You don't need to touch the res cap when filling through the bleed hole. Just use a small funnel or bent paper cup to add the amount of coolant you need, then put the screw back in.

 

Thanks Dave.

To keep the updates flowing: PCV mod is done ( I was lucky getting the baffle out, but man was that clogged.

Did 2 days of carful bleeding

New fan clutch and fan are installed, I got lucky on the removal of the existing, and even more lucky I had bolts on hand to put the fan to the clutch.

Tomorrow morning I am going to go on a long ride and see how it ends up in terms of temps (after a final bleed check).

If the cooling is sorted, onto the lock actuators.

 

Figure I owe everyone one an update.

New Fan and fan clutch is in- boy is it louder, and boy does it move more air. also finally have some D1 wipers on that. so far I am very happy with them

Definitely improved the cooling, however, I have not achieved any type of magical temperatures. I am 210 idle, 206-210 around town and on the high way. However, that is still WAY better than where I was at a few months ago. Either way, inline thermostat mod in the future, but maybe not this second.

Next on the list: Door actuators, head liner, rear sunroof is acting up as well. My do some creature comforts, like a blue tooth set up. I am pretty happy with the way the interior is looking these days as well, maybe I will share some updated pictures when I get a change.

 

Wanted to provide some more updates. Car started to get hot again, so I have replaced the the water pump (should have done it initially). Still not a silver bullet, and will still be going with the inline mod at some point soon. Also, notice that I am losing some oil out of the front main seal, so when I have the time I will be investigating new timing chain and oil pump (I know there is a great write up on here to follow).

On the plus side, bought an Arvista bluetooth cassette tape for like 10 bucks, and it has worked surprisingly well!

 

secondary update on this for those who have helped me so much already.

Think that my motorad 180 thermostat is stick, was getting hot again and have a cold lower radiator hose, even though last month when I did the work I flushed it thoroughly. I am on vacation and need to do a 400 mile drive to get home.

I have two stats coming in tomorrow (both are aftermarket from NAPA I am going to boil them both and see which one is best before I through it in, hopefully this is the sticky wicket on the cooling front.

 

@emille26 the Motorad thermostats were pretty notorious for being pretty unreliable as far as actual opening temp, your temps sound almost like you have a 190 deg.

 

Go inline thermostat mod - no more problems.

 

That is the next step on this.

For now, went back to am OEM higher temp thermostat. Its not the dream of super low temps, but I am not getting any over heating anymore. I think I am going to take a breather from messing with the cooling system for a few months.

 

I would do the inline mod. It doesn't get any easier (tho I hate messing with coolant), it should take maybe 30 min to get everything buttoned up.

 

Yeah, I think now that I made my trip (without incident) I am going to do the inline mod in the next week or so.

from where the truck started (a $1400 trash heap), I am really happy with how well it drove on my 2,000 miles of driving in one week (save the thermostat wonkiness).

This truck is our only car, so the "restoration" work is definitely more and more stressful. I think I plan on purchasing another car this winter so that I can really take my time and rebuild this thing completely.