Re: Tuned Up -- and a question.

From: Terry Schwartz (tschw10117@aol.com)
Date: Mon Oct 28 2002 - 10:11:52 EST


Ray,

Why would a tune-up change your cruising RPM? I don't get it.

But it sounded like a productive weekend! Congrats. I spent the weekend
sheetrocking my garage ceiling.... that's done, now one wall left to
finish...the door wall. The other walls are pegboard.

Hey you GIII 4x2 owners, what is your experience with shock life? I'm at
42K, starting to think my shocks are getting soft. I live in pothole country
but my driving is 90% freeway, with nothing in the bed.

Terry.

<raymond.irons@gm.com> wrote in message
news:OF77A192E6.24376533-ON85256C60.004ACD16@mail.gm.com...
>
> Finally,
>
> I got around to working on my truck this weekend. I received the new JBA
> power cables I ordered last week but hadn't time to install them. Besides,
> I wanted to do the plugs, wires, cap and rotor all at the same time. I
> stopped in NAPA for the plugs, cap rotor and anti-sieze, I ran into a guy
> with a Durango who was telling the parts counter man about the problem he
> was having with his truck. I listened to him for a bit and he said the
> dealer thought it was a bad fuel pump and wanted over $300 to replace it.
I
> spoke up and told him to get his battery checked. Good info I got from the
> DML. He thanked me and said he would give that a shot. The counter guy
> heard me tell the Durango owner I was retired military and when he rang up
> the parts, he gave me the military discount. For the brass cap, brass
> rotor, 6 Autolite plugs and a tube of copper anti-sieze cost me $16.
>
> I figured as long as I was doing the ignition stuff, I might as well pull
> the TB and give it a good cleaning too. I was also gonna finally get rid
of
> those annoying heat shields, also known as dirt collectors, around the
> plugs. The truck at the time of the tune up had 88566 miles on it and it
> still had the factory cap, rotor, and wires installed. I checked my
> maintenance logs and this is the 3rd set of plugs I've put in. I don't
> remember and I didn't note what plugs were in the truck the first time I
> changed them but I do know I had installed Champions at about 40000 miles.
> They came out at 65000 miles in favor of Bosch Platinum plugs and for this
> change, I went with what is recommended by the majority of ya'll here and
> installed the Autolite 3923's. I first disconnected and removed the TB so
> it would have a chance to let the cleaner soak in while I was changing the
> plugs, etc. The TB was kind of dirty but when I got the IAC off, it was
> really carboned up bad. I took a light and looked inside the intake.
Slight
> coat of oil film. nothing more. No puddles or anything, so I think I'm OK
> there. I drew a diagram of which plug was in which cylinder and I also
> copied down the firing order. One at a time I pulled the plug wires, blew
> out the heat shield and pulled the plugs. They all looked pretty clean, no
> deposits on the electrode, none fouled. I checked and gapped the new plugs
> to .040 inch and made sure (this time!) I put anti-seize compound on the
> threads. After all the new plugs were in, I pulled the cap. I found out
the
> only way to get the cap out is after loosing the hold down screws, it has
> to come out the passenger side. Just not enough clearance on the drivers
> side. When I finally got the cap out and was able to look at it I was
> surprised the truck even ran at all! The tip of the rotor was burned and
> corroded as was every terminal inside the cap. I set the old cap and wires
> down on the work bench and installed the new JBA's on the new cap, using
> the old cap wires as a guide on how they needed to be routed. Putting new
> cap on was an exercise in contortion and vision. Seeing and getting the
> screws tightened down was tricky but do-able. The stock looms won't accept
> the larger power cables so I had to make sure they got routed when they
> would not come in contact with anything hot. I also made sure I put the
> dielectric grease in both end boots. Next, I turned my attention to the
TB.
> I took about 90 minutes to make sure it was as clean as I could get it,
and
> to get as much of the carbon build up off the IAC as possible.
>
> I got it everthing re-assembled, re-installed and it was time for the
> moment of truth. I hit the key, the truck fired right off and idled right
> where it's supposed to. I took a minute or two for it to settle down but
it
> still idled perfectly. On my way to work this morning, the butt dyno say
> the truck likes the new parts and all. I used to set the cruise at 65 and
> the tach would read about 2250 RPM. This morning at 65, it was reading
just
> a needle width above 2000 RPM. When I picked it up to 75, the engine was
> turning about 2300 RPM where it used to run nearly 2500 RPM. I pulled out
> to pass a truck and when I stepped on the gas, the truck responded like
> right now! I'm impressed! I'm not totally sure if any one thing made the
> difference, I suspect it is a combination of all of them put together. All
> in all, it was a Sunday afternoon well spent. Now I'm going off in search
> of a wrecked V8 Dak or Dango that is willing to donate its TB to my cause,
> LOL.
>
> Talk to ya'll later....
>
> Ray Irons
> Dover DE
>



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