What did you do with your GMT400 today...or yesterday....

[Big T]

Was that just rotors/pads "new brakes" or were calipers and hardware (boots, clips, slider pins, bolts, etc) part of that, too?

New rotors, new pads, new clips. Greased slider pins.

 

[n8in8or]

Started fitting the heat exchanger. Going to use some scrap aluminum angle I have laying around and rivet nuts to put it in the core support between the oil and trans coolers and radiator. Should I fill the holes in the core support that the old CAC used to pass through?

This is the kind of heat exchanger I plan on using for my next WTA install. I’m just trying to decide whether I want it in front of or behind my AC condenser, since I’ll have AC functioning.

I’m not sure if there’s a benefit either way for the holes in your core support, as long as they aren’t affecting the seal of the radiator and fan so air gets drawn through the core and not around.

 

[ak diesel driver]

[QUOTE="dbrannon79, post: 620857, member: 277

for headlights, I installed LED bulbs in the OE housings. also used a cleaning kit to clear them up. them things are bright! I can tell others dont like them because I get flashed all the time at night! I just flash back then they turn theirs back on low lol
[/QUOTE]
Please don't be one of "those" people who don't care if they blind oncoming
Traffic as long as you can see better. LEDs can be done without blinding others.

 

[Chewy1576]

O Ed fgfcbbbn,;

This is the kind of heat exchanger I plan on using for my next WTA install. I’m just trying to decide whether I want it in front of or behind my AC condenser, since I’ll have AC functioning.

I’m not sure if there’s a benefit either way for the holes in your core support, as long as they aren’t affecting the seal of the radiator and fan so air gets drawn through the core and not around.

I guess I could put in a little more effort to make room for the condenser so I could get AC back, but that will be for down the road.

 

[n8in8or]

O Ed fgfcbbbn,;

I guess I could put in a little more effort to make room for the condenser so I could get AC back, but that will be for down the road.

Yeah, it probably wouldn’t take much more effort…..though as I think about this more this morning, I think the orientation I would choose is (from grill to engine) intercooler heat exchanger, then condenser and then radiator. I think the heat off the condenser would affect the temperature of the heat exchanger more than the other way around, but that’s just gut feel. Of course that orientation would take more work because I think the condenser would have to be set back more than stock. It will probably also take changes to the trans and oil coolers as well. It’s all doable, it’s just a matter of how important it is to someone.

 

[MrMarty51]

O Ed fgfcbbbn,;

I guess I could put in a little more effort to make room for the condenser so I could get AC back, but that will be for down the road.

I wonder when someone will develope a spacer to fit behind the headlamp buckets and also that would have another molded piece that would fit the front clip and the grill screw to that.
Even something two or three inches or so thick to make room behind the grill for a CAC.

 

[MrMarty51]

I wonder when someone will develope a spacer to fit behind the headlamp buckets and also that would have another molded piece that would fit the front clip and the grill screw to that.
Even something two or three inches or so thick to make room behind the grill for a CAC.

The grill spacer could be painted to match the vehicle that its to be mounted onto.
Or it could be made the silver color of a grill then it would match whatever vehicle it is applied to.

 

[dbrannon79]

Please don't be one of "those" people who don't care if they blind oncoming
Traffic as long as you can see better. LEDs can be done without blinding others.

oh no, I know what you mean, I have been on the receiving end of that! I do need to adjust my lights. not sure what moved but the other week I hit a bird on my dirvers side headlight. the housing looks like it hasn't moved, but shining on a wall I can tell there off now.

I don't do a lot of night driving, but I will set it up soon to attempt to re-adjust them. iirc there was a set screw on the bulbs that allowed you to position them for the reflector. I think that is was is out of adjustment. left low beam shines up and high beam shines down now.

 

[Will L.]

