Chris(NJ)'s, where am I going with this, already built build

[dsraven]

Chris(NJ)
have you thought about some heat shielding on the exhaust pipes near the fuel tank? maybe even just a slice off a larger pipe with a couple of spacers that could be clamped to the existing pipe. like a heat shield on a motorcycle exhaust pipe. like this link but bigger, obviously.

https://shopee.ph/Universal-Motorcyc...596.2118207189

[Chris(NJ)]

Originally Posted by dsraven

Chris(NJ)
have you thought about some heat shielding on the exhaust pipes near the fuel tank? maybe even just a slice off a larger pipe with a couple of spacers that could be clamped to the existing pipe. like a heat shield on a motorcycle exhaust pipe. like this link but bigger, obviously.

https://shopee.ph/Universal-Motorcyc...596.2118207189

Yea, I've definitely thought about doing it. With the bed off the truck right now it's given me an opportunity to poke around back there and I see some things I want to address. As a side note, the vent line, imo, needs to sit up higher and the hose has way too much of a bend in it, so much that it even dips below the level of the top of the tank. To me, I feel like that leaves the chance for fuel to get in there and block the vent line from doing an efficient job.
Beyond that and with the truck running, I really don't feel a lot of radiant heat coming off the pipes. I (reluctantly, and carefully) felt close to the pipes near the tank and fuel lines and do not think it is nearly as bad as I had expected. But common sense tells me I should prevent as much heat as possible from attacking the fuel lines. This is especially bad up front in the engine bay and where the fuel line runs along the frame rail to the pump.
In the back though, I was thinking about maybe sticking on some of that heat reflective adhesive on the sides of the tank closest to the pipes. Like this... https://www.summitracing.com/parts/t...caAkzlEALw_wcB

So where does that leave me. Well, this is exhaust is in one piece. I appreciate that it doesn't leave any room for an exhaust leak, but if I knew how to weld, I would honestly cut it right by the muffler and have the pieces ceramic coated. I would prefer that over wrapping the pipe. A lot of varying opinions on heat wrap and every time I go to pull the trigger on some wrap, I read something that convinces me otherwise, or someone talks me out of it.

Am I over-analyzing this? Or do you guys think I should put something on the pipes and ceramic coat the stock cast manifolds to keep heat to a minimum?

[Chris(NJ)]

Did the gasket tonight. I didn't have to drop the tank, so that was nice. Took out the 5 screws and realized I was pretty close. So I wound up unbolting the driver side mounting bolts for the tank which dropped it enough that I was able to get the sending unit out far enough to get the new gasket over the top. I'm sure there must be some junk floating in the tank. Even as I carefully took out the broken pieces of gasket, there was not nearly enough to re-create a full gasket. Anyway, simple fix. Took me an hour. The majority of the time spent figuring out the stupid bolt hole configuration was oriented correctly.

Now I need to find out why the truck is running so poorly all of a sudden. About a month ago I started getting horrible gas mileage (Holley 600 carb). Like 8mpg, mixed driving. Now it's dying out on me too after a cold start and once I put it in gear. When it's warmed up and I come to a stop, it stumbles like crazy but doesnt die. And it also has a serious dead spot coming off idle. When I give it gas, it takes a couple seconds to kick in.
I don't know how you guys do it with carbs...it's driving me nuts lol. I want to go to an FI motor w/ an ecu that tells me whats wrong when it's not running right