Gary Lewis

You are almost "there", Larry. Well done! Hope you get to fire it up tonight. It will be such a great feeling.

Bummer! But I think you've proven that the valve is bad, so I don't see that you have any reasonable alternative but to replace it.

I need to leave for church choir practice so I don't have time to digest your reports right now, much less comment on them. But they were fun to scan through and I'm looking forward to taking more time! But a comment on this, when I've tried to combine pictures from multiple devices, what I've found best is to put them all in one folder on my computer and sort the folder by date. IF I remember to change the time on our digital SLR camera for the correct time zone (big if) because the cell phones automatically do, then they all get sorted in the order they were taken. Bob - I'm headed out for Bible study momentarily, but I will comment on the date and folder idea. Basically that's what I wound up doing. But I created folders for each day and sorted the pics into those. However, I was a bit taken aback by the pics taken on the iPhone but inside Gaia. Their differing numbering scheme threw me off. Then I discovered that I was set up to sort by name, not date. When I changed that it all cleared up.

Day Two: The second day was a looooong day. Bob had warned me that it would be, but he couldn't foresee the "adventure" we had. But all's well that ends well. Gaia says the route is 45.9 miles, most of which is on the highway. As shown below, we got off on Engineer Mountain Trail, or the Alpine Loop, depending on what map or signs you are reading. (The sign on the highway says "Alpine Loop" at the moment.) And we then went up to Mineral Point, Animas Forks, Engineer Mountain Pass, California Gulch & Pass, Lake Como & The Wall, Hurricane Pass, and then Corkscrew Gulch. But as Bob said, Engineer Mountain Trail is rough! Things were going well until I slid off the side. What happened was that I thought I could sneak the driver's side tires past the rocks and put the right side tires on top of the berm. But I was wrong and the LH tires hit the rocks, which pushed us to the right and the RH tires slid over the berm. But that was fortuitous in a way because it caused us to meet Mike. We'd just passed him while he wondered if he should go on since someone coming down the mountain told him he should NOT go up in his 4Runner. He came up and we discussed the situation, with all of us realizing that just pulling it forward with my winch would probably cause the rear end to slide down the hill more. So Mike brought his 4Runner around and positioned it above us and ran his winch line to the rear of the step bar on Big Blue. Sure enough, when we ran Big Blue's winch the truck went straight forward and came right out. After that, still wondering if he should go on, Mike asked if he could tag along. (And he did so for three days.) So we headed up the mountain and stopped at Mineral Point. (That road was rough and later Mike said he didn't want to go back if it meant going to Mineral Point.) Next up was Engineer Pass, and here's my brother, the engineer, pointing at the sign. From there we went back down to Animas Forks, where we had lunch and toured one of the houses. Here are some pics from that, starting with Rick and Mike on Big Blue's tailgate with the mine in the background. And here's the sign outside the house that we toured: This pic is a pano from inside looking through the bay window of that house: From there we headed through California Gulch and over California Pass: From there to the junction with Poughkeepsie Gulch and then down the gulch past Lake Como and to The Wall. No, we didn't try to tackle The Wall. First, there was a serious ~2' step that we'd have to get over in order to even get to The Wall. Then at The Wall the less difficult side on the left was cabled off. So we decided to give it a pass. And last, on to Hurricane Pass and then to Ironton and back onto 550 and up to Ouray. It was a looong day, but turned out very well. I learned one thing not to do, we got unstuck nicely, and we gained a new friend - Mike.

