[izzy_Britton]

Last update for tonight.

once i was able to get the bed and rear bumper off the truck, as well as having already removed the front sheetmetal and doors, i wanted to take the truck down to the car wash and use the pressure washer to get some of the caked on mud off. I called a buddy that owns a tow truck and made arrangement o do exactly this one saturday morning.

along comes saturday, i sat on a milk crate in the cab with no doors, interior other than dash board, no front sheet metal, and no bed or bumpers, I had tow truck buddy meet me on the street outside the shop complex because the land lords just had the parking lot resealed and were painting the parking lines that day.

I start the truck and drive it out to the street. truck sounds good, except the slight tick of a lifter. no biggie. so i order up all the parts i think i will need to change out the lifters. i think of the old days when changing lifters was pretty cake. this is still cake but a lot more involved. to change the lifters you have to change out a lot of crap that you really dont think about until your hands are greasy and you need to order another part. so here is my list of parts and things to do in relation to changing out the lifter set.

LIFTERS - pretty self explanatory

to get to the lifters you gotta remove the heads, to remove the heads you gotta remove the intake manifold, the exhaust manifold, the valve covers and even tho not necessary your there so yank off the valley cover. whilst removing the valley cover you might as well replace the knock sensors and the knock sensor gaskets. sure... while your that close, save you the pain of doing in when you really dont want to, replace the cam position sensor and the oil pressure sender. here is those parts listed.

intake manifold gaskets
valve cover gaskets
valley cover gasket
knock sensor seals
knock sensor
cam position sensor
oil pressure sensor
coolant crossover tube gaskets
exhaust manifold gaskets (manifold to head gasket)
exhaust flange gasket (manifold to exhaust pipe gasket)
HEAD GASKETS (because no one in their right mind would use the old ones)
throttle body to intake manifold gasket

HEAD BOLTS

did i forget anything?

oh yeah! since the truck hasnt had a tune up in ages, you gotta do spark plugs and plug wires because the wires are melted to the plugs and i broke 3 outta 4 plug wire ends...

there is also the issue of the 2 broken exhaust manifold bolts. so make up a few new cuss words while figuring out for to extract the busted bolts and then buy a new manifold bolt kit.

i am sure there is more in there that i am forgetting but it is late and i am tired.

I will say this tho as i head off to dream land:

this truck for my wife seemed like a good idea. she wants a 4x4 and so i promised her i would get the jeep wrangler done for her. but the price was right on this truck and i think for a daily driver this would be much more comfortable in the winter time. I bought the truck on the cheap because it needed a little love. I have now jumped off the cliff of no return head first. the only part of the body that will be retained at this point is the TAILGATE! my plans to give this truck to her for anniversary gift couldnt happen because of the cab being FUBAR. so the new plan is to give the truck to her for christmas. thats exactly 6 weeks from tomorrow. I have a TON of work to do in a short time. the good news is that i now have all the parts in stock so to speak to completely assemble the truck once the cab is painted.

In the end i think (hope) she will be happy with the truck. it will be an almost new truck. the body will be fresh and bright, the engine will be maintenanced and dependable, new wheels and tires will keep her rolling good thru the winter.

All of this work to get out from under a $400 month car payment for a fairly decent 2010 Kia Soul! we like the car but the payment is crap and we still owe almost exactly what we bought it for 3 years ago. she better like this damn truck!

-Izzy