diesel4life

Fuel finally dropped below the $4.00/gal mark locally around here as well. This is the first time its been below 4 bucks in a looong time. Were going to need every penny we can get with the extra 2k or so were going to be handing out to Nobama this year.

I remember reading about a guy a while back that blew a dump truck up with 100 lbs of tannerite. The explosion could be heard from several miles away. For comparison purposes, a half pound was enough to level that antique washing machine, so roughly 200 times that amount.... Ok I found an old link here it is. Not quite as big as I remembered but still enough to land in some hot water http://forum.pafoa.org/general-2/14684-50bmg-100-lbs-tannerite-dumptruck-nuclear-plant-alert.html

That looked like a good washing machine! At least ours was growing roots!

Why thank you for the compliment!

You could say that we loaded a 50 year old washing machine up with a little tannerite (ammonium nitreate and powdered aluminum). Its popular explosive used in target shooting now a days. When I was little, my uncle used to make homemade cocktails of the stuff but now its available at gun shops, at least around here anyway. Its not explosive until you mix the two components together, and even then you have to set it off with a high caliber rifle, like say an AR or maybe a .223 :whistle:Its a christmas tradition around here, kind of like a sacrifice to the scrap gods

I would love to see your part of the country, if I ever am out that way Ill take you up on that :thumbup2We are planning our trip to Wyoming to see my mother and brother and sister. We will most likely be driving and i would like to take the kids up through the badlands on our way to show them the country a little bit. I would also like to take them to Yellowstone, but I dont know how much time I will be able to take off from work yet. We are already planning on 10 days as it is, and Yellowstone is on the complete opposite end of the state from my mom (she lives in Laramie).How far from Yellowstone are you, Mike?

Reminds me of moms cabin in the snowies. Ok, now youve got me homesick

This is what our family does when we get together for the holidaysYep, were just a bunch of country boys

Have you ever considered a 4runner from that era? Not trying to discourage you from anything else, but anything Toyota is virtually bullet proof. Thats all I drove for many years, until I out grew them and needed a larger truck. Ive owned the older model pickups, tacomas, and owned a 95 4runner as well. They were all high mileage vehicles and had no issues with any of them. The front ends are very resilient, I bought my 4runner with 65k miles on it and it went another 200k before I had to replace the ball joints. The biggest issue with the older models is the bodies tend to fall off and the frames were notoriously weak right behindthe cabs of the pickups, but if you can find one with a solid body and frame, you cant go wrong with one. No, they dont have v8 power like your looking for, but the 3.0 and 3.4 v6 will run forever as long as you keep up with the timing belts every 125k miles. The late 90s up until 02 I think still had steel bodies, full frames, and steel bumpers. They changed up after that (went cheaper) and went to a not so attractive body style in my opinion.Like I said, not trying to dissuade you from anything else, just throwing an option out there.

Is that a snowstorm rolling in, or just low cieling?

We had the exact same explorer several years ago, sold it due to high mileage and all the upcoming repairs I foresaw coming down the pipeline. It was a great vehicle, I did absolutely nothing to it other than change the fluids and a few brake jobs. We bought a trailblazer as a replacement, and the front end has not held up very well at all. The wheel bearings are junk, to say the least. We are seriously considering ditching it in favor of another low mileage 2-3 yr old explorer, probably one with 3rd row seating and a v6 this time around for slightly better mpg. A durango has crossed my mind, but I really dont know of anybody whose had them to compare them to.

Hey Russ, how much snow do you have on the ground? Weve got probably 15 inches from the last 4 or 5 days, it hasnt all come at once. This has been the first snow storm of the year for us, which has come quite late compared to previous years. The ground hasnt even froze yet, tried pulling the kids and their cousins around on tubes behind the fourwheeler the other day, and after about a half dozen laps around the field we were kicking up mud.

It wasnt an early d250 cummins that yanked that 5er through 12+ inches of snow by chance was it? :lmao:Happy anniversary, Russ :thumbup2:One day shy of my bday!

Usually you will see slightly better mpg with a mild tune compared to stock because your timing is going to be more aggressive. Also things like driving in snow and excessive idle times in the winter could also be keeping your numbers down. Even say 10 or 15 minutes of idling time per day over the course of a tank of fuel is going to change mpg alot compared to summer time when u typically jump in and go.

Hey Jim, the smarty is definitely a good choice. As far as what to monitor, your right on track with egt and boost. Fuel pressure is a good one for peace of mind but from what I understand is not nearly as critical as say with the 2nd gens. Still not a bad idea though, better to be proactive than reactive! Welcome aboard

Hey Ryan, one or both of these lines are for HVAC controls, do you have both of these attached? I cant remember which one it is, but one of them controls the vent door. This picture is of the vacuum header that runs right along the top of the firewall kind of underneath the weather sealEdit: Looking at your first picture, it seems both those lines are connected at the top so maybe you could trace them down stream to make sure theyre connected? I cant really tell what the 2nd pic is.JR

Weve got 4 vehicles sitting around here and as the batteries have gone bad in them I replace them with Interstate. My dads always ran them in his trucks/tractors and they are a reliable battery, everyone he or I has owned has lasted well beyond the warranty. I can also get them right up the road from either the local parts store or the local repair shop, maybe a tad more money but I try to support my local peeps whenever I can Like Mike said the most important thing is to keep them topped off and the connections in sound condition as well.

It would have to be pretty darn cold to cause problems without a fuel heater. As far as the loose fittings, if your seeing wet fuel around anything, that definitely could be a problem. But any leak Ive ever had caused a hard start issue after it sat for a while. I would think if it takes that long to start acting up, you may be experiencing another problem. I would definitely pull your codes up just to see whats going on.

I dont have any threads to point you towards to answer your question, but I would have to say it is probably diluted enough that its not going to change the temp at which fuel gels. Ive ran it mixed with gas in chainsaws ( much more concentrated than what we use in our trucks) in really cold weather, even had the gas can sitting in the bed of my truck for a few days at at time during a cold snap and seen no ill effects of it. Then if you look at its uses in sleds, where there is a separate reservoir and its injected into the fuel system, it has to be able to sit in whatever weather a snowmobile is subjected to without gelling or freezing. :shrug:Just my thoughts?

Merry christmas to you and your family Hex. God bless you all.

Ive reread this thread thinking I mis spoke or offended someone, as my comment was the last posted before it was locked out. I cant see where I stepped out of line, I certainly wasnt attacking anybody personally. If anybody feels differently, that wasnt my intentions. Having a discussion as deep as this, especially when one is playing both sides of the field, is bound to produce some emotions. I think thats all that weve seen here, not disrepect but emotions and I think I can speak for everybody else on that. Just the same, maybe its best to just stick to technical topics in the future, less chance of bieng "misunderstood".Merry Christmas and god bless,JR

Hey ABennin welcome to the site. Thats a serious bumper is it a pushbumper off a wrecker? Thats what it reminds me of anyhow its pretty sweet!

So just because we dont fight any wars over here anymore we should change the 2nd amendment? I dont think so. The constittution was written to protect the people from England AND our own government. Under no circumsrances should they try to justify changing that, yet everytime something like a shooting happens they try to brain wash us into thinking we need to change it. Unfortunately, by some of the above comments, they are slowly achieving that

Yep were finally getting a little taste of winter, I guess we should just consider ourselves fortunate its held off this long. Im sure prowelder will get back to you shortly!

Hello stranger :wink:Welcome to the site Mo I think youll find tons of good info on the 2nd gens around here