Day One: I called the days we were in Ouray Day 1, 2, 3, & 4. This is about Day 1. We went south of Ouray on HW 550, the Million Dollar Highway, and picked up Ophir pass. At the trailhead we aired down and once down into the town of Ophir we aired back up. And that's where we learned not to give each tire 2 minutes as that raised them from 15 to 45 psi! From Ophir we hit a county road and went into Telluride and picked up Imogene Pass, which took us back to Ouray. All in all Gaia says that is a 56.2 mile run. Here's the route in a pdf so you can zoom in and still have some clarity. (Click on the Full Screen icon on the bottom right of the map to open it up in another window where you can zoom and pan.) Here's my brother, Rick, on Ophir Pass: And here's a shot of coming down Ophir pass. Note that this is about the spot where we stopped last year to let a tour truck come down, and where I learned my passengers as well as those in the Jeep behind us were already freaking. And now we are coming up Imogene. If I were to rate the trails on a 1 - 5 basis I'd probably rate Imogene as a 3+, with Ophir as a 2. Imogene was steep at some points, but the hardest part was in finding places to meet people. There are some parts of it that are tight. We stopped for lunch at an abandoned mine, and I got a shot of Rick enjoying his lunch: And the obligatory "we were here" shot on top of Imogene. No, I didn't get out as we'd spotted another pulloff up above and just stopped to get the pic as the place was crowded. And here's the pulloff. Lot's fewer people but still way up on the mountain at 13,000'. But it is what we did on that point at 13,000' that I thought was "hot". We brewed two cups of Starbucks from a Keurig and then sat on the tailgate and drank it, looking our over a vast chunk of Colorado. It is amazing what 3000 watts of AC can do. And then we headed down the mountain. And towards the bottom at Camp Bird Mine we spotted this cute house, after which we were pretty well back in Ouray. A good day, and a lot of fun!

Thanks, Scott. Speaking of photos, I've been working on them to be able to share them. However, I've also discovered several ways not to do it. For one, taking two cameras, like my iPhone and a Nikon point & shoot, is a pain because the pictures are stored in two different places. And merging the two sets of files isn't easy. So it might be best to stick with one camera. But wait, there's more! Gaia, the mapping app, has the ability to take pics from the app and show them on the map. But it seems have its own numbering scheme separate from that of the device on which the pic is shot, which makes sense because you could use several different devices to access the map and/or shot pics. Given that, I've been struggling. But I think I'm there, so let's get this show on the road! We stopped on the second day of driving on Monarch pass to take a break and get some ice cream. Note how clean Big Blue is. But my brother spotted the cable car and wanted to go up, so we did: And from the top I shot this 180 degree pano. (The railings are actually in one line.)

Thanks, Jim! That's a big help.

I've heard that enough in other vehicles (including new Jeeps) that I refuse to have an electric fan on my trail rig. I know it can be more effective, but I'll do everything I can to resolve any cooling issues while keeping the mechanical fan before accepting that noise (and I don't have any cooling issues now). And no, I'm not saying that anyone who goes with an electric fan is making the wrong choice. It's just a choice I really don't want to make. In my experience usually people on trails are pretty good about figuring out pretty quickly who will have the easiest time making room, and if it's them they will, even if they "should" have the right-of-way. Most people are just out there to have fun anyway, and getting in right-of-way arguments is never fun. Doesn't surprise me! I see a few full-size trucks, but not many. Most are the "tour busses" that you can get "Jeep" rides in. You see them on Black Bear as well as occasionally some other trails in Ouray, but a lot more often around Moab (I've even seen an WWII 6x6 there!). Of course those drivers know the trails and have tons of experience. But yeah, why take a full size truck on the trail? The same reason anyone would take any vehicle on the trail: it's fun! There's really no other point to it anyway! Bob - I'm still running the factory engine-driven cooling fan on Big Blue. And it apparently moves a LOT of air as it has a serious sound to it when it is engaged. But it isn't as high-pitched as the electric fans on all of the other vehicles, including Jeeps, Toyotas, etc. In any event, it works and we had absolutely no cooling problems on the trip. Having said that, we did have a "cooling system" issue. Several mornings I found the coolant recovery bottle down ~16 ounces, and found tracks in the dust under it. So it looks like the lid to the reservoir is leaking coolant as we bounce our way down the trail and the coolant splashes around. I know the lid isn't sealed so I'm thinking about pulling the reservoir, turning it upside down, and running flowable RTV into the lip. As for the right of way, everyone was very friendly. The side-by-sides were very quick to pull over. They seem to know that they are more maneuverable than about anything else but a motorcycle or bicycle, so they move over quickly. (We saw tons of motorcycles and several bicycles - including two young ladies on bicycles that made it to the tops of Engineer and Cinnamon. ) And you are right, the reason to take Big Blue is for the fun of it. I'm sure I could have spent some money and made Blue able to do the same trip. Or bought another vehicle and made it capable. But it is more fun to me to take an "old truck" and make it do it in style. And speaking of "style", my brother frequently popped the hood to show people the engine. And he got lots of "wow's". I think he was almost as proud of it as I am.

