coolwind57

Fond memories of driving 8 & 900 series trucks like this through the narrow village streets of Okinawa back in the 90s. USMC always reminded us that you're driving a deadly weapon. These monsters can be devastating when involved in an accident.

I heat my house exclusively with firewood. I have an old double-door Timberline, single-wall, no blower or anything requiring electricity. One learns pretty quick on how best to operate the dampers. I have two on my doors (intake side) and one disc damper on my flue (exhaust side). Every once in a while, I'll have a brain fart and open my doors to load and forget first to open the flue damper all the way. Yea boy. Nothing like a blast of smoke in your face. I've had my smoke alarm go off because of this. Here's some of my thoughts and experiences on heating with firewood: PROS --No electricity required. In power outages, I have uninterrupted heat. --I even cooked a pot of chili on it several years ago when we had an extended power outage. So one can even cook with them if needed. --Its the best heat EVER! I'm often a bit uncomfortable when I go to friends homes and they have something other than wood heat. There's nothing like the heat comfort of a wood stove. I easily pass out on a recliner with a big ol' smile on my face. --The stove itself is very low maintenance. Especially mine with no blower. I think I replaced firebrick and did some welding on the flue maybe like 10-years ago. My stove was purchased new by my Dad when I was 5. I'm 51 years old now. --High labor involved = great exercise. From felling trees to cutting it up, and hauling it. Even if you pay someone for the wood itself, there's plenty of labor in just getting pieces hauled in your house. CONS --Always sweeping up. Even with a "clean" firewood source, I'm forever always cleaning up wood/bark debris. So not maintaining your home makes your house look dirty real quick. --Always dusting the house. Creates a lot of dust. --Hot to the touch. Got to keep small children away. Got to keep anything flammable or heat sensitive away. Discipline in this area will help to keep you from burning up in a horrible home fire. --High labor involved. From felling trees to cutting it up, and hauling it. Again, even if you pay someone for the wood itself, there's a lot of work in just getting it hauled in your house. If you're getting up there in age or have some physical limitations, then this source of heat may not be for you. --My buddy's woodstove has a built-in blower system. Man, it really only puts out decent heat when that blower toggles on via a thermostat. No electricity and that thing sucks. Just can't put out the radiant heat that my single-wall does. --I have to keep a kettle of water on top or the home gets a little too dry. The kettle helps. My buddy almost bought a pellet stove during the Summer of 2020. He's glad he didn't. Apparently, with Covid there has been a pellet shortage in our area this past year. My 2 favorite woods to burn: Locust & Ash (Ash being more plentiful because of the Emerald Ash Bore). Both put out great btu and split easily. Ash is usually already "seasoned" because most of the dang things have already died and are just waiting to be felled, cut up and used. I NEVER go with soft woods, especially evergreen (Pine, etc). Damp or unseasoned wood is not a good idea. Besides putting out much lower heat, I think it isn't so healthy for your flue and chimney. Tends to build up creosote easily. Brush your chimney every year or two regardless. I load my stove up before bedtime and close all dampers. I awake to a well heated home. I think different stoves will give different results, but mine is older and has an 8" flue and is "pre-EPA". I understand that newer ones are designed to always burn hot and fast with reburners, catalytic gadgets and all sorts of technology that makes them compliant with EPA. And no larger than a 6" flue too. I may be wrong but that's what I've been hearing.

i would just like to see the leaf number and orientation. Maybe attachment points. I appreciate you going out of your way, bro. Yea, divorce is not what God desires of us. You're right, it sucks. I divorced when my kids were like 8 & 6 and HATED it as I knew it would affect them. Time helps heal. Some.

I'd love to see some pictures of your rear springs setup next time you get to crawl under there a bit. Also, as for wiper-work, I might recommend you check out my build on page 5 or do a search for "Comprehensive wiper modification, upgrade and maintenance" on the site here. Dude you got a cool truck with some great, rare features. Congrats.

Hickory is my first guess. Maybe a natural-grade Maple or Cherry/Alder is my second guess. Nice work, dude.

Here's my small project that's got me all giddy, my first AR-15 build. Just got the lower parts kit in last night and spend a blissful couple of hours working on getting my lower receiver assembled. Its been fun awaiting for parts to come in. I spend a lot of time these days tracking FEDEX, UPS and Amazon. I've got time to decided for now, but I'm leaning towards a.50 cal upper receiver when the time comes (and the budget permits). Three weeks into it now and I already hate to think that this project will probably end in another 3-4 weeks.

