Well WTF, do I post my 3500HD project here or not

Damn, Dude, that blows. But hey, at least you caught it in time. Would've been a bitch to have it burn to the ground.

...BTW, where's your fire ext?

sorry to hear bout the fire , glad you got to it on time though

next time you see oil on the floor pop the hood and check , mumbling even swearing is alowed but do check

why are there so many 88-01 chevys in your yard?

Awesome truck you have build there kinda sad that you crew cab had to go would have taken it off your hands

That's the thing, before I took off for the tool store I DID check - saw the oil cooler line had some drips coming off it, but anybody that's had a shitbox is used to seeing wet/drippy oil cooler lines. They just suck and that's all there is to it. I figured, it'll be fine for a few mile trip so I can get the other truck put back together, then I can deal with this leak.

Problem is, it wasn't the factory oil cooler hose that was leaking. The cause of the leak was a hose I used to temporarily short the oil cooler lines together because the only radiator I had on hand at the time had screwed-up oil cooler fittings. The doof that had it before me thought he needed to plug them with pipe plugs, so the threads were completely ruined. Anyway the hose I was using split behind the clamp, and also had a bubble in the side like it was ready to burst there as well. I fixed it today and did a lot of degreasing. I've got a radiator in there now that I pulled from the '98 crew cab (the truck I snatched the wrecker unit out of) and while it's not a perfect fit due to the neck height being too low for the HD's core support, it fits fine otherwise, and I have the oil cooler hooked up correctly.

Gotta be big enough to man up to your mistakes. This one could have been avoided if I'd put the radiator in a week ago when I took that truck apart - wouldn't have had to use non-rated hose for a temporary patch.

Campy - my fire extinguisher was right here in the shop where it belongs, right? I've got a small one in the truck now.

Richard

gmtgmt - that crew cab was a pile. It has some decent parts and looks fairly good in pics, but the frame is hosed. If you look back a few pages you can see where I removed the wrecker unit; the rear of the frame is so utterly hacked you'd have to cut it off and backhalf it to make it worth a damn, then you'd have to completely rebuild the front suspension, too. The bed was also complete garbage, lots of holes in it from where the bed supports had been ripped loose and took the spot welds with them, holes cut in it for other reasons, cracks in the sides from some of the holes where the flares mounted, etc.

Anyway the cab/doors/misc. other stuff is for sale in the "Dually Parts" section. I think someone is already getting the cab but you never know.

Richard

Cuz I got issues.

Richard

so..... you done yet ?

Done??? Never be done. but I drive the truck several times a week and even use it as a wrecker a few times a month. Just picked up a '67 Caddy Fleetwood with it yesterday, after towing my ext cab in for what seems like either a failing fuel pump or ignition module (dunno; it cranked up when I went to test it, so I'll have to wait for it to fail again or just shotgun the likely suspects.)

MrBeast is still going to build the hauler bed for it but that'll be some time in the future, we both have a million irons in the fire and even then, once it's done, we'll have to meet somewhere in the middle of a really long trip, or he may come out to FL for a quick visit and bring the bed with him.

Richard

did you finished the truck ? i would love to see some picks of the truck with the wreckerbed on it