Well new to me at least!

Some of you helped me out in my other thread when looking for one. Well I finally pulled the trigger and picked one up!

It's a 2002 4x4 QC LB auto. Single owner, garage kept majority of its life, never had a goose neck or 5th wheel (which is harder to find than you'd think up here). Came with a 2in leveling kit and 35's and a hypertech 'tuner' to fix the speedo. Other then that, she's all stock. I crawled under to check for any signs of a 53 and couldn't find anything, so I might have a mexican block, but I'm going to keep checking. I couldn't be happier! I originally wanted a manual, but the wife said, if I'm getting a new truck then she better at least be able to drive it. So rather then argue, I just said 'ok' and got lookin!

Anyways, wanted to start a thread here because, since it is stock and I'm planning on keeping this truck for the long haul, I wanted to do some mini write ups of the mods and what not I get done to her. As of now, here's the order I want to go in:

1. FUEL! and lots of it!

2. Gauges

3. Steering

4. Transmission

5. More power!

3 and 4 may get swapped around depending on what's needed more and my budget but that's the general order.

 

So to start, fuel... The stock injection pump was replaced by the dealer 50-60k miles ago so it should have some decent life left, and it looks like they moved the stock lift pump. I didn't track it down exactly, just looking fairly quickly, and couldn't find it mounted on the frame, did they do in tank LP's for 02's? I'd like to fatten up my fuel lines to 3/8s everywhere possible, also looking to go with the Fuel Boss, but not sure how that works if my LP is mounted in the back in tank if that's even a thing. Any ideas or experience with this? As of now I'm looking at getting the following for step 1.

FUEL BOSS ----- BIG LINE KIT ----- MOD FUEL MODULE

As far as fuel lines, the obvious is the big line kit from Vulcan but I figured I'd talk with Eric about getting lines replace as much stock line as possible. I also threw on the modified fuel module. I saw that as I was browsing their site and hadn't seen it before. Is that necessary at all? Keep in mind I'm just looking to have fuel flow as easily as possible through the truck. When more power rolls around I don't plan on going EXTREME, but would like lack of fuel to never be thought of again after this.

I'll leave at this for now but really looking forward to wrenching on this truck and getting her setup for the long haul!

You might trim a bit of floor foam out to make for better access.

Thanks Dripley, I crawled under there earlier and saw that it's just sitting right there but like Mike said, that back screw's going to be a real SOB to get too. I'm going to try and avoid ripping into the floor foam if I can, just need to find the right tool!

 

***Update on the truck***

So other then this heater (or lack there of) issue I have, I've just been combing through the truck to make sure all the little details are to my liking. Gave the block heater a try to make sure everything was in working order, crawled under the truck (again!) to check for any 53 block signs or really any casting number, and again, no luck. Plugged in the hypertech tuner that came with the truck because I wanted to make sure that the tuner wasn't on and the tire size was input correctly. I definitely think it was on, because on the way to work I had to use a little more throttle to get up the hill than I normally do. Either way I don't mind it being off, especially with the stock lift pump and trans, I don't want to take any chances. Planning on calling Eric here shortly to get the big things ordered so I can get them on the truck ASAP. I'll keep you guys updated when that happens!

Oh almost forgot, pending the weather this weekend, I'm planning on getting out and taking some better pics so standby for those!

Most heater issues are because of plugged heater cores. Then the next is the blend door coupler but usually there is a complaint of lack of control as the door swings back and forth freely.

Is the heater core under the dash? I did read that flushing it can help but it didn't make sense to me on how to do that based off it's location.

It is buried in the dash pretty much right above the blower motor. You can flush it by taking the hoses off under the hood and flushing through it with a garden hose.

 

The outside of the core tends to plugged too since there is no filter on the outside air. Mine was not bad but Mike has some photos of ones just covered in stuff. Only fix for that is to pull the dash. Not a difficult job but a little time consuming. 

I'm sure mine is plugged but I don't look forward to pulling the dash to see what it looks like.

Yea, as of now, I'd prefer to not pull the entire dash. Where are the hoses located under the hood? Maybe I'll just give it a quick flush to make sure everything's fairly clean and unclogged.

