What other projects are you working on?

Dig the factory '58 Edsel engine colors. I owned a '58 Edsel with the "E475" (410 cubic inches, 475 ft. lbs. of torque), and when i saw the engine, I thought someone had repainted it. Nope. Those are the factory colors. Weird.
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The smaller "E400" had a yellow block.
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Here is more-this bath is about as nice as we produce-the middle pic is our kitchen at home- building our own cabinets was the best move I ever made- we never overcharge ourselves or make ourselves late.

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On Monday my '03 Dmax started thumping air back thru the air breather. Likely valve related from what I read.
Other issues:
Its been sipping antifreeze, maybe ad some every 4 months. Recently got way worse, I added some 3 weeks ago and it was low again last weekend.
It needs injector work.
It has a fair amount of blow by. Not blow the cap off the filler but just a haze coming out of the vent pipe.
Oil pressure is kind of low at idle.

After a week on contemplating what to do IE: lean over the fender and pull the heads and put ARP studs in and new injectors only to find more damage to either a piston or cam lobe we decided to pull it and overhaul it.

Today was Sunday Funday removing the core support in prep to pull the engine:

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On Monday my '03 Dmax started thumping air back thru the air breather. Likely valve related from what I read.
Other issues:
Its been sipping antifreeze, maybe ad some every 4 months. Recently got way worse, I added some 3 weeks ago and it was low again last weekend.
It needs injector work.
It has a fair amount of blow by. Not blow the cap off the filler but just a haze coming out of the vent pipe.
Oil pressure is kind of low at idle.

After a week on contemplating what to do IE: lean over the fender and pull the heads and put ARP studs in and new injectors only to find more damage to either a piston or cam lobe we decided to pull it and overhaul it.

Today was Sunday Funday removing the core support in prep to pull the engine:

View attachment 417122

I have suspicions my LML lost a head gasket. Not looking forward to this.
 
I should have got to it sooner!
I use the heck out of the truck and it's hard to lay it up for weeks.

For sure if it is heavily used. I planned to pull the cab on mine if it comes to that but I think it's a crapshoot which way is faster. Mine probably gets 2-3,000 mostly easy miles a year now. I should probably off it and switch to a gasser. I drive it so little it's hard to know for sure it has a problem.
 
For sure if it is heavily used. I planned to pull the cab on mine if it comes to that but I think it's a crapshoot which way is faster. Mine probably gets 2-3,000 mostly easy miles a year now. I should probably off it and switch to a gasser. I drive it so little it's hard to know for sure it has a problem.

For some reason this morning I've been second guessing pulling it completely.
Dig into the top end to see what failed and go from there.

My friend bought an '03 the same time as me and has over 700K on his original engine and claims he doesn't add much oil. He's done head gaskets and studs and injectors. Drives 100 miles a day to/from his work.

I've "only" got 378K.:cry:
 
For some reason this morning I've been second guessing pulling it completely.
Dig into the top end to see what failed and go from there.

My friend bought an '03 the same time as me and has over 700K on his original engine and claims he doesn't add much oil. He's done head gaskets and studs and injectors. Drives 100 miles a day to/from his work.

I've "only" got 378K.:cry:

Wow, 700K is very impressive. 378K is still very respectable. I'm at 97K on mine and will be disappointed if it's head gaskets.... It would probably be much more convenient with the engine out but I understand not wanting to deal with that. The last set of head gaskets I did was on a fairly simple gas motor but I did it laying on top of fenders/core support. That's wasn't very fun. Assuming you will have the heads resurfaced?
 
Wow, 700K is very impressive. 378K is still very respectable. I'm at 97K on mine and will be disappointed if it's head gaskets.... It would probably be much more convenient with the engine out but I understand not wanting to deal with that. The last set of head gaskets I did was on a fairly simple gas motor but I did it laying on top of fenders/core support. That's wasn't very fun. Assuming you will have the heads resurfaced?

IDK on what to do with the (aluminum) heads accept take them to the machine shop and have them go thru the valves and check them for cracks and flatness....its been 35 years since my motorhead days of rebuilding small block chevys!
My 25y/o son goaded me into wrenching on this ourselves: "Come on dad remember all those engines you worked on when you were my age"
 
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IDK on what to do with the (aluminum) heads accept take them to the machine shop and have them go thru the valves and check them for cracks and flatness....its been 35 years since my motorhead days of rebuilding small block chevys!
My 25y/o son goaded me into wrenching on this ourselves: "Come on dad remember all those engines you worked on when you were my age"

At least on the LML's it is extremely recommended to have the heads surfaced at a machine shop. I would imagine the same for the LB7. Since you will already have them there it probably won't cost much else.

I am 26, I have dragged my dad into plenty of projects when I was still living at my parents.. .It's not so bad....
 
At least on the LML's it is extremely recommended to have the heads surfaced at a machine shop. I would imagine the same for the LB7. Since you will already have them there it probably won't cost much else.

I am 26, I have dragged my dad into plenty of projects when I was still living at my parents.. .It's not so bad....

Those rebuilds in my youth were out of economic necessity. After considerable discussion we decided the truck would likely be back in service if we tackled it ourselves.

My son has become a very capable mechanic.
 
Those rebuilds in my youth were out of economic necessity. After considerable discussion we decided the truck would likely be back in service if we tackled it ourselves.

My son has become a very capable mechanic.

Mine as well. I still tackle more projects than I would like simply because of how much I can save even if it's not entirely necessary.
 
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I've been planning/ designing a better third brake light option for my Jeep to mount on the spare tire mount, with some extra little features. I'm not formally trained in anything, so apologies for my sketch's crudeness. Just needed a quick means to see what was in my head. Relocating the rear plate as well.

I'm not much of an artist, but I do my best. The box is a black plastic box I got from my dealership job, from the packaging roof racks came in (rack end caps for shipping.)

I may need to do some plastic welding, or cheap out and JB weld it. lol 3BL Version 1 is still on the Jeep, and works fine. I built Version 2 already, but will likely adapt it into version 3 without installing the second iteration.

Molex quick disconnect on V.2. I've got a million of them around, and it's obsolete, so why not?

Anything I go for with a backup camera would need to be like dirt cheap/ free or repurposed somehow. My rear vinyl windows are nigh impossible to see through, so it would be a super useful mod for my car.

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