[QUOTE="dbrannon79, post: 620857, member: 277

for headlights, I installed LED bulbs in the OE housings. also used a cleaning kit to clear them up. them things are bright! I can tell others dont like them because I get flashed all the time at night! I just flash back then they turn theirs back on low lol

Please don't be one of "those" people who don't care if they blind oncoming
Traffic as long as you can see better. LEDs can be done without blinding others.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah- check out this channel- they test all types- worth looking into. https://m.youtube.com/c/HeadlightRevolution

And yes if you blind the folks coming at you- one day a blinded person is gonna head right towards you not sure where their lane is. Been first to crash scene several times and had driver say they couldn’t tell because of lights. More than one dead from it. One guy was saying he went high beams because she (other driver) flashed him 3 times. Said he was sick of people whining about it. His wife in passenger seat didn’t make it. He thought she was unconscious from hitting her head on windshield- snapped her neck. Gal driving the volvo that crossed into his lane had edge of mountain and stopped completely by time he hit her in his k2500 gmt800. He was still doing about 45 when he hit her. He was two tires off the pavement trying to avoid. I was behind the volvo. By time trail came to the end, dude ate a .45 when all info came out that he could have just stopped but was mad. I was there at trial as witness, they charged vovlo driver as at fault involuntary vehicular manslaughter. The fact that she stopped basically cleared her. Failure to maintain lane was dropped too because he was at fault for her loss of vision. Basically he was considered at fault for all of it.

 

[Big T]

Replaced the CV boots on my son’s ‘94 Suburban with the Rockford Thermoplastic boots. Every boot was split on both CV axles, but still plenty of grease in them as the truck sat for 3 years. The splits occurred in the last month as he drove it, but they were expected and I had the Rockford boots waiting on the shelf.

 

[Husker6.5]

I wonder when someone will develope a spacer to fit behind the headlamp buckets and also that would have another molded piece that would fit the front clip and the grill screw to that.
Even something two or three inches or so thick to make room behind the grill for a CAC.

I have more than once thought about that very thing when considering doing an air-to-air CAC on my Burb (still debating whether to use the 1st Gen Dodge 5.9 Intercooler I have and mounting in front of the cooling stack, or using the 1st Gen D-Max Intercooler I have and doing the stack set back install @THEFERMANATOR did, or using the D-Max unit out front of the stack. My solution to the grille issue was to use about 3" long tubes as standoffs and use appropriately longer screws to mount the grill with. Then possibly fabricating some ABS sheet 'filler panels' to fill in between the grill and fenders for visual continuity. Or not if I decide to make a custom front critter bar front bumper and carry the headlight protector bar out and over that gap.

 

[Grisley1958]

On my 94 C3500 that I used to have, I mounted a cooler (27"x12"x3") at an angle under the bumper, routed the hoses up through the the corner of the inner fender and then to the turbo and intake. Used a "marine intake adapter" on the engine. Universal piping kit from eBay and a couple adapters. I was worried about the angle mount and the possibility of it getting damaged but I never had an issue with either. It worked better than I could have imagined!

 

[MrMarty51]

On my 94 C3500 that I used to have, I mounted a cooler (27"x12"x3") at an angle under the bumper, routed the hoses up through the the corner of the inner fender and then to the turbo and intake. Used a "marine intake adapter" on the engine. Universal piping kit from eBay and a couple adapters. I was worried about the angle mount and the possibility of it getting damaged but I never had an issue with either. It worked better than I could have imagined!

I have seen that option too.
Problem over here being, I like to go winter fishing through the ice, many times there is deep snow drifts to plow through.
I would be in fear of destroying the CAC in such an event.

 

[Grisley1958]

I have seen that option too.
Problem over here being, I like to go winter fishing through the ice, many times there is deep snow drifts to plow through.
I would be in fear of destroying the CAC in such an event.

I was going to build a guard on mine to protect it. You could make it removeable for the summer and winter time it wouldn't need as much air flow to work anyway. Especially in Montana!

 

[Husker6.5]

I have seen that option too.
Problem over here being, I like to go winter fishing through the ice, many times there is deep snow drifts to plow through.
I would be in fear of destroying the CAC in such an event.

Not to mention hitting the occasional 25lb raccoon driving down the highway at night at 65mph (accidentally hit a big ol' male raccoon one night at 60mph with the G20 conversion van and tore off the front passenger aluminum mud flap from the inner fender well and bent the crap out of the front 2' of the extruded aluminum running board it was still barely attached to). Not to mention off-roading and taking a log/rock/dirt hit to a skid plate location mounted CAC. That location is ok for all on-road, fair weather climate driving.

