Doubletrouble

Yes, those are the type I have. The amber on the side.

They make a hi-temp anti seize for exhaust bolts. I don't know if it would encourage them to back out or not.

Maybe I'll have to check those as well just to be sure. Sometimes I'm afraid to be a little to heavy handed and over tighten bolts and squeeze the gasket out. Just have to be mindful and snug them up a bit.

Update**** I located the leak. It's the fuel filter drain valve. It drips about every 5-10 seconds while idling. Gonna order one up here in a bit. While tracking down this leak I also found a bolt loose at the top of the oil filter adapter (if that's the correct term for it) where it bolts to the block, very top left bolt. Put a wrench to it and got nearly a full turn.

@Mopar1973Man, I've been wanting to do the oil spray trick myself. Bought a 1 gallon sprayer just for that actually. Do you spray just oil or cut it with a little diesel? I've heard the diesel will help it creep into the tiny spots.

I was considering using something like this to coat not only the inside of the frame but when I do get the rockers done maybe work this in to the cavity behind them to prevent rust in the future. A buddy of mine used it on a trans am bandit car and loved it. https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-internal-frame-coating-14oz-aerosol.html

Actually @IBMobile if you look on Amazon there are some low profile led lights that I've been looking at for trailer lights myself. They're red and have hi and low for tails and brake lights. If I recall they were under $25/pair. https://www.amazon.com/Nilight-Trailer-Compliant-Waterproof-Warranty/dp/B07V7BF18Shttps://www.amazon.com/Nilight-Trailer-Compliant-Waterproof-Warranty/dp/B07V7BF18S Was looking at those for a trailer I built. They also have amber for side markers/turn signals. This is the trailer

Ive seen mud trucks and the like completely coated in bed liner. Not really for me but I have thought of maybe going up the rockers to the body line. My truck is silver with some black on it so more black wouldn't look bad.

Can I ask why you went with slip on repair panels? I to have rocker, cab corner issues, some bad metal in the floor as well. When I fix it I want to do weld in metal so it's more permanent. Once fixed maybe coat it with bed liner to prevent future rust.

I saw some of those @Sycostang67, they look cool. Would be nice to have them wired in to the dome lights and light up the ground when the door is open. I out these on because they were basically a freebie and I think my dad wanted to our trucks to have something in common. Sounds weird but that's him. Lol. I have several old school "chicken lights" I thought about installing around the tool box. Amber on the sides and the red facing rear. Also have some short LED light strips I bought for my bike but didn't like the color of the lights with the colors on the bike so they're just laying in a parts box for now. Thinking of those for interior accent lighting. I have red or blue. Saving the amber for the harley.

VID_20201108_172153158.mp4 There's the video with the 4 ways on. The turn signals would start in the center and go the direction selected. To order you'll have to download the wish app to your phone. These I believe are the ones he ordered. I think they were $21 each now that I looked them up. We got the 60" with reverse lights. So far I like them.

Yeah, he does that. Lol He is in his 70's now with a bad back among other issues so I don't mind helping him out at all. His light strip was a pain to install though. He has the back up cam so had to remove the tailgate and unplug the cam to make room for my big hands to get in there to install the light strip.

I wouldn't know how to link to it. My dad ordered them from the Wish app on his phone. All the stuff comes from china but is super cheap, he loves it though. I think he only paid about $15 each for them.

So recently my dad decided he wanted an LED light strip on his dodge 1500 so he bought 2 of them. One for him and one for me for installing his. I got them both installed and have to say I like them. I am always concerned about other drivers not seeing me and rear ending me (it's happened before) so what the heck right. The LED strips he bought are 60" and have 3 rows of lights, red for tails, yellow sequential for turns and white for reverse lights. They're pretty bright in all stages. I'll attach a few pics to show you. The first one is the tails but in daylight, they're much brighter at night. The second is the reverse lights, very bright plus the LED reverse lights in the tail housings really shine. The third pic is from the back of the truck at night, no flash on the camera, that's all lit up by the reverse lights. I wanted to load a short vid with the sequential turn signals but couldn't figure that out.

So far mine is starting normally on level ground.

I've seen winter covers at various venders that cover the intercooler and the radiator. It hangs in front of both but behind the grill. Wouldn't that do the same?

I'll be watching this one as well. I recently changed my heater core and evap, cleaned up the HVAC box and checked seals. Once all back together I get about 120° at the floor vent, engine at temp driving down the road. Wondering if the T-stat needs replaced. If I stop at a red light the temp gauge drops pretty quickly to about 170-180° but comes back up once I start driving again. It sure don't hold the heat if I stop and idle long. @Mopar1973Man pointed out that when I did the heater core and evap that I did not flush the cooling system and possibly got some crud into the new heater core. Could be a possibility. Here lately with the temps dropping some I've been running with a piece of cardboard between the intercooler and radiator. Seems to help a little.

At this point I don't think it's leaking from the return. I'm going to get under the truck tomorrow and inspect closer. I did look at the T you referred to, it's dry as well. I noticed the oil around the exhaust manifold of cylinder #6, that's what I was referring to a possible valve cover. I cleaned the areas with carb cleaner and will inspect those again tomorrow to see if I can tell what's up. It's not a bad leak by any means. Just wondering where it's coming from.

The banjo doesn't seem to be leaking, it has an oil film on it but I don't think that's the source of the leak. Possible valve cover gasket? I have a video but it won't upload, to big. I'll try to screen shot a couple of views from the video and post them. Pass side rear, you can see the exhaust manifold in the pic for reference.

I haven't really made any long trips with mine yet. I did a 300 (approx) mile day once but was pulling my son's 5th wheel camper 150 of them (10k pounds) so hard to tell my highway milage. On normal weeks back and forth to work, mostly state roads between 55-60 and an little highway at 65-70 and I was getting around 17.5 mpg. Close to 500 miles per tank. Not bad for a dually 4x4 and 3.55 gears. I don't wind her up much, usually shift at around 2k to 2200 rpm when empty. Not really trying to get max mpg's.

Good detailed write up and nice pictures to give visual reference. Thank you for the links to the parts needed as well. Very helpful.

Numbers are increasing rapidly here in ohio as well. I'll be honest, I haven't been watching much news on it lately, just googled what our most recent report is. Doesn't look good.

Sorry to hear it has gotten so close, take care and take the steps you need to keep your loved ones safe. It has hit home here as well. 2 weeks ago my uncle (1/2 mile down the road) tested positive and now his son did as well. I am keeping my distance from them for sure. I have also been off work all last week and again all this week for a torn meniscus in my right knee. It's keeping me away from people in general. Just me and the wife here. We go out to do errands but try to make it quick and wear masks.

Not a bad looking truck. I like the front bumper. Bed wiring shouldn't be to hard to fix up.

Seems like you will be a great mentor for him. I'm assuming he is a younger guy? Best to learn from someone's experience than to just toss parts at something and hope and to learn how to properly maintain things is very important. Especially on an older vehicle, like most of our 2nd gens are now 20+ years old. I'm running into that myself a bit. Mine is an '01 and things are starting to wear out, dry out and corrode. Like the return line seals I posted in a different thread. I haven't confirmed yet but I believe they may have a small leak. With nearly 150k on the clock suspension is getting old, shocks are probably going to be in the not so far away future as well. There is alot to maintaining older vehicles, he is lucky to have someone knowledgeable there to assist him.