Gary Lewis Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 Hi Gary, Yes, it's actually pretty rigid. Only at the edges does it have much give, and maybe 2-3mm when you apply a decent amount of force. Actually I've found that the little bit of flex helps, as you have to angle the door into the plenum, stand it on edge (normal orientation) and finagle with getting the vacuum motor arm set up with the pin holding it in place. If it was totally rigid it may be more difficult to get it installed. I forget which plastic this is currently... I think it's PLA. The hopefully final revision with be printed in ABS for a better temperature range that it can handle. We also thinking about putting some raised walls around the back side of the screw holes, that way nuts can be pressed into place and machine screws can be used instead of the sheet metal style that the hinge originally had... As soon as I get the new version I'll post pictures of that, and then I imagine we will want a tester or two to verify fit in another truck. I like the idea of pressing nuts in. That will help with the installation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckuske Posted December 22, 2021 Author Share Posted December 22, 2021 I like the idea of pressing nuts in. That will help with the installation. Yeah, I thought that was pretty clever (wish I could take credit for it). This friend at work is one of those guys that's good at everything, and you wonder how they do it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckuske Posted March 6, 2022 Author Share Posted March 6, 2022 They were indeed! I'm finally getting to the point to be able to actually start painting interior parts. It's a long story, but I was diverted by the flooring/painting work on our house for a month - all seemed to settle down. Then, I was in Las Vegas for re:Invent (AWS conference) and my wife called me pretty upset - there was a water leak inside a wall and was there was wet drywall and water under our new floors.... Bottom line, a crew member of the flooring guy put a baseboard nail through our hot water supply pipe in my sons closet. It didn't spring a leak (that we knew of at least) until the nail corroded to the point that water was able to get by... so, now our floor is torn back out in two bedrooms to be replaced. Thankfully the flooring guy took responsibility and is covering it.... Given all that, not much time for the truck. But, there has been progress: 1. I showed a friend at work the piano hinge contraption. He asked to borrow it and two days later came back with a 3-D printed hinge and door that is WAY better than what I made with my limited tools. He is printing me an ABS version that is more temperature resistant and has a few tweaks to the dimensions. 2. To test the door to make sure it worked smoothly, I needed to run the engine! So, I finally filled the radiator, crossed my fingers, and said a little prayer. I used my new electric "priming" pump that's on a push button in the cab, pressed the pedal down once, turned the key and the engine started and ran for the first time in about 2.5 years! I had a few little issues - the transmission cooling line fitting on the radiator wasn't cinched enough so it was leaking at first. And even after re-torquing the valve covers, there is some burning oil near the #4 cylinder. I'm not sure yet if it is residual from before I retightened the covers, or is still leaking. I also put ThermoCure into the radiator and did a radiator flush. It got a decent amount of crud out, but not a ton thankfully. I have the Champion in-line radiator filter, and the screen is catching some old scale/rust. I have to do one more flush I think with water before I'm ready to put 50/50 antifreeze. That was a long way of saying that the door works, so now I can paint the dash and start painting/reassembling each interior part! I hope to post updates more frequently now, and fix that valve cover issue. Of course it's on the side with almost all the emissions junk, so taking it back off to diagnose will be a bear... OK, back from the dead. I think I have the vent/defrost door figured out after reducing the height on the hinge, so less air gets by. My main issue now is there is still oil smoke coming from beneath the #4 cylinder. I took off/replaced the valve cover gaskets again, adding a little RTV to the top of the gasket (where it touches the cover, not the head) to make sure it stayed in place during assembly. No dice, same amount of smoke as before. The amount of smoke seems to increase with engine RPM. I've seen some mention that it could be part of the intake gasket, or even the head gasket... It hard to diagnose all the way back there but I crawled underneath the truck behind the passenger tire and looked up in there with a light while it was running. I don't see any oil dripping but the oil is nice and clean so it may be harder to see. The exhaust header bolt right underneath that cylinder looks like it has come into contact with a fluid of one sort or another. I am still learning but that doesn't seem like a plausible explanation... so what else in that area could emit oil? It definitely is oil, not coolant (well, pretty sure at least. It smells like oil and the smoke is grey, not white. Here is a video, I apologize for the lighting, I'll try to get a better one soon. Also, I don't see any coolant leakage, or oil in the coolant. It seems to be just oil burning in the location show in the video. I was hoping maybe it was just residual from before but I let it run about 10 minute and the smoke was still coming out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted March 6, 2022 Share Posted March 6, 2022 OK, back from the dead. I think I have the vent/defrost door figured out after reducing the height on the hinge, so less air gets by. My main issue now is there is still oil smoke coming from beneath the #4 cylinder. I took off/replaced the valve cover gaskets