I'm such a hoser

Saturday afternoon I finally got around to swapping out the radiator hoses and the heater hoses. Since getting the truck running again back in June, I have known that I needed to change these.

AutoZone only had one of the radiator hoses and the heater hoses in stock, so I installed everything I could. Later I stopped at Advance Auto and picked up a lower hose. While I was there I decided to pick up a new thermostat, too.

The thermostat was one of the first things that I replaced on this truck. And I bought one just like the one I removed, a 165 degree thermostat. This time I put in a 185 degree thermostat. I'll see if I notice any difference in performance. One change already, I wasn't sure my temp gauge worked, because the old thermostat kept the needle pegged on the cool side. Today it was moving towards the normal range, but still on the cool side, even after idling for an hour more.

After getting the new radiator and heater hoses installed, I filled the radiator to check for leaks. Quickly I noticed the lower hose on the heater core was leaking like crazy.

Sunday afternoon I pulled the heater core out and cleaned everything up. I must have pulled 10 pounds of junk out of the heater box. Guess the farm mice found a way in there. I am considering not even having a heater, since I don't use the truck in cold weather and the internal parts are all really rusty anyways. After I priced the core at AutoZone, I decided to do without it for a while. I reinstalled everything except the heater core and the heater hoses.

I used a short length of the old heater hose to make a bypass from the water pump to the block. One guy on the truck forums suggested that I just plug the water pump and the block and ditch the hose completely. I might look into that if I really decide to lose the heater.

Best of all. Nothing is leaking. From this repair at least.

Oil pan? Still leaking. Rear differntial leaking? Youbetcha. Rear Tranmission seal still leaking? Well for some reason that one stopped leaking when I changed the oil in the trans. Dunno.

The only hassle I encountered in this repair was pretty easily handled. I had to remove the hood to get the heater box off of the firewall. Evidently you either have to pull the hood or the passenger fender. I dropped one of the bolts and never found it and one was already missing, so now the hood is sitting even worse than before. When I replace the bolts, I'll try to get it lined up better.