optimizer long block - hummer 24V or cucv 24v

[richingalveston]

The head gasket change fixed the problem.
Don't buy Enginetech head gaskets unless you want practice changing them.
I pumped it to 15lbs and it held for 3 hours. I figured that was long enough. There was not anything printed on the radiator cap but testing it, 16lbs is the most it will hold.
I had a leak at the Paradox water kit. There is a plug in one side of the thermostat housing and the plug is very small. The Permatex thread sealer did not seal it. I had to use Teflon tape to get it to seal.
Now I have to remove the radiator and intake so I can put it back together.

 

[richingalveston]

made it this far, should be able to add fluids tomorrow eavening.

 

[Sharecropper]

My fingers are crossed.

 

[Barrman]

At least those head studs have paid for themselves now. How many sets of head bolts have you not had to buy?

If it holds 15 psi for more than 20 minutes or so, you are good. Overnight means you have one heck of a tight test pump and hose set up.

 

[richingalveston]

yes the ARP studs have been worth every penny. They have been installed 4 times now.
The test set I got from the auto parts store was brand new, I think I was the first to use it.
It had adapters to test the cap and my cap would let pressure off at 17 psi so it is nice to know I have the right cap since there was nothing printed on it.

 

[richingalveston]

It is running, sounds good but i have a few bugs to work out.

The first is my oil presure gauge is pegged. the gauge goes to 60 and the needle is past that on what would be 80 or more. I am using the same sending unit that came out of the 6.2 and it never went over 60 psi before.

The second is i am pretty sure the thermostat is not opening. The water temp continues to climb the longer it runs, the drivers side of radiator is cold and the upper hose is cold while the rest is pretty hot. hte gauge got to about 230 before i shut it down. the oil cooler and heater core hose are on the passenger side so there is circulation through the heater core and the oil lines are warm so that is what is heating the passenger side of radiator. With the upper hose cold and drivers side of radiator cold that tells me the thermostat is not opperating.

I also have my check engine light on and with my rewire, the idiot light sending units are all wired to that and at this time the water temp idiot light sending unit is not installed so that may be why.
exhaust temp gauge seems to work but it never got over 350 and I did not get any turbo pressure on the gauge but I think I have some leaks in the intake system and there was no load on the engine at any time.
the last is my fuel gauge is not working or the truck is almost empty. I will check the fuel level tomorrow to see which is the case.

just got to work out the bugs
Thanks
Rich

 

[Sharecropper]

Rich - glad it’s running. I recommend you consider mechanical oil pressure and water temperature gauges to eliminate any possibility of error. And yes I agree that the thermostat is not opening. Is it possible that it got installed backwards?

 

[Barrman]

350° on the EGT is about right at idle. I see 300°-400° at idle most of the time. It jumped to 275° as soon as I fired it up this morning and was at 325° or so when the cold idle kicked off.

It won't make the boost gauge move until you put a good load on it. Revving won't do it and neither will trying to launch and wind out in 1st gear. As soon as it shifts to 2nd, the boost will grow with the rpm if you stay in it.

I agree about the thermostat. However, just to say it. Are you sure the water pump is spinning the correct way? I has been a while, but I thought you got a serpentine pump backing plate from me and your pictures show a v belt set up. The v belt pumps have no arrows showing rotation direction while the serpentine pumps have an arrow pointing counter clockwise on the drivers side of the pump.

Glad you got it running finally.

 

[richingalveston]

I am using the correct water pump, i purchased a flow Kooler 6.2 pump and are using the 6.2 backing plate. I think my high flow thermostat is not working. I am going to pull it out and boil it tonight to see if it is opperating. it is supposed to be a 180 degree thermostat. I am not sure what is going on with the oil presure gauges i definately have oil flow, the lines are hot to the coolers and i craccked the turbo return line and got oil coming out. I am going to unplug the sending units to see if my check engine light goes out, maybe the low water or the oil pressure sending units have gone bad. they have been sitting for a while now so I will have to start checking each one.

the good news is the engine is running good and no leaks. It definitely came up to temp and did not seize up this time.

 

[Sharecropper]

Rich, a mechanical water temperature gauge could be the most important instrument in your truck. Here is the gauge I am installing in my M1028 -

https://www.autometer.com/2-5-8-water-temp-120-240-f-6-tubing-mech.html

 

[richingalveston]

I will consider the mechanical temp gauge in the future. At this time I am using the civvy cluster with the gauges in the dash, I also have my exhaust temp and turbo pressure gauge mounted on the steering column so I have no gauges on the dash or below the dash. I have the idiot light sending unit wired into the check engine light so I have two sending units for some redundancy. If I am not watching the gauge, the light will alert me.
I took the thermostat out and boiled it, it took a few minutes to open the first time, I thought it was bad but eventually it opened, so I think it was just stuck. I tested it three more times, letting it cool completely then put it back in the boiling water and it opened immediately so I am going to put it back in the truck and try again. I have two other thermostats and tested both of them and they opened in the same amount of time as the high flow. The high flow opening size is more than double the other two stats so I am going to try and use it.

The one with the long stem is the high flow, The stem is so long it does not fit in the housing without the paradox kit. The long stem goes toward the engine so I am sure it is installed correctly.

It might be possible that there was an air pocket at the t-stat not letting it heat up propperly, when I took it apart I had no coolant in the hose or behind the t-stat. I drained two gallons out of the radiator before opening so it may have drained down but I am not sure.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Drill and 1/8 inch hole in the stat and you'll not have that issue again. It will still heat up, the hole isn't big enough to let enough water flow and screw things up.