Pete, your flue looks enormous...is that an 8"? If so, it must be an older stove, right? I was thinking that stove manufacturers only build 6" flues these days because of EPA rules. Was wondering if I'm wrong. I've use an old Timberline stove that my Dad bought when I was 5 years old. It's my primary heat source in the Winter. Double-door with an 8" flue, this thing is a beast. I load that sucker before bedtime and chock the piss out of it and always awake to a warm house each morning.

I'd discovered around 2007 that I have IgA nephropathy. My levels indicate that I am at the lowest levels to officially say I have the condition. Since the original diagnosis, my indicator levels have remained low praise God. My doctor had suggested that I drop alcohol consumption along with healthier eating anyways. So like I said, my reaction to alcohol that began a couple of years ago is a blessing....I don't need it in my body anyway (and neither do any of us, really). I've been on blood pressure meds since around 2007 as well. I feel that we monitor my body well and definitely routinely. Zero issues with blood pressure since meds--I'm sure it would sky-rocket if I tested shortly after a high-ball or a shot or something. Be interesting to see, but I'm not that interested to do a test. Goes without saying, but everyone my age should be making a doc's visit consistently routine. And Krusty, you ought to get your butt in and have that looked at. Probably a very low chance at your age but you may find that what you're seeing may be an indicator of something other than a simple food/beverage allergy.

So beginning about 3-4 years ago, I began noticing that my skin would feel hot after even a beer or two. Especially my face. It had gotten progressively worse, with now even a single liquor drink, like a screwdriver or something, will have me waking in the middle of the night around 2am with my heart feeling like it'll come out of my chest. Scary. I think my blood pressure now goes nuts with this stuff in my veins. One beer these days makes me scurrying around to find the nearest couch because I'll have no drive to do anything for the next 6-8 hours. Not worth it. So, as much as I like some alcohols especially beer, I no longer drink. Make fun of my all you want, but I've been hitting Sharps and O'douls to enjoy the taste of beer. You'll likely be made fun of for it, but I'm 51 and could care less about what my friends say about it. I routinely have them available at the many parties and socials my wife and I host. Here's one way to look at it: That stuff is poison...literally. You don't need that in your body. Krusty, you're a young, smart dude. You're having 2-3 drinks per night for the past 3-years? If I'm not mistaken, you're still in your 20s. Dude. Just my 2-cents but that's a slow poisoning. Kinda like me. I was in the military for 20-years. I abused alcohol, as that was the cool thing to do along with chasing skirts. I never became an alcoholic, praise the LORD, but I most certainly abused it...routinely. I see my "allergy" to alcohol as a blessing. I no longer desire it. The downsides to drinking it (general lethargy to 2am scary heart panics) doesn't even come close to breaking even with the enjoyment of it anymore. I'm shooting to get another 30-years at least out of this body. Healthy, fulfilling years. This all could be your body telling you that booze aint cool any more. Your body may be trying to save your life. Again, my 2-cents my young Brother.

Sent. I am thankful that this site exists....really has helped me SEVERAL times.

Here's one I'd like to share. Its not mind-blowing, but still kinda cool. Snap-On's TZERO ratchet. I'm in A&P school to one day be an FAA-certified aircraft mechanic. Unlike my experiences in automotive, we A&P guys use a LOT of 1/4" drive tools to get into very tight areas. Snap-On came up with this little ratchet a few years ago. It doesn't use gears, but rather is toothless using roller bearings giving the user an insanely small swing arc range to better work in those tight areas. It took a time or two to get used to it. A few of my fellow classmates tried it and a few even hated it at first. At first, it kinda confuses you as there is no clicking going on. You'd be surprised how much your brain picks up those clicks, reassuring you that something is happening. There's no clicks and other senses make up for the lack of that sound. It really shines when you can only turn a fastener a tiny bit at a time. I've gotten used to it now and I really dig it. Smooth as silk. Snap-On sells this little devil for $147.50, but I got mine for $56.71 with my Student Excellence Program.

A couple of years ago, I flushed out my engine....and I mean FLUSHED OUT MY ENGINE. I did a freeze plug replacement, so I pulled all freeze plugs, including those behind the engine/bellhousing. I flushed out that bad boy for HOURS, even squeezing fingers into the freeze plug holes and pulling out tons of what appeared to be rust scale and sand-like stuff. Sand--from casting process? Maybe. I removed hoses and and ran my garden hose in every orifice associated with the cooling system, including those freezer plug hoses. I remember having a pile of sand like stuff--especially at the rear freezeplug. So I have a theory here: If your mechanic's flush process was really kick-@ss, then maybe you did clog that heater core up pretty good. Like I said, I was astonished at what I had in my engine prior to my freeze plug work. So here's my take on the heater control valve: I removed mine because i was reading a lot about sudden failure. They do seem to be built a bit weak-- and on a vehicle that's 30-years old. I junked mine and I didn't really notice a difference in AC...but I don't live in Arizona or Tennessee. We hit 100-F here on occasion, but AC has never been a big deal to me. Perhaps its up to individual toleration. I had been bouncing around the idea of ball-valving the heater core and maybe draining it and capping it during the Summer to maybe help preserve it and perhaps even netting a few degrees on my Summer AC. Just some of my thoughts, Manche757. Anxious to hear how you resolve your issue. Do share.

