Project: PolarRAM

[nblehm]

Don’t the 5.9s have a cam plug that can also leak? Feel like I have repaired that before

[6DoF]

big thing with the cam plug is if you try and tap on the cam/gear for removal or install, you can punch that plug out the back of the motor!

[6DoF]

so the fancy little tool kit from amazon showed up Friday and was actually really good. better have been for the money. decided not to pull the pan, and it looks like i got the sealed up quite well!

removing the old wear sleeve turned out to be a non-issue. the CAT chisel trick was right on. nice sharp chisel and beat a line across the sleeve without cutting it, expands it. do 2 or 3 lines and it slid right off by hand. actual no-fuss job. my crank turned out to have one hell of a groove in it, so a new sleeve was 100% necessary.

installing the seal with the sleeve in it to the housing was a little sketch though. keeping the sleeve from falling out, keeping everything from getting dirty or oiled or anything from the rest of the shop, etc. then not touching it while trying to RTV the seal surfaces and get the gasket stuck was also a trick. but then installing the housing/seal together on the engine with the tool was surprisingly slick.

for the oil pan seal, this is what i did ... in order to make sure the oil pan seal didn't bias the main seal at all, i cut the paper gasket out entirely. make sure you don't press down too hard on the pan or you'll start ot break the seal pan-to-block and she might leak later. i brake cleaned everything VERY well (without getting any in the pan), then primed the oil pan surface and the bottom of the seal housing with RTV. just a super thin layer to totally cover the entire surface, and a few globs in the corners at the block. i didn't do this, but nest time i would put a small line of RTV along the back side of the pan rail behind the holes for the housing to draw into/past. the primed surface should make it stick really well. i then installed the seal/housing and tightened the bolts to the block to make sure the seal was perfectly centered. once it wasn't going anywhere, i packed RTV between the pan/housing like i was packing bearings. that work better than i thought cuz it started to come out the bolt holes. at this point i left it for 24hours with the pan bolts only just touching, not even fully finger tight. this would give the RTV a chance to cure thick and be crushed by the pan bolts later to hopefully expand and seal better. (the package even recommended this) sure enough, it sealed up great! but had to RTV the head of the bolts since i didn't get any behind them.

no chances this time, got the flywheel on and started that junk to run in my garage for an hour while i worked on other stuff. i tried to rev it up some here and there as i would walk past to keep things changing. 1h dry and back together she went ... again.

vid: https://i.imgur.com/5I1bRwU.mp4

[6DoF]

side note:

the NP205 input housing drain was clutch for not making a mess coming back apart. the crossmember has to be out of the way, but easy enough.

[6DoF]

while the RTV was cuing so i could torque the pan bolts, i started getting the door cards reupholstered. went out Sunday and was able to get them finished up. it's crazy, i already have a hard time picturing the factory bits.

pealed the carpet off the upper cardboard and just used the lower carpet as a stencil on some leftover floor underlayment. trimmed/sanded to fit, and used some tinny tech screws instead of the Christmas tree clips cuz i just hate those things.

the PO installed a "nice" (now just old-ish) set of 6x9s and they were pushing out on the plastic grill in the door card, one was slightly broken. well enough of that junk, cut those grills out completely.

used spray on headliner/fabric glue to attach the material. that stuff is on there. by the last one i had a pretty good cut pattern to eliminate too much extra bunching and allow the corners to be folded in nice. i folded the corners first, then the sides. hard to see in the pic, but the inside corners i did 3 cuts making 2 little pie shapes in there. glued all the faces to a full sheet, then cut them all out and slowly started to trim before spraying the back down with glue again and starting the folding. have to give the glue time to tack up (30sec to 15min work time) so i would spray one, trim one, fold one, spray one, trim one, etc.

the wife had some e-6000 fabric glue, for the middle cover. she actually came out and helped thru a lot of the process from sanding edges for fit, to gluing everything up. the speaker mesh is just flat glued to the back, then the ridge on the door card then stretches it nice into the opening.

next up ... seal the floors, lizard skin sound control, new carpet, new seats.