Larry - When covered with the bedliner you won't need the paint job to be pretty. But it should keep the bed from rusting more. Well done! As for patching, I don't think the drop-in bed liner is ABS. I'm not a materials kind of guy, and Jim can correct me, but I think of ABS as being hard and stiff, which doesn't describe that bedliner. But I don't know what the bedliner is made of so don't have a good recommendation for how to fill the holes. I'll tag Jim, who will probably have a good idea.

Ok, the results are in on the last tank of fuel and the spreadsheet has been updated. (See above.) For the highway miles we got 11.3 MPG driving 70 and 75 for the most part, although obviously not in the Ouray area due to the switchbacks, climbs, etc. I then dialed that into the highway portion of the tanks when we 'wheeled and that brought the 'wheeling MPG down a bit, for an average of 3.08 MPG. But, the 11.3 is probably not accurate for those miles around Ouray, so I played with it a bit. At 10 MPG on the highway there the average 'wheeling MPG is 3.24, and at 9 MPG on the highway the average 'wheeling is 3.41. However the interesting thing is that at 9 MPG on the highway, which may be fairly accurate given the amount of third gear climbing done, the two bad 'wheeling days are 2.7 MPG and the two good days are 4.3 MPG. So I'm thinking that 4 MPG is probably about right for 'wheeling, and 11 MPG is pretty close on the highway - at 70 MPH and with the speed control on. And those last two are important because at 65 and manually controlling the throttle I'm sure it would turn in at least 12 MPG. In fact, there are two tanks where we had reduced speeds and weren't able to use speed control much, and those came in right at 12 MPG. Anyway, 460's are thirsty. But they get the job done!

Sounds like I got about what should be expected. POOR! Especially when the 6.6 is probably "on the level" and the 4 is going up very steep slopes in 4Low, frequently in 2nd or 3rd gear. However, I'm going to guess that EFI is going to make quite a difference as the AFR was way rich at all times. Maybe I'll get up to 6 MPG? That would be significant as the 4 gives me a range of 4 x 38 = 152 miles and 6 would be 228 miles. The extra 76 miles would come in really handy in an overlanding adventure. Another thing that EFI should do is give me a more stable idle, stronger low RPM power, and easier starts. The idle was low when at the top of the passes and the engine didn't pull really well if you got it below 1300 RPM. And if you killed it or turned it off it spun a bit to get started - especially if you were on a steep angle. But all in all the engine performed quite well, save for the 2nd day when the carb was messed up. We were pleased with how well it did after blowing the carb out. We could climb anything, and usually in 3rd gear, although at times we had to go into 2nd just to go slowly enough to safely navigate the rocks. And cresting some of the ridges we'd go into 1st since we couldn't see over them so wanted to be going slowly in case someone else was coming up the other side. Having said that, you could hear us coming for quite a ways. The sweet sound of the exhaust announced us fairly well, but the whine of the cooling fan frequently drowned the exhaust out completely. The fan comes in somewhere around 206 degrees, but it does so gently enough that you don't notice it immediately. And then you realize that you sound like a giant vacuum cleaner. That and the size of the truck seemed to be a bit unsettling to the oncoming drivers. They were quick to pull over and give us room! We'd come around a corner and everyone pulled over, regardless of whether we were going uphill or down. In fact, thinking of that, we only met one other truck our size in 4 days of 'wheeling, and it wasn't on a really serious trail. People frequently took our picture as we went by, and on top of Engineer Pass a lady took our pic and Mike heard her say "Why?" My answer would have been "Because!"