 

[richingalveston]

It has a hole in it with a little brass piece inserted that appears to act as a plug when presure is on it I will probably remove the plug.

 

[richingalveston]

got a few things fixed

I left the thermostat alone and installed it, made sure the hole was up so air could bleed before fluid. It seams to work now. I fixed most other issues. I had the oil presure sending unit wires backward. once i switched the wires the check engine light went off and the oil presure gauge started working. I think the presure sending unit has some problems, i took it out and it sounds like a baby rattle. so something is loose inside. It works good until you rev the motor and once it gets over 30 psi the needle jumps all the way past the 60. When cold the presure showed 30 psi and then it droped to around 20 when warmed up. I also put 5 gallons of fuel in it and the fuel gauge jumped to 1/2 tank, when you shake the truck the gauge goes to full and back so i think the sending unit in the tank has some issues. I will run some fuel through it first to see if it clears up, it has been sitting for a while.
I realized i purchased straight anti freeze and not 5050 mix so that may be why it is running a little warm. when on the throtle and the pump is moving faster and the fan moving faster the gauge shows 210, when you let it sit at idle for a little while it creeps up to about 220 but does not go past that.
attached are pics of the gauges at idle and at about 1700 rpm. IF you hammer on the throttle i get a little jump in turbo presure and you can here a slight bit of turbo whine but no real jump in exhaust temps.
tomorrow i will put the passenger side fender on it so i can get it out of the barn and drive it. don't want to drive it until at least one fender is on to hold the radiator steady

 

[richingalveston]

put the fenders on and drove it around the block, runs good, did not push it much, transmission is shifting early and my throttle position sensor is not being seen so i probably have the wires crossed. i will check that next and plug it into the laptop to see the program.
good news is there are no leaks and all the gauges are working except oil pressure, I ordered one this morning. once the gauge hits 30 psi, it then pegs the gauge.

I need to order a new wiper motor and get my t-case brake put back on so I can get it inspected, one of these days I will get the Eldorado calipers and have a real parking brake.
The water temp runs between 210 and 220.

 

[Barrman]

Which TPS are you using? The GM one I used read backwards. I was able to tell the TCM to reverse signal and all was good after that. See if you have that option before you get into the wires.

 

[richingalveston]

did not check the wires today, they are easy to get to, the wire colors from my harness do not match and all the connectors are the same so I was just guessing when I connected them.
I will work on that tomorrow night. I did get a new oil pressure sending unit and now the gauge works fine. at start up when cold it shows about 55 psi and then drops to 30 when warm. when you rev it, it goes back to 55 or close to 60 but not higher than the gauge reads.
I got everything back on except the hood and the battery trays. The batteries are still temp wired in the back seat.
I have to get my exhaust completed before I can put the hood on. currently there is just a 90 degree elbow from the turbo pointed up. surprisingly it is not that loud without a muffler.
When driving it, I am getting a little black smoke when I put some load on it, I have the IP lined up on the mark so I may need to adjust it some but not sure which way to go.
Thanks,
Rich

 

[richingalveston]

I got the throttle position sensor fixed and also went through the programming of the controller. I have the shift1 controller and may upgrade in the near future to the shift 4. The shift 1 does not have shift firmness adjustment at light throttle at each gear like the shift 4. The shift 4 has a lot more options and capabilities along with learning ability.
I drove it around the block at least a dozen times, I have large block to drive around, almost 2 miles. I was able to get on the gas pretty good and I was getting up to 6lbs of boost between shifts and my exhaust temp would reach about 600. The water temp moved between 210 and 225 at the highest. I would like it to run cooler than that but I have not been able to find my infrared temp gun to see what the actual is. The thermostat is 180 degree so the gauge may be showing temps higher than actual. I will find out soon once I find the tool.
Oil pressure ran between 25 psi at idle once completely warmed up and at high rpm got to 50 psi.
I did end up with a leak at the hydro pump. I had this issue before. I have the PSC high output pump and the connection at the pump output failed again. I am using stainless braided ptfe hose with mechanical connectors and it keeps failing at the back of the pump (third time) This hose and connector is supposed to be able to handle the pressure but so far it is not. I have a banjo bolt at the back of the pump that I don't need because I went back to the stock exhaust manifold. I am going to change to a straight connector and give it one more try.
The truck runs good but does not have the best road manners. I am probably going to have to figure out how to get a sway bar on it. with the cross over steering I may have to build one custom and possibly run it across the tranny (backwards from stock)
It is nice to be able to start working all the bugs out of the truck again now that it is drivable
Thanks
Rich​

 

[Sharecropper]

Glad it’s coming together for you. Thanks for the update.

 

[Barrman]

With our cool temps currently. I think your temp gauge is off. Or, there is something not exact in the cooling system. With only 600° EGT. It shouldn’t be over 200° using mine as a guide.

The Banks manual says around 1 psi boost at 60 mph with 400°-500° EGT on flat ground. I get that at 70 mph which is right at 2000 rpm for me. Unless there is a wind. Like yesterday I pulled a M101 a little over 100 miles. With the wind I had the listed numbers. Into the wind I was a steady 1.5-2 psi and around 750° EGT. Coolant would hit 202° up hill into the wind but most of the trip with the A/C on was 198°-200°.

You have read all about my 2 year cooling issues in my Cowdog thread. After getting it on the road I have changed to a Heath water pump, severe duty fan clutch, Heath fan, new all aluminum radiator, insulation on the cross over pipe and a blanket on the turbo.

Glad you got to drive it.