fogged306

I've had an issue with my truck never shifting properly, but I never really addressed it until now because I had always assumed it was the stock trans that was on its way out and was in need of adjustment. However, since I installed a brand new revmax last week and the truck shifts exactly like the stock one did, I've been chasing down issues to source this problem. What the truck is doing: -Only starting in 1st from a complete stop. Even if I slow down to 2mph, the truck will still in take off in 3rd unless I give a lot of throttle to force a downshift -Short shifting 2nd gear... 1st gear will take me to about 10mph under light throttle and then 2nd gear will take me to about 12 and then 3rd gear goes from 12-35 or so. The truck shifts into 2nd and then immediately shifts into 3rd. Sometimes it's so fast that you can't even tell it's 2 shifts. -When I accelerate at WOT from a dead stop, the trans will take 1st to about 2500 shift into 2nd, then back into 1st and then back to 2nd before running through the rest of the gears. I have adjusted my APPS sensor to match the voltage on the white sticker with the throttle at idle, and reset the APPS sensor. It goes from .57v to 3.80v smoothly through the pedal travel. This helped greatly with something the truck was doing before which was shifting into 4th at 30 and TC lockup at 35. It no longer does this. I also adjusted my TV cable so that it has 1/8" slack at WOT. I also had a stuck transmission relay in my underhood fusebox and replaced that. I was having an issue with a buzzing sound coming from the transmission itself. Sounded like a solenoid clicking on and off very fast and randomly, so fast it sounded like an arc welder. you could only hear it KOEO. Once you started the truck the sound was drowned out and I couldn't tell if it was still doing it or not. With the new relay in place, it doesn't do this anymore. Any other options I can try before I go checking pressure ports in the trans to make sure it's not an internal trans issue? I feel like it's not because it was doing this with the stock trans. Maybe I have a bad PCM? Any help would be appreciated. I forgot to mention that this entire powertrain, wiring, and dash components were swapped from a 98.5 2wd 3500 dually with 3.54 gears, into a 97 4wd gas engine truck with 4.10 gears. Could the gear swap have anything to do with this? Are PCM's calibrated for a specific gear ratio?

If you live anywhere where they salt in the winter, I would highly suggest getting some fluid film or similar and spraying up inside the area you just repaired to coat the backside of the welds. I'd spray it every fall to keep it coated. Even if you have to drill a few holes in the underside to have access and then seal it up with rubber plugs. The bare welds on the back side of that repair will start to rust from the inside out and will bleed through in just a couple years. I know from experience. I did mine when I built my truck and they started to bubble the paint in some spots about 2 years later. Now I have to redo it.

This is a good question to ask. I had this same problem and it ended up being a pinhole in my radiator that the fan was misting all over the engine bay. Apparently even very small amounts of coolant corrode battery terminals quickly.

So I just figured out the problem. It's not the truck, it's the owner, lol. When I checked the oil before I drove it the first time, I had bled the fuel system, so I had cranked it quite a bit and then got it to fire. I tightened all the injector lines, let it sit for a minute, and checked the oil. When I checked it the next day and it was higher, it had sat for quite a while. I'm pretty sure I didn't give it a chance to drain all the oil back into the pan before I checked the first time. It was cold out so the oil was thick. I also completely forgot that I pulled this motor out of a rollover wreck and it has a pretty sizable dent in the sump which causes the oil to read high on the dipstick. I put a notch in the dipstick just now and I'm going to monitor this to make sure and so I don't forget again. The plus side of all of this (or downside) is I saw first hand there was bubbles in the oil as it was coming out of the pushrod so I'm assuming that the oil level is above the crank with that dent and I've been aerating my oil for some time now and didn't know it. At least I know I need a new oil pan for sure now. Ah, this is good to know. I will do this regardless of what I just found. I will double check the lash. I did it when I did the injectors, but it won't hurt to double check it when I go back in to re-do the hold downs.

It doesn't lope at idle, it idles just as smooth as it always has. It only lopes with light throttle applied. I probably should've made that a little more clear. I did just remember something I may have botched. when I took the injector hold downs off, I loosened the bolt on the right side of the injector a couple turns before I pulled the left one off completely. I didn't realize you were supposed to leave that one alone and just undo the left bolt. When I was putting the hold downs back on, I just tightened each side evenly and went back and forth a couple ft lbs at a time until they both hit 8 ft lbs. That way I wasn't tightening one down too far and then tightening the other to 8 ft lbs and possibly putting the hold down on crooked. But that could've happened anyway?

