.

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I think we found our source of vacuum leak.

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Hughes kit showed up today, I power washed the F out of everything tonight so I'm gonna let it all dry tonight then tomorrow I'll put the kit on it and put Humpty Dumpty back together tomorrow/Thursday nights. Hopefully everything goes back together as easy as it came apart.
I'm curious how well it runs with this done, I remember it running pretty well back in the day. Of course that was pre-LS world where a 13 second street car was hauling the mail.
 

Jon01

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More progress tonight, got the intake all cleaned up and installed the Hughes plenum kit, this replaces the stock steel plate which will scrub the gasket away with time, with a 1/4" aluminum one that won't chew up the gasket over time.

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Also got the intake re-installed and torqued. There's about 12 steps to this torque sequence which is a pain in the fucking ass. Really has me rethinking my affection for Mopars.

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Tomorrow night I'll get all of the BS hooked back up and fire it up. Probably another hour of work left to do and it will run again.

Goal for the weekend is to get the bed pulled, double check my fuel pump install from a few years ago, get the axle flipped and install the front drop parts. I'm taking Tuesday off for some other stuff but hopefully I can slip it in for an alignment while I'm off.
 

Jon01

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Got her back together tonight, it still misses and pops/farts. I'm not too upset, clearly that gasket was fucked.
I have a crank sensor for it here that I'll toss on this weekend.
If that doesn't fix it I'm wondering if a family of mice didn't set up shop in the muffler or cat while it was sitting down at the farm.
I remember when I got it running it shot a shitload of mouse cotton out of the exhaust,
It needs exhaust anyways, I found receipts in the glovebox from 2001 for a Midas muffler that's toast at this point.
Thinking keep the Y pipe, chop everything else off, add Magnaflow 1 in 2 out and duals out the passenger side behind the rear tire like some Chevy's had back in the late 80's but with nice tips.
 
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Jon01

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My dad came over and we pulled the bed and knocked the rear flip out today.
It wasn't too bad a job, it was clear that grandpa washed this regularly during the winter, everything came apart except 1 bolt that I fucked up.
Not bad for a 30 year old Iowa truck...
My 1025r and a few ratchet straps made quick work of the bed removal and install.

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Tomorrow I'm gonna install the new control arms, I'm hoping they drop it about 2.5" otherwise it may look weird with the rear being lower than the front.
 

Jon01

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Got up around 0600 and quietly pulled the brakes off.

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Gotta go get breakfast and let everybody else wake up then I'll fire up the power washer to blow all the road grime off and use some air tools to knock the control arms off and install the new ones.

Once I get that done I may hit things with some undercoating to make it look nicer.
Hope to be done by noon or 1.
 

Jon01

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Thanks guys I'm very happy with how it turned out.

I just finished putting a new crank sensor in and it's still got a part throttle miss.

The miss seems to start once it goes into closed loop, jump in and drive quick and its smooth until it gets a little bit of heat in it.

I'm not sure where to go from here, this far I have replaced:
Plenum gasket
TPS
O2
Cap
Rotor
Plug wires
Plugs
Crank sensor


Fuel pump was new 2 years or 100 miles ago.
I havent put a fuel filter on it but it seems to have power up top so idk that it's a lack of fuel. It's just a range of throttle from about 20%-40% that it stutters and pops through. Beyond that it seems to clean up and run smooth.
Maybe the cat is plugged up? That is one of the consequences of the plenum gasket leaking...
 

Jon01

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Ok, I'm about out of ideas on this stupid miss.
New:
Cap
Rotor
Plugs
Wires
Crank sensor
Cam sensor
Tps
Fuel pressure regulator
Injectors - used but no difference in behavior

It has good fuel pressure, vac on and vac off.

I did a compression test and found:


1 - 155. 2 - 135
3 - 140. 4 - 145
5 - 145. 6 - 140
7 - 145. 8 - 145

So nothing glaring there.

I think I may order another set of plug wires and a map sensor to throw at it as this week's tithe.

I wish I could figure this out. I want to drive the stupid thing this summer while it's nice out.
 

Jon01

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Appointment made for Tuesday to take it in and have tailpipes put on it.
Friday at alignment shop.
I noticed American Racing is in the midst of a 10% price increase so I had my buddy who has a Speedway account order the wheels as they haven't raised the price on their site yet. That'll save a hundo. I'm sure I won't get them till like August.

Took a few hours today and clay barred then did a quick single stage buff on it.
There are still plenty of hairline scratches and bruises but it looks way better than before.

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Jon01

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As seems typical with this thing, one step forward, one step back.
Exhaust is on, sounds great and no rattles.
Unfortunately in order to get clearance over the diff the guy cut the heat shield off the bottom of the bed and now there's a nice burn mark in the formerly almost perfect bed floor paint.

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I wish he had just told me it wouldn't work and I would have told them to put a single 3" muffler on it. Not a huge deal.
I'll call em tomorrow and see what they want to do, this can't stay, there's no way I can haul anything in it with the floor getting that hot.
If I can get them to put a single 3" on it (I'll buy the muffler) and pay for either having the bed floor repainted or a spray in I'll be happy.
 

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