...I was gonna say, if you went that deep, the heads are just right there...
if I told you how many times I pulled the valve covers, upper intake, and lower intake you'd probably laugh at me... I started this project January 2019. I finally got it running satisfactorily last week, most of that was due to trying to add 1.8 performance rockers that had issues, not my fault, but it was the first time I ever pulled a whole motor, had the short block reworked/check by machine shop and I did the rest myself with phone support. The top end is pretty simple, in my opinion. I'm not real fast but I could probably assemble heads and above in 12 or so hours. The real pain is the oil valley between heads and getting enough rtv so it seals good and doesn't leak oil, which is where I think the mechanic that did my head job messed me up, as well as missing some vacuum connections and using the wrong heads for my year motor.

 

All new to me as well. I've learned a lot the past few months. I actually thought I was buying the 4 cylinder ranger. Guy that sold it to me for $900 was mostly Spanish speaking. So there was a bit of a language barrier. While drawing up the paperwork I asked him again what size the engine was and he said 4 cylinder and pointed to the "4L" on the under hood sticker. "Gets real good gas mileage he said. Maybe a week later I realized it was actually the 4.0 v6.

 

Don't feel bad. My friend worked a small block Chevy V8 into what's called a "383 conversion". That monster put out ~400hp.

The guy who bought it lifted the hood (1989 Silverado K1500 short bed) and asked, "Is that a V6?".

 

Is this what my thermostat is supposed to look like?

 

😁 Umm no. That's why it never warms up too. It's not stuck open, it's just....open...

 

The thermostat acts as a valve and when the motor reaches a certain point the thermostat opens allowing cool water from the radiator to flow through the motor. Sorry if I'm explaining stuff you already know, just wasn't sure. They probably sell two different temp thermostats. I recall ready somewhere, maybe this forum that these motors/programming is setup for the higher temp one and if you try to use the lower temp then the program will think the motor hasn't reached temp and keep the throttle higher, which also uses more gas. So, I don't know from experience but I'd say go with the higher temp thermostat if there's an option for it, unless someone has other advice. I always ran the lower one thinking it would be better and keep the motor cooler and my gas mileage always seem to be low. I now have the lower one but have also changed up things on the motor and waiting to see what the current gas mileage is since break in.

 

New development in my mystery misfire. Found an opening in my intake tube on the inside of it where I couldn't see before. Had intake tube off as I was removing the radiator to replace the AC condenser.



Duck tape fixes everything.

 

Runs much quieter now for some reason. Idle dropped lower to 500 rpms seems to run smoother.

 

That's great! So no more misfire anymore? What about temperature, did you replace thermostat and is temp gauge sitting about midway or just less than?

 

there are two sensors on either side of the thermostat port on engine. One at 10 o'clock one at 2 o'clock. I left them alone because temp guage seems to read as expected and no code. It gets right in the middle of temp guage now.

 

Idk about misfire, it does seem to run smoother. How do you tell if you have a misfire? I've never been sure about that. Idle feel at the tail pipe seems to go pata pata Pat now. Is that misfire?

 

Remove one spark plugs wire and run it. That will give you a pretty good idea what a misfire feels like. Under load you can really feel it.