[xj_man_646]

That's looking really good. You're going to have an awesome truck when all is said and done.

[6DoF]

man, felt so good to have the door cards back on and and this rear main saga behind me. confirmed she's doing great ... so i tore it apart again!

with the nice doors, the wife started hounding me to finish the floor n seats too. need to seal the surface rust, i'm a chassis saver guy for that. then 2gal of lizard skin to spray down with new carpet. to top it all off, new seat belts and some used Audi S5 seats for full power/heat and complete the transition to all black soft materials. all plastics will stay the factory grey.

oh the up-side though, i'm pretty happy with no metal work and "minimal" surface rust for a 30yr old truck. outside the pass floor i already fixed last year.

[xj_man_646]

Are you buying pre-fit carpet for it or doing it from scratch?

[6DoF]

bought a cab specific pre-formed/cut kit. hopefully it's just cutting the shifter hole, bolt holes, and screwing the trim back down.

[xj_man_646]

That's what I would assume. Nice! Give any thought to a Vinyl floor vs carpet? Just curious.

[6DoF]

nope, its a carpet kinda truck. if not id have just left the painted lizard skin. plus extra sound control.

whole kit was only like $180 with extra weighted backing

[6DoF]

got the fixed drivers seat mount together before starting on the tilting passenger seat mounts. i used the factory floor hinge for the tilt, then it worked so well i have ordered a new hinge to make the drivers site tilt too. the seats are from a 2-door car, so they have a great latch to fold the back forward built in. will be 1000x easier to access tools n BS behind the seat if both tilt!

so the seat belt doesn't have to hold the occupant and the seat from tilting, i ordered some bear claw latches from Amazon. hopefully easy enough of an install, we'll see.

[Cobound]

Holy baby Jesus, this is so bad ass.

Family affair, nice work!!!

[xj_man_646]

Yeah that is pretty cool

[6DoF]

been grinding away at it, slower than i would like. got the Audi seat mounts built up and they came out pretty nice. the driver's tilt's up now, tool access FTW. i have not made latches yet.

got all the rusty bits ground n sealed really well, hopefully won't need to mess with the floor again for a long time. i even found a crack in the rear wall above the drivers rear body mount i had to weld. that was unexpected.

sanded everything good, taped it up (i hate taping/masking) and got the LizardSkin sound control sprayed. 2gal total. i sprayed it all with the full thickness, let i dry for 24h, then came back and finished off the 2gal by doing a second full depth on the back wall, tunnel, and foot wells. messing with it once before i tried this dual coat and got awesome results, it made a huge difference in sound control.

[xj_man_646]

The lizard skin looks really good. Gives a very nice finished look to all the work you've done!

[6DoF]

i'm excited, it makes such a HUGE difference in the sound just tapping on the cab. no ring at all, just a dull thud. should be real noticeable on the street.

the texture came out nice and even, i took special care on the back wall since it'll be exposed. factory had carpet glued to the back and side walls, but the new carpet kit only has the floor. the exposed will get sprayed black to match.

[6DoF]

ceiling got some stick-on sound mat, my first time using it. stuff made a big difference in the tap test, we'll see how it is on the road. was a pain in the junk rolling it out over head though.

the exposed LizardSkin got painted black to match the new carpet since that kit didn't come with back wall pieces. i kind of wish i had bought flat vs semi-gloss, but not enough to change it.

[xj_man_646]

What do they call that light that you have hanging through the interior?

[6DoF]

Originally Posted by xj_man_646

What do they call that light that you have hanging through the interior?

cordless hood light. now the #1 most used work light i have by far.

https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcl04...ess-hood-light

if you check out the Amazon listing, there's a jeep in one of the pictures. totally my buddies jeep i helped him build

https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DCL045.../dp/B09DRDZF75