General Tech What did you work on Today?
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glockman
I hate Jeep trucks
- Location
- Pleasant Grove
New piston in the TX?
- Location
- The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
Yeah. It still runs ok and has ok compression but it cooked the o-rings a little brittle in the head. (I think it was leaking around the coolant pipe hose clamp on the head). So if I've got it on torn down, I'll almost always do a piston too.
Wiseco ProLite Forged. Yummmay.
Here's the thing that makes me lose my mind though guys:
ProX cast piston kit - comes with piston, rings, wire locks, and wrist pin bearing,--- no wrist pin. $118
OEM KTM cast piston kit - (made by ProX or Vertex) piston, rings, wire locks, wrist pin ---no wrist pin bearing. $230
Wiseco forged prolite piston kit - comes with piston, rings, wire locks, wrist pin, ---no wrist pin bearing. $138 (the best forged piston available to the common man)
Numera hypereutectic piston kit- comes with piston, rings, wire locks, wrist pin -- no wrist pin bearings $90
Vertex cast piston kit comes with piston, rings, wire locks, wrist pin -- no wrist pin bearings $134
If you want a top end kit with gaskets, it's like $50-$150 more from each of these companies, meanwhile the OEM base gasket and orings together are about $10 & wrist pin bearings are $20....
Whyyyyy???!
What does the word "kit" mean to these companies? LoL who does a piston without a wrist pin bearing or gaskets?Just charge a few bucks more So I don't waste my time.
glockman
I hate Jeep trucks
- Location
- Pleasant Grove
I've had good luck with the Vertex "kits" I always replace the wrist pin bearing and I've even used several Tusk Gasket kits without any leaks or issues. So I'll keep doing what has proven to be effective.
- Location
- The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
I have no issues with tusk gaskets. I don't think you can buy a bad brand name piston these days. So long as you match the bore size and you have your jetting good I think you're good to go.
The real advantage to forged is if you're increasing power or compression and obviously if you're bouncing it off the rev limiter it's going to have better durability.
There's certainly something to the decreased friction of Teflon coated skirts and I believe they're able to remove some material for lighter weight because the Piston is stronger.
But again for what we're doing cast is probably just fine.
- Location
- West Haven, UT
Next vehicle rolled in a few nights ago. Client called me last fall inquiring about doing some work on his newly acquired 2002 Silverado 2500 Duramax (LB7). We talked over options and I gave him suggestions on suspension components. Well they were slow to arrive but all of the parts finally arrived so after finishing up a couple of other vehicles he was able to get his 2002 Duramax into my shop.
Overall it is a pretty clean truck. It belonged to a local marine shop owner who recently passed away but has been fairly well taken care of. It does need some TLC, which we will be giving it, but overall a good place to start.
Cognito componets for the front suspension.
Not only are Cognito high quality components, they also do a great job of packaging to avoid damage during shipment.
Fox IFP shocks all-around.
Heavy Duty tie-rods.
They have made some changes to their steering center link brackets over the past couple of years. The previous iteration was formed steel which had some small gussets welded on them. The new iteration is using cast brackets for the pitman arm and idler arm. It is nice to see companies continue to seek new ways to improve their components and not just rest on their laurels.
Old components off the passenger's side. He also asked me to do a LOF service on it while I had it on the lift.
Just in time for this upgrade as his upper ball joint on this side had some play in it.
New upper A-arm assembled with bushings, grease zerks and ball joint. Ready for installation after I touch up the frame with a splash of paint. Sorry about the blurry picture.
Before closing up the shop last night I snapped a picture of the view from my back yards. Even though the mountains are to my east, with a beautiful sunset it sure lights up the colors on the mountains to the east. Love this view from my back yard and shop. Looks totally different this morning with the snow however.
Thanks for looking.
Mike
Overall it is a pretty clean truck. It belonged to a local marine shop owner who recently passed away but has been fairly well taken care of. It does need some TLC, which we will be giving it, but overall a good place to start.
Cognito componets for the front suspension.
Not only are Cognito high quality components, they also do a great job of packaging to avoid damage during shipment.
Fox IFP shocks all-around.
Heavy Duty tie-rods.
They have made some changes to their steering center link brackets over the past couple of years. The previous iteration was formed steel which had some small gussets welded on them. The new iteration is using cast brackets for the pitman arm and idler arm. It is nice to see companies continue to seek new ways to improve their components and not just rest on their laurels.
Old components off the passenger's side. He also asked me to do a LOF service on it while I had it on the lift.
Just in time for this upgrade as his upper ball joint on this side had some play in it.
