TireSmoke.org

Going on 10 years of ownership and over 125k mileage she is still going strong and lookin' great. I spruced her up a bit with a detailed wax job this weekend.

Still in mint condition!

With the Vette in her garage space, Smoke has to stay outside. This fall, we had a huge crop of very large acorns from our oak trees and they were falling like rain. They would bounce off the deck and kit the windows with a loud noise. Our oak trees are very tall, maybe 60 feet or so.
I've kept a cover on the truck and parked on the pad outside the garage away from the trees, but one day I had to juggle cars around and the TBSS ended up on the circle part of our driveway overnight. I had a cover on it and thought it would be OK. It wasn't. When I pulled the cover off, the hood had, what looked like hail damage. I counted 15 dents in the hood. Later, I looked at the roof and counted about 25 dents. I called State Farm to file a claim. They asked for pictures via email and sent me a check for $200. Done! But with light and reflections those pictures showed nothing of the real damage. When I took it my body man, Lloyd, he circled all the dents with a grease pencil and with proper lighting took pictures. After his photos and a real estimate, I got an additional $1500 check. I dropped off Smoke at Lloyd's shop today.

I picked up the TBSS today from Lloyd's. What an unbelievable job he did! All the dents in the hood and many of them on the roof are no longer there and the paint was not disturbed! Another phase of the job is pending where the remaining dents in the roof are fixed and the roof repainted. Another body shop, Piperformance in Raleigh, a buddy of Lloyd's, will do that job early next year.

For years I've been mentally diagnosing a mysterious tinny rattle during the 1 - 2 shift under moderate acceleration. It sounds similar to a lifter rattle but more tinny. I decided to check the serpentine belt tensioner. The check showed both the tensioner and idler pulleys to be suspect, so I changed both pulleys and the tensioner since they have been on the job for 129k miles. The AC compressor runs on a separate belt on this engine and it, too, has it's own tensioner. The belt is very cracked so I have a belt and tensioner on order now. I took it out for a ride this morning and the noise seems to have gone away. I hope it stays that way. If not, I can always hope the new AC belt tensioner pulley will complete the fix.

My tensioner always gives me noise, especially when cold. When it warms up it all but goes away. And whatever you do, don't try to lube it, it makes it much much worse. It's a common LS engine complaint. Hopefully yours just goes away.

-BP

I changed the AC compressor belt and tensioner today. It was not a trivial undertaking because the attaching bolts for the tensioner were difficult to see and access with my assortment of sockets and extensions. Again, patience prevailed. It took a couple of hours but now it's done.

Update: I took the truck out for a ride and tried to recreate the noise. All seems good. Noise seems to be gone.

Some long overdue updates:
The tinny rattle is still there. I guess it will continue until I discover the cause. Too bad, I thought I had solved it.

After a period of self-induced suffering from poorly flowing windshield squirters, I finally paid the $50+ price for two new GM squirters. I didn't realize how satisfying it is to just have these things working when needed. Case closed.

Our recent trip to the beach put the odometer past the 130K mark and signaled an oil change event. I'm using 7 qts (vs recommended 6 qts) of Costco synthetic 5w30 now. I read that many TBSS owners have been running the extra quart and I thought it was a good idea.

Next up is a transmission fluid change. But, before that, I've got to get back to Silvia and the impacted woodruff key.

Since I've reached a psychological impasse with Silvia, I decided to turn my attention to the TBSS. My body shop, Piperformance in Raleigh, finally agreed to take her in to address the acorn damage on the roof and repaint it. I got her back last week and it looks like a very good quality job. However, now there is an air leak that wasn't there before. I took it back and Mr. Piper spent some time messing around and adjusting, but did not succeed in correcting it. He did, however, point me to the area of the leak. I will be work to eliminate that soon. It is annoying.

I'm currently working on cleaning the K&N air filter which lives under the front bumper. It was pretty cruddy, but will be back to doing it's job soon.

I finally found the AC leak. I can see it clearly now. I have in stock a new GM low pressure line assembly that needs to go on, but I don't want to take the time now. I just added 2.5 cans of R134 and kicked the can down the road. It usually lasts about a month or two. Too bad this is the hottest time of the year, but the acquisition of Silvia upset any plans I had in place.

I've been hearing a high pitched whistling sound when applying the brakes after Smoke sits through a cold night. At first I ignored it, but when the brake pedal started getting a bit soft and moving toward the floor, I took action. Yesterday, installed a new Chinese Raybestos master cylinder. The pedal and stopping power now seem normal. Yesterday's temperature was in the high 80's, so I noticed that the AC air was not really blowing cold. I guess it's time to either fix the leak or just add R134a again. I'll probably kick the can down the road again...

Put some dye in it and get a black light then you will be able to find the leak before the next time.

Ha Ha. I found the leak and ordered the part 10 months ago. It's Silvia's fault. She is so jealous she won't let me work on anything else.

ODO 132,583
Back to the brakes...the whistling noise did not go away with the new master cylinder. I'm pretty sure it is coming from the brake booster. I attended YouTube University on brake boosters and learned all the testing techniques to identify brake booster issues. My booster passed all the tests so I am confident it, and the master cylinder are working perfectly. This whistle only occurs when starting the truck after a cold night sitting in the garage. It goes away after a few minutes of driving. I have verified that the booster will hold vacuum over time so that would imply that the diaphragm in the booster is intact. I think it must be the actuator valve inside the booster that has a cold sensitive leak. I could replace the booster, but right now I'm going to let it go until it gets more annoying.

ODO: 133522

Just as a followup on the previous post about the whistle when applying the brakes, it appears to be temperature related. Likely a problem in the vacuum booster. It will have to wait until it gets more annoying. Its summer now and the problem disappears.

Yesterday, I corrected a problem with a whirring noise that varied with wheel speed. I used my "Chassis Ears" to compare the sounds from each of the four wheels while driving down the road. The sound was definitely coming from the right front. The front wheel bearing was the likely suspect even though I couldn't feel any roughness. This broke new ground for me. The wheel bearing on this vehicle is integrated into a front hub assembly. No more grease packing. I bought a very nicely finished "Detroit Axle" hub from Amazon for $56 otd. I also had to buy a 36mm deep impact socket to get the spindle nut off (~$14).

Today, I was finally forced to tackle the AC leak. The outside temperature has been hovering in the mid-90's for many days. I had in stock the needed AC low pressure line to replace the leaking one. The job wasn't really all that bad. Once the new line was hooked up, I evacuated the system and it held the vacuum well. No leaks! Then I charged it with 30.4 oz of R134a and cool air came out of the vents. On Youtube, I found a simple way to add PAG 46 oil to the system. It's quick and easy...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGpM8va2XFg