whoo man maybe that might earn you the delux treatment for yourself after a hard day's work on her car

 

Well, I got to work on my truck today as well. Was on the way across town to pick her up from work, and the alternator decided to quit pulling out the driveway. Lucky for me, I live RIGH behind NAPA, so I picked up a new one, and got it put on.

 

Today I upgraded my '88 K1500's mainly stock 350 by replacing the 1 wire o2 sensor with a 3 wire. I did this because I removed my cat and ran a 3 inch Flowmaster to the back; however, the reduced back pressure prevents the 1 wire O2 from heating up to 600 degrees, as needed, so the system was running on stored default values. The black wire is for the O2 connection and the two white wires are for the o2 sensor heater. Hook one up to a keyed and fused hot wire and the other to ground. It makes no difference which you use for which.

Being a function over form kind of guy, I come from the "Chrome Don't Get Ya Home" Old School. I don't believe in dressup kits, but if I have a choice between a plain part or a good looking one, well, why not? Especially when I can argue to myself that the shiny part performs better than the plain one.
So, when it comes to Valve Covers, it doesn't take much to convince me that on a 350 without an external oil cooler the only places where the oil gets cooled are the sides of the oil pan and valve covers. When you look at it that way, those fins really start to make sense. The first 350 I bought in 1978 came with early Corvette valve covers that featured internal driprails...little bumps over the lifter at the valve end that dropped oil right where Chevy Engineers want it the most. I have kept those covers on one car or another for thirtysomething years now, but only have one set. There is a kit for making them fit a center bolt, but they already grace a '78 F-car. So, I went shopping.

Here is the best deal on the web for Small Block Chevy finned aluminum valve covers made, by all people, Cal Custom. When is the last time you heard from those guys??? I think they are building for other people now, because I saw a set of seeimngly identical valve covers from someone else for twice as much.

Really, these things are so purdy I wanted to sleep with them but I didn't exactly tell the sweetie I bought them and what she doesn't know wont hurt me. Here is the ad for the covers. You will want a breather cap $5 and CORK valve cover gaskets. I had to extend the PCV hose about a foot. My '88 350 came with three holes in the two covers: PCV on the right side with the breather and oil cap on the left. You take off the breather to pour oil in, so you only need two. If you have the ring under the air cleaner with the breather tube, plug the nipple. It won't make it run better or worse, but I like all of my air filtered.

Cal Custom® Finned Aluminum Valve Covers CAL-196196 - SummitRacing.com

 

Winching: Someone was talking about holding the brake while winching and man, I feel your pain...winching someone else is hard on the suspension. Whenever I can I nose up to a tree and let it take the load up to a tree. Plan "B" is to chain my rear hitch to something solid, like a stump or a couple more trucks. Somethings gonna move!

 

Well this young lady wants to ride in my truck and she thinks my truck is cool and she is never a back seat driver. What ever I do she thinks is cool, but don't hit the brakes to hard, that she does not like. She is a young thing and I can not keep up with her, but she still loves me. Well hear is her picture.

 

I went and played in the snow a little after putting on new tires. Notice new profile pic.

 

Damn Fine Looking Young Lady There.

 

I usually only use my winch to pull myself out, or as a chain. I'll run the winch to what I am trying to pull, and then use the truck and drive backwards or forwards to pull it out. (I have a hitch winch, with hard wired plugs on the front and back on the truck, and a wireless remote inside of the truck)

 

You will find that most Mfg reccomend against towing with the winch as you describe. It could be that they don't have much for clutches and they have planetary gears which will rotate (let cable out) under a load like that. The only exception to this is a worm-drive winch, like Ramsey verticle shafts, which will not move with the motor off due to the worm and ring gear design.

 

My winch is a little difforant. It's a old military PTO winch, hooked to a 15 HP single cylinder Yamaha engine. I just have it all rigged up so i can use the wireless remote. the thing is home made. I built it for pulling logs, and then just added the hitch mount to it later. it was originaly mounted on a trailer.