It does look good. And if it is different I don't know what the difference is. But this post says there was a redesign in '87 and this is the right one for our truck:

Yes, welcome to the forum! Glad you joined. Where's home? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and can add you if we had a city/state or zip. So, having been around a railroad quite a bit, what did they do to or with the truck? Post pics!

Yes, welcome! Glad you joined. And as Dave said, I have to ask what part of SC? We have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and can add you if we have a city. Also, my daughter lives on James Island, so I do know something about that area. Yes, post some pics!

David is right, I've tried to contact Vernon and he's not responding. As for MPG, my spreadsheet is below. Note that I've not filled up here in Skiatook yet, so there's a cell that shows Div/0. Maybe I'll get to it tomorrow, but haven't been feeling well today so am taking it easy. In the spreadsheet you'll see the Total Tank(s) columns in blue and the MPG for each "tank". But in the green columns I've determined how many "highway" miles we put on during those four days in the mountains, such as driving from Ouray to the trail head, and assumed we got 11 MPG for those miles. I then determined how many gallons that would have taken and subtracted that from the gallons for those stops, which gives me the gallons used on the mountain trails. And that let me calculate the info in the tan columns. Note that the first two days on the trails the guestimate is that we got about 2 1/2 MPG, but after I blew the idle passages out before we started the third day the trail MPG jumped up to about 4. And, the truck ran much better - even though it was still jetted for 1000 feet. But I do think the EFI will help a bunch, both in the MPG as well as the running. However I doubt that I'll be seeing 6 MPG out of such a heavy vehicle with a big engine.

Thanks, Jonathan. I'm home and am processing pictures. Lots of pics. In total it looks like we traveled 1950 miles. I've not yet gassed up to get the final figures, but we got ~11+ MPG on the road running ~70 MPH on speed control, both of which hurt the gas mileage. (Almost typed "economy" but 11 MPG seems to be far from economical.) But on the trails it was more like 3 MPG. And other than the carburetion issue and the door hitting the fender we had no problems. Oh yes, the built-in GMRS radio doesn't work well, and I'm guessing that there's something awry in the antenna lead I shortened. But the two handhelds let us communicate with Mike pretty well, so we got by. I hope to post some pics and details of each day tomorrow.

Those were shot with my iPhone X and downsized in Photoshop to ~500kb for the forum. I have others shot with a Nikon point & shoot that I’ve not processed yet. Thanks for the wishes. The Lord willing I’ll be home by 1:00 today. Trip is going quite well.

Glad you are safe! That was a bad storm!

Looking good, Larry! That is a lot of work but it is really coming together. As for the shirt, that’s one of the NPD shirts from the show.

Bob - I suggested Last Dollar Road into Telluride and then Ophir or Imogene to come home. But Mike didn't think that was a good idea for two reasons: first, LDR is "just a gravel road"; second, there was a foot race from Ouray to Telluride over Imogene so it was closed to vehicle traffic. So he suggested Porphyry Gulch, and we are glad he did. That trail comes off of the Black Bear trail and it is narrow and steep in places. But it was the views that were just stunning! I'll post more pics, but the one below is of my brother talking to his wife from close to the top of the trail. And from that point we could see 550 in three different places as it comes down from Red Mountain Pass. Just an awesome view. As for carb vs EFI, we did get a "Wow, it has a carb!" from a young guy on top of Black Bear yesterday. But we got so many other "Wow" remarks just for the truck that we can forgo the ones for the carb. (We just won't pop the hood.) As for the compressor, I gave the truck an "air bath" last evening. It is amazing how much dust 160 PSI air will blow off. On the camera, I'm hoping I can find a camera/mirror combo that I can use for both rear as well as forward views. That way I can put a camera on the front bumper and see as we crest a hill. But we had absolutely no problem with the Truetrac. Traction was never a problem, and we locked the front diff only as a precaution. As for more pics and reports, I hope to start on them tomorrow or Tuesday. The Lord willing I'll get home tomorrow afternoon as we are in Pratt, KS at the moment so don't have too far to go.

