- Feb 27, 2015
- 582
So long story short, I had some issues with the brakes which appear to be good now after the last thing I tried, so it was time to move onto other issues that came up.
After the truck sat for several months due to the brake issue it wouldn't get up to temperature, would only get to the 1/4 mark instead of the half mark and was throwing engine codes for to cold or whatever the term is, so time for a new thermostat, well the truck has 247k miles and I have zero service history outside of the services I have done over the last 40k miles so if i'm doing the thermostat I said to myself lets do the water pump too (, turned out to be a good call, it still had the METAL gasket and a small amount of shaft play and signs of weeping, so likely original) and since i'm in this deep decided to do the fan clutch since it was already out to do the water pump, then the snowball "while you're in there" hit and I decided to do new upper and lower radiator hoses because I realized they where original, upper rad hose has the "engine top", "rad top" writing on the ends of the hoses and lower had the weaved sleeve thing around the hose and then I decided, hell lets do a new belt, I don't think i've done that yet and with all this space opened up I realized something, if you are doing the thermostat you have the perfect opportunity to do the driverside motor mount, remove the upper and lower nuts from the motor mount then with the thermostat out of the way you can get in there with a socket and extension and remove the 4 bolts that hold the upper motor mount bracket to the engine block and the bracket and motor mount can slide out through the opening created by not having the thermostat and alternator there, passenger side can also be done by removing the air intake tube and a swivel extension for some of the 4 bolts on that upper bracket.
Anyway after roughly 7 hours of working (and taking apart more then necessary) Saturday the 4th I had the fan, fan shroud, fan clutch, water pump/pulley, alternator, radiator hoses, belt and thermostat out and had swapped out the driverside motor mount and had half the bolts out of the passenger side upper bracket, another hour last night and I got the passenger mount swapped (got delayed due to family get togethers and weather last weekend), dropped the engine back down on the frame and tightened the upper and lower nuts down all the way, so motor mounts are done (old mounts where about half an inch shorter then the new ones), with that done tonight I reinstalled the air intake I had removed for clearance on the passenger side, bolted back up the power steering pump that I thought I could get more clearance if I had it loose and put back on the battery tiedown bracket I took off when I took apart a bunch of other stuff trying to get more clearance around this aluminum rad I put in a few years back to get clearance for getting the fan and shroud out.
Now the next step is water pump and thermostat, but I need to clean the gasket surface, my walmart didn't have any red scotch pads so I got blue and they are just falling apart trying to clean the surface, whats a good alternative for cleaning them up?
Also Confirmed the Thermostat was the reason for not getting to temp, water from the garden hose easily flowed around this rubber seal so it wasn't sealing completely, this is what it looked like when I removed it, not sure how that happened, but whatever.
I would highly advise anyone doing a thermostat to do your motor mount on that side at the same time, way easier then the stories i've read and seen on here and youtube and no drilling required like some other methods and you can leave the suspension alone. I'll also note I saw some people talking about the front axles hitting the frame when jacking up the engine, for me the bigger concern was the MAP sensor (or whatever that is) on top of the intake manifold hitting the firewall or the throttle body hitting the firewall, thats the pinch point I saw in terms of how high I could jack the engine, but I was going straight up, not tilting to one side then the other.
After the truck sat for several months due to the brake issue it wouldn't get up to temperature, would only get to the 1/4 mark instead of the half mark and was throwing engine codes for to cold or whatever the term is, so time for a new thermostat, well the truck has 247k miles and I have zero service history outside of the services I have done over the last 40k miles so if i'm doing the thermostat I said to myself lets do the water pump too (, turned out to be a good call, it still had the METAL gasket and a small amount of shaft play and signs of weeping, so likely original) and since i'm in this deep decided to do the fan clutch since it was already out to do the water pump, then the snowball "while you're in there" hit and I decided to do new upper and lower radiator hoses because I realized they where original, upper rad hose has the "engine top", "rad top" writing on the ends of the hoses and lower had the weaved sleeve thing around the hose and then I decided, hell lets do a new belt, I don't think i've done that yet and with all this space opened up I realized something, if you are doing the thermostat you have the perfect opportunity to do the driverside motor mount, remove the upper and lower nuts from the motor mount then with the thermostat out of the way you can get in there with a socket and extension and remove the 4 bolts that hold the upper motor mount bracket to the engine block and the bracket and motor mount can slide out through the opening created by not having the thermostat and alternator there, passenger side can also be done by removing the air intake tube and a swivel extension for some of the 4 bolts on that upper bracket.
Anyway after roughly 7 hours of working (and taking apart more then necessary) Saturday the 4th I had the fan, fan shroud, fan clutch, water pump/pulley, alternator, radiator hoses, belt and thermostat out and had swapped out the driverside motor mount and had half the bolts out of the passenger side upper bracket, another hour last night and I got the passenger mount swapped (got delayed due to family get togethers and weather last weekend), dropped the engine back down on the frame and tightened the upper and lower nuts down all the way, so motor mounts are done (old mounts where about half an inch shorter then the new ones), with that done tonight I reinstalled the air intake I had removed for clearance on the passenger side, bolted back up the power steering pump that I thought I could get more clearance if I had it loose and put back on the battery tiedown bracket I took off when I took apart a bunch of other stuff trying to get more clearance around this aluminum rad I put in a few years back to get clearance for getting the fan and shroud out.
Now the next step is water pump and thermostat, but I need to clean the gasket surface, my walmart didn't have any red scotch pads so I got blue and they are just falling apart trying to clean the surface, whats a good alternative for cleaning them up?
Also Confirmed the Thermostat was the reason for not getting to temp, water from the garden hose easily flowed around this rubber seal so it wasn't sealing completely, this is what it looked like when I removed it, not sure how that happened, but whatever.
I would highly advise anyone doing a thermostat to do your motor mount on that side at the same time, way easier then the stories i've read and seen on here and youtube and no drilling required like some other methods and you can leave the suspension alone. I'll also note I saw some people talking about the front axles hitting the frame when jacking up the engine, for me the bigger concern was the MAP sensor (or whatever that is) on top of the intake manifold hitting the firewall or the throttle body hitting the firewall, thats the pinch point I saw in terms of how high I could jack the engine, but I was going straight up, not tilting to one side then the other.