That back windshield is an area to check closely too. From experience.

"RUST FREE" ...except for the huge corrosion spot in picture #11.

"NO RUST NO RUST NO RUST" ...except for the rusted out floor pans in pic #8.

A large number of the guys on the LT1 forums for these B-bodies usually flush their heater cores as an annual maintenance item in the Fall. There's a restrictor piece feeding the heater core from the engine that I suppose is to restrict harsh pressure during heavy acceleration or something. If that's indeed the case, then I suppose low pressure probably doesn't help longevity of these LT1 heater cores because they can't naturally move particulates as effectively. Just my guess. So I can agree with what you're saying....probably at least on some period of borrowed time if you can get it to extract heat after flushing.

i might add my two cents. This summer, I bought a 100K mile 94 Caprice wagon. The heater sucked. I drained and cleaned the whole system. I spent a couple of hours flushing and reverse-flushing the heater core till I had clear water coming alternately out at both directions. No real difference was made in heating the cab. It would lose heating capability after a minute or two of having the blower on. I spend another half day cleaning the flushing and reverse-flushing a few weeks later. I was surprised that I was still getting debris out of there when I started this 2nd time. Part of this half day cleaning, I even used CLR inside the core, twice, allowing it to sit inside for an hour or so. I worked my tail off trying not to have to pull that heater core. After all of this, it still didn't perform up to par. Very minimal results. So I pulled the heater core, and replaced with new. Damn thing will run you out now. So depending on what's going on inside your heater core, I now believe that in some circumstances, you'll never clear all debris or totally restore the surface areas in there to like-new or even feasible conditions. Sometimes it just comes down to replacement. I'd try isolating your heater core from the rest of the engine cooling system and vigorously flush in both directions with garden hose pressure or less. Careful with pressure, regardless of using water or air. Worse thing is that you breach with a crack or hole and you get coolant odor/wetness in your floorboard. Like JDog implies: Purge the entire system well afterwards, especially important if you're still running with a closed system. Good luck man.

I assumed this was rather common since my Renix 89 4.0 Auto with A/C has no tach/full cluster:

Correction: I used gussets on the last 2 primaries of the header. Seems like that's where most of the stress was ending up. Here's a shot of my flex pipe after I had it installed: I'd also recommend that you have a look at your exhaust attachment points to ensure they're all present and secure. Here's one at the bell housing: Now here's one that I didn't even know I was suppose to have (and didn't). This is at the transmission on top of the cross bar. The exhaust shop showed this one to me and recommended that I actually utilize it. Of course i agreed and they welded on an appropriate tab that you see in the pic.. Shockingly, that exhaust paint they used wore off in a day or two. I got a kick out of them using it, deeming it pretty worthless but I guess it impresses some customers. Got to hand it to them, it was a lovely thought.

Back in 2018, I replaced my motor mounts with OEM style and snapped this picture showing the rubber degradation. I didn't have the steel top plate on for the picture but they do look a bit different than what you have.

I kinda went a step above and beyond, which I usually do in nearly anything. I removed mine, repaired the cracks and then welded in gussets from the primaries to the flange. I'm pretty sure I did at least the last 3 primaries. I didn't want to deal with cracks ever again. Removal of all that stuff was a J.O.B. Reinstalled it and then had an exhaust shop weld in a flex pipe just after the vertical to horizontal bend on the head pipe. Its been 3-4 years now and I've had no issues. If you're welding those header cracks, I can't really see a disadvantage of adding gussets while you're at it.

Cool that its got a dash clock. Dig those classy AMC seat fabrics--I owned a 81 Concord a few years ago and loved the looks of the AMC interiors. Uh-oh. Got a running light out in the rear...major deal breaker for me. Part that thing out.

I'd love to see a shot of those rear springs and axle if you get the opportunity.

Congrats. I have less than a year since my D44 find and I still coo and slobber over it.

i just got a kick out of it, especially once I looked closely at that driver's side pan in the photo.