New upper A-arm assembled with bushings, grease zerks and ball joint. Ready for installation after I touch up the frame with a splash of paint. Sorry about the blurry picture.
Before closing up the shop last night I snapped a picture of the view from my back yards. Even though the mountains are to my east, with a beautiful sunset it sure lights up the colors on the mountains to the east. Love this view from my back yard and shop. Looks totally different this morning with the snow however.
Thanks for looking.
Mike
- Location
- West Haven, UT
Yeah, they have some inherent weak areas on the front ends but once those are addressed they are damn near bulletproof. I did mine back in 2009 when I bought my 2006 and we did my son's upgrades on his 2002 Duramax about 7 or so years ago when he bought it with 220k miles on the clock. His now has 275k and the truck is still very solid and has a lot of life left in it. Mine only has about 109k and will be the last truck I own I'm certain of it.
- Location
- Smithfield Utah
Bet it’ll ride like a caddy with those shocks too. Nice work love seeing what you’re up to @zmotorsports
- Location
- West Haven, UT
Thank you. He should be very happy with it. He took my son's for a drive after another mechanic told him to just crank up the torsion bars. I explained to him that is not the right way to do it and explained the issues with the upper ball joints and keys and how bad it would ride and wear parts. He fell in love with the way my son's rides and sounds so it's getting the full treatment, Cognito front components, FASS fuel system and Banks Monster Exhaust system.
rholbrook
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Kaysville, Ut
I have had a bad bottom end gasket set on my 300XC. Do you know how bad it sucks to see exhaust coming out of the bottom of your case just after to get it all back together? I only buy OEM gaskets now. I have only been buying Vertex pistons except when I put one in my TX300 last spring. I could only find a Wiseco for it. Regardless, I always replace the wrist pin and bearing. Cheap insurance.
Corban_White
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Payson, AZ
Replaced some more subfloor, reinforcing underneath:
Spent several hours disposing of branches. Had about a 20'x20'x10' pile, now there is none.
Spent several hours disposing of branches. Had about a 20'x20'x10' pile, now there is none.
I only work on house stuff lately. I knew moving into a new place would be a lot of work but it’s even worse than I imagined lol
Today it was drapes. Quite a few people have scoffed at us for not wanting shutters, like they’re the end all, be all of window coverings but we love our windows and views so drapes were an easy choice. My wife is crazy about style stuff so I just assume she knows what she’s talking about and say yes to whatever she decides…
Today it was drapes. Quite a few people have scoffed at us for not wanting shutters, like they’re the end all, be all of window coverings but we love our windows and views so drapes were an easy choice. My wife is crazy about style stuff so I just assume she knows what she’s talking about and say yes to whatever she decides…
DaveB
Long Jeep Fan
- Location
- Holladay, Utah
Spent the afternoon yesterday getting my son in law's old snowmobile and trailer going. He needs to stop by the car wash after a day on the salty roads and rinse things off. The throttle cables were seized up not allowing the carb sliders to go down all the way. Tore the carbs apart and the problem wasn't there. One carb top slider cap was seized in place from salt and I had to use a pipe wrench to get it off. I ended up putting a slight bend in one of the metering rods trying to get the cap off. Had to fix the rod and replace the cap. The culprit ended up being the third cable from the throttle that runs the auto oiler. After getting it all back together it took forever to start it and acted like the fuel pump wasn't working. It turned out the crank case line from the engine to the pump had slid off. After getting both sleds running I had to figure out how to free up the tie down bar bolt that goes through the floor and holds the sleds in place. The salt had rust welded the bolts so I ran a die over the exposed threads, lubed it all up and applied some heat. One bolt came off fairly easily but the other required a big pipe wrench to budge it. After getting the bolts out I cleaned up all the threads and applied anti seize. Now they can go use these old timers.
Hard floors and rugs are the way to go man. I hope to never have carpet in any of my homes ever again.
Looking good!
yeah this is that "luxury" vinyl plank stuff. it's still weird hearing that I have vinyl flooring but it was actually an UPGRADE lol and I really like it. I did laminate in our last place and if you dropped a plate on it, it would dent. that wouldn't even make this stuff flinch. I think the best part is with the LVP on the main floor and the trendy low carpet upstairs I can vacuum the whole house with the cordless dyson. yes, vacuuming is one of my chores I have to do before I can play.
Thanks!
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
But you don't have to mow the lawn...
- Location
- Bountiful, land of rocks
I like the LVT as well. We're coming up on two years in early May in our house. LVT has been pretty nice to have.
We've had to pull a fair amount of them due to squeaky floors. They've been handy for that
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