I've never seen such. I am really shocked that the block can be off a quarter inch, or really AT ALL. Could the manifold be bent? I have two blocks out and can measure if you like. I didn't even know that was possible.

You have had hell with this engine. Condolences.

 

Thanks! For some reason this was a strange job. I'm probably being a bit short tempered with the thing also. After doing some searching the manifold warping on the drivers side (LHD) is kind of common. Strange that both manifolds I had were both like that though.

Well about 30 min after my last post in this thread I was able to loosen the manifold at the head and lucky it was the nut that stripped on the down pipe so I was able to replace the nut and get everything sealed up. I was going to report back but my lap top crashed my damn luck lately!

I had to replace the battery and now all it needs is the leaky Master cylinder reservoir seals fixed.

 

Finally got the seals for the master cylinder. Got the tags renewed and ready to go! Fixed all the lights also.

 

Uggg, well I got the center part of the dash in that I ordered and installed it and I finally thought I was done for a while. Let the wife drive it and while we were going up a hill it acted funny like loss of power. Well I drove it a bit and going up hill I had a loss of power or trans slip. Engine started acting funny and the coolant system pressurized. I thought the head gasket failed already but remembered I didn't purge the coolant system. Did that and drove again. Engine seemed to be fine and no more pressure in the coolant system. It makes a strange noise when under load (going up steep hill). I really don't know how to explain said noise other than like an exhaust rattle. I noticed that the trans seems to be shifting a bit hard or clunking a bit so I'm starting to wonder if the trans is acting up. I replaced the radiator right after the head gasket failed thinking (hoping) that was the issue. I didn't add fluid after the radiator install and I haven't changed the fluid ever. :/ I know bad me. I have changed every other fluid on this thing quite a bit though.

So what trans fluid should I use? I want to drain it and replace the fluid.

Right now I don't want to put much more money into it until my confidence in this truck increases. I'm disheartened this issue sprung up after all the work I've done.

 

Dexron III. If it overheated going uphill it probably overheated the trans too. Have you replaced the fan clutch?

 

Have not replaced it. now that I bled the cooling system it seems to be fine.

After I parked and it sat for an hour or so I found some oil under the truck. It appears to be coming from the lower line mating to the radiator. I thought that was strange because I've driven it a bit and it hasn't leaked before. It wasn't really loose but I was able to tighten it a little bit.

 

Well the oil leak was the top line, apparently it wasn't tightened all the way.

The more I drive it the more I'm thinking it's developing a rod knock. I'm not sure what else it could be. I guess I'm going to cut the oil filter apart and check it for bearing material.

 

Well when I said it sounded like an exhaust rattle I guess I was right

I cut the filter open first and no bearing material. took it back out and it finally got bad enough that I could hear it wasn't coming from the engine. When I got back it was still making a little bit of rattle. I could take my foot and push on the muffler and it would stop. At first it sounded like it was coming from the torque converter but it was an exhaust clamp on the down pipe hitting the brace under the trans. I re-positioned the clamp and noise was gone.

Not sure why the thing lost power when the wife drove it. Maybe she just let off the gas lol. Between the coolant thing and oil leak it had me a bit freaked out.

Anyway NOW all seems well in discoville :crossesfingers:

 

FYI, my sons 04 was doing this and we removed the y-pipe and the the pellets from the cat fell out, so we replaced the y-pipe and noise is gone.

 

Good to know

The only cats on this truck now are in the down pipes. I'm not sure what was on before. After that the guy put on a flowmaster. It sounds pretty good really.