Hey everyone, I’d like some help with a situation. I’m pretty close to being able to try to start after installing an oil pump and water pump. Oil pump gears are packed with petroleum jelly, but some leaked out in the heat… There might be some dust in the upper cylinders. I’ll use the boroscope and compressed air, but I’m wondering if I should use MMO or anything else. I don’t have the old spark plugs, just new ones and I was told putting oil in will foul them. Is it better to just let it burn off? I’ll have to crank the engine anyway using the starter until I see oil pressure in the gauge, so I could leave the plugs out with MMO in there and pull the fuel relay. I was told cranking it by hand won’t get the oil out of the upper cylinders.

I wanted to check the gas tank with the boroscope, but the battery is dead and I’m not sure how to manually release the fuel door. I’ll connect the battery to a jump starter battery pack. I’m not sure how much gas is in the tank - should I put fresh gas in, MMO in there and in the oil or anything else? I planned to do an oil change much sooner than usual - maybe a hundred miles…

What do you think of all of this? Someone scared me about hydrolocking and fouling the spark plugs if I do the wrong thing…

 

Dust? You make up this stuff just to entertain us, right?

Everything will burn off.

Your truck has an oil pressure gauge?

Just what is it you want to check in the gas tank?

Seems to me you'll need a charged battery to start the truck ...

 

Dont talk to that someone anymore (lol)

 

I will have an oil pressure gauge since I installed a sensor in the front cover. The gauge also has a coolant temperature readout (glow shift digital dual gauge). I just need to install the temp sensor somewhere by the inline thermostat - pretty sure the sensor goes by the center of the radiator. I thought all that that would be a good idea to monitor.

So a little MMO in each cylinder and cranking with the starter with the plugs in won’t foul them? It’s been sitting a bit over a year so I don’t know if the gas tank is rusty. Just things I’ve been told. Should I just put in a few fresh gallons or will it start with the old gas? Should I bother with coil packs? I’m installing new plugs and wires hoping a misfire CEL in cylinder 5 won’t return, or at least less frequently (drive cycles) so I can smog it more easily. I was told it could be the head gasket - I’ve seen a drip from the exhaust, but the oil never looks cloudy. It was ticking but 15W40 helped (might’ve pretty much cleared it, I’ll have to see once it’s running again, can’t remember if it still ticked a little).

I’m just hoping not to have to remove the upper intake to replace the coils since I’ll want to replace the valve covers and I’ll bum out I didn’t know to replace the cam when I had the chain off, then by that time I might be unable to stop myself from trying to replace the head gaskets. I might just replace the plugs and wires for now and see where things are - I can also start in again without redoing anything but pulling the wires from the coils and removing the intake that time. I really just want to be sure I’m following the best process for the dust, MMO, plugs and oil pump…

 

Plugs foul over a longer period of time. This won't be a problem.

I wouldn't worry about this. Gasoline does deteriorate over time, but I expect it will start and run nonetheless. Just drive it to a gas station and fill it up once you have it running.

I offer two opposing points of view here.

First, after everything else you've done removing the upper intake to access the coil packs is no big deal. If your truck has SAI you'll definitely need to remove the upper intake to access the coils. I removed and reinstalled the coils in my '99 DII 12½ years ago without removing the upper intake. It was tricky but doable. When I proactively replaced the wires 5½ years ago I removed the upper intake and that made the job far easier.

That said, I'm more in the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" camp. Unless there's some diagnosis pointing to a failed coil I wouldn't bother replacing it/them.

 

Thanks, I think I’ll leave the coils in for now. I forgot to mention that I have SAI. It seems pulling the intake will be easy enough, just won’t be easy to stop there and I might have to replace the valve covers at that point. I’m not sure if the misfire CEL points to the coils. It was in one cylinder each time, hopefully not the head gasket right there - is cylinder 5 common? Is it unusual for a failing coil to cause a misfire in only one cylinder? I should probably leave them for now, get running and see if I need to get into the valve covers. I can do that outside, but I better wait to find somewhere indoors for the head gaskets.

Sort of kicking myself for not replacing the cam so I could replace the lifters, which might be noisy - I think they can tick, right?

I might have to replace the driveshaft before I start up since I didn’t really realize the chirping sounds I was hearing could’ve been the DS failing. I replaced the idler pulleys and tensioner in case that’s what it was. Hopefully it won’t blow right away when it’s started up, but I’d be a bit hesitant to drive it to the gas station (I could bring gas up in cans) down the mountain and back up on the driveshaft. I think that’s what might’ve been causing a sort of unstable feeling driving condition above 40 MPH or so - it felt dangerous and I didn’t drive it over 55 or 60 for a while. Someone I know in the next county said he could repair the driveshafts with the right type of joints, but I’m not sure if they’re too far gone already for that and also if they’ll even accommodate a 2 or 3” lift I’m planning to do.

 

"Too far gone" does not apply if you have the driveshaft rebuilt. Rebuilding replaces the wearable parts (the two u-joints and the centering ball in the double-cardan joint, plus the u-joint at the front diff end of the shaft).

That said, replacement driveshafts have become inexpensive enough it may not be worth the bother to rebuild the one you have.

 

Thanks, I think I better ask the driveshaft questions in another post since it’s a separate topic that I’m confused about because of the vehicle height now and if the part will still be alright with a lift, etc.

 

Yes, please do that in another thread.

Or better yet, please just read the dozens of threads that already exist on the topic and perhaps ask a question in one of them.

 

Also I personally would not put a boroscope in the fuel tank. It is an electric device which could spark and ignite any fuel fumes in the tank.