 

[Grisley1958]

I saved everything off the 94 when I removed the engine for another truck, I'm going to put it on my 95

 

[MrMarty51]

Not to mention hitting the occasional 25lb raccoon driving down the highway at night at 65mph (accidentally hit a big ol' male raccoon one night at 60mph with the G20 conversion van and tore off the front passenger aluminum mud flap from the inner fender well and bent the crap out of the front 2' of the extruded aluminum running board it was still barely attached to). Not to mention off-roading and taking a log/rock/dirt hit to a skid plate location mounted CAC. That location is ok for all on-road, fair weather climate driving.

Driving to Billings one night, wifey cruising along about 75 MPH. Interstate 94, west bound.
A coyote over in the east bound side run across in front of a couple of cars over there, almost got hit. It comes across the medium, across the passing lane, across our lane and stop on the fog line.
Just as We get right up to it, bastard, spins around and commits suicide.
After we got parked at the motel, look the car over. Right side front hubcap is gone. 2000 Buick Century.
Got home and did some scrounging on the innernet, i dont remember how much that little center cap was, it was way more than what it should have been though.
got the hub cap and installed it. A month or so later took the car to get it serviced. Got a call from them, they went to fill the WW fluid and the tank was leaking. Oh crap.
That was a bastrich of a chore, Inner fender and I dont remember what else had to come off. Damn coyote, it had busted the reservoir bottle and the filler neck that plugged into it.
Thank You for reminding Me about them low lying critters and the storm they can create.

 

[MrMarty51]

Oh yeah, when that coyote hit the car, that was a ruckus like I never felt or herd from such a small a critter as that. I know the entire right side of that car went airborn.

 

[dbrannon79]

going airborn! I would have had to pull over and use the spare set of draws after an episode like that lol along with kids in the back screaming "lets do that again"

 

[Husker6.5]

Hit a yearling deer on I-80 just south of Omaha, doing 80mph, near midnight of Father's day 2010 with my '95 Camry. Little (100+lb) bugger leapt out of the median and landed maybe 20 yds directly in front of me in the center lane (I-80 is 6-lane between Lincoln and Omaha). I had just enough reaction time to jerk the wheel slightly left and move the Camry over to the left maybe 2' in the lane, which was just enough to catch Bambi in its rear haunch with the passenger front side.

There was a huge Bambi explosion and horrendous thud as Camry met venison - and a huge spray of deer guts and liquified deer poop sprayed everywhere as about half a Bambi went spinning off into the ditch and the hood folded up in front of me. I got my sphincter back under control and got pulled off onto the shoulder about a ¼ mile down the road.

Shut off the engine, leaving the headlights and 4-ways on, grabbed the flashlight out of the glovebox and popped the hood release. I got out to check the damage, fearing for the worst - antifreeze everywhere - to find NOTHING green dripping from the front of the car, thankfully! BUTT, (and I intend the pun) a giant deer ass print dent in the front passenger side of the hood that caused the hood to buckle from side to side and fold up about 12" and a spray of greenish, smelly, deer guts and liquified deer poop up the passenger half of the hood, windshield, roof, back window, trunk lid and down the passenger side of the Camry. EEWWW!

The passenger side headlight and bucket was completely gone, the radiator support all bent to hell from about 2" away from the radiator outward. The side marker light was gone, and the front half of the passenger fender bent at the top of the wheel well and hanging out 90° like some Transformer's claw with about a 2lb chunk of deer, hair and all, hanging off where the side marker used to be!!!

Having ascertained that it was indeed still drivable, and knowing that there was a Flying J Truckstop about 2½ miles ahead at Exit 432, I fired her up and drove to the Flying J, knowing that they had an RV dump station there and thus a faucet/hydrant I could use to clean all that literal crap off my car so I could see out the windshield and it wouldn't dry on in the 40 mile drive home.

