Nice! Coming along well, bed looks great (except for the clearance issue you already know about). Yes, that is the thermostat housing, any thermostat between a 160 and a 180 should work fine, the 180 will give you more warmth from the heater in winter if that matters to you. If you hook up a temperature gauge with numbers on it, you want it to stay under 200 degrees when working hard, less at idle. I have no idea what a heat gun aimed at the block or head should read, try taking readings off other vehicles you know are at operating temperature to get a baseline? The oil filter on these engines was a metal can with a removable lid that bolted onto the intake manifold. It holds a replaceable paper element (which is kind of a mess to replace as it drips a lot and you still have to clean the dirty oil out of the housing). They are a bypas, rather than full flow, type filter so the engine works ok without them if you change oil every 2,000 miles, in fact, they were an accessory rather than standard equipment on some models so your truck may never have had one. There are two small pipe plugs on the block where the fittings for the flex hoses to the filter go. You can probably find one at an old school salvage yard, or swap meet, but if you don't care about original, they make remote mount filter bases that use modern spin on filters and hook up with flex hoses to your engine, much more convenient. I am enjoying watching the progress you are making, great to see the truck moving under its own power. Looking forward to the next installment!
😉Freaking beautiful wish I would’ve found it
COOL!!
Nice! Coming along well, bed looks great (except for the clearance issue you already know about). Yes, that is the thermostat housing, any thermostat between a 160 and a 180 should work fine, the 180 will give you more warmth from the heater in winter if that matters to you. If you hook up a temperature gauge with numbers on it, you want it to stay under 200 degrees when working hard, less at idle. I have no idea what a heat gun aimed at the block or head should read, try taking readings off other vehicles you know are at operating temperature to get a baseline? The oil filter on these engines was a metal can with a removable lid that bolted onto the intake manifold. It holds a replaceable paper element (which is kind of a mess to replace as it drips a lot and you still have to clean the dirty oil out of the housing). They are a bypas, rather than full flow, type filter so the engine works ok without them if you change oil every 2,000 miles, in fact, they were an accessory rather than standard equipment on some models so your truck may never have had one. There are two small pipe plugs on the block where the fittings for the flex hoses to the filter go. You can probably find one at an old school salvage yard, or swap meet, but if you don't care about original, they make remote mount filter bases that use modern spin on filters and hook up with flex hoses to your engine, much more convenient. I am enjoying watching the progress you are making, great to see the truck moving under its own power. Looking forward to the next installment!
Whish I could find one in that good of shape.