again, adding a little RTV to the top of the gasket (where it touches the cover, not the head) to make sure it stayed in place during assembly. No dice, same amount of smoke as before. The amount of smoke seems to increase with engine RPM. I've seen some mention that it could be part of the intake gasket, or even the head gasket... It hard to diagnose all the way back there but I crawled underneath the truck behind the passenger tire and looked up in there with a light while it was running. I don't see any oil dripping but the oil is nice and clean so it may be harder to see. The exhaust header bolt right underneath that cylinder looks like it has come into contact with a fluid of one sort or another. I am still learning but that doesn't seem like a plausible explanation... so what else in that area could emit oil? It definitely is oil, not coolant (well, pretty sure at least. It smells like oil and the smoke is grey, not white. Here is a video, I apologize for the lighting, I'll try to get a better one soon. Also, I don't see any coolant leakage, or oil in the coolant. It seems to be just oil burning in the location show in the video. I was hoping maybe it was just residual from before but I let it run about 10 minute and the smoke was still coming out. Did you let the RTV set up before torquing the valve cover bolts down? When RTV is "wet" it is a very good lubricant and the gasket can easily slide off one way or the other and cause a leak. So I let things like that set up over night before torquing the bolts down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzFace2 Posted March 7, 2022 Share Posted March 7, 2022 Did you let the RTV set up before torquing the valve cover bolts down? When RTV is "wet" it is a very good lubricant and the gasket can easily slide off one way or the other and cause a leak. So I let things like that set up over night before torquing the bolts down. Rubber gasket or cork? Dave ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckuske Posted March 7, 2022 Author Share Posted March 7, 2022 Did you let the RTV set up before torquing the valve cover bolts down? When RTV is "wet" it is a very good lubricant and the gasket can easily slide off one way or the other and cause a leak. So I let things like that set up over night before torquing the bolts down. Yessir, I did wait a full day. The directions also said to put nothing on the gaskets which I didn't the first time but that the oil smoke was coming out, so I put some RTV on the non-mating side of the gasket so they'd stick better to the valve cover when installing. Anyway, I torqued the bolts down again after the first run while the engine was still hot, and let the motor run, and it seems to not smoke now. I’m not convinced but there is hope, as I was fooled before too.. In other news during that same run after I turned the motor off I was snooping around and noticed liquid on the intake. Yep… gasoline from my carb that I had rebuilt a couple years ago (and haven’t driven for real yet!!!). Looks like gas is leaking from the accelerator pump gasket/diaphragm. I ordered one, hopefully that’ll fix that whack a mole. It seems I can replace that without removing the carb off the intake, correct? I like onion layers but this is getting ridiculous! Haha EDIT: I forgot the email reply didn't work, so I pasted my reply here above... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckuske Posted March 7, 2022 Author Share Posted March 7, 2022 Rubber gasket or cork? Dave ---- Rubber, this is what I bought: https://realgaskets.com/product/valve-cover-gaskets-33/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kramttocs Posted March 7, 2022 Share Posted March 7, 2022 Rubber, this is what I bought: https://realgaskets.com/product/valve-cover-gaskets-33/ Great choice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted March 7, 2022 Share Posted March 7, 2022 Yessir, I did wait a full day. The directions also said to put nothing on the gaskets which I didn't the first time but that the oil smoke was coming out, so I put some RTV on the non-mating side of the gasket so they'd stick better to the valve cover when installing. Anyway, I torqued the bolts down again after the first run while the engine was still hot, and let the motor run, and it seems to not smoke now. I’m not convinced but there is hope, as I was fooled before too.. In other news during that same run after I turned the motor off I was snooping around and noticed liquid on the intake. Yep… gasoline from my carb that I had rebuilt a couple years ago (and haven’t driven for real yet!!!). Looks like gas is leaking from the accelerator pump gasket/diaphragm. I ordered one, hopefully that’ll fix that whack a mole. It seems I can replace that without removing the carb off the intake, correct? I like onion layers but this is getting ridiculous! Haha EDIT: I forgot the email reply didn't work, so I pasted my reply here above... Maybe you'll get lucky and tightening things stopped the leak. I sure hope so! On the accelerator pump, some can come off without removing the carb and some can't. Some of the 2150's have the accelerator pumps on the front and some have it under. I hope yours comes off the front. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckuske Posted March 7, 2022 Author Share Posted March 7, 2022 Maybe you'll get lucky and tightening things stopped the leak. I sure hope so! On the accelerator pump, some can come off without removing the carb and some can't. Some of the 2150's have the accelerator pumps on the front and some have it under. I hope yours comes off the front. Good luck! Thanks! There are four bolts on the front of the carb where the accel pump is, I'm assuming those are it. The bottom two may be tricky to get to but I'll do my best there. I'll let you know how it goes, the part comes in on Thursday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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