Today was our last day and we head out tomorrow. I'll post a bunch of pics and more info after I get home, but I'll add a few more details here. Today we explored Porphyry Gulch, Black Bear Pass, and Colorado 825. The pic below was taken from CO 825, and Porphyry Gulch is visible to the left, and Black Bear is visible to the right. And to make sure you understand, we just went to the top of the pass and didn't go down the switchbacks. And now for some notes about the trip and the truck, which I'll explore later: My brother is constantly singing the praises of Big Blue. He really likes the engine, the suspension, the tires, the whole package. Today the engine ran very well, even though the AFR was rich. And we pulled the grade to Black Bear in 3rd gear. It is strong, but EFI is going to make it even better. The compressor is awesome! I turn it on before we hit the end of the trail and that means you have 200 psi on tap, and at that pressure it takes 30 seconds to bring a tire from 15 to 30 psi. And while the pressure goes down as you fill the tires, it never takes as much as 60 seconds - even for 8 tires as we frequently filled Mike's tires as well as Big Blue's. We used the OX locker a few times and it worked perfectly. It is quick to come in and pulls you right up over the rocks. But the Truetrac out back works so well that it is is rare that the OX is needed. But on the down side, the visibility over the hood is really poor as you crest a hill. Our friend Mike has a forward-looking camera and it makes a huge difference in his ability to see what is ahead of him. So I'm now thinking I want to add a forward-looking camera as well as a backup camera. Hopefully I can find one that uses the rearview mirror as the display. Anyway, pics and lots more detail is coming - after I get home.

It's a little counter-intuitive at first, but often hitting the rocks (with the tires) is the best path, frequently better than trying to go around them, especially with a larger vehicle. I think those are good calls, specifically because they are YOUR calls. You can see what you want to do or not. Maybe some time in the future, with a little more experience, you'll be able to enjoy tackling The Wall or Black Bear. Or maybe some time in the future you'll continue to enjoy not tackling them! The goal is just to have fun, it doesn't matter how. And if you think back on most of my trip reports, the last day or two usually tends to be an easier trail. Somehow that often seems like that's the way to have the most fun after pushing yourself for a few days! Bob - Yes, it is counter-intuitive. But we learned - quickly. As for the decisions, we are happy with them. And we've done some things we weren't sure we could do. And Big Blue took it all in stride. Today several really steep and rough switchbacks were taking in 2nd or even 3rd gear where yesterday it would stall at the worst times and be hard to start. But we seen to have gotten that sorted. As for coming back, he mentioned trying Black Bear "next time". And while today was an easier day because we took 550 to Silverton and then up to Animas Forks, Cinnamon Pass and American Basin. But there were lots of challenging sections, like those switchbacks. So tomorrow may be another relaxing day.