Pulled up to the front entrance went in, explained to the register attendant what happened and asked him if they had a garden hose I could borrow. He said no, but that there was a 6' length of hose permanently attached to the hydrant on the dump station so RV's cold rinse out their holding tank. Pulled up alongside the hydrant, put my thumb over the cut off end of the hose so I could spray off the goop and poop. Amazingly, the hood popped open and while spraying off inside the engine compartment with the hose, I noticed another chunk of deer down in between the fender and inner fender behind where what was left of the washer reservoir would have been, where I couldn't reach down and get to it (like I would want to). Gee, a straightened coat hanger would be perfect to reach down in there and hook it and pull it out, surely they had coat hangers at the truckstop. Went inside and asked the guy if they had any wire coat hangers there.

"Nope, only plastic ones because people would take the wire ones and use them to break into parked vehicles. But there are plastic ones over on the coat rack by the restaurant you can use."

So, I grabbed one of the plastic ones, (you know, they look like a "Y" with the metal stud and ball end that hooks into the slotted slider on the bar) and headed out to the car. I was able to reach down in and use the end of the plastic hanger to scoot the Bambi chunk forward until it fell out of the bottom of the fender, another 2-3 lb piece. Drove it home and got there about 4am.

In the light of day the next day surveyed the damage a little closer. The first thing I noticed was the front bumper plastic skin had flexed on impact and the paint had a fine spiderweb of cracks on the outer third of the face - and it was fuzzy brown with all the deer hair caught in the paint cracks!

Then I looked at the hood and went, "Hmm, I wonder if. . .", popped the hood open, grabbed the front passenger edge with my right hand, put my left knee/lower leg along the top of the crease and pushed down with my leg while pulling up on the front edge and "POP", almost all of the crease popped out and the hood was almost straight again! Grabbed my 2lb dead blow mallet, opened the hood up all the way and gave the dent 3-4 well-placed whacks from below and took out almost all of the deer ass-dent, then another round of knee/hand pull crease removal and the hood, while nowhere near perfect, was very reasonably back to fitting right.

Looking closely at the radiator support/headlight bucket and another "Hmm, looks like the hit on the deer was from this direction and angle if it was standing there and at that height. . .", I grabbed a 10" long block of 2x4, pulled the Camry up about 8' behind the Money Maker (the '94 with utility box), grabbed a 2" wide ratchet tie down strap and put the 2x4 behind and at the top edge of the support between the radiator headlight bucket, wrapped and hooked the strap around the 2x4, then tied the other end off to the base of the truck's headache bar. Got in the Camry, fired it up, turned the front tires about 30° to the left, put it into Reverse and slowly backed up as the strap came taut, the let off the throttle, put it in Park and got out to check.

Two more gentle pulls and the support was back to the same alignment as the Driver's side and the big crease across the top of the support between the headlight and radiator was almost gone. Then I looked at the fender and thought, "I can do the same thing and get the fender pulled back around." So I did and it did, close enough that the heads of the bolts through the fender lip into the liner lined back up with holes they tore through the fender lip. Removed them, slipped on some larger fender washers and everything pretty much bolted right back together. The upper and lower "fingers" of the fender that formed the "Transformer's claw" that held the marker light still bent outward, but some ligt ball pein hammer work from the backside and the opening was good enough to hold a marker light. A run out to Olston's Import Auto Salvage and a used '95 Camry passenger side headlight and marker light later, they bolted right into place! Just some minor up/down and left/right adjuster screw work to properly aim the headlight and I was good to go! Still had a vertical crease in the fender at the top of the wheel well arch, and some waves and minor edge crease in the hood from the knee and mallet straightening, but hey, it was functional and driveable.

Score: Camry 1 - Bambi 0!

I was DAMN lucky! If I hadn't swerved over that 2 feet, instead of clipping its ass end and taking off its hindquarters, I would have most likely hit it square on, took its legs out from under it and had it come through the windshield at 80 mph and most likely killed me. We had the exact same thing happen to a gal just south of Lincoln about 15 years ago. She was driving her Chevy Luv on a foggy October evening on Saltillo Road near Salt Creek where the trees are heavy thick in the creek bottom and hit a deer, a 185lb eight point buck, that came through the windshield, decapitated her, went out through the back window it shattered, and wound up laying dead in the bed. They found her and the buck's remains in her Luv in the ditch about 2 miles from her home that night, when she hadn't returned home from work and her husband called the Sheriff to report her missing.

The Camry's nickname after that was 'The Deerhunter' (all my vehicles have nicknames).