The radiator is in. Just bolts right in.....D'oh. My original hoses fit. I modded the lower rubber bushings that the tank seams set down in. Used the big block steel top "closing" panel, and the big block fan shroud.
The only thing that needs to be done is fan is mostly sitting rearward of the shroud opening, instead of inside it. So I'll need to make some sort of extension that screws into the existing shroud. Maybe I'll harvest a portion of the original shroud, or maybe I'll make something out of some 1/4" thick rubber sheet that I have, that's like mudflap type material. I'll have to think about it, and take some measurements.
Holds 3 gallons, including the overflow. I put in 1 gal of Dex Cool and 2 gallons of distilled, less the bottle of Water Wetter.
Re: the Edlebrock, yes, smog legal. Comes with the EGR ports. Everthing fit but the fuel line had to be rebent and I think I did a little bending on the throttle linkage brackets and cruise control business, and then afterward checked and reset the TV cable on the transmission, based on line pressure. Not sure that it was worth the effort, and I'm not sure that my butt dyno can tell the difference. I even played with the ignition timing a bit, running it up to 10* BTDC, and backing it off a little at a time, based on performance on a local 4mi long 6-7% freeway grade that's pretty brutal. I'm at 6* BTDC right now. I got a good deal on it via ebay, but it was quite a bit of work to install.
Re: the tension bar. I'm probably using the wrong term. It's a long shallow V shape with a saddle under the differential housing. It bolts to each end of the axle and is supposed to keep the axle from flexing under load. Probably worthless, but it was $20 at the yard, so how could I resist?
Re: the Yosemite photo, that's my daughter out front, and my Mom was with us for that trip....and hamming it up. Just prior to that photo, that Chipper parked behind us had the road blocked on a banked turn. He was trying to pull someone out of the ditch who'd put chains on the rear of a FWD car. The road had been fine, so we weren't cabled up yet, and weren't even in 4X4. We stopped in the line of traffic, right on the banked curve.......you can guess where this is headed. When traffic started to move again, I gave the throttle a soft touch (driven in snow plenty) and instead of moving forward, we just slide silently sideways, with me working the gas and steering trying to get the tires to hook up. Down the banked turn we slid, until we hit the snow plow bank. Fortunately, the bank was only about wheel high, so it stopped us without crushing the side of the truck. Had it not been there, we would have rolled, down into the forest. The Chipper walked down to us, asked me if we were alright, and then did the 5 step shuffle and fell flat on his back. The road was shear ice under the fresh layer of snow. I cabled up the left side, put 'er in 4X4 Lo, and drove up to the turn-out to do the right side...and take that photo.
