[ShortHaul]

Been pretty quiet in here lately. I was on vacation for a few weeks. Back home and ready to finish this project up...

I took the truck to Muffler Works in Petaluma to have the exhaust welded up. Went with true duals. 2.5" H pipe crossover, Flowmaster 40's, 3" angle cut chrome tips exiting behind both wheels... Under $800 total. I was able to start it at the exhaust shop and drive home. First drive under its own power. Still finicky on the start up... But once it caught it idled great and ran fine.

Shakedown issues:
Oil pressure gauge line is leaking at the fitting. I've tightened it to death, and added some thread sealer paste... no luck... leaks like a sieve. Going to have to rethink that situation.

Starting... It is not really happy firing up. Cranks and coughs, when it has started, its almost like its accidental, when I'm backing the key off crank, it catches and runs.

Cooling system. On the drive home from the shop it got pretty hot. The fans never kicked on, but there was definitely some heat... steam line was bubbling pretty good. Temp gauge was reading, but was reading barely 1/4 at the hottest. I'll need to check the temp with a scan gauge to cross reference.

Trans. Was slow to engage, needed a quart or two of fluid. Added that and it shifted nicely.

Truck had great power, sounded awesome. Steering was leak free and smooth, brakes worked great! I'm going to bring it to a local shop and have my tuner tap into it to hopefully iron out the starting issues, the fans and temp situation and clean up any tune problems. I'm allllllllllllllmost there!!

Gauges are still a big question. I bought the speedo converter from Dakota Digital, but the frustration with the leaky oil pressure lines has me wondering if i shouldn't just bite the bullet on some full Dakota Digitals... we shall see.