About 10-20% chance that doing that will fix anything. The other bad problem is is there is any debris in the block it will plug right back up in a short time. So very rare that anyone cures a poor heater core by flushing which still points to a debris issue in the rest of the cooling system.

  On 2/10/2016 at 11:13 PM, Mopar1973Man said:

About 10-20% chance that doing that will fix anything. The other bad problem is is there is any debris in the block it will plug right back up in a short time. So very rare that anyone cures a poor heater core by flushing which still points to a debris issue in the rest of the cooling system.

If someone were to change out their heater core, wouldn't it be best to flush the coolant before changing the heater core?  Wouldn't that help prevent contaminating a new core?

Good point. It would be a good idea to flush the system before hand.

@notlimah Doing a heater core isn't bad. I've done my fair share of those and not hard. Just that you have to discharge the A/C system to unhook everything. Best to do it right. It sure would suck to do a half job and find out the evaporator is plugged up. Like this owner tells me now he has to roll down the windows to cool off because the heat is so strong now. So all I can say is bite the bullet and pull the entire HVAC case out and inspect everything.

Oh this evaporator ran mud while rinsing it out with 3,000 PSI power washer.

 

Edited February 10, 20169 yr by Mopar1973Man

Pulling the dash is not a as difficult a job as you might think. It is a little time consuming but not difficult. You can do it by yourself. I did mine solo. Replaced the heater core and evaporator. My dash was cracked pretty bad so did that too. You only have to take one side loose. Mike has a good article on doing this. I used it to do mine with.  

I did have some help installing the dash. The screws on the drivers would have been almost impossible with out my skinny son. I/We did all this in 2 1/2 days. That includes beer breaks and bull crappin. Also a couple trips to the supply house.

 

Edited February 11, 20169 yr by dripley

I replaced my heater core.  Took my time and did it in less than a day that included A/C evacuate and recharge. I can see if you did a few of these heater replacements you could do it in a few hours. It's like Driply said " it is a little time consuming but not difficult ". 

  On 2/11/2016 at 12:59 AM, dripley said:

Also a couple trips to the supply house.

Was that the beer supply house.    

  On 2/11/2016 at 1:31 AM, IBMobile said:

I replaced my heater core.  Took my time and did it in less than a day that included A/C evacuate and recharge. I can see if you did a few of these heater replacements you could do it in a few hours. It's like Driply said " it is a little time consuming but not difficult ". 

Was that the beer supply house.    

IIRC, one trip to the liquor store for the son and 1 trip to the supply house for foam to replace the gaskets with.

  On 2/10/2016 at 11:00 PM, notlimah said:

Yea, as of now, I'd prefer to not pull the entire dash. Where are the hoses located under the hood? Maybe I'll just give it a quick flush to make sure everything's fairly clean and unclogged.

Passenger side fire wall you'll see two 3/4" hoses sticking out. Coolant goes in one side and out the other.

Follow those hoses to where they connect to the block and take them off there. Or you can take them off right at the core and put a separate length of hose on each nipple just for flushing purposes. Flush it both ways, you can either stick a skinny nozzle in the heater hose or rig up some sort of connector. Be warned that I have seen cores start leaking after doing this if they were really corroded. 

Be careful with water pressure. Like myself, I've got 116-118 PSI at the faucet. Won't take much to blow a heater core. Correct way of fixing it but not cost effective is to pull the heater core out and rod the core out.This only works if you have the old brass core because you can remove the header and rod it out. I've done this in the past and it typically ends up with a leaking core anyways because the tubes tend to get thin if they have scale build up. Typically from corrosive coolant and oxidizing the metal and then condense then into solids at the coolest point heater core and radiator. So you better off just replacing it most times.

Thanks for all the input, makes me feel like I can probably tackle this at some point in the future! The heater works, but I definitely don't think it's putting out as much hot air as it could, even when the trucks warm, so maybe this summer will be a good time to dive into a project like that.

Meanwhile, my FASS, gauges, drawstraw and steering brace are on the way!

More to follow

Take a digital thermometer or laser temperature gun it should measure about 150-160*F out of the center vents.

I'll do that. We talking a fully warm engine?

Fully 190-195*F coolant temp with below freezing outside air.