Well, where to start??...LOL. I've had some time to go over the truck and figure a few things out with regards to the direction I'm going to take. Power brakes with a front disk kit is pretty high on the list, as is power steering. There's bolt-on kits for all of this stuff, so they're relatively straight forward. Swapping on front disks will be easy enough, but installing a power master cylinder under the cab will be a bit of a pain in the butt. I see there are remote reservoirs available, so that might help the situation a bit. I've determined that the 5spd trans is a BW T5 from a 2wd 1987 Chevy S-10. That's nice to know for several reasons, but mainly so I can order input and output seals for it. It needs a throw-out bearing (it's noisy when clutch is pressed) and finding out what's in there might be a bit tricky. This 5spd swap was done before there were all kinds of simple swap kits available, so I don't know what's in there until I pull it. From what I've been reading it seems likely that the pressure plate and everything is 1952 Ford, and all they did was swap in a 10" S-10 clutch disk (to match the input splines of the T5). So the throw-out bearing should be correct to the truck, but I honestly have no idea until I get in there. I'm pretty sure a complete rewire is required, which shouldn't be all that bad on a truck of this vintage. A 12v conversion was done, but it was rough...there's loose wires everywhere, and open ends hanging out, etc. This stuff really bother's me because I've seen a lot of old vehicles catch fire the past number of years. This is fairly high on my winter project list. The engine still has an original Load-O-Matic points distributor, so that is going to get converted to something more modern. I'm learning about the old flat head Ford engines pretty quickly. I find them fascinating. I didn't realize until I bought this thing that the engine cooling system(s) are isolated left and right...so two water pumps, two thermostats, and two inlets and outlets in the rad, etc. The first thing that came to mind was how did the truck's dash only have one coolant temp gauge?? From my reading it looks like only one cylinder head had a temp sensor, while the other just had a temp switch. So you were always only monitoring the temp on a one side, and the other side was either OK, or not OK...lol. I assume if the side with just the switch overheated then it would peg the gauge full hot. Driver's side has a loose king pin, and the passenger side has a loose wheel bearing that won't tighten up, so I see some front end work over the winter. The carb is a Holley 2300 2bbl (350 CFM) with manual choke. This thing starts, runs, and idles very well. It has an interesting mechanical linkage for the throttle, but it seems to work OK, so I won't fuss with it too much. I'm going to try and do a bit of a health check on the old flat head asap...compression test, and check oil pressure, and go from there. The engine runs very nicely, and doesn't smoke so I'm hoping it's all just fine. I'd very much like to leave it in there and not swap in a SBF/302, etc. So for winter 2021/22, I'd like to do power disk brake swap, power steering, complete re-wire with new gauges and ignition, and a whole bunch of maintenance work from king pins to, wheel bearings and u-joints, etc. Peeling the layers of a 70 year old onion, eh Gary??...lol. So far the old thing is a hoot to drive, and it's getting lots of love out on the streets. That does seem like a lot of peeling, Cory. But you have a plan, which sounds like a good one, and you've proven you can carry out a plan quite well. I'm anxious to follow along...

Sorry I'm late to the game, but that sure does look like a nice truck. Too bad it doesn't run well. When you say you replaced the distributor did that include the TFI module? That's the aluminum piece sticking off the side of it. Those are known to have problems, and even if you did replace it you might have gotten a bad one.

Dane - You are right, the 460's like their fuel! Won't know until we gas up in the morn what MPG we got today, but yesterday's combo of highway and trail got 3.13 MPG. Today may be about the same. Bill - Yes, I certainly do realize that EFI adjusts for altitude. And boy, am I ready for it! In fact, I'm going to check out the PTO input to the ECU to see if that will raise the idle speed, which would sure be nice at times. But, I did get the carb back to where it should be today. I stewed on it last night and decided I'd do what I've done before on AFB's that were acting up - blow air through the idle mix screw holes. (Kinda nice having onboard air!) So that's what I did this morning as well as checked the choke for functioning and the metering rods for being installed correctly. (How can you mess up a metering rod install?) All else was spot-on, so apparently the compressed air did the trick as I then had to screw the idle mix screws in almost a turn as the idle was too rich. And overall the AFR was still a bit too rich, but that's far better than the way too lean we saw yesterday. So we are happy with it. John - Yes we did have that discussion, and now we are back to where we were so should have left them alone. Rich is better than lean. (But spot-on would be best.) Dave - You can't see the other end of the cable. Bob - If you remember that spot then you'll remember the rocks. I thought I could get past the rocks with the right side tires on the top of the berm. But the left side tires hit the edge of the rocks and bumped us over the berm. Lesson learned - go over the rock! Stay off the berm! And yes, it is great to meet others and help/get help. Mike, the gentleman we met, has been tagging along ever since. Just before we met him he'd been told by someone coming down that he shouldn't be there with his 2020 Toyota 4Runner. But after helping us he asked if he could follow us and he's gone everywhere we've gone. In fact, we went over Cinnamon Pass and then up into American Basin today and had a blast. And we are going some where tomorrow with Mike, we just don't know where. Speaking of that, we've done everything we thought we'd do save for Black Bear, and we don't think we are up for that this trip, and The Wall, which we went up to yesterday and I don't want to attempt. So tomorrow we may do something easy. Like Last Dollar Road and either Ophir or Imogene back to Ouray.