Also, a little more info: No matter how much I tried, I couldn't tune out a bit of a lope/surge when I lightly apply the throttle. Even in neutral. I backed the timing way down and fuel was as low as 68% at 1psi with the quad and still had that surge happening. That could very well just be that I'm a rookie with this quad, but I wonder if it could indicate an injector that's leaking or stuck and leaking fuel past the rings? When I started it just now after sitting for the past 4 days, it cranked for about 3-4 times longer than usual and when it fired up it billowed a cloud of white and then black smoke. All copper washers came off with the old injectors. I didn't realize that the washers weren't held on by anything on the new injectors, and mid way through the install, a couple did fall down in the bore. I just lined them up with the hole and dropped the injector in on top of them. Could this be an issue? They don't have to face a certain way do they? Even though from my research, I don't believe any of this can cause fuel in your oil, I did install the injectors and made sure they seated, then installed/seated the connector tubes, then the lines (hand tight), and then tighten down the injectors to 8 ft lbs. Not sure if that was the right procedure, but I don't have any external fuel leaks. From what I can tell, there's only 3 ways you can have fuel in your oil related to injectors, o ring leak, cracked body, or too much fuel getting past your rings.

That's what I was looking for to see if there was any leaks with it running and the valve cover off, but I didn't see any fuel coming out anywhere.

On my car, I just wired in a 12v car adapter to the ignition wires at the radio. I used an app called "automate" to write a basic program that makes the tablet screen turn on when it sees the charger connected and go to sleep when it is disconnected. The ignition on and off simulates this scenario so when I turn the key on, the tablet screen comes on and stays lit until I turn the key off. With the ignition off, the tablet will lose about 3-4% battery overnight and will be charged back to 100% within 10 minutes of driving the car. So I never had to worry about the tablet dying on me. It also makes it nice when starting the car because it is instantly booted, instead of waiting for it to load up every time you get in the car.

I swapped my stock injectors for a set of DAP 7x.013's last week. Checked the oil level before I started it up for the first time and it was midway between the lines on the dipstick. I ran the truck for a day and checked the oil again and it was about 3/8" above the top line. So I'm definitely getting fuel in the oil. I pulled the valve cover and ran it and saw nothing. It was a bit tough to get down to each injector and inspect closely because of the fan blowing in my eyes, but from out of the fan wash area, I couldn't see a thing leaking. I never had fuel in the oil before this, so it was definitely something related to the injector swap. Bad injector? Do I need to get closer and inspect each injector while its running, or would a fuel leak be noticeable right away?

It's a 10" tablet Scooty Puff Jr.... nice. That might be my favorite thing from that whole series.

So I don't post much, mostly read, but I wanted to share a project that I've been working on lately. I've done this before with my car and it turned out well, so I figured why not try it with the truck. I've always thought tablets would make great head unit substitutes, and they do if you like to tinker like I do. They're cheap, much better resolution screen than any in dash unit, built in nav, connect to the internet via your phone and the list goes on. All you need to do is integrate it. The first time around in my STI, I hard wired everything and used a program called automate to make the tablet function like a head unit should. It would turn the screen on when the ignition turned on, and kept it on the whole time until you shut the car off. I even found a controller to integrate it with my steering wheel controls so that I could easily control volume and other functions. This time around I'm going to be trying out something called an ioio to integrate basic functions. I also don't have steering wheel controls so easy volume access will have to be figured out. I'm thinking of hiding a wireless trackpad into the center armrest with volume controls, but I'm not sure yet. I have a small hobby CNC machine so that made life a little easier. Or at least, it made the end result a little better than making all this by hand. Not sure it was easier after several hours and even more templates cut out of wood to try to get the shape right. I'm still learning the software so I'm sure this could be done much easier by someone who knows how to do this kind of stuff. Anyhow, here's some pics of the progress so far. How it started One of many templates attempting to get the shape i wanted Finally got it right and machined out of 1/2" HDPE Lots of flexible body filler, sanding, and filler priming. Still had a lot of work to go in this picture Here's where I'm at currently. I'm not a huge fan of the plastidip I used so I may pull it off and paint it instead. The goal is to make it look as factory as possible. The tablet isn't mounted yet here, it's just sitting behind it. I will JB weld it in place and the screen should be flush against the bezel opening. Next up is cutting up the dash to make room for this and blocking off the air vents that I cut out. Between that and wiring up the amp and all the speakers, it'll probably be a while before this gets completely finished, but I will keep track of the progress here.